Q] How did you arrive at the final 50 brands and nine categories in India for the X Index 2024 report?
We’ve monitored all the categories and brands across India for nearly a year—categories that applied insights from the previous CX reports and those that excelled in other studies. From there we moved on to brands, like HDFC is a no brainer when it comes to banking, but we also looked at challenger brands like Bandhan Bank which tops the banking charts in CX this year.
Q] Which are the worst performing categories in CX across India, those at the bottom of the X Index and those you excluded from your final nine categories for evaluation?
E-retail is one of the most difficult to please categories and not surprisingly has been one of the worst performing ones on the list. You use e-retail either for a very functional conversation or for exploratory purposes. Zomato and Swiggy, which are part of the study have not performed very well. Aviation is not in the study so far, but we’ve seen a lot of negative chatter around aviation, ditto for medical services.
Q] So, Apple topped the list in 2022, Airbnb in 2023, and now Tata Motors. What are the things that these brands are doing right?
Consistency and effort are what is working for them, because a good customer experience is not something that can be pulled off overnight. For e.g., Airbnb has gone beyond providing stays to offering an experience which resonated with people, Tata Motors’ consumer journey’s evolution has touched both emotional and functional aspects.
Q] What are the crucial capabilities needed for an effective CX journey?
Three years ago, the focus shifted to a cookie-less world, prompting brands to start collecting data. Some used it to personalised experiences, others didn’t, while some used it solely to sell. If I share my mobile number, name, and email id, my expectations rise, and how you use the data turns crucial, making data management the key to great CX. If customer retention is high, there’s a chance of word-of-mouth advertising. For that, you need to have strong loyalty & CRM programmes, and engaging conversations with customers, without being pushy. A feedback loop is essential. You must constantly check all touch points of customer engagement-- if there’s a drop-off, analyse, put a feedback loop, understand the feedback and keep improving. Simplify the customer journey across apps, websites, or stores, and innovate to stay future-ready.
Q] Can you give us an example of a brand that has focused on the entire customer journey and not individual touchpoints?
All the top 10 in our list. For e.g., Tata Cliq Palette involved influencers to talk about skincare, which led to rising app downloads. Upon downloading, awareness plays a big role. Questions like ‘what is your skin type’ are used to recommend what’s relevant for you. If you have mentioned having dry skin, they’ll prepare content for you before winter, like a notification saying, ‘Winter is coming. Here are five tips or a product for you’. They also stay engaged post-purchase and have even launched an experience centre.
Q] How many of the top 10 are clients of the Havas network and specifically Havas CX clients?
We have around 200 plus brands working across 23 of Havas Group agencies. So, 95 percent of the brands have worked with Havas in one way or the other like Samsung, Tata Motors etc. But none of them are Havas CX clients.
