SINGAPORE, 10 JUNE 2009—Enterprises are taking customer service even more seriously now. At least the bellwether of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry, and some analysts seem to think so. One day after Computerworld Singapore and on the same day Computerworld Malaysia feted the winners of this year's edition of the Computerworld Customer Care Awards (CCA), IDC released a report about how companies in Asia have "prioritise[d] customer care to get through the [current economic] downturn."
Referring to its Asia/Pacific Advanced Customer Care and Retention (ACCR) 2009 survey of enterprises based in Asia, IDC researchers said that nearly half of the respondents considered "the main value of 'Customer Care' as being a way to generate revenue, and many are ready to go beyond traditional customer relationship management." [sic]
"Companies with growth ambitions despite the current crisis are exploring more advanced options than companies that hope to get through the downturn by cutting costs," said Claus Mortensen, principal, IDC Asia/Pacific Emerging Technologies Research Group. "New advanced customer care tools such as customer analytics, customer database management and new web-based tools, are much more on the agenda for these types of companies. They tend to appreciate the value of customer targeting and engagement more than companies position themselves for the future and may be the most important IT investment a company can make in today's economic climate."
Other findings of note from the ACCR 2009 report include the following.
The vast majority of Asia-based companies are reducing or freezing their investments in IT at this time.
A strong group of respondents (20 per cent) expect to invest in IT solutions that can help them increase earnings.
The top business priority of more than half of the respondents' companies was the increase of earnings, versus cost reduction (less than 25 per cent).
"(N)ine out of 10 companies polled said they had increased their focus on the customer because of the economic downturn."
