Remote-working companies exaggerating their service capabilities

Customer support teams are barely keeping up with surging support enquiries.

A new study has shown businesses across key markets in Asia are exaggerating their ability to keep up with customer service promises, while remote working is required. The research by Infobib sounds a warning for those organisations that are struggling to keep up, with the authors noting that conditions are unlikely to return to what they were used to in pre-Covid 19 times.

“As countries began lockdowns, companies and businesses were forced to embrace remote working. Although most relevant government authorities gave a transition period for businesses and companies to do so, there are those that still struggled with the sudden change. All the markets polled said their customer support teams were prepared and ready for remote working. However, a deeper dive into the data tells us otherwise,” the report said.

54% of customer service and support (CSS) professionals in Asia said that the increase in support has them struggling to keep up with. Singapore’ CSS professionals experienced much worse with 63% of respondents finding the rush in support queries to be challenging.

With the rise of remote work, 2020 marked the start of a major digital transformation journey for many businesses in Asia Pacific. As employees had to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, customer experience (CX) and CX processes had to be digitised.

Half of the respondents reported that the digitalisation of CSS should be a permanent implementation moving forward. On a scale of 1-10, respondents rated the importance of digitalising CSS an eight on average, highlighting the long-term benefits that come with smart automation and the implementation of a digital omnichannel hub.

The A Year of Disruption: Managing Increasing Complexities in Customer Service report surveyed 2,760 professionals across nine markets – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.