Insights
Learn, ideate and collaborate on the biggest innovation opportunities

Top 10 Malaysian companies to ace CX

Customer experience is a key differentiatior, which… remains a priority that will help us navigate the changing landscape more effectively.

– Henry Tan Poh Hock, CEO, Astro

Introduction

Malaysia, a country in South East Asia exhibits high cultural diversity and richness in flora and fauna. It poses to offer a unique combination of experiences to consumers. How does Malaysia fare in customer experience (CX)? Which Malaysian brands are ahead of the game in their CX offering?

Following our study of the Top 10 APAC companies to ace CX, we seek to understand how Malaysian companies are progressing in their journeys to deliver a great customer experience. Although CX is among the most discussed topics among global leaders, in Malaysia, CX strategy is not met with a high level of priority in companies. It is yet to feature as a regular board room discussion agenda in most organizations.

The digital era necessitates that every company has a strong digital presence or risk becoming irrelevant to consumers. At present, approximately 70% of all Malaysians are Gen X and Y. The 2019 ICT Use and Access by Individuals and Households Survey conducted by the Department of Statistics Malaysia recorded that 90.1% of Malaysian households have access to the Internet. 97.1% of Malaysians use the internet to access social networks while 97.9% of Malaysians have access to their mobile phones.

Our study looked at understanding the top companies that are offering good CX to cater to Malaysia’s highly culturally diverse and mobile-driven consumers. Additionally, we provide the CX best practices that these companies are undertaking with respect to their peers in the market.

Why this report?

The goal of this study is to identify the top 10 Malaysian companies offering outstanding CX. The objective is to celebrate the best in class in the country and present a learning list. The hope is that this learning list is a guide to others in their journey to excel in the delivery of great customer experiences. This study aims to help those who:

  • want to embark on their CX transformation journeys
  • have already started their CX journey and are looking for ways to improve
  • who want to benchmark their practices against the industry’s best

To qualify, companies had to be founded in Malaysia. We wanted this study to focus on local homegrown companies rather than global leaders. This will ensure its applicability and relevancy in the local context.

Benchmarks

Delivering a holistic CX necessitates implementation excellence across four distinct dimensions, viz., Employee Experience, Digital Experience, Customer Service, and Brand Story. These four dimensions were further broken down into 16 sub-parameters. Using these 16 sub-parameters, the best companies in Malaysia were evaluated, and we were able to finalize the top 10.

1. Employee Experience
  • Hiring & onboarding
  • Role centrality
  • Learning & development
  • Compensation & benefit
  • Culture
  • Exit experience
2. Digital Experience
  • Omnichannel
  • Frictionless functioning
  • Personalization
  • “Phygital”
  • Gamification
  • Digital engagement score
3. Customer service
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) OR
  • Customer Satisfaction Index (CSAT) OR
  • Customer Effort Score
4. Brand Story
  • Brand story
  • Global delivery
  • Degree of innovation

The secret to CX is to make sure you are listening, processing, and aligning the internal objectives with the external impression and impact.

– Ben Fairbank, Head of Customer Experience, Grab

The methodology

The figure below captures the methodology we used to arrive at our Top 10 list. Similar to our Top 10 APAC companies to ace CX report, our methodology follows the 4-step approach.

Figure 1: 4-step approach to select Top 10 Malaysian companies to ace CX

The customer is at the heart of everything we do, and we aim to delight our customers in their banking journey with us.

– Samir Gupta, Consumer Banking Group CEO, CIMB

Top 10 Malaysian brands to champion CX

Companies on this list are not ranked and are instead arranged in alphabetical order. This list of companies represents various industry verticals. While some of them have a similar emphasis on their CX aspirations under the defined pillars, we have learned that their best practices are unique to the nature of their respective businesses.

Figure 2: List of Top 10 Malaysian companies to ace CX

3 CEO Takeaways

The study of the Top 10 Malaysian companies to ace CX has provided some very valuable lessons for the industry. The best practices amongst these 10 companies can be summarized into three key takeaways.

Mobile-first, personalized, and humanized digital experience

The landscape for CX has changed over the years with the rise of digitalization and social media becoming a daily part of the average consumer. Malaysians on average spend almost 6 hours a day on social media, with 1 in 6 Malaysians spending 9 hours a day. Companies need to transform with a sense of urgency to go “phygital”, where companies combine the online and offline presence. They need to develop a human-centered digital experience and utilize digital tools to deliver personalized experiences.

Improve customer engagement to increase loyalty

Measuring and improving customer engagement rates is an avenue for companies to help improve attach rates and per capita consumption of their services. This is possible through a review of customer journeys and the focus on the ability to deliver outcomes rather than just the sale of products or services. A crucial step forward in this endeavor is the need to remove the organization silos and develop a holistic view of the customer. As of 2019, only 9% of Malaysian consumers reported being brand loyalists, slightly ahead of the global average of 8% highlighting the need and importance of this innovation opportunity.

Growing emphasis on Employee Experience

The delivery of great CX is highly intertwined with the company’s ability to provide a good employee experience. Almost all of the leading companies have placed tremendous emphasis on investing in a great employee experience. Great companies empower teams, augment their capabilities with the right technology, and invest significantly in learning and development. They are transforming employee journeys from the first interview, to onboarding and till their eventual exit from the company.

Before we embark on a project and commit time, money, and manpower, we will always ask ourselves: how will this improve our customer’s experience and by how much? If it will not bring incremental difference, then there is no point investing in it.

– John Chong, Group CEO of Community Financial Services, Maybank

Subscribe