A global trends report found near-universal dissatisfaction among consumers in India with their experience as customers this year, which could be exacting a substantial toll on business in the world’s second most populous country.
The findings from the 2022 Global Consumer Trends report by Qualtrics showed that 96% of consumers in India are unhappy with how they were treated in 2021. The most common area in which consumers wanted businesses in India to improve was customer service support, followed by prices and fees.
Consumer sentiment was also down in other measures related to the way business is conducted in India. For instance, 74% of respondents said businesses needed to care more about them; 72% said businesses should be better at listening to the feedback they provide; and 81% said they would increase spending with a company that treated them well.
Consumers in India, the report found further, are twice as likely to repurchase, trust, and recommend a company after a positive CX, but that one-third of respondents would cut spending after a poor experience.
Overall, the price of consumer dissatisfaction in India is heavy, costing businesses there up to $216 billion, given that one-third of consumers were ready to cut spending after just one instance of poor CX.
The report also noted that businesses in India need to consider the well-being of employees, because employee experience will be important in retaining or attracting talent, especially as businesses strive for differentiation in an increasingly competitive market.
“As organizations across India accelerate their digital capabilities, addressing the disconnect between what customers and employees want and what’s actually being delivered must be prioritized,” said Navneet Narula, the Qualtrics country manager for India. “Experience is now critical to every function and department, and those companies that rapidly embark on journeys to transform the experiences they deliver in order to meet current and evolving needs are set to win an outsized share of the market.”
Qualtrics, the experience management and customer experience management (CXM) platform provider, announced plans earlier this year to hire 1,200 new employees in Japan and across Asia Pacific, including India, by 2024. The company, with its XM Platform that enables organizations to design, manage, and improve the experience they provide to customers, has launched new products in recent months from Clarabridge and Usermind, two newly acquired Qualtrics properties, to personalize experiences at scale and to create work experiences intended to enhance productivity in hybrid and physical workspaces.
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Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
