Forrester’s 2024 Singapore Customer Experience Index: Financial Services Brands Lack Competitive Differentiation

HSBC attains top scores in the banking and investment management industries; Singlife top among auto and home insurers

SINGAPORE, August 20, 2024 - According to Forrester's (Nasdaq: FORR) Singapore Customer Experience Index (CX Index™) annual study, conducted across the banking, investment, and home and auto insurance industries, the average CX quality of the brands is merely "OK". The average industry scores remained mostly flat, indicating a lack of improvement in the overall CX quality. A narrow gap between the top and bottom CX scores across all three industries points to a lack of competitive differentiation, making it difficult for individual brands to stand out in their ability to deliver great customer experiences.

According to this year's CX Index rankings, HSBC scored the highest in both the banking and investment sectors, with the latter industry included in the Singapore CX Index for the very first time. HSBC had the highest percentage of customers rating its CX quality as "excellent" and received top ratings in metrics related to customer loyalty, satisfaction, forgiveness, and brand alignment with customer values. Singlife performed the best among the auto and home insurance providers and received the highest share of "excellent" customer experience ratings. The insurer also led in customer forgiveness and brand alignment metrics.

To improve their customer experience, financial services brands must focus on the drivers that have the greatest impact on their CX quality. For banks, these drivers include resolving problems quickly and providing easy-to-use mobile banking apps. In contrast, CX quality in the auto and home insurance sector is driven by factors such as making it easier to get an appointment with an agent and being more transparent about policy costs.

"Despite their continued efforts to improve customer service and invest in digital experiences, financial services brands in Singapore are still struggling to raise their CX quality and differentiate from their competitors," said Dane Anderson, SVP of international research and product at Forrester. "The silver lining is that these brands are aware that they need to prioritize their customers' needs to drive business growth. When companies invest in improving their CX quality, they receive many competitive benefits, including higher customer loyalty, retention, share of wallet, and brand devotion."

Forrester's Singapore CX Index rankings and reports are accessible within the Forrester Decisions portfolio of research services. Clients of Forrester Decisions services for Customer Experience, B2C Marketing Executives, and Digital Business & Strategy have access to the CX Index annual benchmarking analysis to help prioritize improvements based on industrywide trends and the impact of CX on customer loyalty.

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