After being shook by the pandemic, it seems that Indian organizations are getting back on their feet and are in a stronger position with respect to their global counterparts, when it comes to dealing with customers in a 24x7 digital marketplace. As per the latest study - Engagement Capacity Gap (ECG) Benchmark Diagnostic by Verint® (NASDAQ: VRNT), the global leader in customer engagement solutions, Indian firms were the top investors in customer engagement solutions in 2021, which has made them more resilient and better poised to close the customer engagement gap (what organizations need to do to meet customer expectations and the resources they have available to do it).

Verint has been in India for over 25 years and has over 43% market share here, positioning India amongst the top 2 markets contributing to Verint’s APAC revenue. Verint, which works with top firms in India across all major industries, conducted the study recently to understand the implications of the pandemic and the resulting unprecedented increase in digital first customer engagements that firms had to deal with, almost overnight. The survey was conducted amongst 2,742 decision-makers across 13 key global markets including US/Canada, UK, Australia/New Zealand, Japan, France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil. Out of these, over 250 CXOs were from India who oversee customer engagement and experience solutions for their organizations.

India related findings from the ECG report:

The survey found that Indian market has shown solid improvement after the first wave of the pandemic, fueled by heavy investments in customer engagement solutions which has prepared them better for 2022. The study shows that Indian CXOs have been able to strike the right balance between automation and the human touch to better serve customers. They achieved this by deploying efficient self-service solutions for customers to decrease transaction load and by enabling employees with better tools and training to support consumers when required. Cloud, AI/ML, Knowledge Management and Workforce Optimization are the tools that Indian firms most need to invest in, to keep the momentum going.

Key India related statistics:

74% of the Indian CXOs had invested in Quality/Performance solutions in 2021 followed by Knowledge Management (49%), and Experience Management (49%) to improve overall customer experience.

While last year’s study showed many organizations had throttled back on hiring plans, this year shows a marked change – 86 percent plan to increase staffing levels to support customer engagement in 2022.

The investments done in 2021 have made 88% of the Indian CXOs confident and highly prepared to deal with remote workforce challenges in 2022.

Some of the biggest challenges expected in India in 2022 include building enduring customer relationships (77%), understanding and quickly acting on changing consumer behaviors (72%), using customer feedback to improve efficiency (72%), and improving back-office operations (72%).

Comment on the study by Anil Chawla, Managing Director, Customer Engagement Solutions, Verint India – We are seeing Indian CXOs consistently striving towards delivering deeper, more meaningful, and valuable customer relationships by efficiently using cutting edge technologies like AI, Blockchain, Cloud and Data. By investing in the right customer engagement solutions at every touchpoint, be it customer-facing or at the back-end, they are already witnessing tremendous RoI in the form of increased brand-customer stickiness with simultaneous reduction in customer management costs.

Other Key global Findings:

Quality/Performance solutions were the most implemented and expanded Customer Engagement & Experience solutions in 2021…and indications are they will continue to be a top budget expenditure in 2022.

2022 Business Priorities show continued importance of acquiring new customers and improving customer experience, but also show the increased importance of employee wellness and recruitment of skilled talent.

76% believe the challenges associated with managing Customer Engagement & Experience will continue to increase in 2022.

60% plan to increase staffing levels to support Customer Engagement in 2022 and 47% say that half of their workforce or more will remain remote in 2022 (although only 62% say they are “highly prepared” to support the challenges of a remote workforce).