Businesses are creating more advanced tools to understand customer sentiment and draw conclusions from the collection of personal data, says the head of a Germany-based enterprise software firm.
"Advanced technology enables businesses to capture customer sentiment to be more predictive and have a deeper understanding of the consumer experience," said Claus Andresen, president and managing director of SAP Southeast Asia.
Experience management software allows the analysis of customer feedback from surveys to find out why customers are satisfied or unsatisfied with particular brands and services.
"This is beyond customer relationship management, which recommends what product and services a customer should purchase," he said.
Citing a SAP report from 2016, Mr Andresen said it found satisfied customers in Southeast Asia are willing to share their data with businesses like buying experience, personal details, mobile phone number and even medical records and personal finance data.
"The more data a customer is willing to share, the better businesses can analyse the customer for their preferences and provide more personalised products and services," he said.
In Thailand, customers are five times more likely to share data when they had a good experience interacting with a company than when they did not. Southeast Asian customers who are satisfied with services will spend 56% more than the average customer and tend to be more brand loyal.
Mr Andresen said "experience" has become much more important for both customers and employees.
According to several studies, poor employee experience resulted in US$550 billion (17.6 trillion baht) in lost productivity, while 95% of dissatisfied customers will share a bad experience with others and 80% of customers have switched brands because of a poor customer experience, he said.
It is estimated $2.5 trillion of revenue can be lost from abuse of private information because of its effects on brand loyalty, said SAP.
SAP acquired the feedback and survey software provider Qualtrics in early 2019 for $8 billion.
"By acquiring Qualtrics, we can help customers transform businesses to be more intelligent and unlock new economic value in the experience economy," Mr Andresen said.
A report by Grand View Research Inc found the global customer experience management industry is expected to be worth $32.5 billion by 2025.
He said Thailand is an important market for SAP in Southeast Asia, with its large number of internet users, an estimated 57 million people, 70% of which access it via smartphone.
The country also has the highest e-commerce growth in the region with an estimated value of $2 billion (64 billion baht), rising to $5.7 billion by 2022.
Verena Siow, managing director of SAP Indochina, which oversees Thailand, said the country has a large service base that is digitally savvy, in particular telecoms, airlines, financial services, tourism and healthcare. Some 18 companies in Thailand use Qualtrics software.
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