CGU, Bupa, Telstra and Inventium top Best Customer Experience Companies List

CGU Insurance, Bupa, Inventium and Telstra have received top honours in the first ever Best Customer Experience Companies List for Australia.

The winners of the inaugural Best Customer Experience Companies List were announced at an awards ceremony held in Sydney today. The list was developed and presented by customer engagement strategy consultancy, Fifth Quadrant, and supported by CMO and event sponsor, Oracle.

CGU Insurance was recognised as Australia’s Best CX Company 2014 and the top winner on the day based on three key components: The scale of the organisation’s customer experience initiatives as evaluated by the awards’ judging panel; votes in a poll of consumers; and the company’s adherence to the Fifth Quadrant CX Maturity Audit assessment.

The CX Maturity Audit assessment was undertaken via a questionnaire and encompassed 35 customer experience measures and attributes rolled up into seven areas of focus: CX management, human resources, sales and marketing, leadership, business strategy, customer data strategy and human-centred design. Entrants were also asked to provide customer-related data to support their submission.

The runners up for Best CX Company for 2014 were innovation training provider, Inventium; Sydney restaurant, Red Lantern; and Virgin Mobile Australia.

Check out the full pictorial highlights of the inaugural Best CX Companies List

Inventium also received the Best CX Organisational Leadership Award for its efforts around customer experience, honours that stemmed from the group’s strong score in Fifth Quadrant’s CX Maturity Audit assessment.

Also shining on the day was health insurance provider, Bupa, which was awarded the Best CX Leading Initiatives award in recognition of its efforts to transform into a customer-centric organisation. This award was judged by a panel including representatives from Fifth Quadrant, CMO and Oracle, and based on the benefits and results of two customer experience initiatives in the last 12 months.

The CX awards also recognised the efforts of a number of companies to drive new levels of customer engagement in specific verticals. Winners were those who gained the highest mentions in the poll of 2500 consumers.

The poll asked consumers to nominate up to five organisations they felt provided them with amazing customer experience in Australia across six main industry sectors. Organisations with the highest mentions in each industry sector won the award.

The company with the highest mention across the board was Telstra, which was recognised with the Best CX Company People’s Choice Award.

Other vertical winners were:

• Australia’s Best CX Company People’s Choice 2014: Telstra
• Best CX Company People’s Choice Finance, Banking and Insurance: CBA
• Best CX Company People’s Choice Telco, Paid Media and Internet providers: Telstra
• Best CX Company people’s Choice Human and Animal Health: RSPCA
• Best CX Company People’s Choice Government and Education: TAFE
• Best CX Company People’s Choice Retail and Wholesale: Coles
• Best CX Company People's Choice Utilities: AGL

Fifth Quadrant CEO, Dr Catriona Wallace, said customer experience is a mega trend driving organisational transformation at the highest level. According to a recent survey conducted by the consultancy group, Australian consumers are prepared to pay 14 per cent more for good, consistent customer experience, and nine in 10 will switch to a competing brand because of poor experience.

In addition, organisations lacking a robust CX strategy churn customers and have higher costs, she said.

“Great progress has been made by board and c-level executives, yet there’s no comprehensive process recognising CX leadership, capabilities and maturity,” Dr Wallace said.

“The Best Customer Experience Companies List is a great opportunity for organisations from all sectors of industry, including the public, private and third sectors, to demonstrate their excellence in providing consumers with a fantastic, compelling, market-leading customer experience, which ultimately benefits their brand and overall ability to prosper.”

Oracle general manager of commercial, Thomas Fikentscher, said the vendor was pleased to partner on the list and congratulated the winners.

“Digital disruption is forcing every organisation to rethink their customer engagement models and technology is a key enabler for new customer experience strategies, that’s why Oracle is a proud supporter of this initiative,” he said.

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