With businesses in the GCC facing pressing challenges due to reducing oil prices, slowing economy and geopolitical tensions, a new YouGov survey reveals what matters most for leaders of IT-related business in the Gulf states.

Ninety-six percent of GCC Businesses rank customer experience as a top priority in 2020 followed by enhancing employee experiences.

In the YouGov survey of 304 GCC IT decision-makers, 80 percent ranked customer experience as “very important,” and 16 percent as “somewhat important.”

According to the survey, the GCC’s customer experience push supports business goals such as: sales and revenue (42 percent), bottom line (22 percent), and traffic leads (14 percent).

“The finding that nearly all GCC organizations surveyed are prioritizing customer experience demonstrates that 2020 is the year when all aspects of customer interaction become critically important for business success,” Gergi Abboud, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SAP Middle East South commented.

“GCC organizations that optimize customer experiences can design products based on customers’ needs, better predict demand and enhance procurement, and deliver products and services that can maximize customer happiness,” he added.

The survey showed that 52 percent of respondents successfully collect customer feedback across all touchpoints and 66 percent optimise customer experiences.

“GCC organizations need to work with technology vendors to digitally transform and modernize their technology infrastructure to meet the demands of the Experience Economy,” Abboud said.

“Competitive organizations can interpret and analyse experience (x-data) and operational data (o-data) to improve the four core business experiences: customer, employee, product, and brand experiences,” he added.

Eighty eight percent of survey respondents ranked enhancing employee experiences as “important” for their 2020 business success, while 60 percent said that they maintain a “high level” of employee engagement and feedback.

The survey results also showed that most GCC organizations plan to use performance reviews (55 percent), plus surveys (50 percent), social media (42 percent), and online employer ratings (31 percent).

(Writing by Gerard Aoun, editing by Seban Scaria)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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