Southeast Asia's top 50 brands for customer experience

Campaign Asia-Pacific has revealed an authoritative list of Southeast Asia's top 50 brands for consumer experience. The list was unveiled at Campaign360 in Singapore following an extensive survey and research from Milieu Insight in partnership with Campaign.

After twenty-four surveys were carried out involving more than 9,000 interviews, tracking 1,200 brands across 11 sectors, Samsung emerged on top, followed by leading ecommerce and super apps Shopee (2), Grab (3) and Lazada (4).

But digital-based businesses were not the only customer experience standouts. McDonald's (5) and Watson's (6) also ranked highly thanks to their many locations, ease of buying and strong customer service scores. 

Top 50 brands

Top 50 brands ranked L to R from top row to bottom row (e.g., Samsung #1, KFC #10, Nike #11, Chanel #50)

Brands in the top 50 had to be present in at least three of the six markets involved in the survey (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam Singapore). In addition, recognised brands were ranked across five CX metrics involving quality, buying experience, customer service, brand touchpoints (ease of use across all digital and offline brand interactions) and advocacy (degree of recommendation) to form their customer experience score.

Among the key findings outlined by Milieu COO Stephen Tracy at the event:

1. Offering a seamless buying experience is table stakes: Even lower-performing brands with less sophisticated digital touchpoints performed relatively high in terms of buying experience. So it’s essential for brands to optimise for a seamless, convenient and even enjoyable buying experience.
    
2. Building brand experiences around customer centricity is key: Top performing brands had higher customer service scores, and in open-ended questions where we asked respondents why they felt certain brands excelled in customer experience, customer service and support was a core theme.
    
3. The top customer experience brands build ecosystems: Brands that have high CX scores also have a track record in building sophisticated brand ecosystems that are both online and offline

While many airlines scored highly in individual markets, Singapore Airlines was the only airline to make the top 50. It also had the highest buying experience and customer service scores overall among the top 50, with respondents appreciating its personalised service and ease of booking.

While SIA was the leader, all brands tended to score higher with consumers in the buying experience and customer service categories compared with others, as illustrated by the chart below. 

The best CX performers had higher touchpoints and advocacy scores

However, the highest differential (+76%) between high performers and low performers on customer service was how seamless and consistent experiences were across all their interactions, online and offline. This area made the most significant difference in determining how good an experience consumers had overall. The second area of difference was how likely their customers were to advocate for the brand.

While the top three brands, Samsung, Shopee and Grab, ranked highly across all CX categories, their leading scores on touchpoints and advocacy helped separate them from the rest of the pack. 

Watch for more analysis from this extensive research to be published in Campaign, including country rankings and more.