The State of CX in Saudi Arabia
“Brands in the Kingdom, and government services are taking customer service and experience to new heights. In return, we see consumers and citizen loyalty on a rise.” -Sanjay Swamy, Director, Martechvibe
Why is Saudi Arabia Quickly Becoming One of the Most Customer-Centric Counties in the World?
With an economic growth rate of 8.7 percent in 2022, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Large scale projects such as NEOM Smart City, Red Sea Resort Project and Qiddiya Entertainment City provide evidence for the investment The Kingdom is making in its future. A particularly important aspect to this is Saudi Vision 2030. This is a strategic framework to reduce the countries dependency on oil through diversification of its economic base.
This is why The Kingdom is now seen as one of the leading countries in the world for client and customer experience (CX). According to a report by Martech, 96 percent of business in Saudi Arabia list customer experience as a top priority.
Other critical drivers to CX include:
• the impact of digital transformation, in a country where over 20 million Saudis are online.
• the necessity to invest in business, post pandemic.
• the higher expectations of service and brand held by one of the youngest populations in the world: where more than half the population is under the age of 25.
Leading CX sectors in Saudi Arabia
Based on a KPMG survey of over 1,500 Saudi consumers, the leading sectors for CX performance in Saudi Arabia are retail, grocery, and financial services (see Figure 1 below). The same survey also demonstrated the high rating consumers give to existing brands with half respondents self-identifying as promoters across all brands (i.e., those who scored 9 or 10 out of 10 on the NPS likelihood to recommend question).
Some key highlights are how non-grocery retailers utilize effective marketing strategies to build loyalty as well as their personalization strategies. In the grocery sector, the high disposable income of Saudis has likewise enabled higher expectations in terms of service and merchandising.
“Saudi grocery brands meet those expectations as they offer a smooth fast service and a systematized product distribution, which ensures a good shopping experience for the customer.” Source. It is also noteworthy from anecdotal data how Government services are leading the CX charge.
CASE STUDY: The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (HRSD) is one of the largest ministries in Saudi Arabia with 22,000 employees serving over 30 million customers. In 2018 as part of the Governments Strategic Vision 2030 plans, customer experience transformation became a central pillar of the ministries plans for change. This involved the creation of a CX deputy as well as better CX strategy and governance. In addition, several pilot projects were initiated to fix key problems in the customer experience and build support for the initiative. Following this initial proof of concept phase, the plan is to scale and implement this across the ministry. Critical factors to the ministry’s success have been the outsourcing of customer-facing activities and achieving a cultural and mindset shift towards customer experience amongst ministry officials. To achieve scale, customer experience is also being led by technology solutions backed by operational and managerial competency.
Conclusion
CX Pilots sees Saudi Arabia as a critical hub for next generation CX. In particular, the large-scale investments in mega projects such as NEOM, mean The Kingdom is ahead of the curve in terms of future CX tech investment and utilization. Its focus on CX transformation plans in the initial stages of economic investment being particularly praiseworthy. CX pilots believe that Saudi has the potential to be an exemplar of CX.
To quote Dr. Fahad Al Twaijry, Director of Ejtemaat KSA, “CX leaders in Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC region have the potential to become acknowledged leaders in customer centricity in line with international standards."
Next Steps
If you want to get the most of CX and inject best practice procedures into your business plans, CX Pilots can assist. CX Pilots is the world's leading end-to-end CX management consultancy for B2B and all areas of client experience. CX Pilots offers exemplary advisory services in CX strategy and practice honed by years of experience working with some of the largest and most human-centered organizations in the world. Whether its journey mapping, persona design, service blueprinting, CX training or voice of the customer, CX Pilots is here to help.