The Changing Face of Customer Experience in China

• Private companies in China are increasingly focused on improving the customer experience.
• The key to excellent customer experience is to lessen the occurrence of issues, quicken the speed of resolution and focus on customer satisfaction.
• Customized services can be offered through the combination of COPC Standards, big data and artificial intelligence.
• China has surpassed the US in terms of the number of patents on Artificial Intelligence

China is one of the most fascinating countries in the world and COPC Inc. has been fortunate enough to work there for more than ten years, helping local companies as well as international companies improve their operations.

Every year we hold a customer experience event where leaders in customer experience share their unique insights into the changing dynamics of the industry. This Seminar is a chance for experts in customer experience to network, share their views, disclose emerging trends and predict future changes in the industry.

In China, customer experience is rising to new levels as 1.4 billion people, with a burgeoning middle class, are being exposed to a wider range of services and goods than they have previously experienced. Having worked in the country for a decade now, I have seen exponential change in customer engagement and it was great to reflect on this at our event.

Private companies are increasingly focused on improving their customers' experience, and many of them are determined to become world-class in what they do. Companies like Ant Financial, Didi and Meituan are already implementing best-practices in their operations, but we're also seeing improvements in the financial sector and even a rise in customer-centricity in some of the more traditional State-Owned Enterprises.

I thought you might be interested to learn about the topics under discussion during the Seminar.

To open the Seminar, we were fortunate to have Dong Shuli, a Member of the Party Working Committee and the Deputy Director of the Management Committee of the Government of Gao Xin District, Weifang, Shandong talk about their support for the industry and how the city is acting as an incubator for CX related businesses.

Kyle Kennedy, Chief Operating Officer of COPC Inc. shared the best practices on unassisted channel management, unveiling global customer experience trends and unassisted channel management. His talk exposed unique insights into the latest technology, methodology and success stories of global customer service engagement.

Sun Yuan, the Vice-President of Meituan, a Chinese group buying website for locally found consumer products and retail services (sort of an equivalent of Groupon), spoke about the importance of solving customers issues while keeping them feeling supported throughout the interaction.

Ms Yuan reiterated that the key to excellent customer experience is to lessen the occurrence of issues, quicken the speed of resolution and focus on customer satisfaction.

While Yang Haibo, the Assistant General Manager of Taiping Insurance contact centre, spoke passionately about the implementation of COPC Standards and practices in customer service operations.

Mr Haibo also enlightened the crowd by expressing his thoughts on the future of customer service highlighting how intelligent and dynamic resolutions with both chatbots and human interaction will be the preferred model for customers.

Ding Yi, the Director of Customer Service of Ant Financial, demonstrated how customized services can be offered through the combination of COPC Standards, big data and artificial intelligence.

The AI theme continued when Ms Wang, Bank of Communications, General Manager - Credit Verification Department - spoke about how AI is boosting the operational development of credit cards. Ms Wang revealed interesting data that showed China has surpassed the US in terms of the number of patents on AI and its evolution.

Peng Peng, GM of the Business Management Department of Sunshine Insurance shared their practices on improving customer experience through the development of customer personas as well as staff personas.

While finally, Li Xia, the General Manager of Welsend, talked about the new opportunities and patterns of contact centre outsourcing. Ms Xia particularly emphasised the influence of AI from the perspectives of staff, operations and culture. Ms Xia said while there were numerous challenges ahead, the prospects were exciting for both businesses and consumers.

This was the third COPC China Summit since 2016 and like the previous two, revealed numerous insights into customer experience and the future role of artificial intelligence in the industry. 

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