Enterprises Give Providers Higher CX Scores but Demand More Innovation, ISG Study Shows

Overall customer satisfaction with providers has risen marginally since last year, though survey results vary between regions, ISG Star of Excellence™ CX Insights Report finds

Enterprise buyers of technology and business services are slightly more satisfied with their providers than they were a year ago, giving higher ratings to their governance and compliance and collaboration capabilities while looking for higher levels of innovation, according to a new report from Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The latest ISG Star of Excellence™ CX Insights Report, a quarterly review that sheds light on what enterprise buyers think about their service and solution providers, shows overall satisfaction with providers increased by 4 percent in the third quarter from the same period last year, reaching an average enterprise customer experience (CX) score of 75. Satisfaction scores rose in all six CX pillars covered by ISG’s survey, with especially strong increases for “Collaboration and Transparency” and “Governance and Compliance," up 6 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

Across all regions, customers rated providers highest in “Governance and Compliance" and lowest in “Innovation and Thought Leadership,” the report says. The latter is becoming more essential to enterprises, with its importance score rising 13 percent from last year, the biggest increase of any category. That shift indicates how critical it is for providers to keep innovating in their service offerings and strategically integrating digital tools to meet evolving market needs.

“Enterprises in all regions are looking for providers that can consistently deliver services with higher quality and offer highly experienced and certified resources for effective execution and delivery,” said Heiko Henkes, ISG director and principal analyst who oversees the research program. “At the same time, they expect providers to be more innovative and showcase strong reference use cases for emerging technologies.”

Rising satisfaction scores reflect enterprises’ optimism about what providers can do for them in the future, Henkes said, an especially important consideration with the rapid emergence of new technologies, especially generative AI, in many industries.

Providers are increasingly focused on improving their shoring mix, and this has helped their Collaboration and Transparency capabilities to earn the most improved satisfaction ratings compared with the third quarter of 2022, ISG says. Customers are especially satisfied with providers’ receptivity to constructive feedback.

In addition to overall CX scores, the third-quarter report focuses on CX scores by geographic region, following on from the first-quarter report, which examined CX scores by industry, and the second-quarter report, which highlighted scores by technology domain. The fourth-quarter report will provide an annual analysis.

CX Scores by Region

In the Americas, where the number of IT outsourcing (ITO) provider engagements and the size of contracts rose significantly, enterprises are increasingly satisfied with providers’ data privacy and cybersecurity practices, the report says. Customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) rated ITO providers higher this year for collaborative approaches but were less satisfied with their ability to integrate new work methods, tools and techniques. In Asia Pacific (APAC), enterprises gave providers high marks for being adaptable and receptive to suggestions.

In business process outsourcing (BPO), providers received their highest satisfaction scores for contact center services, ISG says. Customers in EMEA and APAC also gave digital engineering services high ratings, while supply chain and payroll administration received the lowest scores in EMEA, in part because customers there believed providers lacked strong innovation roadmaps.

For the second year, public-sector customers in all three regions gave their providers the highest scores, while those in the energy industry gave the lowest scores, the report says. Public-sector customers in the Americas and Europe rated providers highly for governance and compliance capabilities, primarily for proactive measures to mitigate cyberattacks. In APAC, they were highly satisfied with providers’ execution and delivery.

The report also examines other regional findings, such as CX ratings by survey respondents in different roles, including IT, vendor management, line of business and non-IT horizontal business function.

About ISG Star of Excellence™ CX Insights Research

CX scores reported in the ISG Star of Excellence™ CX Insights Report represent the weighted average of customer satisfaction scores and importance scores across six dimensions: Execution and Delivery, Governance and Compliance, Collaboration and Transparency, Innovation and Thought Leadership, People and Cultural Fit, and Business Continuity and Flexibility.

Through ISG’s continuous Voice of the Customer survey research, customers are asked to rate the importance of each of the six dimensions and then rate their service provider/vendor on each, on a scale of 1-100. CX scores are also generated across industries, regions and technology domains and for each service provider/vendor.

ISG Star of Excellence™ CX Insights scores are an integral part of the provider assessments offered by ISG Provider Lens™ research, the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team.

The 3Q 2023 ISG Star of Excellence™ CX Insights Report is available as a free download from this webpage, with more detailed findings, including by provider, available by contacting ISG.

Enterprises that wish to participate in the ISG Voice of the Customer survey research can begin the process by visiting this website. Providers also can nominate their customers to participate.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 900 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,600 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.

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