New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS): India ranked third globally and first in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region in terms of customer experience (CX) maturity, a report said on Monday.

According to a report by Zendesk, 'exceptional' is what businesses must strive for when meeting customer expectations. However, just 17 per cent of Indian businesses are qualified as 'CX Champions' -- those considered the highest standard-bearers, indicating there are only a few organisations in India delivering exceptional customer services.

"Indian businesses are rapidly transforming their CX capabilities, and there are challenges that persist and need to be addressed," Vasudeva Rao Munnalurii, RVP India and SAARC at Zendesk, said in a statement.

"The CX Accelerator Report's findings reveal that to digitally transform customer service and reap rewards, Indian businesses need technologies that make this journey nimble. Effective implementation, increased visibility into data sources and automating time-consuming tasks open the door for more businesses to become CX Champions," Munnalurii added.

The report mentioned that at least 56 per cent of Indian companies displayed very strong comprehensiveness of CX metrics, the highest globally, followed by Canada (49 per cent) and the UK (44 per cent).

And, at least 62 per cent of Indian businesses are able to report CX metrics in real-time, the highest across the world, followed by Canada (54 per cent) and UK (50 per cent).

More companies worldwide are utilising bot and human hand-offs -- this jumped from 52 per cent to 64 per cent year-over-year (YoY), the report, which surveyed more than 4,900 business decision makers, said.