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lmost half of Indonesians wired to digital services are satisfied with what they get, citing security, simplicity and reliability as the most important features of such services, a new survey has found.

While only 48 percent said that they were “satisfied” with local digital brands, Indonesia’s digital experience rating is considered “positive”, said Megawaty Khie, vice president and managing director of multinational software corporation Systems Applications Products (SAP) Indonesia. Meanwhile, 38 percent said that they were ambivalent toward local digital companies and 14 percent said they were
unsatisfied.

In comparison, Singapore saw a lower satisfaction rate of 25 percent, with 32 percent saying they were unsatisfied, while the Asia Pacific region is 35 percent very happy with the digital services offered to them, according to the SAP Digital Experience Report.

“It’s a matter of survival rather than growth,” Megawaty said of the importance for companies to offer excellent digital services to their consumers. “Companies that don’t adapt and innovate get left behind.”

The report stated that 64 percent of respondents said safety and security were the most important aspects to look at before trying a digital service for the first time, especially services which typically involve the transaction of funds such as digital banking and online shopping.

That is followed by “cohesive, integrated and simple” (50 percent) as well as “available anytime on my terms” (49 percent).

An interesting trend that the SAP Digital Experience Report saw was that respondents were more eager to try digital services such as financial-transaction apps, if they were referred to them directly by someone whose judgment they knew and trusted.

“The report found that people who were referred to certain digital services by another person would spend 50 percent more on it. There is then the likelihood that the same user would spend 67 percent more after their first try,” Megawaty said.

Around 51 million Indonesians use digital services, roughly a fifth of the nation’s population, as the number of internet users continues to grow in a nation where there is at least one mobile phone owned per capita.

Indonesian users make up 30 percent of the ASEAN region’s digital customers and the local e-commerce market constituted 40 percent of regional revenues in 2018.

Bank Central Asia (BCA), the nation’s largest private lender, which has its own digital banking app named Sakuku, scored 59 percent of respondents very satisfied with its digital services. Executive vice president of BCA’s strategic IT group Hermawan Thendean expressed a desire to market the aptly named “electronic wallet” toward the younger market, a demographic already familiar with using phones to shop and communicate.