One thing is clear as 2021 winds down: Brands are failing to provide satisfactory digital experiences, from websites to email. And consumers worldwide are fed up, judging by two recent global
studies.
Take Becoming An Adaptive, Outcomes-focused Business, from Optimizely. Of the consumers polled, 49% say their expectations are not being met by businesses.
However, 65% acknowledge that those demands are higher than they were. And that figure goes up to 70% in the U.S.
What’s holding brands back? The hurdles
are:
- Cannot easily gather gradual insights into what is driving customer experiences—71%
- Do not have a full view into the customer
journey—69%
- Inability to integrate with other key digital properties—84%
But they’re working on it. For instance, 92%
of brands are investing more in technology. And 94% are working to overcome at least one of these challenges in 2022:
- Privacy regulations & guidelines—47%
- Organizational silos—40%
- Inability to move quickly & adapt—40%
- Lack of insight into what is working &
what is not—37%
- Wasted data—36%
- Vendor lock in and/or lack of integration—34%
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What has held them back to date?
- Implementing personalization required too many resources and/or too much time—47%
- Their
organization takes minimal risks—41%
- The marketing team is limited in what they are able to achieve on their own—32%
- There
is a lack of understanding about customers—32%
For their part, 84% of consumers gripe about at least one of these frustrations:
- It’s too
difficult to find what they’re looking for—29%
- It’s creepy how brands know what they’re looking for—28%
- Brands personalize
incorrectly/get it wrong—25%
- Lack of responsiveness-25%
- Inability to complete transactions—24%
- Too much
interaction—22%
- Too generic—19%
Optimizely surveyed 1,117 business executives and over 5,000 consumers in the U.S., UK,
Germany, Australia and Sweden.
Next is 2022 Global Consumer Trends, a study by Qualtrics XM Institute. This report states that 9.5% of brand’s revenue
is at risk due to bad customer experiences.
Consumers are 3.5X more likely to purchase from a business after a positive customer experience. But eight out of 10 of people believe
customer service needs to be improved.
Moreover, 63% of consumers feel companies should do a better job of listening to their feedback, and 62% that businesses need to care
more about them. On the positive side, 60% say they would buy more if brands treated them better.
How can companies improve? Customers cite:
- Prices &
fees—50%
- Customer service support—43%
- Product & service capabilities—30%
- Online
resources—29%
- Company communications—29%
- Buying process—27%
Qualtrics XM Institute surveyed 23,000 consumers
across 23 countries, including: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Phillippines, Singapore, South
Korea, Spain, Thailand, UK, US, Vietnam