• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 19, 2021

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% 

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