• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 20, 2023

Marketers should be alarmed by the findings in CCW Digital’s 2023 Annual Consumer Preferences Survey. Of the consumers polled, only 4% feel the customer experience has improved in the past year. And 57% say it has gotten worse.

It starts with the marketing itself, and the lack of personalization and care. Consumers say the email and text messages they get are:

• Highly personalized in most cases — 18.29%
• Highly personalized in some cases — 44.75% 
• Rarely personalized — 36.96% 

Despite the apparent desire for personalization, customers are wary about sharing personal information like email addresses and phone numbers with brands. They say: 

Yes, I am confident they will protect my data AND only contact me when necessary — 18.29%

I trust them to protect my data, but I worry about them sending me too many emails/texts — 24.90% 

I trust them to only contact me when necessary, but I’m worried about the security/privacy of my data — 26.45% 

I’m worried about the security/privacy of my data AND the company sending me too many messages — 30.35% 

When it comes to service, 58% of consumers have faced difficulty in receiving a refund or makegood. Yet 60% of phone agents claim they are willing to go "above and beyond" for their customers. 

In addition, 65.83% complain of long wait times. Another 29.51% say they can’t interact in the channel they want — i.e., “I want phone, they only offer email.”

And 15.15% say it’s difficult to move between channels — for example, starting in email, then moving to phone. 

"The findings of our study send a clear message to C-suite executives: it's time to refocus on customer centricity and prioritize delivering exceptional, personalized experiences that align with customer values," says Mario Matulich, president., Customer Management Practice.

Matulich continues: "What makes the lack of improvement so concerning is that customer experiences are already weak. Consumers are not faulting brands for failing to move from 'good' to 'great,' but rather for allowing inefficient, impersonal experiences to persist at a time when customer centricity should be a driving force.” 

CCW Digital's Annual Consumer Preferences Survey surveyed over 500 U.S.-based consumers in June 2023.