Kentico’s Customer Experience Survey Reveals Surprising Results

The rise and fall of brand affinity
 
Weighing most heavily on strengthening or eroding brand affinity are:

• 28% Word of mouth
• 25% Company websites
• 18% In-store experience

 
However, most customers are comfortable with the digital experience.
 
When communicating with or buying from a company:

• 56% are most likely to be at their computer
• 24% are most likely to interact in-person in stores
• 10% are most likely to be using a mobile device
• 10% are most likely to interact via the phone

 
Social Media: still an under-tapped resource?
 
The role social media plays in the customer’s experience is still surprisingly low, as customers and business have yet to fully embrace social platforms to create and maintain long-lasting relationships, with only 7% of respondents feeling that brand experience was affected via such social networks as Facebook or Twitter.
 
Customers have strong preferences when it comes to the type of communication a company uses: 

• 48% prefer email
• 19% prefer phone
• 18% prefer website
• 13% prefer in-person communication
• 2% prefer using chat

 
No survey respondents suggested they preferred either texting or social media as a form of communication, proving that this relationship still has a way to go in this regard.
 
Personalization vs. privacy
 
Interestingly, 69% of those surveyed showed eagerness in allowing the collection of their personal data in exchange for a more personalized service.
 
Personalization is a powerful marketing tool that enables you to tailor your website content to your visitor and to where they are in the buying process. A combination of data gathered from online forms and website behavior helps you collate a picture of that particular visitor and to offer them content that is most relevant or interesting to them, now.
 
It can have a dramatic effect on conversions, by nurturing leads with fresh and tailor-made messages, and can increase sales by offering a better customer experience. And our survey findings suggest that customers prefer this kind of personalized experience online.
  
 The customer is always right
 
Other interesting findings show that:
 

• 97% of customers are ready to forgive poor service as long as the company quickly corrects the problem with an explanation, apology, credit or other response

• 45% of respondents named waiting times (in-store, on the phone or online) as their biggest customer complaint

• Customers are easily put off a company, with the triggering factors being:

• 32% unhelpful company representatives
• 9% inferior websites
• 9% too much email
• 4% untargeted promotions
• 1% unresponsiveness on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks

 
  
So there you have it – the results of the first Kentico survey!
 
What have we learned? Your customer knows exactly what she wants.
 
And now, so do you – and luckily, Kentico EMS has all the tools you need to make it happen.