Survey: Personalization, convenience are retail’s frontline battlegrounds

Customers are increasingly demanding when it comes to the type of service they expect.

Sixty-three percent of customers don’t care about what channel they use with businesses — as long as they get through quickly and easily, according to a Verizon-sponsored survey conducted by Longitude that puts a spotlight on how global consumers want to interact with brands.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they often abandon online transactions that take too long, and 41% said they would actually leave a company that can’t meet their request at the first time of asking. Thirty-five percent said  that they would actually leave a company with slow apps.

The “What customer experiences do consumers REALLY want?" survey, which analyzed 6,000 consumers across 15 countries, also found that building trust is critical to outflanking rivals. Customers will not share data with brands they do not trust—this is a fundamental principle of good CX, noted Verizon. Some 69% said “honesty and transparency” about how personal data will be used are crucial qualities for companies wanting to win trust with customers.

Once secured, trust must be maintained—if a company suffers a security breach, it will inevitably lose customers. Sixty-nine percent of consumers would avoid a company that has suffered a data breach, even if it offers a better deal than competitors; 39% would turn to a competitor if a company did not adhere to their data and privacy settings and preferences.  The Americas region is the least forgiving when it comes to breaches – more than a third in total would simply stop working a company if they were impacted by a breach a company suffers.

In other findings:

• Forty-seven percent of consumers would go back to a company offering a personalized, intuitive CX, even if a rival was cheaper; 37% are more likely to sign up to a new company if they can use an existing online profile to do so.


• Sixty-seven percent  surveyed cited discounts and promotions as being among the top three pay-backs they would expect in return for sharing their data, followed by 40% who flagged one-click log-in and transaction tools, and 39% desiring more exclusive experiences.


• Fifty-five percent of 55% of 18-to-24-year-old customers say they are attracted to companies that deliver CX using the latest digital technologies, compared to 47% of all consumers.