We Will Shop Till We Drop, If You Give Us A Better Online Experience [Survey]

BY: 

Dave Forde
December 11, 2012

eCommerce is here to stay, looking back at the billions of dollars consumers spent on Black Friday and Cyber Monday there is clearly no stopping the fact that consumers want to buy products and services online.  Oracle released some interesting data from a survey this week that shows, 81% of Shoppers Willing to Pay More for Better Customer Experience.

The report is called, “Why Customer Satisfaction is No Longer Good Enough, and With nearly half (44%) willing to pay a premium of more than 5%.

  • Improvement of the overall customer experience (40%), providing quick access to information and making it easier for customers to ask questions (35%) were cited as key drivers for spending more with a brand.
  • Benefitting from churn: In addition to driving new revenue growth, a good customer experience is also essential to protecting existing revenue channels. Seventy percent of respondents have stopped doing business with a brand following a poor customer experience. Importantly, 92% of this number have gone straight to a competing brand and made a purchase. With fewer than a quarter of consumers (22%) nearly always satisfied with their customer experience, there is a clear opportunity for brands to improve customer service to win market share from competitors.
  • Drivers for revenue growth: The survey has indicated steps businesses can take to benefit from the opportunities provided by a positive customer experience. Respondents said that the top five changes to customer experience that would lead to them spending more money with that company are:
    • 40% – Improvement in the overall customer experience
    • 35% – Ensuring questions can be asked easily and information accessed before making a purchase
    • 32% – Adopting an easy return policy
    • 26% – Improving the overall website usability and search functionality
    • 20% – Providing customers with a more tailored/personalized shopping experience
  • Brand loyalty: Eighty-two percent of respondents describe their experiences as requiring too much effort, suggesting that brand loyalty is closely linked to ease of communication. Respondents listed having to use different methods of contact to resolve an issue (26%) and using different methods several times (24%) as the point at which dealing with customer service requires too much effort. Businesses wishing to benefit from the revenue implications of providing a good customer experience therefore need to focus on making their customer interactions as simple as possible.
  • Social media: The research also revealed that many organizations are failing to make the most of the customer experience opportunities available to them through social media channels, with only 46% of respondents claiming to have received a reply from a company after posting a comment. The research indicates that 29% of these became angry when the response failed to resolve their issue.

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Dave Forde


Dave “The Connector” Forde has been involved in the marketing, public relations and technology industry across Canada for over 20 years in various sales and marketing roles, he launched The Connected One network of business sites which connects buyers to the right sellers. Profectio and PR In Canada covers news about the marketing and public relations industry each day helping professionals advance their career and businesses. He also serves as an advisor to a number of businesses across the country. Find Dave on LinkedIn and Twitter.


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