The report cards are in and it’s a big fat F for Australian businesses when it comes to meeting their customer’s digital experience expectations.
Today’s customers are demanding digital experiences that not only work but also trigger an emotional affinity to the brand.
In a recent report conducted by SAP, 3,000 Australian consumers were asked to rate core aspects of their digital experience with brands across 6 industries. This is one report card anyone would be ashamed to show their parents.
What consumers want.
There is a significant gap in the digital experiences consumers expect, and what is being delivered by Australian brands. Quite simply, Australian brands aren’t delivering the digital experience consumers want. From the 7,000 interactions surveyed only 22% of consumers were delighted with the digital experience brands offer, while 47% were dissatisfied and 31% were ambivalent.
Happy customers remain loyal.
There is a strong correlation between digital experience and loyalty. Customers delighted with a digital experience are 4 times more likely to remain loyal to a brand than those who are unsatisfied. A strong digital experience is also linked to stronger customer advocacy measured through Net Promoter Score with an average score of 63% for customers delighted with the digital experience compared to a score of minus 55% from those who were unsatisfied with the digital experience.
Being customer focused.
Only one of the 34 brands in the Australian Digital Experience Index attained a positive score and that brand was Suncorp Insurance. However, the top industry was Retail (Grocery). Telcos and Utilities were the worst rated industries. The best performers understood which attributes of the digital experience were most important to their customers and focused their investment and resources in those areas.
13 must-have attributes.
The report identified the 13 most important attributes of a digital experience. Of these, digital consumers rated the following as the top 5 attributes.
A digital experience must be:
1. cohesive and simple
2. available anytime on my terms
3. respectful and dedicated to my needs
4. fits in with my life and is effortless
5. relevant offers without infringing on privacy.
Data for personalisation.
Customers today are demanding ‘digital experiences that not only work but also trigger an emotional affinity to the brand.’ Something that requires a deep level of personalisation supported by rich real-time data to have the clearest possible view of a customer and their preferences. Data should no longer be stored in silos but instead be across all functions within a business to get a single view of the customer.
This report should hopefully be a wake-up call for Australian brands with an increased focus in knowing their own customers as well as their expectations in order to deliver the digital experiences they deserve.
Get the full picture in the SAP-Australian-Digital-Experience-Report-Infographic or download the full SAP Australian Digital Experience Report.
