Digital Experience: Are Brands Meeting Consumer Expectations?

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Digital Experience: Are Brands Meeting Consumer Expectations?

In association with Sitecore

Digital Experience: Are Brands Meeting Consumer Expectations? In association with Sitecore

Econsultancy London

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Published February 2015

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Contents

1. Executive Summary ......................................................... 4

2. Foreword by Sitecore ....................................................... 6

2.1. About Econsultancy .................................................................... 7

2.2. About Sitecore ............................................................................. 7

3. Methodology .................................................................... 8

4. Most Important Elements of the Digital Experience ...... 9

4.1. Consumers and marketers both value ease of usage ................ 10

4.2. Consumers rate up-to-date information, right levels of detail and useful account information ....................................... 11

4.3. Marketers rate the importance of mobile optimisation more highly than consumers ............................................................... 11

5. ‘Must Haves’ and Going the Extra Mile ......................... 12

6. How Consumer and Marketer Attitudes Vary by Sector ............................................................................. 15

7. How Marketers Rate Performance: Sector Comparison .................................................................... 18

8. Conclusion ..................................................................... 20

9. Appendix ........................................................................ 21

9.1. What are ‘must haves’ and what constitutes an ‘extra mile’ experience? ................................................................................. 21

9.2. How consumer and marketer attitudes towards different aspects vary by sector ................................................................ 22

9.3. How marketers perform on important aspects: sector comparison ................................................................................ 24

9.4. Industry respondent profiles .................................................... 28




1. Executive Summary How are marketers adapting to the shifting consumer landscape?

There has been much debate over the last few years about the skills gap in marketing, particularly

as the pace of technological change has continued to shift the way we interact with consumers. As

outlined in a study1 published by Econsultancy last year, marketers need to be more data-focused

and technically adept, in addition to having classic marketing knowledge. This report explores the

extent to which brands are delivering what consumers want in the context of the digital

experience, and whether marketers are prioritising the areas which matter.

Marketers are aligned on consumers’ top five attributes

We asked marketers to weigh the importance of 17 attributes describing different elements of

people’s digital experiences. We also asked the same of consumers, and compared the two groups

in order to see how aligned marketers were to their audience. In particular, how they are

performing on key hygiene factors.

The research shows that marketers are, on the whole, aligned with consumers in terms of what

they think are the most important aspects of a digital experience. These include ‘easy to find what

you’re looking for’, ‘easy to carry out basic tasks’, ‘you can achieve what you need to do in very few

clicks’, ‘up-to-date information’ and ‘website gives you the right level of detail’.

Making sense of which attributes to prioritise

By being more data-focused marketers have the potential to use the information they have on

their customers to create more engaging digital experiences. But even the most agile of marketers

can find it challenging to know which attribute to prioritise over another, and this is especially

important in the context of limited budgets.

We used a statistical technique called max diff, explained in the methodology section, enabling us

to understand which attributes are necessary for a ‘good’ site experience i.e. what marketers need

to prioritise to avoid delivering a ‘poor’ experience. We also evaluated factors that move the

needle, transforming a digital experience from ‘good’ to ‘excellent’.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the top-ranked attributes identified earlier were categorised as

‘must have’ for creating a ‘good’ digital experience. However, consumers did not put tablet and

mobile optimisation in this category. Rather these were seen as ‘extra mile’ aspects enabling

marketers to lift experiences from ‘good’ to ‘excellent’.

Other extra mile attributes include:

Brand predicts your needs, for example sends relevant offers that relate to your next potential

purchase.

Website information can be tailored to your requirements.

Website integrates well with other touchpoints, e.g. social media and payment.

The digital and offline experiences contain moments of delight which make you want to tell

your friends about it.

1 https://econsultancy.com/reports/skills-of-the-modern-marketer

https://econsultancy.com/reports/skills-of-the-modern-marketer




How well do marketers perform across different industry sectors?

In order to deepen our understanding of marketer and consumer perceptions, we also analysed

the weighting of attributes across different industries. In the automotive sector, for example, car

buyers use digital channels to ‘experience’ brands. This was underlined by the fact that both

marketers and consumers ranked mobile and tablet optimisation higher than average.

While there are some areas of divergence, notably around mobile optimisation, the report paints a

positive picture of marketers. It reflects the fact that digital teams are smarter and more agile. It

also links to other trends Econsultancy has observed; with the more progressive businesses using

the information they have on their customers to drive organisational change.




2. Foreword by Sitecore As a fellow marketer, you’ll understand that fostering stronger customer relationships and

delivering superior customer experience isn’t just good for your brand’s reputation; it’s good for

your organisation’s bottom line.

Technology is driving massive change in consumer behaviour, prompting us to rethink the way we

reach, engage and retain customers. Customers expect more from the brands they choose to do

business with and, for marketers, the pressure is on to deliver.

Our research set out to explore what consumers believe are the elements of a good digital

experience so that marketers can gain a better understanding of what consumers expect, assess

how they are aligned with those expectations and identify areas for improvement.

What is clear from the findings is that marketers are aligned with consumers on what constitutes

a good digital experience. The report reveals that consumers value the ability to easily find what

they’re looking for and in the fewest clicks possible. They want information and pricing to be up-

to-date and for sites to provide the right level of detail to suit their needs.

Marketers who can optimise these aspects of the digital experience will deliver a good digital

experience. To deliver excellent digital experiences, mobile optimisation and personalisation

emerged as two ways that marketers can go the extra mile and truly delight their customers.

Monarch Airlines is an example of a brand that has successfully optimised the above aspects of its

digital experience and is reaping the rewards as a result, both in terms of financial performance

and customer satisfaction.

Monarch’s website now delivers relevant, personalised content so customers can now find the

flights they want quickly and easily, with information and offers now being tailored specifically to

each individual. The airline has seen an uplift of 5% in booking funnel conversion and a 10%

reduction in web pages visited per booking. Average passenger spend increased by 19% and

according to the Feefo independent review service, the airline achieved a 92% customer

satisfaction rating, based on more than 100,000 reviews.

What is clear from this report is that marketers understand what is required to attract and retain

customers for life, but in reality, many of us are constrained by a multiplicity of systems,

fragmented data and a lack of integration, resulting in organisational silos. Key to Monarch’s

success is the fact that customer experience remains at the heart of the brand’s focus and the

effective deployment of a single experience platform has helped it to continually optimise the

experience it offers its customers.

With a greater understanding of each customer, marketers can engage audiences on an individual

level with highly contextual and personalised experiences based on true insights derived from

each customer’s unique behaviour. And when customers have a good experience each time they

connect with your brand they will tell their peers, seek you out, spread the word and become

customers for life.

Laurence Debruyne

Marketing Director

Sitecore




2.1. About Econsultancy Econsultancy’s mission is to help its customers achieve excellence in digital business, marketing

and ecommerce through research, training and events.

Founded in 1999, Econsultancy has offices in New York, London and Singapore.

Econsultancy is used by over 600,000 professionals every month. Subscribers get access to

research, market data, best practice guides, case studies and elearning – all focused on helping

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The subscription is supported by digital transformation services including digital capability

programmes, training courses, skills assessments and audits. We train and develop thousands of

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Subscribe to Econsultancy today to accelerate your journey to digital excellence.

Call us to find out more:

New York: +1 212 971 0630

London: +44 207 269 1450

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Other related Econsultancy content

Customer Lifetime Value: Building Loyalty and Driving Revenue in the Digital Age https://econsultancy.com/reports/customer-lifetime-value/

Customer Experience Statistics https://econsultancy.com/reports/customer-experience-statistics/

2.2. About Sitecore Sitecore is the global leader in customer experience management, delivering highly relevant

content and personalised digital experiences that delight audiences, build loyalty and drive

revenue.

The Sitecore® Experience Platform™ delivers one connected experience across both online and

offline channels, enabling marketers to own the experience of everyone who engages with their

brand and easily engage in seamless conversations with their audiences when and where they

want.

More than 4,000 of the world’s leading brands – including American Express, Carnival Cruise

Lines, easyJet and Heineken – trust Sitecore to help them deliver the meaningful interactions

that win customers for life.

http://econsultancy.com/subscribe

https://econsultancy.com/reports/customer-lifetime-value/

https://econsultancy.com/reports/customer-experience-statistics/




3. Methodology There were almost 1,500 respondents (353 marketers and 1,122 consumers across nine verticals)

to our Digital Experience research request, which took the form of an online survey in 2014.

We used a statistical technique called maximum difference scaling (max diff) to understand the

level of priority respondents place on each of the attributes tested in the survey. This technique

for determining ‘importance’ yields much better results than conventional market research

approaches based on simply asking respondents to rate importance on a scale.

With conventional importance scale questions, respondents tend to say that all attributes are

important or very important, regardless of how important each one actually is to them. The max

diff approach forces respondents to trade off which attribute is most and least important to them,

a process respondents find very easy.

So how does it work?

We chose 17 attributes describing different elements of people’s digital experiences. We selected a

batch of seven attributes and asked respondents to pick the one that was most important to them,

and the one that was least important to them.

Each respondent was then shown another scenario containing a different set of seven attributes

from the previous question, and again, asked for most and least important. This process was

repeated for eight scenarios with different combinations of attributes each time.

Example trade-off scenario

By looking at the patterns of which attributes were most selected as important, and which ones

least important, we can build up a picture of each attribute’s relative importance in the

respondent’s mind. We analyse the results of respondents’ trade-offs using a statistical technique

called Hierarchical Bayes estimation. This allows us to scale a respondent’s preference for each

attribute and give them each a score so that they sum up to 100.

The results from the analysis can be interpreted as how a respondent would have allocated 100

points across the attributes in proportion to the relative importance attached to them.




4. Most Important Elements of the Digital

Experience Introduction

We chose 17 attributes describing different elements of people’s digital experiences and asked

marketers and consumers to weigh which attributes they thought were more important.

Statistically, using a max diff technique (described in more detail in the methodology) consumers

allocated the equivalent of 100 points.

This means that the higher number of points a given attribute receives, the more important it is

relative to the other 17 aspects.

Table 1: Relative importance of various aspects of the digital experience –

industry vs consumers

Industry Consumers Difference

Easy to find what you’re looking for 14.4 14.3 1%

Easy to carry out basic tasks online, e.g. book, order, download, pay 14.0 12.1 16%

You can achieve what you need to do in very few clicks 11.4 12.0 -4%

Up-to-date information, for example availability and pricing 10.5 13.1 -20%

Website gives you the right level of detail for what you need 8.1 10.3 -21%

The digital and offline experiences contain moments of delight which make you want to tell your friends about it 6.9 1.8 287%

Website works well on a smartphone 6.8 3.0 128%

Brand sends digital communications relevant to your current situation – such as emails that reflect website interaction 4.1 2.2 82%

Website integrates well with other touchpoints, e.g. social media and payment 4.0 1.9 106%

Website works well on a tablet 3.9 2.3 72%

Brand predicts your needs, for example sends relevant offers that relate to your next potential purchase 3.2 2.6 23%

Website information can be tailored to your requirements 2.5 4.4 -42%

Useful recommendations and suggestions based on previous interactions 2.3 2.5 -5%

Online activities are taken into account in face-to-face and offline communications, e.g. text reminders and direct mail 2.3 2.5 -7%

Website provides useful information about your account 2.1 6.8 -70%

Information presented is relevant to your location 1.7 3.5 -52%

Account details automatically recognised 1.7 4.7 -65%

The numbers show how, on average, respondents would have allocated 100 points across all

attributes.




Similar weighting of points between marketers and consumers

Consumers and practitioners are broadly aligned around the relative importance of different

aspects of the digital experience. This is, in many ways, a reflection of the fact that ecommerce has

matured significantly. Digital teams are smarter and more agile. They also have vast amounts of

data to help them understand and build compelling site experiences.

According to a recent report2 published by Econsultancy in association with TrustPilot, the most

progressive businesses have taken these insights and used them to drive change, resulting in the

rise of Voice of Customer programmes. As a result, for marketers, the consumer voice has never

been stronger.

Voice of the Customer

“We are obsessive about collecting customer feedback. We have lots of entry points for feedback, from surveys, to

product reviews. We display all feedback throughout our site and internally. Most of our feedback is positive and

non-actionable. If we do get negative feedback that’s an opportunity for us, and we jump all over it.”

Ian MacDonald, Ecommerce Manager at Silver Star Brands

4.1. Consumers and marketers both value ease of usage In the past it was assumed by marketers that consumers were technologically sophisticated,

mobile-enabled data sifters who are able to think rationally about whichever brand or stores offer

the best deal. But far from empowering consumers, the rising volume of marketing messages has

been overwhelming.

Today, brands are increasingly sophisticated when it comes to pulling consumers into the fold.

Businesses now compete on customer experience, placing data at the centre of their operational

structures. For many marketers, testing and optimisation platforms are now the gateways to

understanding consumers.

In order to grapple with increased amounts of clutter online, consumers rate site experiences that

make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for, first and foremost. In addition they want to

achieve this in very few clicks. In both cases, marketers are very much on a par in terms of

weighting of importance.

Table 2: Relative importance of select aspects of the digital experience – industry

vs consumers


Easy to find what you’re looking for 14.4 14.3 1%

You can achieve what you need to do in very few clicks 11.4 12.0 -4%

2 https://econsultancy.com/reports/voice-of-the-customer-listen-measure-act/

https://econsultancy.com/reports/voice-of-the-customer-listen-measure-act/




4.2. Consumers rate up-to-date information, right levels of

detail and useful account information There is some divergence between the two groups. Consumers are more likely to rate the

importance of ‘up-to-date information, for example availability and pricing’, ‘website provides the

right level of detail for what you need’ and ‘website providers useful information about your

account’.

These attributes are the online equivalent of customer service – if you make it challenging for

visitors to find pay points and prices, they won’t buy and you’re in danger of them going

elsewhere. The results also reflect the importance of avoiding information overload; if there’s too

much to process it can obscure core messages and calls to action.

Table 3: Relative importance of selected aspects of the digital experience –



Up-to-date information, for example availability and pricing 10.5 13.1 -20%

Website gives you the right level of detail for what you need 8.1 10.3 -21%

4.3. Marketers rate the importance of mobile optimisation

more highly than consumers Mobile continues to grow in importance as an ecommerce channel. Affiliate Window, which

publishes reports based on sales and traffic from over 2.5m network transactions across 1,600

advertisers, found that 37.3% of sales originated from a mobile device in the run up to Christmas,

generating a total of 47,100 sales a day. While it feels as though we’ve reached a tipping point in

terms of mobile, the site aspect ‘website works well on a smartphone’ was far from being the most

important aspect of the digital experience to consumers. By way of comparison, consumers were

four times as likely to rate the importance of ‘easy to find what you’re looking for’.

Marketers were more than twice as likely as consumers to regard smartphone optimisation as

important. This importance of mobile to brands was reflected in the Econsultancy/Adobe Finding

the Path to Mobile Maturity report3, with nearly half of organisations surveyed (47%) saying that

‘the quality of the mobile experience is more important than that on the desktop because there is

no room for error or waste’.

On the flipside, consumers were twice as likely as marketers to rate the importance of

‘information presented is relevant to your location’. This is likely to relate to consumers’ desire for

more streamlined internet experiences, discussed earlier, which can be facilitated by location-

based web searches, for example.

Table 4: Relative importance of selected aspects of the digital experience –





3 https://econsultancy.com/reports/quarterly-digital-intelligence-briefing-finding-the-path-to-mobile-maturity/

https://econsultancy.com/reports/quarterly-digital-intelligence-briefing-finding-the-path-to-mobile-maturity/

https://econsultancy.com/reports/quarterly-digital-intelligence-briefing-finding-the-path-to-mobile-maturity/




5. ‘Must Haves’ and Going the Extra Mile

Introduction

Our original hypothesis was that in order to provide a ‘good’ digital experience, brands had to

perform well on attributes that were considered important to consumers. Based on that premise,

brands wanting to engineer an ‘excellent’ experience would have to incorporate those attributes as

well as perform well on ‘something extra’.

Using that same logic, a brand could be providing a ‘poor to average’ experience by

underperforming on those hygiene factors, regardless of whether they were incorporating

‘something extra’.

By analysing patterns in the data we categorised which aspects were ‘unimportant’, ‘must have’

and ‘extra mile’. We created two consumer groups; one which recorded low satisfaction across all

industry sites (dissatisfied) and another which recorded high satisfaction (very satisfied). We then

compared how both sets of consumers ranked different digital experience attributes.

This enabled us to identify attributes which are of low importance, for example, because they were

attributed fewer points by both the dissatisfied and satisfied consumer groups.

Attributes scoring highly with marginal differences between the two groups were ‘must have’,

while those which scored a significant positive change between the dissatisfied and very satisfied

groups were categorised as ‘extra mile’.

Figure 1: Overview of how companies can perform poorly when it comes to

providing a digital experience

MUST HAVE EXTRA MILE

Excellent experience = Performing well on attributes that are important

+ Performing well on ‘something extra’

Good experience = Performing well on attributes that are important

+ ………………………..

Poor / average experience =

Performing poorly on attributes that are important

+ ………………………..

OR

Performing poorly on attributes that are important

+ Performing well on ‘something extra’




‘Must have’ attributes

Many of the aspects identified by consumers as important earlier in the report can also be classed

as ‘must have’. These include ‘website gives you the right level of detail for what you need’ and

‘easy to carry out basic tasks online’ – things that marketers must get right if they are to provide a

‘good experience’.

Table 5: Ranking of ‘must have’ attributes based on consumer satisfaction

Dissatisfied

(1 to 4)

Very satisfied

(10) Difference

Website provides useful information about your account

6.9 6.9 1%

Website gives you the right level of detail for what you need

10.4 10.1 -3%

You can achieve what you need to do in very few clicks

11.8 11.8 0%

Easy to carry out basic tasks online, e.g. book, order, download, pay

12.2 11.8 -4%

Up-to-date information, for example availability and pricing

14.0 12.6 -10%

Easy to find what you’re looking for 14.7 14.2 -4%

‘Extra mile’ attributes

For many companies mobile apps or mobile-optimised websites are a necessary component of a

media or ecommerce strategy, given the shift to mobile has been rapid and universal across

audiences and customers. However, looking across the results for all industries, ‘website works

well on smartphone’ and ‘website works well on a tablet’ are both ‘extra mile’ attributes.

This tells us that mobile is still very important – because it’s a crucial factor in enabling brands to

provide an ‘excellent experience’. But it is also instructive; for marketers faced with limited

budgets, mobile should not be pursued as a strategy if it compromises investment in some of the

‘must have’ aspects discussed in the previous section.

Table 6: Ranking of ‘extra mile’ attributes based on consumer satisfaction

Dissatisfied

(1 to 4)

Very satisfied

(10) Difference


Brand predicts your needs, for example sends relevant offers that relate to your next potential purchase

2.6 3.2 23%

Website information can be tailored to your requirements 3.6 4.6 29%


Website integrates well with other touchpoints, e.g. social media and payment

1.7 2.2 30%

The digital and offline experiences contain moments of delight which make you want to tell your friends about it

1.5 1.9 33%




A number of these ‘extra mile’ aspects are also geared towards personalisation, such as ‘brand

predicts your needs’ and ‘website integrates well with other touchpoints’.

The age of big data has enabled personalisation in a way that wasn’t possible a few years ago and

this is an area where marketers can make distinct gains. This is underlined by a recent survey of

marketers for Econsultancy’s Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing: Why Marketing Should Be

Personal4. According to the results, 59% agreed that the ability to personalise content was

fundamental to online strategy. At the same time, marketers implementing personalisation

strategies were reporting, on average, a 14% increase in sales.

4 https://econsultancy.com/reports/quarterly-digital-intelligence-briefing-why-marketing-should-be-personal/

https://econsultancy.com/reports/quarterly-digital-intelligence-briefing-why-marketing-should-be-personal/

https://econsultancy.com/reports/quarterly-digital-intelligence-briefing-why-marketing-should-be-personal/




6. How Consumer and Marketer Attitudes

Vary by Sector Looking at the table below, the negatives in red highlight what consumers are looking for, and

which are not being prioritised by marketers (i.e. marketers do not rank them as highly as

consumers). The positives highlighted in green show what consumers value highly and which are

rated highly in importance by marketers.

Table 7: Max diff results across selected attributes and sectors

Automotive Banking Mobile Utilities

Smartphone optimised 108% 134% 124% 83%

Location specific info 141% 65% 84% 93%

Easy to do basic tasks 77% 108% 92% 103%

Details auto recognised 88% 97% 123% 99%

Useful recommendations and suggestions based on

past 129% 84% 103% 88%

Integration with other touchpoints 113% 78% 114% 90%

Situation relevant comms 121% 87% 103% 91%

Info about your account 80% 127% 113% 121%

Brand predicts your needs 149% 79% 102% 84%

Online and F2F activities converged 133% 99% 104% 74%

Automotive

Automotive produced the most distinct set of results, with both industry and consumer groups

valuing surprise and delight factors such as ‘brands predicts your needs’ and ‘the digital and

offline experiences contain moments of delight which makes you want to tell your friends about

it’.

This is a reflection of how car research has moved from offline to online. According to Google

research published in November 20135, new car buyers spend 10 out of 13 ¾ hours (73%)

shopping online, and this rate is marginally higher for used car buyers. For consumers it’s much

more about getting a brand experience over actually buying a car online.

Banking

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the trend towards mobile banking, both consumers and marketers

in the banking sector are aligned around ‘website works well on a smartphone’.

The transactional nature of consumers’ relationship with their banks is also underlined by the fact

that both consumers and marketers regard ‘website provides useful information about your

account’ as equally as important.

5 http://ssl.gstatic.com/think/docs/digital-drives-auto-shopping_research-studies.pdf

http://ssl.gstatic.com/think/docs/digital-drives-auto-shopping_research-studies.pdf




Utilities

Consumers and marketers in the utilities sector are also aligned around this (‘useful information’)

attribute, and this can be observed in the facilities that many providers make available to

consumers to submit their own gas and electricity meter readings, rather than rely on estimates.

However, it’s evident from the results that consumers are looking for ‘moments of delight’ which

is not rated as highly by marketers.

It’s clear that moments of delight can reap dividends for utilities providers. In 2013, Thames

Water incorporated a brand refresh into a responsive website, designed to encourage visitors to

browse content through calls to action and an interactive carousel. Since the website launch it has

commanded a 54% increase in online payments, with a 24% increase in page views.

Case study: Thames Water simplifies UX to enhance customer satisfaction

Thames Water launched a rebranded, responsive website which increased engagement levels

and grew online payments by 54%.

Summary

Thames Water wanted to increase engagement levels with its website and grow the number of visitors paying

their bills online. Working with New Brand Vision, the utility provider looked at how this could be achieved by

assessing levels of usability, typical customer journeys, and the design and functionality of the existing website. A

brand refresh was incorporated into a responsive website, designed to encourage visitors to browse content

through calls to action and an interactive homepage carousel. The new site has seen a 54% increase in online

payments.

Objectives and aims

Thames Water is the UK’s largest water and sewerage company, serving 14m customers across London and the

Thames Valley. In response to issues customers were experiencing with its website, Thames Water wanted a new

website with usability and simplicity at its heart. Specifically, it looked to achieve the following:

Improved levels of engagement

Enhanced design and functionality

Clear customer pathways and calls to action

Increased self-service online (the overall goal)

Implementation, execution and tactics

Following a strategic review of Thames Water’s existing website, New Brand Vision presented a case for a

responsive web design to enable the website to respond to tablets and mobile devices.

After an analysis of user experience (UX) and information architecture (IA) reviews, a brand refresh was

incorporated into the new website for Thames Water, unifying the organisation’s brand both on and offline, as

well as delivering a user-centric design.

A grid structure also means that snippets of information can be released to encourage users to visit deeper level

pages. This is interspersed with key stats and interesting call-outs to increase accessibility. Horizontal scrolling

was also implemented. The finished site encourages visitors to quickly browse content with the use of large

typography, chunky calls to action and an interactive homepage carousel which adapts to Thames Water’s

growing tablet user base.

With a focus in online conversion, a new help centre was also created to address typical customer FAQs.




Case study: Thames Water simplifies UX to enhance customer satisfaction (cont.)

Results

The Thames Water site now responds to tablets, making it

even more accessible to its users, and since the website

launch, the website has commanded:

54% increase in online payments

39% of Thames Water customers now prefer paying

their bill online

24% increase in page views

The design and build of the new site was completed within

three months.

Source: Econsultancy Case Study Database6

6 https://econsultancy.com/case-studies/

https://econsultancy.com/case-studies/




7. How Marketers Rate Performance:

Sector Comparison In this section we looked at what was important to consumers in terms of site functionality, and

how marketers were performing, by industry.

Automotive

Again, this sector provided some of the most distinct set of results. Consumers value the

importance of tablet optimisation, nearly three times as much as smartphone optimisation.

Perhaps in this case, the larger screen provides users with a better window into the overall brand

experience, and it’s an area that marketers perform well on.

Table 8: How marketers rate company performance against attributes that

consumers value in the automotive sector

Performance Importance

Website works well on a smartphone 7.2 3.2

You can achieve what you need to do in very few clicks 7.2 12.8

Brand sends digital communications relevant to your current situation – such as emails that reflect website interaction

7.3 5.0

Account details and loyalty programmes are automatically recognised 7.0 13.9

Online activities are taken into account in face-to-face and offline communications, e.g. text reminders and direct mail

7.0 9.3

Information presented is relevant to your location 7.3 10.4

Up-to-date information, for example availability and pricing 8.0 2.7

Website works well on a tablet 8.1 10.9


6.2 4.2

Easy to carry out basic tasks online, e.g. book, order, download, pay 6.9 3.2

Useful recommendations and suggestions based on previous interactions

7.0 2.2

Website provides useful information about your account 7.4 5.1

Easy to find what you're looking for 7.9 2.7


7.2 5.5


6.8 3.9

Website gives you the right level of detail for what you need 7.6 2.8

Website information can be tailored to your requirements 7.1 2.4




Banking and insurance

In terms of the banking and insurance sectors, there are clear patterns. Marketers are performing

well on important consumer areas such as ‘tablet optimisation’ and ‘you can achieve what you

need to do in very few clicks’. However, marketers underperform for ‘online activities are taken

into account in face-to-face offline communications’.

Building a bridge between retail and digital worlds is proving a significant challenge for many

brands and businesses, with customers increasingly expecting businesses to be structured around

them. Some retail banks are already moving in this direction, with a new style of ‘lite’ brand,

where customers are also encouraged to self-serve via computer terminals.


consumers value in the banking sector





7.6 2.3



7.3 13.0





5.5 4.6



6.7 1.5




7.7 8.7


6.2 2.1






8. Conclusion The research has shown that marketers are, on the whole, aligned with consumers in terms of

what they think are the most important aspects of a digital experience – attributes that enable

consumers to quickly find what they’re looking for, provide up-to-date information on pricing and

afford completion of basic tasks in as few clicks as possible.

There are variables, of course, between industries. In the automotive sector it’s more about form

than function as consumers use digital channels to ‘experience’ brands. While on the other hand,

banking consumers are less likely to look for moments of wonder, and more likely to value the

ability to check their account details quickly, ideally over a mobile device on-the-go.

But even if brands tick all the boxes, it’s important for marketers to understand the role of

consumer expectations. Consumers are avid users of devices, which are in themselves designed to

bring instant gratification to tasks from shopping to researching and music listening. All of which

can be achieved from any location, at any time.

The rapid pace of technological development in consumers’ lives means that consumers are

bringing these heightened expectations to their relationships with the brands they use. This can

certainly be a challenge in more traditional markets, like banking and utilities, where legacy

systems can often act as a barrier to more agile thinking.

As we saw earlier in the report, banks underperform against the attribute ‘online activities are

taken into account in face-to-face offline communications’. This will certainly be an ongoing

challenge, particularly as the Gen Z ‘digitally native’ group of consumers born in the mid to late

90s come on stream, shifting the bar of expectation even higher.




9. Appendix

9.1. What are ‘must haves’ and what constitutes an ‘extra

mile’ experience?

Table 10: Ranking of ‘extra mile’ attributes based on consumer satisfaction

Dissatisfied

(1 to 4)

Very satisfied

(10) Difference

Unimportant


2.4 2.5 8%


2.8 2.6 -9%


2.6 2.8 7%

Information presented is relevant to your location 3.6 3.1 -15%

Account details and loyalty programmes are automatically recognised

5.2 4.8 -7

Must have

Website provides useful information about your account 6.9 6.9 1%


10.4 10.1 -3%

You can achieve what you need to do in very few clicks 11.8 11.8 0%


12.2 11.8 -4%


14.0 12.6 -10%

Easy to find what you’re looking for 14.7 14.2 -4%


Extra mile


2.6 3.2 23%

Website information can be tailored to your requirements 3.6 4.6 29%



1.7 2.2 30%


1.5 1.9 33%


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Econsultancy.com Ltd 2015

9.2. How consumer and marketer attitudes towards different aspects vary by sector

Automotive Banking Insurance

Mobile phone operator

Retail (multichannel)

Retail (pureplay)

Travel (plane/ train ticket)

Travel (holidays)

Utilities

Website works well on a smartphone

108% 134% 91% 124% 98% 90% 82% 89% 83%


98% 87% 94% 89% 111% 101% 114% 107% 99%

Information presented is relevant to your location

141% 65% 110% 84% 98% 78% 119% 115% 93%

Easy to find what you’re looking for

97% 101% 98% 100% 105% 101% 101% 96% 101%


77% 108% 93% 92% 103% 111% 106% 108% 103%


101% 101% 100% 96% 103% 91% 105% 98% 105%

Website works well on a tablet

118% 103% 104% 110% 82% 117% 66% 118% 83%

You can achieve what you need to do in very few clicks

91% 108% 98% 102% 105% 104% 99% 90% 104%

Account details and loyalty programmes are automatically recognised

88% 97% 98% 123% 105% 111% 87% 90% 99%


129% 84% 108% 103% 90% 103% 97% 98% 88%


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Econsultancy.com Ltd 2015

Automotive Banking Insurance

Mobile phone operator

Retail (multichannel)

Retail (pureplay)

Travel (plane/ train ticket)

Travel (holidays)

Utilities


113% 78% 109% 114% 90% 104% 90% 111% 90%

Website information can be tailored to your requirements

116% 100% 104% 92% 92% 88% 102% 108% 98%


121% 87% 113% 103% 83% 97% 97% 108% 91%

Website provides useful information about your account

80% 127% 108% 113% 90% 93% 82% 84% 121%


149% 79% 104% 102% 86% 103% 95% 99% 84%


112% 87% 117% 104% 84% 93% 94% 107% 102%


133% 99% 112% 104% 78% 97% 90% 114% 74%




9.3. How marketers perform on important aspects: sector

comparison

Automotive (see Table 8 in Section 7)

Marketers demonstrate the strongest performance for ‘website works well on a tablet’, which

is also the third most important attribute for consumers.

Consumers rate ‘account details and loyalty programmes are automatically recognised’, ‘you

can achieve what you need to do in very few clicks’ and ‘information presented is relevant to

your location’ as very important, although marketer performance is average.

Marketers perform strongly on aspects such as ‘up-to-date information, for example

availability and pricing’ and ‘easy to find what you’re looking for’, although this was rated as

below average in terms of importance by consumers.

Banking (see Table 9 in Section 7)

The two most important consumer aspects are ‘account details and loyalty programmes are

automatically recognised’ and ‘online activities are taken into account in face-to-face and

offline communications’, both of which record average marketer performance.

Marketers demonstrate above average performance on ‘easy to carry out basic tasks online’

and ‘easy to find what you’re looking for’, although these were the least important aspects to

consumers.

Marketers have strong performance on ‘website works well on a tablet’ and ‘you can achieve

was you need to do in very few clicks’. Both of which are of above average importance to

consumers.




Insurance

Marketers have the highest performance for ‘easy to find what you’re looking for’ and ‘up-to-

date information, for example, availability and pricing’, although they were some of the least

important aspects for consumers.

Consumers in this sector rate ‘account details and loyalty programmes are automatically

recognised’ and ‘you can achieve what you need to do in very few clicks’ as important, on both

counts marketers perform just above the average.

As with banking, ‘website works well on a tablet’ is important to consumers and it’s an aspect

on which marketers demonstrate above average performance.


consumers value in the insurance sector





7.8 3.9



7.6 11.2





6.0 4.7



7.4 2.1




7.7 7.4


6.9 2.7






Mobile phone operators

Consumers in this industry rate ‘account details and loyalty programmes are automatically

recognised’ as the most important factor, although marketer performance is close to the

average.

As with the previous sectors, ‘website works well on a tablet’ is considered above average in

terms of importance, with above average marketer performance.

Marketers have strong performance on ‘website provides useful information about your

account’ and ‘website works well on a smartphone’, although these are of a relatively low

importance to consumers.


consumers value in the mobile phone operators sector





7.1 3.0



7.1 11.1





5.6 5.8



6.8 2.2




7.4 7.8


6.4 2.7






Utilities

Marketers perform above average on the three most important site aspects to consumers,

including ‘account details and loyalty programmes are automatically recognised’, ‘you can

achieve what you need to do in very few clicks’ and ‘website works well on a tablet’.


consumers value in the utilities sector





7.0 3.3



6.8 12.4





4.6 4.7



6.6 1.8




7.1 8.3


5.8 2.2






9.4. Industry respondent profiles

Figure 2: In which business sector is your organisation?

Respondents: 353

Figure 3: Are you more focused on B2B or B2C marketing?

Respondents: 325




Figure 4: What is your annual company turnover?

Respondents: 329

Digital Experience: Are Brands Meeting Consumer Expectations?

Marketing

Transcript of Digital Experience: Are Brands Meeting Consumer Expectations?