In an age where customer loyalty is key to repeat revenue and profits, three-in-four consumers (76 percent) admit they switch to a competitor if they have just one bad experience with a brand they like.
That’s despite the fact that most consumers (52 percent) say that, once they’re loyal to a brand, they’re loyal for life – highlighting a huge difference between what consumers say and how they behave.
These conclusions are part of Acquia’s inaugural annual global report entitled Closing the CX Gap: Customer Experience Trends Report 2019.
Part of the problem lies with brands’ inability to predict what loyal consumers want, argues the report. Sixty-six percent of consumers say brands don’t do a good job of using their personal preferences to predict their needs – damning marketers’ claims that they’re improving personalisation.
And in a double blow, 77 percent of marketers are arguing that tech has made it harder, not easier, to offer customers personalised experiences.
Sylvia Jensen, VP of EMEA marketing at Acquia said: “This research uncovers that what consumers say they want is completely different to what they actually want – but that’s the fault of the marketer, not the consumer. Without being able to track customer journeys and build up a digital picture of customer behaviour, it’s difficult to really understand customers effectively – and therefore personalisation becomes extremely challenging.
“The result is a poor experience – just one of which can be enough to send a loyal customer into a competitor’s open arms.”
Addressing the issue of loyalty, the report finds that 78 percent of consumers are more likely to be loyal to a brand if the brand demonstrates an understanding of them as the customer – yet 64 percent of consumers feel that brands who should know them well don’t know them well at all.