Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news.
This week, we’re looking at Twilio’s latest research about the value of demographics, the increase in UK citizens complaints to councils and how they are being handled, and the impact that clothing sizes are having on online shopping sales. We also have comment from RedAnt CEO to celebrate today’s international Women in Engineering Day!
Key news
- Qualtrics recently surveyed consumers to ask them what they know and what they think about AI and its potential impact. The majority of people say they believe AI will eventually be fully integrated throughout personal and professional work, replacing some activities entirely. 72% of people said they are generally comfortable with the idea of talking to them for their customer service needs. Almost 60% of consumers are also concerned about the privacy of their personal information when interacting with an AI-powered chatbot. Disclosure is key –88% of consumers want to know if they’re interacting with something created by AI. 41% of consumers say they always want to know.
- Quantum Metric’s Efficiency Index was published, offering an executive perspective on the cost-cutting challenges and opportunities facing digital teams in 2023. The average digital team wastestwo months a year on escalations that have no real impact on their business. Digital disruptions have prevented 51% of digital leaders from dedicating more than 25% of their weekly priorities to their product roadmap in the past 6 months. 1 in 10 digital leaders aren’t confident their teams are working on the right things.
- New research from SevenRooms reveals that consumers are becoming less reliant on third-party marketplaces like OpenTable and Resy to book their next outing. Three times as many consumers (31%) are making direct website bookings rather than using third-party operators (11%), with 1 in 3 (32%) opting to call the restaurant directly to make a reservation.
Commentary share: International Women in Engineering Day (June 23rd)
Sarah Friswell, CEO at RedAnt:
We’re already talking about the gender diversity crisis in tech – on podiums, in the boardroom, in people teams and on LinkedIn. There’s excitement around the benefits of creating more diverse and inclusive tech teams, women are sharing their experiences, and change is slowly starting to happen. It is estimated that 26% of women currently make up the tech workforce, up from 19% in 2019.
But despite this increase, many organisations are overlooking some key essentials for women to aspire, access, achieve – and remain – in the tech industry. According to a report by Code First Girls and TTC, half of women in tech drop out by the age of 35.
It’s not just a benefit for women to improve women’s representation in tech. Building more diverse and effective teams benefits employees, leaders across all functions of the business, customers, and stakeholders. A recent report by Code First Girls and Natwest highlighted that if the UK were to achieve gender parity in tech, it could add an additional £2.6bn to the country’s economy.
For real change, initiatives must be embedded in policies to attract and support women to fulfil their potential. According to recent research from Figures, only one in seven C-suite executives within European tech companies are women.
Making change can seem daunting but much can be achieved to assess and create policies that drive change within just a few months. Happier employees mean happier and more productive teams – with more diverse and effective teams moving the needle on the speed and calibre of work.
Nearly half of marketers say demographic data is losing its value
Global pressures have made consumers more uncertain and unpredictable, finds a new survey conducted by Twilio. As a result, 48% of marketers are now questioning the value of traditional customer segmentation through demographic data. Instead, they are placing renewed importance on real-time personalisation (71%), and seek more budget flexibility in where and what they’re investing in (65%).
The survey of 300 UK marketing decision makers alongside 2,020 UK consumers shows that consumer behaviour has gone through a major shift. 58% of UK adults say their behaviours and buying choices are more complicated than three years ago.
31% of UK adults report being more indecisive about what they buy compared to three years ago. 30% also agree the pandemic has shifted their behaviours and the way they think. It appears shoppers have also become savvier during this period. Two thirds (66%) say they now look harder for better shopping deals.
Predicting the unpredictable
85% of marketers in the survey believe that consumer behaviour is more changeable than ever before. They cite the cost-of-living crisis (76%), social media, environmental awareness (both 51%), and the ongoing impact of the global pandemic (48%) as drivers of change over the last three years.
Given this shift, the old methods of customer segmentation and targeting aren’t meeting their needs. 48% of marketers believe demographic data is losing its value. Marketers are instead increasingly turning to real-time personalisation and first-party data strategies to understand this new buying behaviour. 71% say real-time personalisation is more valuable. 58% believe it will be the most important technology for them to keep pace.
Real-time personalisation is powered by past customer search, purchasing and shopping data to help provide them with relevant content and options at the moment it’s needed. Typically making use of event-based triggers, it can only happen without a solid foundation of up-to-date customer data from across channels to power it.
10% more citizen complaints to UK councils escalated year-on-year
Councils have received up to 10,000 complaints a year, and 10% of all complaints escalated in 2022. Councils that already face drains on their resources need to balance reduced budgets with the need to deal with citizens’ issues. The latest research comes from Quadient.
Local councils are already fighting to find an extra £2.4bn this year to meet unforeseen challenges, and the amount needed is only set to increase as inflation continues to rise. Ongoing budget constraints and wider economic pressures are likely contributing to the mishandling of citizen complaints, as already stretched teams lack the necessary resources.
Compounding these issues is the fact that several local councils are unable to accurately identify which complaints have been escalated. In some cases, internal council systems do not enable reporting on the precise stage of a complaint. While in others, a change of system means that records of older complaints are not easily available.
The right approach to customer communication is vital to ensure that citizens receive the best possible service and advice. This should be done using their response delivery channel of choice, while allowing stretched local councils to do more with less. For instance, automating and standardising templates for regular and ad-hoc responses will free more of councils’ time to address the core issues at the heart of complaints.
Citizens are much more likely to see and engage with the council’s response if they are delivered in a timely manner and using a variety of channels. By ensuring that citizens feel listened to, councils can enhance their brand equity. In addition, having access to a full audit trail of all communications sent and received means the council can demonstrate it is dealing with issues at critical points along the whole complaints’ response and resolution journey.
Non-standard sizing options are impacting online shopping sales
Makip has revealed the top two reasons why UK online shoppers don’t trust existing online technology to accurately predict their body size:
- 75% say the sizes are inconsistent between brands.
- 60% do not believe the technology can be accurate as every website seems to use a different system.
Inconsistent sizing guides result in online shoppers ordering multiple items of clothing to try on at home. This common practice exacerbates the problem of returns. This eats into retailer profits, dents consumer confidence, and sees a large majority of unused clothing ending up in landfill.
These new insights into the level of trust UK shoppers place in online sizing technology are part of an independent research project that surveyed 2,000 UK-based online shoppers. Participants had to have used online sizing technology while shopping online and purchased a minimum of 11 items of clothing online in the past 12 months.
This issue is confirmed in the research results. 48% of UK online shoppers stated that they have used online sizing technology to predict their body size; but the fit of the item was wrong. This is a recurring problem that cannot continue to be ignored. Earlier this year, the British Fashion Council released a report on this problem. It highlighted 93% of customer cited incorrect sizing or fit as the top reason for returning items.
For more information on fast fashion and the harm of the industry, keep reading our exclusive article on the topic.
Thanks for tuning into CXM’s weekly roundup of industry news. Check back next Friday for the latest updates of the week!