Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news.

This week, we’re looking at the newest research to customer service – including how CS agents are lagging behind, and the average wait times for responses. There’s also news into the price inflation’s impact on customer’s buying habits.

Key news

  • NICE and Cognizant have launched a global strategic go-to-market partnership to accelerate customer experience (CX) transformation. This partnership leverages Cognizant’s deep consulting and business transformation capabilities along with NICE CXone’s industry-leading centre complete, integrated cloud platform to accelerate customer adoption of advanced CX solutions such as digital, analytics, and conversational AI. For both companies, this partnership will enable growth opportunities in their respective customer bases.
  • Retailer JD Sports has been hit with a worrying cyberattack. It has left 10 million consumers worried about the integrity of their data. The incident impacted 10 million people who placed orders between November 2018 and October 2020. Customer names, delivery, billing, email addresses, phone numbers, and the last four digits of bank cards were potentially exposed. It includes people who shopped at JD as well as the group’s Size, Millets, Blacks, Scotts, and MilletSport brands.

“In this case we see historic data has been affected, which raises questions regarding the volume of information being stored and what security is being implemented around it. As consumers, we trust retailers to secure our sensitive details. A breach of this size, or indeed any size, erodes that trust, which can be hard to recover.

This is just another example of why transparent reporting is so critical. Without all the information, it’s impossible to learn and improve security measures at a macro level.”

– Muhammad Yahya Patel, Security Engineer at Check Point Software
  • Lightspeed’s Global State of Hospitality Industry Report for 2022 has been released. It has found that staffing issues in the UK hospitality sector are not as stark as widely reported. While all economies are suffering to some extent, staffing in the UK is in better shape than many had anticipated.
  • Gartner predicts that 95% of companies will have failed to enable end-to-end resiliency in their supply chains by 2026. The analysis indicates that few companies have accepted the necessary paradigm shift from being forecast-driven, and primarily focused on accuracy, to instead focusing on managing uncertainty in their supply chains. 
  • Nearly half (44%) of global consumers are frustrated by the dominance of the English language on the internet and technology, a new report by RWS has revealed. 88% feel strongly that brands must show their understanding and appreciation of national identity, culture and languages. But only 23% feel brands understand their cultural needs and priorities.
  • Uniphore has announced a new acquisition with UK-based Red Box that expands the company’s voice and screen-reading AI capabilities. Red Box is a leading solution for voice capture and has a proven track record of capturing, securing and analysing every voice conversation. This is as well as providing businesses with real time and post call voice capture. 

Grocery price inflation rises to record 16.7%

Grocery price inflation hit a record 16.7% in the 4 weeks to 22 January 2023 according to Kantar. This is the highest level since it started tracking the figure in 2008.  Overall take-home grocery sales rose by 5.7% during the 4 week period and by 7.6% over the 12 weeks. 

Aldi was the fastest growing grocer for the fourth month in a row this period, with sales 26.9% higher year on year.  It now holds 9.2% of the market.  Lidl’s sales jumped by 24.1%, putting its market share at 7.1%.
 
There was little to split Britain’s three largest retailers.  Sainsbury’s sales increased by 6.1%, just 0.1 percentage point higher than Asda and Tesco, giving it 15.4% of the market.  Tesco remains the largest British retailer with a 27.5% market share while Asda holds 14.2%.  Although its sales fell by 1.9%, Morrisons’ performance has continued to improve for the eleventh month in a row and its market share now stands at 9.1%.
 
Iceland’s share increased by 0.1 percentage point to 2.5%, driven by an annual sales rise of 10.6%.  Ocado matched the market’s growth rate at 7.6%, well above overall online sales which were down 0.7%.  Convenience specialist Co-op has a 5.5% share of the market and Waitrose accounts for 4.7% of total sales.

“Competition in the British grocery sector is as intense as it’s ever been as retailers strive to retain shoppers.  The grocers have been doing this by boosting their own-label ranges especially, with sales of these lines growing consistently over the past nine months.  January was no exception as own-label lines grew by 9.3%, well ahead of branded alternatives which were up by just 1.0%.

Across the market the move is towards everyday low pricing, with many supermarkets offering price matching and using their loyalty schemes to help shoppers save.  As a result of this push, the proportion of spending on promotions has fallen to its lowest level since at least 2008 this month, exaggerating the usual post-Christmas drop off in deals. 

Many shoppers appear to have stuck with their new year’s resolutions.  We can clearly see the impact of Dry January in the data, as no and low alcohol beer volumes were up 3% on last year’s levels.”

-Fraser McKevitt, head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar

Average UK customer service issue takes nine hours to be resolved 

Answers Company Yext released a survey that revealed the average UK customer service issue takes nine hours to be resolved. Despite 83% of Brits making an online purchase at least once a month, company websites are failing to provide consumers with accurate support.

The report surveyed 3000 consumers across Europe, including 1,000+ consumers in the UK. It shows the extent to which consumers are struggling to find accurate information online from brands.

It’s clear that many customer websites aren’t up to scratch. Over half (54%) of respondents reported that they have become frustrated searching on a company’s help site in the past month. When it comes to resolving their customer service issue, 60% are unlikely to trust an answer from a third-party blog or website.

Further findings include:

  • Consumers are turning to traditional methods such as phone calls and emails to get support. 21% said their next step would be to search for the answer via a search engine.
  • Failing to provide helpful online answers to customer questions could lead to a loss of business. 67% believe that customer service matters just as much as product quality.
  • Consumers are facing common issues when searching a company’s help site for support-related information. 42% say that help sites infrequently provide the answers they are looking for with their first search.

“The balance between automation and advisor help can really impact customer experience.  When it’s done right, it is seamless and works really well. When it is done poorly, it can turn a task that should take a few minutes into a frustrating event. This is especially true if there isn’t an easy way to switch between the two. That’s why measures like first-time resolution (getting it right first time) are key to a customer’s experience. We believe it’s a measure of customer effort and how processes empower your people. If the advisor isn’t empowered to go the extra mile, it creates additional call volumes which further impacts the customer.“

–Blair Strachan, business development manager at Kura

Check out our top customer service resources to develop your learning and CS strategies:

Nearly half of customer service reps avoid adopting new technologies 

A Gartner online survey of 888 CSRs and support specialists from August 2022 revealed access to legacy systems is the main barrier to new technology adoption.

Reps who have consistent access to outdated tools use them 20% more frequently than reps who have less access to them. Half report still having access to legacy systems and tools seven to 12 months after a new technology rollout, given the difficulty that comes with removing such. 

Key findings include:

  • Age, years of experience and other demographic factors are not the reasons reps are more likely to resist new tech; access to legacy systems that serves as the main barrier
  • Reps who have consistent access to outdated tools use them 20% more frequently than reps who have less access to them
  • Half of reps report still having access to legacy systems and tools seven to 12 months after a new technology rollout 

Customer service and support leaders can take three approaches to ease into shutting down legacy systems:

  1. Grouped features: Assign features to groups based on the screens or systems they are in, and then remove rep access to these groups one phase at a time
  2. Login elimination: Remove direct login to the legacy system, and only allow legacy login for features not yet implemented
  3. Designated user groups: Assign a small group of reps who will have permission to perform actions in the legacy system, while removing access for the remaining reps

Over 3 in 5 consumers buy essentials in bulk to afford what they love

Criteo released the findings of a study of over 1000 consumers in the UK. It revealed that a majority are still finding the means to purchase the goods and experiences they want most. This is despite spending more on non-negotiables like mortgages or food. 

According to the survey, 63% say they are buying essential items such as detergent and tissues in bulk to get more value for their money. To find the very best offers, 67% report they are spending more time online.  Cost cutting measures are enabling many consumers to continue buying similar volumes of non-essentials. Among the top categories consumers report increasing or maintaining spend are –

  • health and beauty (66%)
  • consumer electronics (57%)
  • apparel and accessories (56%). 

Now more than ever shoppers want great products that are made to last. Product quality is the most important factor for shoppers (88%). This is ahead of free shipping (86%) and discounts/coupons (79%). 

More findings include:

  • Committed to hospitality. 45% of consumers say they are managing to spend the same or more on eating out. 54% are committing the same or greater spending to travel.
  • Prepared to compromise. Only half of the respondents surveyed expressed eco-friendliness was important to them when buying from a brand or retailers.

Thanks for tuning into CXM’s weekly roundup of industry news. Check back next Friday for the latest updates of the week!

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