Happy Friday! ‘This week in CX’ brings you the latest roundup of industry news.
This week, we’re looking at digital customer experiences. Are these experiences truly personal? And what are the current consumer trends when it comes to brands creating videos? We’ve also got news to prepare you for travelling around this summer.
Key news
- After teasing its creation for a while, Meta have launched Threads – linked to user’s Instagram accounts and used for sharing text updates and joining public conversations. Many users have likened the new app to Twitter, as an alternative to the declining social media platform. Earlier this week, Twitter also introduced (and quickly took away again) a 600-tweet-a-day view limit.
- Gartner has revealed that the majority (79%) of corporate strategists believe that technologies such as analytics, AI, and automation will be critical to their business’ success over the next two years. It also found that 50% of strategic planning and execution activities may be partially or entirely automated throughout this time. 51% of organisations are currently investigating machine learning, and 45% said the same for predictive analytics.
- Google has launched a competition geared toward removing sensitive data from AI models to make them compliant with global data regulation standards. The challenge, which runs from mid-July until mid-September and is open to everybody, will require teams to develop algorithms that help AI systems to forget certain data from specific individuals to protect their rights and privacy. This is machine un-learning.
- Following research by YouGov, commissioned by Zendesk, it turns out we’re not ready to let AI pack our suitcases just yet, but 37% of UK consumers surveyed are happy for AI to help them plan their holiday and find the best deals around (saving us those extra pennies for a cocktail on the beach or a holiday activity). There are certain elements of the booking process that consumers are willing to trust AI with. This includes sharing: their available budget (43%); personal booking preferences (42%); purpose for travel (39%); and age/gender (over 30%).
- High street health and beauty chain Superdrug appointed a dedicated cost-of-living ambassador. The founder of 60,000+ strong community Chloe’s Deals Club, Chloe Carmichael, is set to work with the business through the summer to raise awareness of the brand’s best-value products. Could these kinds of positions become commonplace in retail?
Commentary share: what do Threads mean for CX?
With Meta’s Threads being launched, we have comment from Content Guru’s Co-Founder and Deputy CEO Martin Taylor on the potential impact on CX.
“Threads by Instagram is likely to be a hit with consumers that are already in the Meta ecosystem and are looking to make use of its text-based conversation features. As such, brands should already be considering widening their CX capabilities to allow consumers to engage through the channel.
“Other social media platforms are already popular places for consumers to resolve queries. Nearly half of customers (47%) would prefer to avoid calling a brand and solve their queries through digital, social and self-service channels. The increasing number of ways to interact with brands means consumers can communicate on their terms through the channel of their choice and at a time that suits them.
“Consumers want to resolve queries with as little stress as possible, and new channels will help them do this. It can allow brands to improve their Customer Effort Score (CES), a metric that focuses on the ease of interactions.”
Two-thirds of consumers feel personalised experiences aren’t truly ‘personal’
71% of consumers say the digital experiences they receive online are ‘targeted’ towards them. However, only one-third say that those experiences feel “truly personal.” That’s according to a new report by Optimizely. This reveals brands need to further elevate their personalisation practices to create memorable, unique experiences that their customers will love.
The Personalised to Personal report is based on a study of 100 UK marketing leaders, and 1,000 UK consumers. It examines the maturity of personalisation and how brands are attempting to optimise their efforts in an increasingly saturated market. The problem for marketers is that so many other brands already use personalisation technologies. 74% of marketers are saying it’s hard to stand out when every competitor uses personalisation.
70% said they’re frustrated with supposedly targeted promotions that don’t relate to their personal interests. That’s despite the fact that 73% of brands have been investing in personalised content for three or more years.
Optimizely’s report makes a distinction between content that is purely targeted and ‘truly personal’, claiming that the latter is the key to success. In fact, 63% of consumers say they would be more loyal to a brand if it got to know them on a personal level.
To ensure personalised content is truly personal, 70% of marketers are marrying personalisation and experimentation to optimise their approach. While 42% have invested in new experimentation technologies to do this effectively.
Experimentation allows marketers to try new approaches, evaluate what’s working, and adjust what’s not. By eliminating guesswork, brands gain a better understanding of their customers and can engage with them in a way that feels more unique to them. In a market where every purchase matters, treating customers as an individual, not just one of many, will provide an invaluable competitive edge.
Going on holiday this summer? Here’s the best and worst times of the day to fly out
HappyOrNot have analysed over 7 million customer feedback data points from airports in over 30 countries worldwide to provide travel insights ahead of the busy summer tourism period.
Data from the first quarter of 2023 reveals that:
- Happiest time: 04:00 (85.2% positive customer feedback)
- Followed by 07:00 (84.8% positive customer feedback), then 08:00 (84.4% positive customer feedback).
- Least happy time: 22:00 and 23:00 (both 76.4% positive customer feedback)
- Followed by 00:00 (which is only marginally better with 76.8% positive customer feedback).
- Happiest day: Wednesday (83.7% positive customer feedback)
- Least happy day: Sunday (79.9% positive customer feedback)
When compared with HappyOrNot’s data from Q1 2022, it is interesting that the happiest and least happy days to fly have remained the same (Wednesday and Sunday respectively). However, the times have changed; in Q1 2022 the happiest time to fly was 8am, and the least happy time was midnight.
The unhappiest area of airports of the five areas compared* for Q1 2023 is baggage claim (with the most negative feedback being registered here), whereas security was the happiest area (with the least negative feedback).
*Security, arrivals, check-in, washrooms and baggage claim
The top 3 most common complaints when travelling through airports were:
1. Staff friendliness
2. Queuing
3. Cleanliness
Consumer trends in digital & video technology
Idomoo conducted a survey of 2,009 consumers in the U.S. and U.K. revealing that a sweeping majority of consumers like receiving video communications from brands (when they get them) and want more in the future.
More than 8 out of 10 want the brands communicating with them to use video more often. However, a majority of those surveyed report they infrequently, if ever, receive video comms from businesses they have a relationship with.
In 2022, 74% of consumers said they rarely or never received video from brands, a percentage that dropped only 4 points in 2023. There’s still massive room for improvement.Younger consumers and high earners are also more likely to want more video from brands. While 81% of all consumers want more video, that percentage rises to 89% for both of these high-value demographics.
Personalised video, despite delivering better results than generic video, is used by brands even less. This is most noticeable in the U.K., where only 22% of the consumer population have ever received a personalised video from a brand. This is still better than last year, when only 13% had received one.
Gen Z and millennials were 49% more likely to be interested in AI-generated video compared to other age groups. Meanwhile, high-income earners were 29% more likely to be interested in AI-generated video compared to other income brackets.
This suggests that AI may be the next wave in video innovation. In 2022, younger and higher income consumers were much more interested in interactivity and user customisation than the general population.
Consumers don’t just expect video from brands. They want it to be personalised and high quality, and consumer trends are pointing toward the next generation of video tech with interactivity, customisation and AI.
Companies that embrace these new and innovative technologies will have a stronger impact on potential and current customers’ brand perceptions and purchasing behaviours.
Thanks for tuning into CXM’s weekly roundup of industry news. Check back next Friday for the latest updates of the week!