Consumer reliance on the web continues to grow, but website issues persist,
with eight in 10 users affected
Customer behavior has evolved, with consumers increasingly likely to share
their experiences and opinions about companies, rather than with them
San Francisco, CA – October 6, 2009 – TealeafR
the leader in online Customer Experience Management software (CEM), today
announced the results of the 5th annual survey of online consumer behavior,
commissioned by Tealeaf and conducted by Harris InteractiveR [results
available at (http://www.tealeaf.com/Harris). The survey found that 48% of
U.S. online adults say that they are now conducting more online transactions
than they did in the past given the current economic climate. However, 80%
of adults who have conducted an online transaction in the past year
experience problems when doing so in 2009. Previous Tealeaf surveys have
consistently shown that approximately 87% were affected.
This improvement over prior years may be attributed to a growing business
focus on delivering better online customer experiences. While this reported
decline in online transaction issues is good news, online customer
experience is still very much a work in progress. The percentage of
consumers affected by issues such as error messages (38%), endless loops
(19%) and login problems (28%) is still extremely high[1]. Further, the
resulting business impact is significant, as 32% of those who experience
issues when conducting transactions online would simply take their business
elsewhere (to either an online or offline competitor) or abandon the
transaction entirely. In 2009, $47.6 billion will potentially be impacted by
online transaction problems, on U.S. shopping websites alone.[2]
Consumers increasingly likely to share their experiences and opinions about
companies, rather than with them
The survey results also show that online adults are increasingly turning to
social media to share their online experiences with others, while
simultaneously becoming less likely to alert a company directly – a shift in
consumer behavior which extends the business impact of customer experience
issues beyond any single transaction.
. The number of consumers who contact a company directly in response
to online transaction issues declined:
o 26% of online adults who experience problems conducting online
transactions then posted complaints on a company’s Website in 2009, versus
32% in 2008.
o 38% of all online adults contacted a company’s call center after
encountering problems using the Website in 2009, versus 47% in 2008.
Meanwhile, 12% of online adults who encountered issues said they shared
those experiences via blogs or social networks, twice as many as in 2008.[3]
Further, the survey reveals that these shared experiences are highly
influential and should therefore be a real business concern. More than half
(54%) of all online adults said social media content has influenced their
online transactions, with 82% of those reporting that social media has
influenced their choice of vendor.
Interestingly, the survey also found that online adults whose transactions
have been influenced by social media content actually respond to positive
reviews (26%) more so than negative ones (21%), so good online transaction
experiences are amplified online just as much, if not more, than bad.
“While the ideal scenario would be to deliver problem-free experiences to
every customer, the realities of doing business online are such that issues
do arise. We use Tealeaf to proactively get ahead of as many of these issues
as we can. However, it’s also become critical for us to be able to mine
social media conversations for customer feedback about issues we may not be
aware of, and take action on this feedback,” said Matt Cardwell, Vice
President of Marketing, Quicken Loans. “We also use Tealeaf to investigate
qualitative social media feedback from clients, by matching it up to their
actual online experiences. This allows us to get a better sense of what they
actually experienced first hand, and constantly improve it. Tealeaf also
lets us quantify on-site interactions that are driven by off-site social
media sources – for instance, reading online reviews or watching video
testimonials. This has enhanced our transparency as a company and improved
our ability to get in front of client service issues before they escalate to
message boards.”
“Over the past few years, companies have increasingly focused on the online
customer experience as the impact of that experience on their business
results has become apparent,” said Rebecca Ward, CEO of Tealeaf. “The focus
on the online customer experience accelerated in 2009 as the economy drove
more transactions online and the web became an increasingly critical channel
for organizations.”
Industry Commentary
. A recent Forrester Research, Inc. report, “Best Practices: Five
Strategies For Customer Service Social Media Excellence,” (August 2009)
stated that “when companies blatantly ignore product or service issues,
customers now can use the Internet as a medium to broadcast, very publicly,
their frustration to millions. This has switched the balance of power from
corporations to customers.The risk of corporate reputations being ruined by
poor customer service interactions has greatly increased as consumers have
gained the ability to share their opinions directly with each other. This
perfect storm has forced companies to switch gears and reconsider not only
the customer experience, but also social media as a serious enterprise
business solution that can transform customer service to reach the new goals
of enhancing the customer experience.”
. Bruce Temkin, in his blog “Experience Matters”
[http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/],
highlighted the necessity of not only listening to, but acting on customer
comments in social media: “As more customer groups use social media as a
meeting ground for sharing their opinions, companies need to build up their
listening skills – starting with an understanding of how to analyze
unstructured, unsolicited feedback. But listening is only the first step in
a good voice of the customer program, as companies also need to interpret,
react, and monitor.”
. According to a recent Forrester Research, Inc. report, “Obstacles
to Customer Experience Success, 2009,” (February 2009) “89% of customer
experience decision-makers said customer experience would be either very
important or critical to 2009 efforts.”
. The Strativity Group’s “2009 Global Customer Experience Management
Benchmark Study” found that with products being commoditized, price
differentiation no longer sustainable and customers demanding more,
companies. are focusing on delivering superior customer experiences. A 2009
Strativity Group study of over 860 corporate executives revealed that
companies that have increased their investment in customer experience
management over the past three years report higher customer referral rates
and customer satisfaction.
Survey Methodology
The 2009 Survey of Online Consumer Behavior was conducted online by Harris
Interactive on behalf of Tealeaf Technology, Inc. between July 31 and August
4, 2009 among 2,188 U.S. adults ages 18+. Data were weighted to be
representative of the online U.S. adult population. Complete methodology –
including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes – available upon
request. For more information, please see http://www.tealeaf.com/Harris, or
contact Shoshana Deutschkron at [email protected].
About Harris InteractiveR
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long
and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and
technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris
Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and
Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more
information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
About Tealeaf
Tealeaf provides online customer experience management solutions and is the
unchallenged leader in customer behavior analysis. Tealeaf’s CEM solutions
include both a customer behavior analysis suite and customer service
optimization suite. For organizations that are making customer experience a
top priority, these solutions provide unprecedented enterprise-wide
visibility into every visitor’s unique online interactions for ongoing
analysis and web site optimization. Online executive stakeholders from
ebusiness and IT to customer service and compliance are leveraging Tealeaf
to build a customer experience management competency across the
organization. Founded in 1999, Tealeaf is headquartered in San Francisco,
California, and is privately held. For more information, visit
www.tealeaf.com
###
[1] Among online U.S. adults who experience problems when conducting online
transactions (n=1,591)
[2] Calculation based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, The Harris Poll,
and the 2009 Tealeaf Survey of Online Consumer Behavior. For complete
methodology, please contact Shoshana Deutschkron at [email protected].
[3] The 2009 survey included the response item “on a micro-blog (e.g.,
Twitter, Jaiku, identi.ca),” while the 2008 survey did not.
