Consumers Say Brands Missing The Customer Mark

Retailers all say they care about the customer experience, but are most retailers really tapping into what their customers want most? A new Econsultancy survey indicated that what retail marketers are going after and what consumers desire isn’t quite matching up.

So what’s causing this gap? Consumers say retailers aren’t doing enough to connect with their customers. In the survey — which involved more than 1,100 consumers — just 37 percent of respondents say their top retailer understands them as a customer. Just 22 percent of respondents said retailers, in general, understand what they want. In that same survey 21 percent of consumers said the materials distributed from retailers is “usually relevant.” But only 35 percent said the same about their top retailers.

The value in that may also be having more customers share data with retailers. The survey said that 38 percent of consumers said they’d share location data with retailers and 72 percent said they’d do so with brands they trust most.

“Customer experience is every interaction between brands and individuals. If their sum is positive, a customer spends more, promotes the brand and may even pay a premium to remain in the relationship,” said Stefan Tornquist, VP of research for Econsultancy. “Conversely, a negative overall experience means critical word of mouth and lower spending, if not an end to the relationship.”

From the marketer’s perspective, 81 percent of consumers said they have a “working holistic view of their customers,” — but the data above doesn’t seem to match the views of their customers’ perceptions of them. The survey also indicated that 64 percent of marketers agree that identifying who their most valuable customers are is “vital to their growth,” and 48 percent believe growth depends on their ability to personalize the customer experience, according to the survey’s findings.

“Consumers give a sober account of the quality of the retail and service relationships in their lives. They are willing to give their information to brands they trust, but they rightly believe that there should be significant value in that exchange. So far, they’re not getting it,” Tornquist said.