Eight out of ten customers would be willing to pay more for products online in exchange for a better consumer experience, Capgemini Consulting, Capgemini Group’s global strategy and transformation consultancy, has found in a survey.
For the study, entitled The Disconnected Customer: What digital customer experience leaders teach us about reconnecting with customers, some 3,300 consumers and 450 executives from Australia, China, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, the UK and the US were surveyed.
Overall, 81% of all customers questioned are willing to spend more money in exchange for a better online customer experience, and around 9% would even raise the amount spent by more than half. Consumers from India (98%) and China (95%) are most likely to reward good experiences with higher expense, while this is least likely in Germany (61%) and the Netherlands (72%).
Digital Challenges
According to Capgemini, customers are increasingly frustrated that companies don’t react to their feedback or reward their loyalty in the online channel. Most companies stated that the biggest challenges are of an organisational and technological nature.
Rapidly developing technological landscapes (56%) and customer expectations (57%) were named as the biggest IT challenges. The lack of specific budgets (41%) and the internal responsibility for the digital customer experience (35%) followed closely behind.
In particular, the integration of heterogeneous platforms (38%) and poor user interfaces (32%) are indicators that companies have problems with incessant technological developments. However, Capgemini also noted that Internet-based services are moving at roughly the same pace as their customers, setting the bar high for other companies, while utility and consumer-goods companies are still far from meeting their customers’ expectations.
Meeting Expectations
“Digitisation has opened new ways to connect with customers, which has led to changes in consumers’ behaviour and expectations,” said Steffen Elsässer, global manager of the Customer Experience Unit at Capgemini Consulting.
“Many companies are struggling with the high pace of change. As our study shows, digitally supported customer experiences depend on the success in the customer interface, regardless of the industry. Organisations that constantly align their business activity with the customer experience will benefit from their customers’ collaboration and loyalty,” Elsässer added.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Larissa Zimmer. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
