National Urban League and HundredX introduce initial findings

National Urban League and HundredX introduce initial findings comparing the differences in customer experience for African-American Consumers

HundredX announces plan to source over a million such consumer insights during 2020 spanning 1,200+ companies and brands

Preliminary data findings include*:

• Across all industries, participating African-American consumers were on average 5 points less likely to recommend a business to a friend versus all other consumers
• This difference varied meaningfully by industry.  African-American participants were more likely to recommend companies in 10 industries and less likely across 29 industries (range of +16 to -19)
• In many cases, Individual companies within the same industry saw very different feedback results based on race. For example, the differences in the likelihood to recommend between African-American compared with other consumers for individual restaurant companies ranged from +27 to -48. 
• Several product delivery factors spanning multiple industries contributed to the overall negative differences in experiences for African-American versus other consumers including “speed” (-13), “attitude” (-10), and “responsiveness” (-8).  These scores were often the result of the absence of positive feedback versus an outright negative interaction
• The initial top 10 companies/brands with the highest absolute overall likelihood to recommend score among African-American participants included Amazon, Bath & Body Works, Canada Dry, Chick-fil-A, Costco, Nike, Starbucks, Southwest, Toyota and Visa.

The National Urban League and HundredX, Inc. released today preliminary findings from an innovative process and data set bringing added transparency to the customer experiences of diverse consumers.  Overall, African-Americans were less positive on their interactions with businesses when compared with all other consumers. The magnitude of the difference varied widely across industries and among companies within an industry.

Commenting on the initial findings, Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League, noted that “While many companies had positive or no gaps in performance with African-American consumers, regrettably many others did.  For the latter group, this preliminary data represents a great way to start the conversation and a bit of a wake-up call.”

The initial data and findings were produced from over 120,000 pieces of feedback collected by HundredX during the final nine months of 2019.  Total participants exceeded 5,000 consumers of which over 1,000 were African-American.

Participants in HundredX’s Express Feedback for Good ™ programs throughout the country, including supporters of the National Urban League, provide feedback on over 1,200 companies and brands as a way to create resources for non-profit related causes.  Because supporters are asked to provide feedback as a way to support specific initiatives such as safety at their children’s public school or a youth sport team, participation rates are exceptionally high. “Our mindset around feedback is the inverse of traditional surveys,” commented Rob Pace, Founder & CEO of HundredX.  “We try to provide a clear incentive and allow feedback providers to select the companies they know versus pre-determining who and what matters.” Individual participants in the initial programs have provided feedback on 20 plus companies on average creating unique benchmarking capabilities across companies and industries.

“Business leaders and boards are looking for ways to ensure that all consumers have a positive experience, particularly as the US consumer becomes more diverse,” added Morial at the National Urban League.  “We are excited to play a role in sourcing quality, benchmarked data that creates greater transparency to accelerate that goal.”  Morial noted, “We believe data holds the key to a positive path forward.  The initial HundredX data being introduced today serves as a great first step and prelude to a much deeper analysis during 2020.”

“By partnering with a wide range of non-profits across the country, HundredX is going to revolutionize our understanding of the customer experience,” said Todd Henderson, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School and the author of The Trust Revolution: How the Digitization of Trust will Revolutionize Business and Government. “Surveys are clunky and give voice to the few and the extremes, good and bad. By unlocking a more representative sample of America, this data should allow companies, investors, and researchers to determine the truth rather than letting perception drive reality. I expect this approach to be as profound at giving voice to the people as the crowd-sourced rating systems of platforms like Amazon, Uber, and Yelp.”

HundredX, in coordination with the National Urban League and numerous non-profits around the country, also announced plans to create over a million pieces of additional feedback during 2020 to deepen the understanding of the experiences of all consumers.

About the National Urban League:
The National Urban League is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities. The National Urban League spearheads the efforts of its 88 local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research and advocacy, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than 2 million people annually nationwide. Visit www.nul.org and follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @NatUrbanLeague.