A note from the Editor – How can you expect to exceed customer expectations if you don’t have a clear understanding of what they are? Big question! The answer, as it turns out, is pretty complicated. And expensive. Or at least it used to be.
TheCustomer has partnered with Brand Keys (we’ve been working with them for the past several years) to create customized Customer Expectation Audits that measure customer expectations within a given category versus how well brands are meeting those expectations. The results are an actionable visualization of what it takes to win over customers in roadmap form. You’ll be hearing more about Expectation Audits over the next weeks and months but you can download a sample report and get more info here.
Improving your CX efforts, CSAT and NPS scores is about to get a lot easier.
– Mike Giambattista, Editor in Chief
FEATURE: Expectations Are The Key
Expectations are like oil spills. They don’t stay in one spot. They start in one category and spread to others. The very first step for a brand that wants to “exceed customers’ expectations,” is they absolutely need to understand what they are first, then do things to over-deliver against them. READ MORE
Only about half of AI-generated ads only labeled as such
While you’ve been online today, chances are you’ve seen an AI-generated ad, likely without knowing it. A University of Kansas study has analyzed more than 1,000 AI-generated ads from across the web and found that they are only labeled as ads about half the time — and that they intentionally appeal to consumers in positive ways to influence them.
Measuring Trust
According to the Deloitte survey, 55% of organizations have no trust tracking in place, but nearly half of them plan to start measuring trust in the next 12 months. This priority is echoed in a recent CEOWorld article where the author, Rhett Power, states, “You must find objective ways to assess trust. Otherwise, you’ll end up relying on your gut to tell you if your people trust you. And your gut is always prone to being subjective.”
The Dollar Value of a Returning Customer
Unique, meaningful customer experiences are essential for brands to create emotional bonds with consumers. Zappos is a great example of this. The company built its reputation by going above and beyond with every customer interaction. An incredible 75% of Zappos’ revenue now comes from returning customers. More broadly, 83%of consumers report that they pay as much attention to how a brand treats them as they do to the product they’re buying.
Consumers Back in Stores but Not Thrilled
Consumers are back in physical retail stores but a good number, 40%, say shopping is “less enjoyable” than it was before the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020. That’s a prime finding of a Theatro survey that also revealed that 63% of consumers are doing most of their shopping at in-store retail. Those citing a less enjoyable experience blamed a lack of staff and poorly trained staff, according to a press release on the findings.
Online Shoppers Habits Changing
Sustained engagement is key to digital success, as buyers consume on average more than 20 pages of content before conversion. But data shows a concerning trend that overall consumer patience and consumption is waning: session depth (2) per visit has dipped -2.3%, and overall time per session dropped -7.5% year-over-year.
Microsoft’s Bing AI Demo Called Out for Errors
It apparently failed to differentiate between the types of vacuums and even made up information about certain products, according to an analysis of the demo this week from independent AI researcher Dmitri Brereton. It also missed relevant details (or fabricated certain information) for the bars it referenced in Mexico City, according to Brereton. In addition, Brereton found it inaccurately stated the operating margin for the retailer Gap, and compared it to a set of Lululemon results that were not factually correct.
Instagram Sunsets Live Shopping
Instagram is sunsetting live shopping on March 16, according to a post on its website. The move is the latest in a series of commerce-related pullbacks from the Meta Platforms app and follows the removal of the Shop tab from its navigation bar this month.
