Younger Users Willing To Part With More Data For A Better Customer Experience

  • 25 April 2017

  • 3 minute read

  • Learning & Development

Last week on the blog we discussed customer experience and the gap between the business perspective and the customer perspective. This week as YouGov research is released by marketing agency Epiphany, we see that the younger generation have a desire for a positive customer experience; so much so that they’re willing to part with even more personal data.

For under 25s personalised search and targeted advertising campaigns is simply part of everyday life online, via search engines, websites and of course social media. Here are some of the key findings:

32% of the 18-24 year olds surveyed use social media for research with the intent to purchase, compared to 13% of 45-54 year olds. 25% of 18-24 year olds reported using video content on sites like YouTube for detailed product and service research. 10% of younger people reported making a purchase after clicking on a Facebook ad, while only 6% of older respondents claimed to have done so. 55% of those aged 18-24 watch video on their smartphones daily – but only 8% of those aged 55 and over said the same. 19% of 18-24 year olds are willing to share more personal data to allow for more targeted marketing, while only 11% of 45-54 year olds agreed.

“The research has uncovered some interesting behavioural themes that I expect we’ll see develop and come to the fore for marketers in the next couple of years,” said Tom Salmon, MD at Epiphany. “Certainly, the move towards younger generations researching and purchasing on social media offers a valuable opportunity for brands to look beyond search, and assess their priority of this channel as a sales driver.”

With the younger generation showing more of a willingness to actually click on ads, they are a... Continue reading

Closing The Customer Experience Gap

  • 18 April 2017

  • 3 minute read

  • Industry insights

Starcom’s recent Media Futures report revealed a number of interesting customer experience (CX) statistics, based on businesses in Austraila.  The diagram below highlights businesses, by sector, and the percentage difference from where they rate their customer experience and where their customer’s rate their customer experience. So for example airlines rate their customer experience 61% higher than customers rate their own experience with the airline. This means there is a huge expectation gap between businesses and consumers.

 

David Thodey, Former CEO Telstra explains in the report that “for any organisation, really being externally focused, really understanding the value creation that you have and therefore what the customer view is, is really essential.” The report explains that businesses are still prioritising the value of the transaction over the customer experience. It identifies personalisation and data to be a key part of this, and the need to use data to uncover real human motivations.

Marketing Week took an in-depth look at Marks and Spencer, Hyatt and some other big brands to see what could be learnt from these brands in terms of customer experience. Global director of loyalty, customer insight and analytics at M&S Nathan Ansell said “We have made changes to our structure that help provide a more seamless customer journey. For example, we have integrated each channel’s merchandising operations so there is greater ‘symmetry’ across the experience for customers. We are moving to a ‘self-serve’ model for data, so that the business can use the valuable insight from the customer team more easily and make more informed decisions leading to an even better customer experience.” However Ansell also stressed the importance... Continue reading

Is Your SME Contributing to the UK’s £10bn Adspend?

  • 12 April 2017

  • 3 minute read

  • Industry insights

UK adspend grew to 10.3 billion in 2016, that’s up 17.3% and the fastest growth in nine years. Figures were released this month by IAB UK and PwC that show that mobile, unsurprisingly, plays an integral role in this growth.

With almost half of UK internet time spent on mobile, users are watching more and doing more on their mobiles and advertisers need to tap into this. The key digital ad formats were set out as video, social media, content/native, display and search. All formats show mobile adspend as the high-riser, but it’s mobile video spend that’s grown the most.

Adspend as the way forward, or an over-investment?

“The rise in people consuming mobile and video content has accelerated digital’s growth rate to its highest level for nearly a decade,” said the IAB UK’s Chief Marketing Officer, James Chandler. “Reaching the £10bn threshold has been made possible by brands breaking the mould, trying innovative formats and making the most of video to reach and amaze people. It’s impossible to ignore the issues the industry is facing at the moment, but digital never stands still and these figures are testament to the long-term strength and power of digital.”

However, Mark Jackson, managing director at MC&C, said marketers should be wary of over-investing in digital. “It is important that advertisers match the media consumption patterns of consumers, and with 48% of UK internet time now spent on smartphones there’s no doubt brands will continue to invest in mobile advertising,” Jackson said. “However from a performance perspective, marketers should be wary of over investing in digital and reaching the point of diminishing returns as a result. True performance media... Continue reading

Is a Rise in Confidence Leading to a Rise in SME Entrants?

  • 05 April 2017

  • 3 minute read

  • Other

Hampshire Trust Bank and The Centre for Economics and Business Research recently released some research into SME entrants in the UK since 2010. The report broke results down into sectors and found the three sectors which demonstrated the highest growth were technical and professional (39%), information and communication (33%) and business services (25%). Some of the other key findings also include:

The services sector witnesses a 19% increase in SME entrants in the sector Overall, UK SMEs see a 17% rise in new entrants since 2010 Services SMEs show strong levels of confidence in their sector

It seems that the sectors with the highest number of start-ups entrants are also feeling more confident about the long-term economic prospects of the industry they operate in. Three in five (59%) accountancy and IT and communication firms say they feel optimistic. By comparison, 57% of medical and health services SMEs feel confident about the future, 5% higher than the national average.

Stuart Hulme, Director of Savings at Hampshire Trust Bank, said: “According to our latest UK SME Savings Tracker report, services SMEs, namely health and medical firms, have a significant amount of cash in business savings accounts, which is encouraging and we believe shows that these organisations are confidently planning for their future.

“Our SME Growth Watch report highlights the vital contribution of SMEs both within the services sector and indeed across all sectors to the UK economy, and the rapid level of growth being demonstrated by some of the nation’s smallest businesses. These figures should be viewed as encouraging for the government, demonstrating the widespread resilience and ambition of UK SMEs.

“At Hampshire Trust Bank we provide consistently competitive business savings accounts... Continue reading