Member Article

UK businesses miss out on £7.2bn of sales due to “difficult” shopping experiences

According to the ‘2019 Customer Experience Report’ released by service design consultancy Engine, UK businesses are missing out on £7.2bn of sales because of a “difficult” shopping experience.

The report also states that UK consumers have missed out on an estimated £5.2bn worth of refunds over the last year alone because returns or cancellation processes are simply not easy enough.

“We’re often asked to explain the value of great customer experience and the findings in this year’s report serve to reinforce that designing services with care can deliver significant returns on investment” explains Joe Heapy, Engine’s Co-founder.

For the 6th year running, quality of service remains the main driver of brand recommendation over price and convenience, yet 71% of those surveyed feel that brands still have work to do to meet their needs and expectations.

Another key take-away from this year’s report is that companies that take an omnichannel approach to customer experience performed well; the most trusted brands are those that have both an online and a physical high-street presence, as cited by over 36% of respondents vs 14% for online only.

Joe Heapy comments, “The most successful brands are those that are easiest to deal with across the whole customer journey, from the point of sale through to dealing with customer returns or cancellations, whether online or instore, in person or assisted by a bot.”

“Efficiency, openness and honesty were the most important qualities listed in this year’s report, and with 58% of consumers first turning to a person over a website for help, it seems there’s still no substitute for the human touch.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Joey Green .