Buying goods online is now a part of everyday life for many consumers. Christmas 2013 saw
records broken for many online retailers and recent [24]7
research revealed that 78 per cent of UK consumers regularly shop online for fashion, electronics or other consumer goods.
But what do consumers expect in terms of their customer experience when shopping online? They have certainly indicated their willingness to take their custom elsewhere if those expectations aren’t met – our research indicated that one-third of UK consumers had actually bought elsewhere as a direct result of bad service they had received.
It is about offering a continuously connected customer experience. Consumers now expect online retailers (and most businesses in fact) to know who they are, anticipate what they want to do or what they need, and then facilitate the relevant set of next best actions that will guide them to the outcome they seek – putting time back in consumers lives.
This was borne out by the findings in our research. Two in five respondents said they got frustrated when retailers did not know who they are or what their issue is, despite having interacted via another channel previously. Consumers also expect an online retailer to know what they want based on previous contact and irrespective of which channel they use to contact the retailers - 23 per cent said the most frustrating aspect of customer service was a retailer not having any record of their customer history and having to start a conversation afresh each time.
What’s frustrating is that there really is no excuse for this. Online retailers hold a lot of data on their customers and should be utilising this data to offer a predictive and intuitive experience, irrespective of device or channel.
The research also highlighted the growing importance of omnichannel. People are increasingly using a different array of device to communicate with online retailers’ customer service, with one in three regularly using more than three different devices to do so. The top methods that respondents use to interact were as follows: 59 per cent on the web use a desktop device to reach the retailers’ customer service; 57 per cent use a landline phone and 31 per cent use a mobile phone. Only 11 per cent said they used social media for customer service interaction.
Customer service is of course, only part of the overall customer experience. But there are undoubtedly high expectations for a personalised and contextually relevant experience regardless of device (web, mobile, chat, social, phone). This will often include using several devices at once or changing devices mid-interaction and online retailers must be mindful that these expectations are becoming the norm for many online shoppers.
All this means that forward-thinking online retailers will focus on the entire customer journey – giving customers the flexibility to engage through the device they prefer, maintaining customer context across these touch points and ensuring a consistent experience at every step.
UK consumers have shown they will buy elsewhere when the online retailer customer experience does not live up to their expectation. This cannot be ignored and retailers would be unwise to turn a blind eye.