Pure-play e-Tailers outperform their omnichannel counterparts in customer experience performance, according to the Customer Feedback Index (CFI) Report: Q1 – Q2 2013 report from OpinionLab.
The CFI benchmark study measures brand health and performance across several industries and touch points, including web, mobile and physical locations. Based on millions of pieces of direct customer feedback, the study found the financial services sector soaring, healthcare lagging, and retail positioned towards the back as Holiday 2013 approaches.
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Omnichannel retailers saw three straight months of declining CFI scores as they struggled to build “seamlessly remarkable customer experiences across channels,” according to the OpinionLab study. Despite dipping below e-Tailers’ CFI ratings for the first time in a year, omnichannel retailers outperformed pure-play e-Tailers in many key page-level attributes, such as Checkout.
E-Tailers maintained a significant edge in Information and Account page performance ratings. However, the Account score has slipped over the past six months, primarily due to device usage trends, the report indicated: “The proliferation of more untethered users and new form factors has put greater pressure on brands to deliver seamless and responsive order tracking and account management functionality across mobile and non-mobile device types.”
On the whole, companies struggled to deliver great support experiences, according to the study. Even with real-time online chat, social CRM and other service tactics, “brands have room to grow” when it comes to addressing customers’ complaints effectively and quickly fixing problematic issues.
“Now, more than ever, business success depends on delivering the best experience to your customers wherever they engage with your brand,” said Rand Nickerson, CEO of OpinionLab. The CFI study “taps into the real experiences of customers across web, mobile and physical locations to give clear and precise insight into where brands rank, where they shine and where they need to improve in order to boost omnichannel performance.”
The OpinionLab CFI customer experience performance report ― the first in a quarterly research series ― can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
