Time-poor consumers with shorter attention spans are forcing marketers to prioritise the demand for convenience over any other factor, including sustainability and ethics, as they seek to finetune their comms strategies in the months ahead.
That is according to a new report from CX Network, which reveals that convenience is the number one customer behaviour to influence CX practitioners’ planning in 2024 – up from fourth place in 2023 to the most influential behaviour in this year’s report.
Conversely, customer awareness of ethical working conditions and the demand for sustainable or ethical products and brands have dropped, with just 19% and 16% of respondents indicating this as a top behaviour influencing strategy respectively.
The findings, which have been highlighted in “The Global State of CX 2024”, have been compiled using survey responses from nearly 300 CX practitioners, service leaders, experience designers, analysts and consultants.
While convenience has rocketed, customer loyalty still remains a top-10 trend for practitioners for the rest of this year and one of only two trends that are not directly related to technology. Elsewhere, 56% of respondents strongly agree that customers will switch brands when unsatisfied, with organisations needing to focus on a customer-centric strategy, alongside driving technological innovation.
Separately, 55% of CX practitioners strongly agree that data privacy and security are becoming more important to customers, with the customer base becoming increasingly ‘tech-savvy’ compared to previous years.
Within this, transparency of data usage appears to be key to boosting customer loyalty. Organisations must do more to improve customer understanding of the purposes and benefits of data collection, to better communicate the value exchange of information for improved service, the study maintains.
Hastings Direct senior customer insight manager Sam Phillips-Lord said in the report: “We need to go back to basics and deliver to expectations. As a customer, I want to be able to do what I want to do, in the quickest way possible – that means if I can’t do something online, don’t make me try. Don’t lead me down the garden path on a journey that takes in all the things I can do if the thing I want to do cannot be done.”
Meanwhile, former chief CX officer for National Express Vinay Parmar, who is now a CX Network Advisory Board Member and CEO of Dhruva Star, added: “The overarching factor in customer behaviour is our shorter attention spans. There are time pressures in there too, and since remote work became more widespread, that time pressure piece has changed.
“Pre-Covid, people had less time to fit things in but now, working from home has given people more time and because they value their time more, they are being selective in how they want to spend it.
“Utilising AI and data analytics to understand customer preferences and behaviours in real-time allows for the creation of tailored interactions that resonate on a personal level, minimising the time spent by customers on finding the products that match their expectations.
“By recognising and valuing a customer’s time, companies can foster a sense of loyalty and encourage continued engagement. The best experiences happen when something goes wrong – that is when unforgettable experiences are created and where the true value lies.”
Phillips-Lord concluded: “I think businesses are quickly realising that while AI and automation are key trends, doing those in conjunction with personalisation is what’s really going to drive winning experiences.”
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