In this week’s Customer QT: Conflicting loyalty data, Managing the mechanics of data & privacy, Dark stores are making (lots of) money, Focusing on small things, and that burning question about pizza is finally, and definitively answered.
LOYALTY
How to Choose the Best CRM Software
Quick-Take: Returning consumers spend on average 67 percent more than first-time consumers (source: Bain and company) and in several retail sectors up to 15 percent of a brands most loyal customers account for 55-70 percent of the company’s total revenues (source: The Center for Retail Management at Northwestern University). 
Retailers Snag Trend-Seeking Consumers
Quick-Take: “The irony of most of today’s customer loyalty programs is that they aren’t about loyalty at all,” said brand strategist and author Ana Andjelic in a recent column in the Harvard Business Review. “They have more to do with an economic transaction than with true affinity for a brand,” she added.
For love and not just money
Quick-Take: According to a McKinsey study, loyalty-focused companies’ revenues grew at a weighted average of 4.4 percent per year, compared to 5.5 percent for companies without rewards programmes. (Editor’s Note: This statistic goes contrary to virtually every study on loyalty efficacy that we’ve ever seen. If someone has access to the underlying data, please send it along.)
CONSUMER SENTIMENT
Cornell Research Recap
Quick-Take: The results show that acknowledgement of service failures with personalized and detailed apologies helps improve guest satisfaction of future stays. Positive or negative feedback provided by guests signals a willingness to engage with the brand and increases the probability of them becoming loyal by almost 50%.
Creating a customer experience for the future
Quick-Take: 65% of respondents in our research cited a brand being trustworthy as the most important quality for brand referral.
DATA & PRIVACY
Overcoming Privacy Inertia
Quick-Take: Increased online activity has led to 72% of Americans saying they are either very concerned or extremely concerned about data privacy, according to a new study from Startpage. They are also more aware of how their information is being used by companies to track behaviors, and they don’t like it, with 42% of respondents saying they are uncomfortable with getting ads that target their online habits and personal data like age and sexual identity.
Data privacy index
Quick-Take: The index shows that the world’s most popular streaming service, Netflix excels at customer privacy. It takes as little as 3.3 days on average for complete user’ data deletion. Settling in second place we find music sharing platform – SoundCloud, with discount browser extension Honey – acquired by PayPal in 2020 – bringing up third place, completing 88% of requests in an average of 1.5 days.
Customer data generation spikes during 2020
Quick-Take: “As the number of digital interactions increased, so did the volume of customer data, making it crucial for companies to have the right technology to rediscover and predict their customers’ preferences.”
Taking a One-Size-Fits-All Approach Can Hurt Your Business
Quick-Take: Europe’s GDPR is considered an “opt-in” jurisdiction, meaning that organizations must obtain an explicit and affirmative consent from an individual prior to collecting, processing, or storing personal information collected from individuals. California’s CCPA takes the opposite “opt-out” approach, with consent assumed to be provided.
RETAIL STRATEGY
Retail technology: The path forward
Quick-Take: From a cash flow perspective, the implementation of dark stores can cut rent costs and boost overall profits. Retailers can maintain a space in cheaper locations, since curb appeal isn’t a factor, and see an Average Order Value boost by up to 200%.
CX
Customer experience and efficiency
Quick-Take: Research shows that employees spend 15% of their time just looking for the data and insight they need to manage customer interactions. That isn’t just inefficient, it’s catastrophic for customer experience.
When molehills are worse than mountains
Quick-Take: The ominous aspect of microfailures is that they have a slow-burn effect; in a survey the authors used to test their thesis, 56 percent of respondents said they were more likely to shop elsewhere because of a series of small failures than they were because of one large mistake.
How a Respected Bank Almost Destroyed its Reputation
Quick-Take: Management at a large, 100-year old bank had lost touch with customers. Feedback mechanisms were so bad that they actually hurt satisfaction.
CRM
E-Commerce Personalization Trends
Quick-Take: he technology is becoming more sophisticated and we can expect a larger focus on longer shopping cycles. How does a consumer’s current shopping behavior point to their purchase tastes and preferences in the longer term?
TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS
America’s Most Hated Pizza Topping, According to Data
Quick-Take: YouGov has settled the debate once and for all. According to a survey of over 6,000 adults, America’s least favorite pizza topping is anchovy.
