The FINANCIAL — The best—banks and retailers—provide three to four times the satisfaction of the worst (health care, utilities, insurance, government services), according to new research by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
“The opportunity for companies in many sectors to improve online satisfaction remains vast,” said Thierry Chassaing, a BCG senior partner and coauthor of the report, Delivering Digital Satisfaction: U.S. Consumers Raise the Ante. “And the gaps are set to widen as mobile adoption expands and almost 80 million Millennial consumers mature,” Chassaing added.
Banks have not only built strong online and mobile capabilities, they have also put those capabilities to work on the tasks for which customers most value ease and speed—gaining ready access to information, getting help quickly, and transacting business with ease, according to the Boston Consulting Group.
Online merchants and media retailers are also among the leaders, not only because they deliver a positive experience but also because they meet customers’ expectations for comparing products and options, getting better prices, and engaging in quick and convenient transactions, shows the report.
Consumers want the laggards, such as health care providers, telco and cable companies, insurance firms, and government agencies, to make it easier to accomplish even the basic tasks online. These companies are missing big opportunities; the research found plenty of pent-up demand in these sectors.
“U.S. consumers share a consistent set of priorities and expectations for online businesses,” said Sebastian DiGrande, a BCG senior partner and coauthor of the report. “When deciding whether their expectations are being met, consumers don’t necessarily differentiate between online-only businesses and those that straddle the physical and virtual worlds. Closing the gap requires companies to identify where they are able to meet consumer demands and, crucially, where they are not—so that they can rapidly build capabilities where they’ve already begun to fall behind,” he added.
The opportunity to close the satisfaction gap translates into the potential to add significantly more value through digital channels. BCG found that the average connected consumer in the U.S. receives value of $2,250 a year from accessing companies online in the eight sectors surveyed—a sum that could nearly triple if all companies matched the best-in-class levels. Consumers receive almost six times as much value from companies in the top-performing sector (retail) as they do from poorer-performing ones.
Behind the online leaders are multiple “aspirants”—companies in segments whose online experience consumers see as good but also feel could be improved, especially when it comes to facilitating transactions and ongoing interactions. Aspirants include apparel retailers, airlines, hotels, and investment firms.
The research also identified a group of “sleepers”—real estate agencies, automobile dealers, and supermarkets—for which both expectations and satisfaction are relatively low. Supermarkets, however, have the opportunity to generate significant satisfaction and value if they improve the quality of their online offering.
“Consumer expectations will only continue to rise—online and on the run,” said Dominic Field, a BCG partner and report coauthor. “More than one-third of consumers are ready and willing now to take advantage of better digital experiences from companies in almost all the business segments we measured. Companies in only a few areas today, notably media and electronics retailers, deliver across mobile platforms. Others will have to raise their digital games as mobile penetration increases, as devices, networks, and apps improve, and as Millennial consumers enter their peak earning and spending years,” he added.
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