With over 60% of brand interactions happen digitally: it is now more essential than ever for brands to have strong digital experiences.
New research from VCCP’s digital experience and research agencies Bernadette and Watermelon reveals that one in three (36%) digital experiences are actively failing people, creating a divide between what brands promise and what they deliver online, resulting in a deluge of customers fleeing to competitors, with poor digital experiences costing organisations an estimated 8% loss in revenue every year, equating to £3.07 trillion ($3.8 trillion) annually.
To help brands avoid losing revenue, Bernadette and Watermelon collected data from over 4,600 Brits on their experiences of apps and websites, revealing where consumers feel brands are going wrong. Revealed in a new report and benchmarking tool for brands, out today, the Digital Experience Index (DXI), is designed to help brands assess the effectiveness of digital platforms by mapping brands against their competitors and sector leaders. The report highlights how brands can improve their digital experiences by revealing five core principles as markers to address what truly matters to users in a digital experience: measuring how well an app or website solves users’ problems, its usability, accessibility, the emotional response a customer has to a brand (known as brand feel) and memorability.
The report surveyed eight sectors: telecoms, healthcare, travel and transport, media, wellbeing, retail, fintech and dating. Results show that Fintech and travel and transport came out as the highest performing sectors including brands such as Uber, Monzo and Booking.com scoring the highest marks, compared to retail and dating apps which were some of the lowest.
The report also revealed that half of consumers feel brands fail to consistently deliver ‘outstanding digital experiences’, and end up going elsewhere because of frustrating and unhelpful UX.
In the finance sector, the DXI report found that customers are walking away from products and services because they can't understand what they're being asked to do, with many customers ‘giving up’ on apps because of confusing jargon and complicated processes, actively switching to competitors with more straight-forward digital experiences.
The report aims to help brands close the ‘customer digital experience gap’, a phrase which defines the measurable distance between good and great, between where brands are and where they need to be. They discovered that there’s an ‘experience gap’ of 40 percentage points, with the top-ranking brand scoring 87% customer satisfaction, compared to the lowest-ranking brand, which only scored just 47%.
The report also found that 60% of people believe that brands are not authentic in committing to inclusivity, and that customers expect to feel welcome, represented and catered for within a brand’s app or website design experience. The DXI found that not committing to DE&I means many businesses risk alienating audiences, resulting in lost trust, disengagement and a fractured relationship which directly impacts brand perception, loyalty and ultimately business revenue. Spotify, The Guardian and Booking.com were revealed as some of the top performing brands creating digital experiences that are inclusive for everyone. Customers cited positive experiences including Booking.com’s inclusive filtering options and The Guardian’s adjustable viewing options (including font resizing, dark mode and reader-friendly layouts across all devices).
Iva Johan, CSO at Bernadette said, "In an era dominated by digital channels, the difference between good and great digital experiences has never been more important for building customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. We know from our survey that today’s customers' expectations reach beyond brands just digitising existing services. It requires careful consideration for customer needs, the problems they need to solve, while ensuring every interaction is seamless and intuitive. Experience should flow effortlessly across channels when needed, authentically reflecting the brand's values and personality at each touchpoint.
“When done correctly it not only strengthens customer relationships but also creates meaningful differentiation in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. However, in these times, brands need data to justify digital improvements, so we’ve created a new way to measure experiences with both numbers and real human insights.”
Sian Kerr, CSO at Watermelon, added, “It’s not good enough to just have a ‘good app’ or a ‘good website’; brands need to consider that customers think about brands in the context of their entire world, and not in isolated interactions, sectors or experiences.”
“A lot of internal teams are drowning in metrics that measure performance, but do not go deeper into the ‘why’ behind it. This indexing solution provides the best of both worlds: combining numbers at scale with rich in-depth insights; giving brands an understanding of what best-in-class looks like and how to get there.”
The Digital Experience Index is available to download here.