Americans seek shared values and personalized experience with brands

Americans seek shared values and personalized experience with brands: Customers have complex, varied paths to purchasing, and equally diverse feelings around brand interactions. Businesses need not only a deep understanding of their customers’ buying habits, but also their desired forms and depths of communication with a brand along every step of their purchasing journey. SAP announced results from the Customer Journey Poll, a survey aimed toward helping organizations improve their understanding of customer happiness and encourage brand loyalty. This October poll of more than 3,000 Americans, ages 18 and older, provided insight into what makes customers loyal to a particular brand. To improve overall engagement and loyalty, brands should take into consideration their customer’s preferred method of communication, research methods and values they hold at highest importance:

• Brand Values: Nearly one-third of respondents (30 percent) cited “shared values” as a reason they are loyal to a brand

• Email Outreach: While email was cited as the most popular way to communicate with companies, almost half of customers (48 percent) said they had problems with delayed or no responses to email

• Customer Support: More than half of those surveyed (54 percent) would like — or may like — an offer of help before they have to ask for it

• Personalization: 69 percent would like personalized information about a brand’s products

• Product Quality: 75 percent said a product or service’s quality contributes to their brand loyalty

• Internet Presence: 72 percent of respondents said they research products and services online

SAP found three distinct personas that surfaced from the poll data: The “virtuous” customer who patronizes companies that have values to which he or she relates; the “invested” customer, who loves to interact with companies and often seeks guidance and information; and the “ignored” customer, whose inquiries about a product or service sometimes get delayed or ignored. By understanding which customer falls into which persona, brands will have the ability to deliver content that customers consider most important and, in turn, improve overall engagement.