According to a new study released today (September 18th) by The Economist Intelligence Unit, new-media channels play a bigger role in the pre-purchase phase of the customer journey (ie researching and selecting products), while traditional human-interaction channels are seen as more important during the purchasing phase, causing a potential “reverse showrooming” effect.
Omni-channel comes to small business, an Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by AT&T, explores how US small businesses—defined here as companies with fewer than 100 employees and up to US$20m in revenue—understand customer satisfaction and how they intend to deliver unique and differentiated experiences across multiple channels.
Other research findings include:
Small businesses may be overestimating how satisfied their customers really are. When asked to rate their performance over the past 12 months, only 4-5% of respondents believe they significantly outperform their peers in revenue growth or profitability. Yet 26% say they significantly exceed their customers’ expectations and only 3% concede they may not be meeting expectations.
Human interactions still critical to customer satisfaction. Human-interaction channels, e.g. physical stores, phone hotlines, online chats, and e-mail and text correspondence, are still the most heavily used vehicles for customers to interact with small businesses and their brands.The quality of human interactions is considered the foremost driver of customer satisfaction (47% of survey respondents selected it as a top-three factor), followed by the ability to resolve customer issues and complaints in a satisfactory manner (39%).
The study is accompanied by a benchmarking tool that allows companies to compare their omni-channel offering against peers in their region.
Omni-channel comes to small business is available here
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Notes to editors
Omni-channel comes to small business draws on an Economist Intelligence Unit survey of 363 US executives and owners of small businesses—25% from the Northeast, 26% from the Midwest, 26% from the South and 23% from the West. Forty-five percent of respondents are from companies with less than US$1m in revenue, 32% have revenues of US$1m-5m, 15% have revenues of US$5m-10m and 9% have revenues of more than US$10m. Respondents hold a variety of positions: 53% are founders and CEOs, 5% are other C-level executives, 16% are heads of business units or SVP/VP/Director, and 26% are managers or hold other positions.
