A research report into customer satisfaction from analysts GI Insight rates the Leisure & Entertainment industry top and Utilities as the worst at keeping UK customers satisfied.
Moreover, it reveals that the organisations deemed to provide good customer satisfaction are also those that implement relevant and targeted customer communications. While many commentators have noted the anecdotal connection between relevant communications and satisfied customers, no former piece of research has yet attempted to test the connection.
The survey investigated satisfaction levels across a variety of sectors and respondents were also asked how successful each of these suppliers was at using the personal information they held to deliver personalised, targeted and relevant marketing and communications to individual customers. The findings revealed a very close correlation between marketing/communications relevancy and customer satisfaction across all 10 sectors studied: utilities, banks, credit card, ISPs, mortgage finance, mobile phone, travel agent, general insurance, supermarkets, and leisure & entertainment.
Leisure & Entertainment comes top for relevancy and customer satisfaction, although this achievement is helped by the natural grouping of products into difference genres or areas of interest. Supermarkets, also score very highly – and their second placing is felt to be the result of rigorous data-driven marketing disciplines, investment in experienced people as much as systems, plus intelligent overall use of data collected through loyalty schemes to target appropriate offers at the individual customer.
Despite heavy investment in CRM systems over the last decade, Retail Banking scores second to bottom for customer satisfaction and marketing communications relevancy, implying that the sector needs to conduct a rigorous review of method and the return on marketing investment. Utilities score lowest, but do not yet have the wider product range with which to justify the cost of personalisation. However, the rising rate of customer switching suggests that investment in this area should rise in order to stem defection at the least.
Andy Wood, MD, GI Insight, comments: “The link between personalised communication and satisfied customers is important from several aspects. First, as noted, satisfied customers provide a warm and responsive community for carefully targeted additional offers. But whether or not they buy more from the company, satisfied customers are also less likely to defect to a competitor. The overall findings of this research show a strong causal link between relevance and satisfaction. This evidence proves to both marketers and company board directors that their investment in targeted marketing is well founded and, if carefully increased, is likely to continue delivering substantial return on investment.”
