OpinionLab s CUSTOMER FEEDBACK INDEX. Report. Holiday Preview

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1 OpinionLab s CUSTOMER FEEDBACK INDEX Holiday Preview Report November 2013

2 About the Customer Feedback Index The Customer Feedback Index (CFI) is a proprietary measure of brand health, calculated on a 0 to 1000 scale, which uses a sophisticated algorithm to measure customer experience performance across all channels and touchpoints. The Customer Feedback Index incorporates overall experience ratings, customer satisfaction and loyalty ratings, customer intent performance, open-ended comments, as well as ratings of the critical components of the customer experience across channels. The Customer Feedback Index is derived from OpinionLab s patented web, mobile, and store-based feedback solutions, which to date have captured more than 200 million pieces of real customer feedback for nearly half the Fortune 50 and hundreds of the world s greatest brands. About Functional Mean Ratings Functional Mean Ratings (FMR) are a new and revolutionary type of benchmark reporting, offered exclusively by OpinionLab. Functional Mean Ratings are the only set of normative metrics that aggregate customer experience performance scores for highly specific functions, areas, and sections of a brand s digital touchpoints. Based on guidance from industry leaders, Functional Mean Ratings group together more than 2 million URLs that serve similar functional, thematic, and experiential purposes on a website. The result is a score computed on a 1 to 5 scale that provides half of the Fortune 50 with precise, location-specific insights and prescriptive roadmaps for improving customer satisfaction and boosting customer experience performance across channels. OpinionLab s Customer Feedback Index Report - Holiday Preview 2

3 CFI Rankings Customer sentiment slipped in the buildup to Holiday 2013, as the industry-wide Customer Feedback Index fell to 519, falling close to 10% from its mid-year mark. Finance and Insurance continued to lead the way in customer experience outcomes, while the Airline and Healthcare industries continued to experience significant challenges. As customers become more and more accustomed to expecting excellence from a customer experience standpoint, omnichannel retailers weathered their summer customer experiences challenges and outperformed their peers in pure-play e-commerce. The Customer Feedback Index for etailers fell by an astonishing 18% over the third quarter. Pure-play etailers gave back most of their early year customer experience gains and enter Holiday 2013 in a comparatively weak position. With more and more shopping dollars being spent online, customers are expecting Amazon-like levels of excellence across the board, and many pure-plays are clearly struggling to keep up. CFI Score 519 Web-Wide Customer Feedback Index (CFI) 761 Financial CFI 257 Healthcare CFI 336 Airlines CFI 392 etailers CFI 506 Travel CFI 445 Omnichannel Retailers CFI 672 Insurance CFI OpinionLab s Customer Feedback Index Report - Holiday Preview 3

4 CFI Trends By Industry As previously mentioned, customer sentiment fell among visitors to pure-play e-commerce websites, while omnichannel retailers saw their customer experience scores stabilize in the face of rising customer expectations. Despite the customer experience marvel that is Amazon and the rise of heavily-branded startups like Fab and Warby Parker, many etailers have relied on a strategy that is largely unchanged since the late 90s: simple, heavily-sku d sites that compete on pricing and selection an approach that is coming under pressure in the era of experiential shopping. Left for dead by many earlier this year, omnichannel retailers appear to have finally stopped the bleeding, and they have made strides towards recovery with strong flexibility on the fulfillment front, deep channel integration, and impressive mobile commerce offerings. The healthcare industry is another area where changing customer expectations are creating challenges for insurers and care providers. Federal government efforts to expand health insurance coverage and affordability have generated many questions among patients and prospective patients many of whom are uncertain about how these reforms will affect them. While much has been made of the inauspicious launch of HealthCare.gov, it s clear from the data that many private healthcare sites have dropped the ball as well, often failing to anticipate customer questions and lacking effective information about how their offerings are affected by healthcare reforms Sep 12-Oct 12-Nov 12-Dec 13-Jan 13-Feb 13-Mar 13-Apr 13-May 13-Jun 13-Jul 13-Aug 13-Sep Travel CFI Insurance CFI Airlines CFI etailers CFI Healthcare CFI Industry-Wide Customer Feedback Index (CFI) Omnichannel Retailers CFI Financial CFI OpinionLab s Customer Feedback Index Report - Holiday Preview 4

5 SALUTING TOP PERFORMERS Discover CFI Score: 776 Discover Financial Services has a simple mission: to help people spend smarter, manage debt better, and save more so they achieve a brighter financial future. Since it was introduced in 1986, the Discover Card has been synonymous with the best possible customer service - a standard of excellence confirmed by the latest Customer Feedback Index rankings. At a time when many financial services companies are still fighting to win back trust, Discover s customer-first philosophy has helped propel the company to impressive heights of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Discover posted a CFI score of 776 in the third quarter of this year, ranking at the top of the financial services sector and outperforming the overall CFI benchmark by a stunning 49%. Whether the interaction is online, at a contact center, or on a mobile device, Discover cardmembers can bank on gold-plated customer experiences. Crate and Barrel CFI Score: 940 Crate and Barrel is an industry leading multi-channel home furnishings specialty retailer, known for its exclusive designs, excellent value and superb customer service. In addition to a thriving direct marketing division that services more than 90 countries, the company operates stores throughout the U.S. and Canada as well as international franchise locations in Dubai, Singapore and Mexico. Working directly with European ateliers and factories, Crate and Barrel was among the first to introduce affordable and contemporary tabletop products and kitchenwares to American consumers. This report salutes Crate and Barrel for its CFI score of 940 over the course of the third quarter - easily tops in the retail sector among the highest scores posted by any OpinionLab client. The brand s essence has translated perfectly to the omnichannel era more than 50 years after opening its first store. Crate and Barrel s clean and intuitive website, convenient mobile site and elegant stores combine seamlessly to provide a thoughtful and well-executed home furnishings shopping experience. Starwood Hotels & Resorts CFI Score: 591 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world, operating some of the most renowned hotel brands including W, Westin, and Sheraton. Starwood boasts one of the industry s leading loyalty programs (Starwood Preferred Guest ), and a passion for delighting the guest is enshrined deep within the corporate culture. This deep-seated commitment to a great guest experience explains why Starwood stands head and shoulders above the competition with a combined CFI score of 591 a full 85 points above the Travel industry average. Whether a guest is researching a hotel or modifying an existing booking, Starwood excels at every aspect of the experience. OpinionLab s Customer Feedback Index Report - Holiday Preview 5

6 Functional Mean Ratings Pages focused on loyalty and rewards programs continued to post the highest Functional Mean Ratings, but the gap between weakest and strongest website sections narrowed significantly over the third quarter of Service & Support pages continued to lag behind in terms of customer experience performance, but significant improvements were seen over the summer months (see next page). Brands are clearly doing a better job of handling the after-sale aspect of the customer relationship, investing in CRM technologies designed to manage post-sale customer interactions in real-time. The persistent gap between Information and Search FMRs highlights an ongoing challenge for site operators. No matter how rich the content on a page is, it counts for nothing if the visitor cannot locate that content in the first place. Optimizing the conversion funnel and maximizing online engagement are as much about helping visitors find what they are looking for as they are about providing them with detailed information Search 3.00 Information 3.26 Loyalty 2.44 Service & Support 2.96 Home Page 3.07 Account Numbers reflect 3-month Rolling AVG OpinionLab s Customer Feedback Index Report - Holiday Preview 6

7 Functional Mean Ratings Tracking Two areas saw dramatic fluctuations in Functional Mean Ratings in Q As mentioned above, Service & Support pages collectively performed much better in the summer months, reaching a score of 2.44 a mark higher than anything seen over the past 12 months. Although there is still work to be done, it appears that brands are finally getting the message that what happens after the sale or sign-up is just as important as what happens before. On the flip side, Loyalty pages dipped dramatically in Q3, sinking down to an FMR of Seasonal factors could be in play here, however, as many brands especially those outside the travel industry elect to taper their rewards offerings over the summer, saving their most lavish offerings for the vital holiday season Sep 12-Oct 12-Nov 12-Dec 13-Jan 13-Feb 13-Mar 13-Apr 13-May 13-Jun 13-Jul 13-Aug 13-Sep Loyalty Service & Support Search Information Account Home Page OpinionLab s Customer Feedback Index Report - Holiday Preview 7

8 FMR Shootout: Omni Retail vs. etail When pundits spoke about the death of traditional retail in late 2012, they may have spoke too soon. Fighting off the much-hyped showrooming threat, Omnichannel Retailers began their recovery in the lead-up the holiday season, outperforming their etail competitors on 5 of the 7 Functional Mean Ratings. 8 7 Bricks-and-clicks retailers handily outperformed pure-play ecommerce brands in two key areas: Checkout and Service & Support. This is compelling evidence that there is such a thing as an omnichannel advantage. Greater flexibility on the fulfillment front in the form of store pickup and ship-to-store options allows omnichannel retail brands to help shoppers avert the annoyance of online shipping fees. Traditional retailers also put the resources and human capital of their stores to use by allowing shoppers to conveniently return online purchases to any store location. These evolutionary steps bode well for traditional retailers heading into the holiday season Home Page Search Account Service & Support Information Products Checkout Omnichannel Retail 3-month Rolling AVG. Etail 3-month Rolling AVG. OpinionLab s Customer Feedback Index Report - Holiday Preview 8

9 About OpinionLab OpinionLab is the pioneer and global leader in omnichannel Voice of Customer (VoC) feedback innovation with over a decade of success and a dozen patents on major VoC advancements. Starting with the familiar [+] feedback symbol, the company¹s end-to-end solution suite allows clients to improve the omnichannel experience with precise, real-time intelligence into what customers want and need. Global leaders choose OpinionLab for actionable VoC insight across web, mobile, store and product touchpoints. Recently recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in America, OpinionLab is proud to service over half of the Fortune 50, including Walmart, Bank of America, and Ford Motor Company. For more information, visit OpinionLab online, read the blog or follow Voice of Customer on Twitter. 549 W. Randolph St. Ste 401 Chicago, IL Phone: (312) Fax: (312) info@opinionlab.com OpinionLab s Customer Feedback Index Report - Holiday Preview 9