To gauge the current state of consumers’ perception of key characteristics of their digital experiences, Gartner conducted an in-depth survey of their engagement with and reactions to common digital use cases across 11 industries.
Major Findings:
All industries show room for improvement
The cross-industry look revealed that most organizations do not meet consumers’ expectations. In banking, the best-performing industry, only 16 percent of respondents rate their digital perceptions in the top quartile of the index. “In fact, among consumers who have used the digital services we asked about, 26 percent (banking) to 49 percent (government) rate their perceptions in the lower two quartiles of our index, leaving a lot of room for improvement,” said Mr. Brad Holmes, managing vice president at Gartner.
Millennials use digital services more often, but are less satisfied than other generations
“While millennials are the most frequent users of digital services, they are also the least happy. Out of all generations, they have the lowest opinion of most industries’ digital services,” Mr. Holmes said. “This may be because baby boomers and other older generations use over time has made them more immune to poor ease of use, or that they have become resigned to doing what it takes to get value one way or another.”
Consumers rate retailer digital experiences as the easiest; governments the most difficult
Along with ease of use, trust is a key component of a consumer’s satisfaction with a digital experience. According to the Index, banks enjoy the highest level of trust among consumers. Yet skeptics remain as 18 percent of those consumers who choose not to use bank’s online services say it’s because they “don’t fully trust them.” Similarly, for governments and retailers, 20 percent of nonusers point to lack of trust as their reason.
“Given that most industry’s digital experiences don’t perform very well in the eyes of the consumers, this is a wake-up call for all CIOs. They should evaluate the index closely and prioritize IT investments to close critical digital engagement gaps,” said Mr. Holmes. “CIOs must get together with their CMO, customer experience, business unit and product leaders to revisit and reset the current digital experience priorities and projects in light of these insights. The path is well paved by best practices of leading retailers, banks and the successful digital natives. Understanding and applying cross-industry best practices in order to re-engineer digital product and service capabilities is the right way to make progress.”
