Electronic Retailing Association Blog: Cognizant’s Assistant Vice President for Digital Transformation Planning and Strategy (Retail) Lists Six Truths Customers Want Retailers to Know

“In the name of innovation, many retailers are implementing new systems without first finding out what their increasingly technologically savvy customers want. They forget customer empathy, and that’s a big mistake,” writes Shannon Warner. Excerpts:

“In the fifth annual Cognizant Shopper Experience Study, we asked 5,300 shoppers for their opinions—and they gave us an earful. Their responses provided the reality check retailers need to stay in touch with shoppers.

Here are six, sometimes painful, truths that emerged from the survey, and shoppers’ advice for more useful digital experiences:

1. Too much of mobile retail is disappointing. Beef up your m-commerce research and browsing capabilities because we really like mobile shopping. Retailers that make it easy will get our business.

2. Promotional posts on social media are annoying. Social media is a highly personal space. Use it to listen, analyze, and learn—but not to communicate.

3. You want our personal details? No thanks. Focus on the information we are willing to share: shopping preferences and personal milestones such as birthdays and anniversaries. We like it when you notice us and offer perks.

4. New services are convenient, but failure levels remain high.  Cross-channel integration is helpful. Make it work by improving the elements that enable it to succeed. Create supportive policies. Re-engineer processes. Train employees.

5. No half-hearted loyalty programs, please. Even if your organization doesn’t have a formal loyalty program, develop a plan to encourage us to engage with you. We want real value and convenience from your organization. When it comes to loyalty programs, we also want transparency: full disclosure of intent and no covert data manipulation or unwanted promotion.

6. Top online retailers set the digital-shopping gold standard. Follow it. When it comes to online shopping, value the qualities that we value: ease of finding information; easy returns; fast, simple checkout; and consistent cross-channel experience.

Customer empathy is the underpinning of all strategic imperatives. By putting themselves in their customers’ shoes, most already know how to win.”

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