Coveo Research Finds Lack of Online Relevance Costing Revenue, Impeding Customer Service, Overwhelming Employees, Turning off Shoppers

March 4, 2021 (Montreal, QC) -- Coveo, a leader in relevance platforms that transform search, recommendations, and personalization, today announced its inaugural Relevance Report, which showed that satisfactory customer experience hinges on the ability to provide one thing: relevance. 

“Digital technologies have driven sky high online expectations, and the situation is only getting more challenging for brands. Relevance, convenience, and simplicity are now not only expected, but demanded,” said Louis Têtu, CEO and Chairman at Coveo. “In the post-pandemic world, the ability to provide relevant customer experience at every single touchpoint, every single time, could mean the difference between businesses that survive and businesses that cease to exist.” 

Coveo commissioned a survey of 1,988 U.S. consumers, conducted by Researchscape International, to examine consumer frustrations and challenges across three kinds of digital experiences: Ecommerce, customer service and support, and employee experience.

Key findings include:

Ecommerce - Retailers are failing to meet sky high shopper expectations and are missing out on revenue: 

• 90% of consumers surveyed expect online shopping experiences to be equal to or better than in-store, but half say they sometimes-to-always experience a problem when shopping online.
• 43% of consumers surveyed said they would pay more if they could find what they’re looking for in just a few clicks - including nearly half of Millennials (48%). Consumers surveyed indicated they will also pay more for the ability to easily find supporting content (28%), discovering something they didn’t know they needed (26%), and personalized recommendations (26%).

A brief report outlining the gap in customer expectations within Ecommerce is available here. 

Customer Service - Customers will desert brands with poor customer service: 

• 73% of consumers surveyed will abandon a brand after three or less negative customer service experiences.
• 44% of consumers surveyed will rarely or never complain to a company about a negative customer service experience, so businesses may never even find out about negative experiences.

A brief report discussing the impact of customer service on revenue models, including recurring revenue models, is available here. 

Digital Workplace - Employees are buried in corporate clutter and it is hurting proficiency: 

• Workers surveyed spend an average of 2.5 hours a day searching for information, in part because 41% of the information provided to them is irrelevant to their job role.
• When workers don’t have the information they’re looking for, employees feel less confident (47%) and engaged (42%) in their work. In the worst-case scenario, 16% of employees surveyed say not being able to find the information they need has them ready to quit their jobs. 

A brief report reviewing how digital work has overwhelmed employees, and impacted business, is available here. 

On March 9 from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET, customer experience coach Dan Gingiss will join Coveo’s Sheila Morin and Diane Burley for a LinkedIn Live discussion on the Relevance Report findings and what they mean for customer retention and advocacy, brand reputation, and revenue. Register to attend here.

Methodology

Coveo commissioned Researchscape International to conduct an online survey of 1,988 consumers that was fielded first on December 26, 2020 and most recently on January 6, 2021.