REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Talend (NASDAQ:TLND), a leader in cloud and big data integration software, today announced the results of an international consumer and IT business survey that uncovers a startling gap between customer expectations, and the reality of what organizations are currently providing. The study, which was conducted by Researchscape, reveals that despite a wealth of data available about customer behavior and purchasing choices, companies have a long way to go in terms of effectively using this data to better meet consumer expectations. While 88 percent of IT leaders believe their organization truly understands its customers, only 61 percent of consumers feel companies understand their needs.
Sixty-three percent of IT respondents indicated that using data to better understand customers is a top business priority for 2017, with 80 percent of companies ranking it at an eight or above on a 10-point scale. Due to the strategic nature of customer-360 initiatives, many are being led by C-Level executives: CEOs or COOs hold this responsibility at nearly half of participating companies (42% combined), followed by CIOs and CTOs (39% combined). Today’s IT organizations also recognize the importance of putting customer data in the hands of more employees, with 80 percent of surveyed companies indicating they’re making customer data accessible across multiple business units.
“Our survey shows most consumers are data driven, with 57 percent reporting they rely on data to inform buying decisions,” said Ashley Stirrup, chief marketing officer, Talend. “While the majority of companies recognize the importance of data in driving company strategy, many are just scratching the surface when it comes to understanding the dramatic impact customer-360 initiatives can have on increasing their ‘share of wallet’ and inspiring lasting customer loyalty.”
Approximately 80 percent of IT respondents indicated their budgets have grown over the past five years. Under increasing pressure to improve the customer experience, many have invested that budget in a range of customer relationship management tools, including:
- Live chat (66%)
- Data visualization (60%)
- Speech recognition (52%)
- Retargeting tools (58%)
Despite the seemingly heavy investment by IT in customer support tools, many businesses still do not systematically track basic customer feedback. Fifty percent or less of the surveyed companies are deploying elementary barometers of customer satisfaction, such as:
- Online reviews (used by only 36% of respondents)
- Social media sentiment (utilized by only 43%); and
- Past purchase or communication preferences (employed by only 50% combined).
The consumer survey showed that online reviews have become the new word of mouth for many, with 40 percent indicating these forums have the greatest impact on large purchases—almost twice the weight of friend and family recommendations. Additionally, fifty-seven percent of respondents listed “having a negative review unaddressed while continuing to receive offers for similar products” as the top reason they would ‘break up’ with a brand. Other reasons cited by consumers for ‘breaking up’ with a company include:
- If the company falls victim to a data breach (53%)
- Not providing live/real-time customer service support (42%)
Overall, Talend’s survey suggests there is still room for organizations to use data more effectively to better understand and address customer needs. The rewards for improvement may be compelling – industry research suggests businesses are losing $62 billion per year through poor customer service.1 As big data and cloud tools improve, customer acquisition and retention may become increasingly competitive. Companies can seize today’s window of opportunity by optimizing customer management tools and data to keep pace with constantly evolving consumer needs, deliver top notch engagements, and maintain a competitive edge.
For more detailed information on further results of the Talend consumer and IT business survey, visit https://info.talend.com/datadividesurvey.html.
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About the Data Divide Survey
To better understand how companies and consumers use data and interact with each other, Talend commissioned Researchscape International to survey 361 IT leaders and 1,094 consumers in the United States, the UK, France, and Germany. For each country, participants were quota sampled to match national census data for 18 to 64-year-olds, across 32 distinct groups of gender, age range, and region.
On the IT side, the titles represented were IT managers (55%), developers (18%), and CIOs (16%). Many worked within the tech industry (41%), while a few were in finance and insurance (11%), and retail (7%). Half worked at large organizations with 501-5,000 employees (49%) and most frequently had annual sales of $11-50M (18%) and $51-100M (18%), with some grossing over $1B (16%). IT directors from higher grossing companies were more often in the US (37% versus 26% in Europe).
About Talend
Talend (NASDAQ: TLND) is a next-generation leader in cloud and big data integration software that helps companies make data a strategic asset that provides real-time, organization-wide insight into customers, partners, and operations. Through its open, adaptive, and unified integration platform, Talend delivers the data agility required for companies to rapidly adopt the latest technology innovations and scale to meet the constantly evolving demands of modern business. A leader in the 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools and Forrester Wave: Big Data Fabric Q4 2016, Talend’s solutions support over 1500 global enterprise customers including Air France, GE, and Lenovo, across a range of industries. For more information, please visit www.talend.com and follow us on Twitter: @Talend.
