#44: 38% would rather get a cavity filled than go to customer service😳

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Happy Friday and welcome! We're bringing you our roundup of industry news summarised in an exclusive LinkedIn newsletter. For more detail on any news featured here, check out 'This week in CX' on the Customer Experience Magazine (CXM) website.

This week, we’re looking at the rise in digital wallets, the huge shift in the world of marketing, and how customer service is at a breaking point.

Customer service is at breaking point

To understand the state of CX in 2023,  Interactions LLC surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers. The March 2023 report, CX and the Consumer: Pitfalls and Possibilities, reveals where customer service currently falls short and how companies can course-correct.

The survey results are stark, with 76% of those surveyed expecting to receive better CX than they get today. More than half (55%) say customer service is deteriorating. 

Last year, about half of consumers say they became vocally angry while communicating with customer service and about one-third of consumers admit to swearing during a customer service call—both to humans and automated digital attendants alike. 

Given the choice, many consumers would prefer doing the following instead of engaging with customer service:

• 38% would rather get a cavity filled
• 37% would rather plunge a toilet
• 32% would rather take the SATs again
• 28% would rather burn their mouths on hot coffee

Half of UK consumers have ditched their physical wallet for their phone

50% UK shoppers say they no longer need a physical wallet or purse, swapping it for a digital wallet on their phone. That’s according to new research from SAP Emarsys .

The study of 2,003 UK consumers suggests that the adoption of the mobile wallet is a generational change in the UK. 67% of shoppers who make purchases via their mobile wallet aged 18-24 are comfortable without a physical wallet, compared to just 37% of those over 45. This generational difference appears to be driven by the loyalty benefits offered by mobile wallets. 93% of consumers are using a mobile wallet-based loyalty programme.

Key cited benefits for those who purchase items using digital discounts or coupons include: 

• keeping discount codes organised (25%)
• the speed of purchase compared to paper counterparts (31%)
• the ease with which you can check your savings (32%).

For those that don’t yet use mobile loyalty cards, the number 1 reason is that they aren’t loyal enough to any one brand to justify adopting them. With previous research** from Emarsys finding the cost-of-living crisis saw 56% of consumers switch from a brand they were loyal to  save money and 19% of consumers feel they could “no longer afford to be loyal”, so brands need to find the ‘value exchange’ that motivates customers to commit to a brand in that sense again.

70% of marketers are making vital decisions alone

The world of marketing is undergoing a significant shift, leaving seven in ten marketers to navigate crucial decisions in isolation. This is revealed by a groundbreaking report by Nielsen for HubSpot and LinkedIn . 

Titled “Defining the Future of Marketing in EMEA,” the report delves into the perspectives of over 700 senior professionals in the UK and Ireland. Its findings expose a concerning consensus among industry leaders. The once dynamic and collaborative nature of marketing has faded, giving way to a solitary decision-making process that hinders growth and innovation.

The study identifies the great reshuffle as a key catalyst for these changes, with job transitions causing prolonged sales cycles and lower win rates. In the past year, as marketers have faced mounting pressure to perform, the lack of resources and time constraints have made it challenging to build a full-funnel marketing strategy –which is the need of the hour for brands to stay top of mind.

The report further highlights that nearly 90% of sales and marketing leaders acknowledge that collaboration between these teams is vital for driving critical business growth. Surprisingly, however, three in five marketing decision makers currently rely solely on consumer-based software vendors, while one in five lean on advertising, sales, or finance departments.

• The number of nuisance calls and texts reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) dropped by 57% in 2022, Quadient found . The ICO received 56,015 complaints about nuisance calls and texts in 2022. This is less than half the 131,491 received in 2021, and fewer than in any year since 2019. Overall, there were 32,317 complaints about live calls (down 35%), 13,790 about automated calls (down 74%) and 9,908 relating to SMS text messages (down 57%). 
• Google is toughening up its hybrid work policy, telling its employees that it will crack down on those who haven’t been coming into the office three times per week. According to internal memos viewed by both  CNBC  and The Wall Street Journal , Google will now track how often employees badge in and include in-person attendance in employees’ performance reviews. It will also send reminders to employees with frequent absences. By 2026, 20% of inbound customer service contact volume will come from machine customers, according to Gartner .
• Airlines are unlikely to meet net zero targets by 2050 without a reduction in demand for flights, research from Bain & Company has suggested. The firm’s study found that while airlines could cut their emissions by 70% between now and mid-century, the industry is unlikely to achieve net zero by then. Bain & Company said it expected airlines would start increasing ticket prices by 2026 in order to fund decarbonisation efforts. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said that international air fares are likely to increase over the next 10-15 years as carriers look to increasingly use sustainable fuels.

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