Email is one of the top two channels used by consumers seeking agent-assisted service. But it lags in convenience, according to 2018 Customer Experience Transformation Benchmark, a study by NICE inContact.

It also produces a lower Net Promoter Score than most other channels.

Overall, only 35% are satisfied with their most agent-assisted experience, and 36% with self-service.

NICE inContact surveyed 2,407 people online using a consumer panel.

It found that phone contact with a live rep is utilized by 49% globally, and email by 32%, meaning that consumers initiated contact via these channels. However, email is used more in the UK, and phone and chat in the U.S.

Yet while the phone is the most-used channel in the U.S., it fell from 66% in 2017 to 53% this year. And email grew from 15% to 30% in the U.S. during the same period.

In addition, the phone has a 69% preference rating and email comes in at 58% -- again, the top two channels. Chat is next, with 28% usage and 53% preference.

The picture changes when it comes to effectiveness.

Email draws only a 28% satisfaction level, compared with 44% apiece for mobile apps and online chat. 

Worse, email comes in last in convenience behind automated phone menus and text: The top three are chat, website and phone. Similarly, email is ranked last for resolving issues quickly, and second-to-last for requiring minimal effort 

Moreover, email actually harms the net promoter score, producing an NPS of -9. Mobile apps -- which are used by only 16% -- achieve an NPS of 25,  chat 21 and websites 14. But automated phone menus plunge to a -26.

In general, the study found that 89% are willing to buy from companies that provide exceptional customer service, and 82% will go out of their way to do so. In addition, 83% will recommend such firms. But 80% will switch in response to poor service.

In addition, consumers prefer agent-assisted channels over self-service by more than 2:1.

Total day TV consumption growth was virtually flat in September -- up 0.2% -- but down 4.9% among 18-49 viewers, according to one media analyst.

Brian Wieser, senior research analyst, for Pivotal Research Group, in analyzing Nielsen data for the month, says: “Our interpretation is that while TV in its totality is stable, results remain negative for ad-supported national TV as a medium.”

He accounts for these lower results coming from viewing of “unrated programming through internet-connected devices and of premium video on PCs, tablets and mobile phones.... [adding this] probably would bring year-over-year trends closer to flat.”

Internet-connected device viewing consumption, including from set-top boxes/platforms Roku, Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast, rose by 46% year-over-year among all TV homes.

It's up 38% among adults 18-49s.

Internet-connected viewing now accounts for 11.4% of total TV and 16.8% among adults 18-49 on a total day basis, per Wieser. He adds these “growth rates have accelerated significant in the past few months.”

Looking at traditional national TV, advertising commercial impressions among adults 18-49 dropped 11.4% in September 2018 on a total-day basis, versus the same month a year ago. It also fell 9.8% in prime time.

At the same time, national TV commercial loads -- C3/C7 ratings, which “exclude unencoded or otherwise non-qualifying activity in digital environments,” rose 2.3% to 11.2 minutes an hour from 11.0 minutes, for an average TV network during the month.

When it comes to digital shopping, it’s no surprise that Amazon comes out first by almost every measure. But a new report from Gartner and L2 finds that after Amazon, Best Buy and the Home Depot also deserve “Genius Status.” 

Walmart, Target and Wayfair are ranked as “Gifted.” 

And of the 68 retail chains measured, five do so poorly they merit a “Feeble” ranking: Home Goods, Family Dollar, RH, Ethan Allen and Do It Best.

The report finds that by and large, chains are doing a better job of blurring the lines between physical and online shopping. “Big-box retailers are less concerned with which channel shoppers choose to convert — 76% of retailers with physical stores offer in-store pickup, and over half offer online shoppers the ability to filter items on category pages by in-store availability,” the report says. “These features allow customers to purchase and receive products through a multitude of channels, as well as help create a credible and convenient alternative to Amazon Prime’s free two-day shipping.”

In addition to using digital to boost sales, more stores are using their physical locations to create better experiences, innovate with new fulfillment options and leverage category expertise. 

Best Buy and the Home Depot score so highly because they are finding ways to turn that in-store expertise experience -- finding a blue shirt or an orange apron to consult --  into a digital experience, as well. 

While 62% of all the stores in the survey offer a live chat feature, it says the Home Depot excels with its new Apple Business Chat experience, in addition to providing live chat on its brand site and mobile app. And it says Best Buy helps people making big purchases with “interactive comparison functionality on both desktop and mobile.”

That company’s customer service technologies and loyalty programs, including Best Buy’s Geek Squad access, better position it to compete against Prime.

The survey points out that both Walmart and Target are growing from digital transactions, but that most recent advances in comparable store sales have come from predominantly in-store purchases, in part due to in-store and curbside pickup.

Moderator Steve Dorsey, VP, Innovation and Planning, Statesman Media; Panelists Ted Bongiovanni, Director of Product, 

, and Todd Schauman, Director of Marketing And Analytics, 

Dorsey: A Gatehouse Media property. Brand new to the family. I can talk tacos, brisket ...

Schauman: We support print product that’s been published for over 100 years. Switched in 2007 to weekly format. Last year we launched our digital-first product. Acquired 11k subscribers. Focusing on acquisition and retention. 

Bongiovanni: We launched basic membership program, building engagement with our membership. Tremendous growth in site traffic. Built a car recall tracker. We’ll tell you upon membership if it has a recall on it. Created new, all-access program. Ask CR, to get personalized product recommendation. 6 million members, half in print, half in digital. 

Dorsey: How do you go about deciding which to pursue?

Bongiovanni: For Ask CR, we Realized people might like to have access. Saw a lot of interest. Our average order value up about 20%.

Dorsey: Repurposing?

Bongiovanni: Yes. We tested with our research panel. Started narrowly and grew into 50 product categories.

Dorsey: Retention, Todd? 12 - 18 months into this now? Renewal time for some people?

Schauman: We have a paid digital product, $11/month; $100/year. Lot of annual subscriptions initially. Saw a small dip. Top of mind is that engagement loop. How to get them back. We do that through both product itself, distributed on site and by email. Try to match up onsite experience with email. Web version much more dynamic. Once you come to site, can choose 30-second read or full article. Engagement focus has reduced churn.

Dorsey: What other product changes, frequency of delivery? What’s coming up?

Schauman: We launche with very static leader. Saw who came back month after month. Everybody gets five Free articles. Trying to more aggressively pursue the one-timers. Once we have an email, it leads to higher engagemenT.

Dorsey: I wish news sites were better at following something like a car recall is great. Future of how that might apply?

Bongiovanni: We’re trying to introduce new folks to CR. Moving from transactional brand into a more experiential space. In partnership with NBC, launched a new show “Consumer 101.” Get people introduced to us. Can lead to a paying relationship with us. More of an affinity. A series of emotional connections that we’re there for all of life’s moments. Having new content forms, TV or newsletters, how can we be more personalized with folks. 

Schauman: Our product needs to be digestible where our customers are when they need it. Email, online, podcast reading of the Daily every day. Audio is 12 minutes long. If somebody is on a train, the easier thing to do is to listen. Some groups read only the email, some just come to the website.

Smith: The line was for many years, CR should own mobile. Having torn sheets out of the magazine and brought them with us. You should be with us in Home Depot. How has this evolved for you guys?

Bongiovanni: We are right there with you. Recently, not only do you need us in aisle 12 at Home Depot, we are always with our members, on subway platform, hear from us on your smart speakers. We know how important Amazon is for the marketplace, we are working on making it easy for us to surface online. CR insights will be right there, as well as Ask CR.

Schauman: When reporters are out there, adding video as a component is easy to do. Customers expect a direct connection with the reporters. In the Amazon, a reporter did video of her experience. Personal connection. 

Bongiovanni: We try to have lots of idea. Boundless. We do look inside and outside. Basic member benefit, if you buy a TV, we can tell you how to set your TV up so it works best for you. Idea became part of our basic membership program. Shared insight for choice and change. Consumer insights panel to tease out and develop new ideas.

Dorsey: Listening to your customers is so great. Not paying lip service is really important. One of the things we do is we have a studio, bring people in, music streaming. Here in Austin, it’s what people look to us to do.

To coincide with National Fire Prevention Week, Allstate introduced Escape Route, a new mobile app using augmented reality to create and practice fire escape plans.

The app uses the mobile phone camera to add a virtual image to real-life surroundings. Users can make a starting point, trace a route and designate an exit point at least 50 feet from their home.

“We constantly innovate and look at how new technologies can be applied to real-world problems," stated Allstate's director of mobility Michael Antognoli, "Protecting our customers is our business, so we're excited to share this innovation using augmented reality to help families plan an emergency escape route using the Allstate mobile app."

Escape Route is available in the Allstate iOS mobile app.

Search engine marketing came in at No. 2 in an Association of National Advertisers (ANA) survey conducted in August, with 30% saying they handle the media planning or buying services in-house, up from 27% in 2013

Social media at 40% -- up from 28% in 2013 -- topped the ANA’s 2018 list. Search engine optimization came in at 28% for the No. 3 spot -- up from 22%, respectively. About 45% said they do not handle any media services in-house, down from 47% in 2013.

Overall, 55% of marketers who responded to the survey -- The Continued Rise Of The In-House Agency -- said their media planning or buying services are handled in-house more often these days.

The percentage came in much lower than creative traditional media at 89% and digital media and creative for digital media at 96%.

ANA members were surveyed in August 2018. About 412 respondents participated. The data was compared with survey results from 2013.

Interestingly, search engine marketing at 23% is the least-moved service from an external agency to an in-house agency during the past three years, even behind collaterals at 27%.

Social media tops the list at 46% as the most-moved service from an external agency to an in-house agency during the past three years, followed by mobile display at 44%, desktop display at 40%, email at 40%, mobile video at 37%, desktop video at 35%, website development and design at 35%, and infographics at 30%.

When it comes to creative services, search engine marketing at 17% tops the list at No. 3 -- behind programmatic and social media -- as being the media and or/buying service most moved from an external agency to an in-house agency. Search engine optimization came in at 12%.

Content marketing tops the list at 75% -- up from 34% in 2013 -- when considering specialty services offered by in-house agencies. Data marketing and analytics services came in at No. 2 with 59% done in-house, up from 42% in 2013.

The survey also analyzed new services not provided in the past. For example, in the past three years, 36% of respondents said their company’s in-house agency began providing new services such as content marketing and video production that were not previously handled by an external agency.

Some 30% of respondents also said they have programmatic capabilities in house, and 15% said they considered adding the capability.

Nobody in adland can say they haven't noticed the two massive trends of the day -- voice and visual. And now London has its own consultancy, within Mindshare, specialising in the two.

It may seem like chasing a trend but in my eyes at least, it's a sensible move because these developments are far from fads -- they are soon to be the new norm. 

Google is already claiming that 55% of teens and 41% of adults are using voice every day, although I would add that I would imagine a lot of these are just requests for Alexa to find a song or Google to dim the lights. This is where the vast majority of activity is right now, but comScore is predicting that as soon as 2020, half of searches will be made via voice.

The reason is simple. Voice takes away the "friction" of entering a password on a mobile device or booting up a PC to ask a question. Just the act of speaking alone is estimated to be nearly four times quicker than typing. Plus, we now have helpful assistants at the press of a button on a mobile or waiting inside a smart speaker, poised to search the net and bring us back a near instantaneous answer with no need to fire up Google and get typing. 

Crucially, the real reason that this has taken off is not just because it reduces friction and is widely available. The real reason for the rapid growth of voice is that it works. Research has shown that voice technology surpassed the 95% recognition success rate benchmark during last year. This is crucial because, the scientists believe that with any less than 95% systems are too frustrating to talk to. 

At the moment, e-commerce is tiny for voice. The big uses are calling someone, finding out what is on at the cinema, getting directions, dictating texts and answering homework questions. However, voice commerce will come. When it does, brands will want to be the snippet that Amazon or Google reads out when their sector is searched for, and so it's of no surprise at all that a London agency has decided to set up a specialist shop to prepare brands for the new wave of interaction.

Speaking of which, we also have visual search and commerce. Instagram has just made posts shoppable and Snapchat has partnered with Amazon to allow photographs of goods to be identified and the user taken to a page where they can be bought. Google has committed itself to make its Google Lens service a part of everyday Google searches so an object in a picture can be searched for and ordered.

It's a massive shift in how we shop and how we interact with brands that is set to stay. The first wave of the internet involved lots of text on computer screens and then the second was all about clearer info making items "orderable" or "actionable" at the touch of a button on a smartphone screen. The third wave will be about voice and visual on mobile devices and smart speakers. 

I think it's safe to say that with such a massive shakeup big agencies launching voice and visual shops will become the norm, and that Mindshare is at the head of this curve.

Customers are more than just consumers of products and services. Understanding their personalities, lifestyles, and passions is key to creating more meaningful value and subsequently integrating your brand more intimately into their daily lives. Extend engagement beyond the point of transaction to offer ownership experiences such as product support, partner services, education and convenient renewal.

Brands can broaden customer engagement beyond products and services with resources, materials, and publications that shed light on a brand’s marketplace perspectives. Services that meet customers where they are and integrate into their daily lives can provide solutions that not only save time but, elevate time.

Away Airplane Mode
Travel company Away created a brand podcast called Airplane Mode, which explores the reasons we travel and the places we find ourselves. Customers can subscribe to the podcast via the website to access chats that offer tips for healthier travel, improving mental state through travel and work-life balance. The series features interviews with personal trainers, matcha connoisseurs and local residents from Africa and Thailand to Seattle. The brand also launched a new travel magazine called Here; every issue features cultural reports, travel journals, photo essays, interviews with known travelers and city guides from local creatives.

Nordstrom Local
Department store chain Nordstrom launched a series of small-format retail hubs that carry no inventory, only services. These Nordstrom Local hubs look nothing like the retailer’s traditional stores and are service-oriented, bringing Nordstrom’s services to the neighborhoods where customers live and work. Customers can pick up their online orders, size a tux, enjoy a styling service, do some work at a communal table, and get a manicure all under the roof of an airy, well-designed and conveniently located Nordstrom Local.

Harry’s Five O’Clock
Digital-first razor brand Harry’s relaunched its online publication Five O’Clock, widening its focus from grooming advice to social activism. The content is centered around the topics that aim to spark conversations around what it means to be a man today. In addition to the digital publication, Harry’s created a monthly playlist called ‘Shower Sessions’ on Spotify to enhance audiences’ daily routines.

Harvey Nichols AskHN
UK luxury department store Harvey Nichols has unveiled a new platform called AskHN that lets online shoppers connect directly with in-store associates when they need guidance. Shoppers can tap the “Hero” button on the retailer’s website to initiate a chat, which will automatically connect them to the best available associate for assistance, usually in the nearest store. Shoppers can get styling advice, such as how to get the most out of their favorite pieces or what to wear for a job interview, as well as beauty and food advice. The in-store team send pictures, live stream from the shop floor and send product recommendations.

For more examples of how brands are solving for customer needs and delivering meaningful services, visit PSFK’s report Defining The Modern Luxury Experience Across Brand Touchpoints.

Marketers still lack the skills to use data correctly, even when they have access to search, location and other types of data.

When consumers were asked in a recent survey how effective brands have been in using data to personalize digital advertising campaigns, only 18% said ads "often" seemed to understand their needs. Some 47% report that ads seem to understand their needs at least "sometimes," 26% said online ads "hardly ever" understand them, and 9% said they "never" understand them.

Janrain, which focuses on customer identify and access management, will release findings this week from its Consumer Attitudes Toward Data Privacy and Security Survey in which 1,079 U.S.-based residents 18 years old and over participated in during August 2018. The results show that for the most part, U.S. consumers still trust brands but would rather have "consent-based relationships" following the recent breaches and controversies affecting data privacy.

Consent-based relationships refers to brands having some sort of way for consumers to opt in to agree for brands to use their data before serving them products, services, or advertisements.

While 14% have lost all faith in an organization’s ability to protect their data, 42% say they are open to forgive the brand and 7% refuse when it comes to a brand allowing "bad actors" to steel personal data.

Nearly half of consumers participating in the survey said they would give brands a pass for data breaches as long as they tell them immediately about the attack and how the company plans to respond.

Although consumers have mixed feelings when it comes to privacy and trusting brands, many have stepped up to take control of protecting their data. The study reports that 71% have downloaded software that protects their data privacy or otherwise helps control their web experience.

The findings also suggest that given the option, 55% of consumers surveyed would allow companies they trust to use some of their personal data for specific purposes that benefit them. Only 36% would not allow any company to use their personal data, while some 66% like the idea of being able to alert companies when they are interested in something as long as they could "switch it off" when they are no longer interested, and 16% are not interested in this even if it came with preferences control.

Some 54% said they might give up personal information up front like a phone number or email address before being able to conduct business with a brand. Some 15% of those surveyed said "yes" they would, while 24% said "probably."

The findings also found that Europe’s General Data Protection Rules have caught the attention of U.S. consumers. Some 66% of those surveyed have begun to ask again for GDPR-like rules in the United States that force brands to provide consumers with greater privacy, security and control of their personal data.

In the May 2018 survey, about 69% of those who responded wanted more regulation in the U.S. Only 9% believe such laws would be ineffective, while only 6% believe more regulation would be too hard on businesses and the economy.

Some 59% believe achieving data security requires consumers, business and government to share in the responsibility, while 44% report being most concerned about protecting their financial data over all other forms of personal data, 25% of consumers realize the importance of protecting their passwords -- and 12% have given up worrying about their computer/mobile security, since hackers can break into company networks anyway.