This is a 2009 study of 2,295 U.S. adults ages 18 years or older by Harris Interactive on behalf of RightNow Technologies. Although the stats aren’t recent, I think the findings are still useful today.

The Customer Experience Impact: North America 2009 Report shows that consumer expectations are high, social networking is amplifying consumer voices and never before has delivering great customer experiences been more critical. Empowered by the social web, consumers are forcing change. Companies can no longer manage the customer relationship; however they can control the customer experience.

Finding highlights include:

• 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company due to a bad customer experience, up 27% from 2005;
• 60% of consumers will always or often pay more for a better experience, up from 58% in 2008;
• 82% of consumers that had a bad experience told others about it, up 22% from 2006;
• Many consumers that had a bad customer experience and told others about it shared their experience online by posting a negative customer review on the company’s website (23%), Facebook (7%), or a blog (6%);
• 28% of consumers online said that by improving website usability and search functionality companies can better engage with them to encourage them to spend more;
• 73% of consumers prefer to speak directly to a live customer service agent;
• 66% want to send an email when they interact with a company;
• When consumers are researching a company’s product or service online or having a problem with a product/service, they usually call (62%) or email (49%) the company directly;
• 18% of consumers want to be able to chat online with a live agent when they are having a problem;
• Agent influenced sales have increased 83% in 2009, increasing from 24% to 44%;
• 51% of consumers who have contacted a company looking for customer service and ended up making another purchase based on the agent’s recommendation, made the other purchase because the offer was relevant and complimentary to what they had already purchased;
• 58% said if they had complained about a bad experience with a company on a social networking site, such as Twitter, they would like the company to reach out directly and respond to their comment;
• When online consumers follow a particular brand on Twitter:
  • 62% are looking for special offers; and
  • 38% are looking for tips or advice.

It is clear that consumer expectations are high and they demand excellent customer experiences. This presents a challenge for businesses, but it also presents an opportunity.

How is your company meeting consumer expectations in the 21st century?

Download the 4th Annual Customer Experience Impact Report at RightNow »

Have you ever wanted to target potential customers in foreign markets, but was put off by the language barrier?

Well, Google has realized that many of its AdWords advertisers are faced with this problem and has launched a couple of online tools to help make it easier for businesses to reach new markets overseas.

The Google Global Market Finder is a free, online keyword tool to help businesses find global AdWords advertising opportunities.

The Google Global Market Finder:

• Helps you find opportunities to reach over 1.7 billion customers around the world;
• Automatically translates keywords into your customers’ language;
• Shows you where customers are searching for your product, from Albania to Zimbabwe or anywhere in between; and
• Helps you make the most out of your ad budget by comparing cost estimates across languages and locations.

To use the tool, enter keywords that describe your product or service and select a market or region you’d like to explore. You can choose from regions such as the European Union, the ‘G20′ economies, or the Americas.

Google Global Market Finder automatically translates your keyword into languages used in each of your selected markets. It then ranks each location by market opportunity by combining search volume, suggested bid price, and competition for each translated keyword. With this tool, businesses can answer questions like ‘how competitive is this market?’, ‘how does demand in one location compare to demand elsewhere in the world?’, and ‘how much would it cost to start advertising in this new market?’ The automatic translation is not perfect, so you still have to do some work to make sure the translated terms are correct.

Google Ads for Global Advertisers

Google also launched a new website that brings together Global Market Finder, AdWords, Google Translate, and other tools that can help you find, engage with, and support your customers worldwide – whether those customers are consumers or businesses searching for suppliers online.

Google Ads for Global Advertisers is a website where you can learn more about Google tools that can help expand your business overseas. Google Ads for Global Advertisers contains step-by-step guides and tools that take you from local to global: from finding the right markets to expand your business, to localizing your website and campaigns into another language, to running ads in a foreign market, and finally, to monitoring your global ad spend.

This website pulls together resources for you to:

• Find the right market for your products and services, by using tools such as the Global Market Finder;
• Translate your websites and ad text using Google Translate Web Element and Google Translator Toolkit;
• Reach new customers with relevant online ads; and
• Understand options for international payment, shipping, and customer service.

On the website, you will find success stories of businesses that have gone global using AdWords, including:

• Purely Gadgets: PurelyGadgets MD Alan Lim describes how seizing the opportunity to start exporting proved key to the electronic distibutor’s survival in the downturn;
• Arena Flowers: Faced with fierce domestic competition and a weak pound, web-based florist Arenaflowers.com used Google AdWords campaigns to expand to Germany and Holland;
• Mosaic Marble: Husband-and-wife entrepreneurs describe how they use Google AdWords to reach customers in 8 languages worldwide;
• SysAid: Marketing executive Saar Bitner explains how Google AdWords helped SysAid grow and reach 6 million end users in over 100 countries;
• Cloggs: UK-based footwear retailer Cloggs describe how they launched a French language website with the help of Google AdWords; and
• 1791 Diamonds: New Zealand-based retailer 1791 Diamonds explains how they work with Google to sell engagement rings worldwide.

Google’s new website and tools should help you reach overseas markets, whether you’re a small business testing exports for the first time, or a mid-sized company looking to grow your multinational business. Both Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers will be available in 43 languages.

Could your business use Google Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers to expand into foreign markets?

Google Global Market Finder »

Google Ads for Global Advertisers »

According to Nielsen’s latest Ecommerce Landscape Report:

• 8 out of 10 of the active UK online population (31.6m people) visited at least one of the UK’s top 200 ecommerce sites in August, 2010;
• 16% (89 million transactions from 546 million visits) ended in a purchase;
• Ebay is most popular ecommerce site with 17.7m UK visitors;
• Conversion rates:
• Domino’s Pizza: 27%
• Amazon: 20%
• Interflora: 20%
• QVC: 17%
• Main reason for shopping online:
• Cheaper prices: 57%
• Ability to shop any time: 32%
• Not having to deal with sales staff: 29%

Full story at New Media Age »

Yahoo! Clues is a free online search phrase tool that lets you explore how people are using Yahoo! Search. Simply enter a word or phrase and Yahoo! Clues will display information about that search term’s popularity over time, across demographic groups, and in different locations. You can also enter a second search term to compare both terms side by side.

Yahoo! Clues provides the following categories of information:

• Searches Over Time: This chart provides search volume trends over time: the past day, 7 days, or 30 days;
• By Demographic: Provides a demographic breakdown of age, gender, or both;
• By Income: Provides a breakdown of income distribution for your search term using anonymous aggregated zip code information from Yahoo! Search matched against per capita income data from the US Census Bureau;
• By Location: This map shows where the greatest concentrations of searches originated. Currently, only Yahoo! Search information originating from the United States is available. You may click on the list of states to get detailed information on where searches are coming from within that state;
• Search Flow: This section provides a list of the most probable previous and next user searches from an analysis of aggregated search patterns across Yahoo! Search. The top item under ‘Previous Queries’ represents the most probable search term people tried before your search term. Similarly, the top item under ‘Next Queries’ represents the most probable search term people tried after your search term; and
• Related Searches: Provides a list of the most common related search terms across Yahoo! Search and is not limited to the user search patterns displayed in “Search Flow”.

Yahoo! Clues doesn’t provide indepth market research insights but can provide some useful bits of information about your target audience.

For example, the search above reveals that men aged 45 to 54 who searched for Christmas also searched for outdoor Christmas decorations and Radio City Christmas spectacular. While women in the same age bracket who searched for Christmas also searched for Christmas cookies and clipart.

Does Yahoo! Clues give any insights into your target audience?

Yahoo! Clues »

Want to spy on your competition – legally? Want to know how much consumers are really spending in a particular area of the United States and/or business?

Well now you can, with the help of Mint Data by Mint.com.

Over 1 million people use Mint.com, an online money management and budgeting software application. Mint.com tracks over $175 billion in transactions, $47 billion in assets and has identified more than $300 million in potential savings for its users.

Mint Data reveals what Mint.com’s four million users are really spending. You can search by business and/or location, in four categories:

• Food and dining.
• Shopping.
• Travel.
• Auto and transport.

For example, did you know that Mint.com’s four million users spend an average of $143.84 at Costco in San Francisco, while the average purchase at Costco in Brooklyn, New York, is $181.37.

What does that tell is? That Costco prices are 25% higher in New York than in San Fran, or New Yorkers buy 25% more stuff.

In the charts above, I noticed that the average purchase at Addison in San Diego is $494.83, almost triple its nearest rivals. I have no idea what Addison is, so I clicked on the Addison link, and it revealed that Addison is the 47th most popular restaurant in San Diego, according to Mint.com.

And you can compare the average purchase of 209 restaurants in San Diego tracked by Mint.com, which is interesting data if you manage, or are thinking of starting a restaurant in San Diego.

Visit the Mint Data website »