••• brand research
Data breaches spur consumer actions
Denver-based identity security firm Ping Identity surveyed more than 3,000 people across the U.S., U.K., France and Germany to find out what they expect from brands when it comes to the safekeeping of personal information. Almost half (47 percent) have made changes to the way they secure their personal data as a result of recent breaches and over half (54 percent) are more concerned with protecting their personal information today than they were a year ago. Seventy-eight percent of respondents would stop engaging with a brand online and more than one-third (36 percent) would stop engaging altogether if the brand had experienced a breach. Nearly half (49 percent) would not sign up and use an online service or application that recently experienced a data breach.
Ping found the greatest discrepancies in security sentiment and practices between those under 35 and those over 55. While the younger consumers have greater confidence in brands’ ability to protect their personal information and are more likely to spend more to ensure their personal information is protected, the older group guards their sensitive information more carefully and is less likely to have experienced financial loss as a result of a data breach.
••• customer experience
Rating the rating systems
A survey of over 3,000 U.S. consumers by ReviewInc found that the most popular system for rating the experience with a company or business was the familiar five-star rating system. Respondents were given a choice of three rating systems: the five-star rating system; an emoji rating system of happy, OK and sad smiley faces; and a Net Promoter Score system.
The emoji-based systems were second-most popular and Net Promoter system was the least popular. The 18-to-24-year-old demographic showed a lower preference for the five-star system than any other age group. At the same time, they showed the greatest preference for Net Promoter Score. The 65+ age group showed the greatest preference for the five-star rating system and least for the Emoji-based rating systems.
The emoji rating systems offer simple decision-making with the possibility of binary and ternary choices. Whether it’s based on the model of “happy or sad” or “happy, OK or sad,” these rating systems let consumers, inundated with requests for ratings, quickly provide their selection without thinking too much. However, unlike the five-star or NPS options, the emoji rating systems can lack depth as it is more difficult to spot small improvements in the overall rating of a product or service.