But how much of a role does poor data quality play in creating a bad customer experience? Here’s a clue: probably more than you think.
In a recent Loqate study - Fixing Failed Deliveries: Improving Data Quality in Retail - we found that 66% of online shoppers in the US have experienced a failed or late delivery in the last year.
We discovered that according to almost one in five retailers, an address entered incorrectly in the checkout is to blame for failed deliveries. And 80% of retailers say that customers don’t realise that they are effectively at fault for entering incorrect address data details.
Poor UX
But let's consider the customer’s point of view for a moment. Think about the way they are asked to enter their address details in the online checkout. According to our study, almost a third of shoppers have experienced issues when entering details.
Not only this, but 61% of online shoppers would abandon the checkout if they experienced this sort of problem, and 34% would look for the item from a different retailer. Both of which, the retailer cannot afford to happen.
These statistics indicate that shoppers are tired of the frustrating address capture methods used by so many retailers. In fact, we found that 51% of customers feel more confident placing an order with retailers who use technology to suggest the right address.
Lack of communication
And it isn’t just deliveries that are at risk of never reaching their intended recipient. What about all the money you have spent on those customer communications – special offers, important updates, and company news that don’t make it to their intended recipient. If you have an important piece of information that you need to communicate to your customers, how do you really know they have seen it?
This can lead to further frustration; particularly where subscriptions are coming to an end or you require the customer to do something by a particular date.
Lack of trust
Another issue with poor data quality is that it leads to a lack of trust. This is true of shoppers who experience delivery issues, but also of staff. The more employees detect inconsistencies, the less likely they are to trust the validity of the data in your database. Time spent checking and double-checking data leads to lower productivity rates and employee dissatisfaction. After all, if employees don’t have the correct information about their customers, how can they effectively help with customer queries?
Fixing the problem
Poor data quality really is a major cause for delivery issues and the problems they bring, but this can be resolved by investing in the right tools. One such tool is type-ahead address validation, which auto-suggests full addresses as the user begins to type their address, based on their location. Addresses can then be autocompleted in the click of a button rather than the necessity to manually type the whole thing.
This tool removes consumer frustration, speeds up the checkout process and ensures that only clean and accurate data is captured. This then guarantees that retailers have the correct address data and can send items and communications to the right place, first time.
Read the full report Fixing Failed Deliveries: Improving Data Quality in Retail for more information on the impacts poor data quality has on retailers and their customers.
