As many as 53% of consumers state that they are worried that if a digital service doesn’t work as it should, it will impact their family holiday
As excitement builds ahead of the festive period, consumers are warning brands that they want nothing but the very best, most seamless, and secure digital experiences this holiday season.
At Cisco, we recently conducted research on more than 12,000 global consumers exploring the role that applications and digital services will play during the holidays and, in particular, on those special days when friends and families come together to celebrate.
The study found that, across the world, households will be turning to digital services for almost every aspect of their festivities – to stream music and movies, to buy last-minute gifts and groceries, to finish off work ahead of the holidays, and to keep up to date with news and sports. Indeed, 60% of consumers expect to be using more applications and digital services this holiday season than in previous years.
But while a large majority of people now regard applications as a critical part of any enjoyable holiday season, they are also extremely worried about the impact of an application or digital service failing to perform. At a time of the year when stress levels can often go through the roof, people are becoming increasingly concerned about applications letting them down. So much so that some now admit that a bad digital experience will severely dampen their festive spirits and could even see them acting like the Grinch!
As a result, consumers will have zero tolerance for any brand whose digital services let them down this holiday season. They’ll ditch the application (and shun the brand behind it), share their negative experiences, and immediately switch to an alternative.
According to the recent pulse survey conducted by Cisco, application usage is poised to surge this holiday season, potentially escalating stress levels for users if digital services fail to perform optimally. The study reveals just how many different digital services people will be using during the holiday period. From connected devices and gaming to food deliveries and news and information, consumers will be relying on applications like never before. The most used applications are likely to be for entertainment (76%), tools for connecting with friends and family (74%), retail (69%), utilities (69%), and banking and insurance (67%).
For application owners, this is welcome news. Record numbers of consumers will be engaging with their digital services and downloading their applications, presenting a massive opportunity to grow their customer bases and ramp up sales over the festive period.
However, at the same time, brands also face an unprecedented level of risk should their applications and digital services not perform. With people so completely dependent on digital services, their responses to any brand which delivers a poor digital experience are likely to be extreme.
Around the world, consumers are expressing genuine concern about the prospect of an application letting them down when they need it most. For example, 55% are worried about a banking application not working so they can’t make an important payment or transfer, while 50% have fears that a messaging platform will fail so they can’t speak to friends and family on the big day. Large numbers of people are also anxious about the possibility of a retail application going down so that they can’t buy a last-minute gift, or a digital health service not working properly so they can’t get the medication that they or a family member needs over the holidays.
Overall, as many as 53% of consumers state that they are worried that if a digital service doesn’t work as it should, it will impact their family holiday. And 26% of people admit that a poorly performing application will make them so stressed and angry that they will turn into The Grinch!
As per the survey, there will be no second chances for application owners. These findings convey a very serious message – any slip-up in digital experience during the holiday season will see consumers walking away en masse. The moment people encounter a problem, they will delete the application and never use it again. Indeed, 50% of global consumers state that, although it may be the holiday season, they won’t be able to forgive an application that lets them down. And many will go out of their way to warn others against using the offending digital service.
The hard truth for application owners is that consumer expectations for digital experiences have reached a new high. People are now exposed to the most intuitive, seamless and secure digital experiences, delivered by the world’s most innovative brands, and they see no reason why they shouldn’t get the same every time they use an application. Organizations therefore need to ensure that they’re able to deliver exceptional digital experiences as standard.
However, as anybody who works in IT knows, this task is becoming ever more difficult. Rapid digital transformation has left IT teams managing highly dispersed and complex hybrid application landscapes without full visibility into cloud native technologies. This makes it very challenging to detect and understand performance and security issues before they impact the end user experience. Technologists are stuck on the back foot, constantly firefighting.
CTO Advisor EMEA,
Cisco Observability
This is why it’s now so vital for organizations to implement application observability, to give IT teams full and unified visibility across their hybrid environments. With application observability and application availability, performance and security data can be correlated with key business metrics so that technologists can not only rapidly identify issues and understand root causes, but also prioritize these issues based on their potential impact on customers. They can focus on fixing the issues that really could spoil the holiday season for millions of people around the world.
For application owners, the warning from consumers this holiday season couldn’t be any clearer – deliver anything other than a world-class digital experience and your application will be going on the naughty list. And so, to continue the theme, every IT leader should be putting application observability at the top of their present wish list this year!
