A new tradition has taken hold as Christmas approaches, amid the hoarding of selection boxes and the munching of mince pies. In a relatively short time, we have become a nation of armchair shoppers and market research companies and analysts jostle to issue ever higher predictions of the proportion of Christmas shopping that will be done online.
One such firm, Jupiter Research, points to the strong growth of broadband in the home as an underlying reason. It points out that Europeans are now spending more time online than reading newspapers and magazines.
IMRG, the online retail trade body estimates that during the 10-week run-up to Christmas 2006, UK shoppers will spend £7 billion – 40 per cent more than the £5 billion spent online during the same period in 2005, and more than double the £3.3 billion recorded in 2004.
First port of call
Christmas aside, online has now eclipsed the high-street, directories and print advertising as the first port of call when searching for financial services and travel products, with over 50 per cent of consumers preferring to use the internet according to Equi=Media.
Interestingly for the mortgage industry, the company goes on to highlight ‘this growing trend in consumer behaviour online has led to greater product and category awareness – not necessarily brand awareness – allowing the creation of a significant industry of introducers to ‘hijack’ the general search terms and steer consumers away from more widely known brands’.
Not the most flattering description, but broadly accurate. I can only agree that from our experience, consumers who search online for mortgage deals are attracted by good rates, more than they are lured by brand name product providers. The art in online marketing, (if indeed such a thing can be claimed), is to attract people to a website where they naturally want to leave their details in order to be contacted in a very transparent, permission-based exchange of information in return for relevant service.
Interestingly, the same research which also points to the declining importance of brands in these situations, underlines the fact that people still want to deal with people when buying financial products. Good news for the relationship between a lead generator and a broker.
Usability
There is another layer of expertise that helps to determine the number of visitors who will leave their details on a web site – usability. Although this is not really the concern of a broker, the same skills that produce a effective website will also be directed at designing their experience of the technology so everyone benefits.
Usability is a vital component of customer experience. Management consultants up and down the country are advising all types of business from banks to garden centres on how giving customers a better experience will increase their loyalty. We don’t disagree. By putting ourselves in our customers’ shoes and thinking about how they use our service, we were able to design an appropriate way for them to get what they need. We called it ‘Mortgage Self-Service’ in a nod to the Ronseal school of product naming.
In this way, the customer experience comes back full circle, and that’s a gift all round.
