Econsultancy customers survey on UK gambling

A survey conducted by the independent ecommerce and digital marketing consultancy, Econsultancy has revealed some interesting results.

The survey in consultation with Foviance and TolunaQuick was based on five consumer studies covering the online banking, mobile phone provider, gaming/gambling, travel and retail sectors directed at a sample of 5,000 British respondents who were anonymously polled during September 2011.

– Consumers are less likely to recommend a gambling than companies in the retail, mobile, banking and travel sectors, with 47 percent saying they would endorse a gambling brand, compared with a high of 73 percent for retailers, and 64 percent for mobile phone brands.

– Key areas for improvement identified by gambling customers were:

–     They want the best odds for their bets
–     A user-friendly website
–     Efficient customer service
–     Quick resolution of problems.

– Customer’s preferred channels revealed:

–     30 percent of the sample utilises a desktop computer
–     mobile users account for 9 percent
–     tablet users account for 5 percent.
–     26 percent of the sample place their bets at bookmaker shops.

– Use of mobile for betting is more prevalent in the 18 to 34 age group, with 15 percent placing a bet on their phones in the past six months.

– With mobile gambling on the rise survey results revealed that the mobile user experience has room for improvement.

– 56 percent of customers rated the mobile experience as good or excellent, compared with 67 percent for desktop.

– 12 percent rated it as poor or very poor. The same figure for desktop users was just 5 percent.

– If companies didn’t have a mobile version of the service, or the mobile offering was poor, then this was enough to deter 7 percent of respondents.

– The tablet users sit somewhere in the middle.

– Customers close their accounts because:

–     There were too few offers or incentives – 33 percent
–     Only registered to take advantage of a promotion – 17 percent
–     The interface was poor – 11 percent
–     Bad experience on the site – 9 percent

Respondents named the following brands as providing the best customer experience:
(Ranked in order of number of mentions from highest to lowest)

–     Ladbrokes
–     Paddy Power
–     Coral
–     Betfred
–     Bet365 and SkyBet
–     Gala Bingo and Mecca Bingo
–     Betfair
–     888.com and Betfred
–     Foxy Bingo Customers

More in-depth survey information is available at http://econsultancy.com/us/reports/surveys