Comscore released a report last month that showed that more than 3 out of 4 UK searches are conducted on Google.

With those sorts of figures one has to really start to wonder whether the 'Microsoft factor' will eventually overtake Google too?

The report shows that in June, Google increased its lead as the most popular
search engine in the U.K. to 75.3 percent of all search queries, followed
by eBay (5.5 percent), Yahoo! (4.3 percent) and Microsoft (3.4 percent).

Total U.K., Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations

Property June 2008

Total Internet 100.0
Google 75.3
eBay 5.5
Yahoo! 4.3
Microsoft 3.4
Ask Network 2.4
AOL LLC 2.3
Facebook 2.2

Is there the real chance that people will get bored with Google or is it just so good that people don't care that it's so dominant?

Other notable findings from the Comscore report include:

• There were 3.9 billion total searches conducted in the U.K. during the month.
• 31 million U.K. Internet users conducted at least one search.
• U.K. searchers conducted an average of 124 searches per searcher during the month, or 4.1 searches per day.
• U.K. searchers made a combined total of 937 billion visits to a search engine in May, with an average of 4.1 searches per visit.

Web site: http://www.comscore.com

Nothing really totally new here, but it's well worth being reminded of what customers really want!

"When it comes to picking or sticking with a provider, consumers value service quality more than any other factor, according to the results of the third annual Accenture Global Customer Satisfaction Survey."

The key findings are that consumers report being satisfied or very satisfied with:

1. in-person service 59%


2. e-mail 44%


3. phone 43%


4. live online chat 30%


5. automated phone 16%

Consumers want the following:

1. ability to assist me now rather than forwarding me to someone else 43%


2. amount of time to resolve my problem 28%


3. quality of response 27%


4. customer service agent's manner and approach 23%


5. speed of response 22%

The research also says that ".......overall, service outweighs price by 20 percent as a reason for switching" and"......nearly 60 percent of respondents say that customer service is the key differentiating factor when choosing a new provider—ahead of price (55 percent), product (34 percent) and convenience (34 percent)."

We have touched on this subject before in SMEs on EStreet, but despite the facts that:

1. the UK has the most active online population of any country in Europe with around 21 million logging on every day and 72% using the Internet to make purchases


2. according to the Office of National Statistics show that between 2005-2006, consumers spent £103 billion in online purchases in the UK alone

UK SMEs seem determined to sleepwalk to disaster when it comes to the web:

1. 23% of websites have not been updated launch


2. The average age of a website is four years


3. Only 8% of respondents had an e-commerce element to their sites


4. 25% of companies had no way of tracking their site


5. 38% had no budget at all for website updates


6. For those with a budget the annual spend was around £250

All of this according to a survey by Netflare mentioned here.

UK SMEs really need to think!!!

ServiceXRG has released a report about how the web is changing the way businesses engage with customers.

Find the report here: http://www.inquira.com/resources/OnlineExperience.asp.

They divide a ‘successful experience’ into 4 stages:

Exploration: where the “customer is looking for the tools, resources and information” they need.

Formulation: where customers have to make a decision amongst the many opportunities they find.

Validation: where customers “check their decision with professional reviews, magazine articles, comments from peers, and other trusted sources”.

Action: where they do something.

Some critical observations from the study include:

Customers may know what they want but not always how to get it, so sites must help customers find what they want and then make it easy to get it. Sounds obvious, but so many sites just havn’t thought it out with simple one click and intuitive navigation etc.

When customers and prospects can’t find what they are looking for on a site they will look for it elsewhere and can then lock in to the competitor.

The report says:

“The key to delivering a compelling on-line shopping experience lies with the ability to provide customers with the means to find the information they need to make an informed purchase decision. Influencing the product research and shopping experience can have profound financial implications. Companies that deliver a positive experience by providing customers with tools and information that ultimately compel them to buy their products enjoy the associated financial rewards.”

But, unfortunately:

“Only 44% of customers indicate that the information found on company web sites meets their
shopping and product research needs.”

That means 56% don’t!!!

So the rules that the report comes up with and that are ‘plain common sense’ too:

• Understand what your customers expect
• Work out what's stopping you achieving that
• Work out how you can deliver it
• Identify the content and tools required
• Make the right investment to achieve your goals
• Try out your own site and fix problems
• Establish success criteria and monitor them
• Rinse and repeat

Have you seen ZoomInfo yet?

They say they have profiles on more than 37 million people and 3.5 million companies are you one of them? If you have a social networking or professional networking profile on the web you pretty soon will be.

There is also 123people who say they are "....a people search engine that looks into nearly every corner of the Web to help you find information on everyone you (want to) know."

Still even whilst some people are collecting data on you others are offering you the chance to see what's there - such as Garlik who reckon they allow you to "take control of your personal information and monitor your personal information online".

All worth looking into.