Business to Business Key Findings May/June 2011
Customer Service More Important During Recession
Some 61% of Americans say that customer service is more important to them during the recession than it was in prior years. They repay excellent service by spending an average of 9% more with those companies. Only 37% say that companies have taken notice of this change and improved their customer service. Some 28% say companies are actually paying less attention to the service they provide.
The greatest influences in consumers’ choices of companies to do business with include personal experience (98%), the company’s reputation or brand (92%), and recommendations from friends and family (88%).
Email Use Dropping as Social Networking Picks Up
According to ComScore, email use dropped 59% among users aged 12-17, as well as 8% overall during 2010. Users between the ages of 18 and 54 are also sending/receiving email less, however, those 55 and older are actually using email more.
Instead of using email, young people in America are turning to social networks to communicate. Social networks account for 14% of time spent online in the U.S. Specifically, Facebook accounts for 10% of page views and it enjoyed a 38% growth of American users to reach 153.9 million in 2010. Total time spent on the site went up 79% to 49.4 billion minutes.
Facebook is only one piece of the American social networking scene. Nine out of every 10 online users visited social networking sites by the end of 2010. LinkedIn grew by 30% to 26.6 million users, while Twitter grew 18% to 23.6 million users, and Tumblr enjoyed 168% growth to 6.7 million users. However, MySpace saw a decrease of 26%, falling to 50 million users.
Computer Tablet Use
Most computer tablet users are finding it primarily a source of entertainment. Nearly seven in 10 tablet owners spend at least 1 hour per day using the device, including 38% who spend over two hours. While 28% consider it their primary computer, 77% report they are spending less time on their desktop or laptop PCs since they got a tablet.
Over 80% of tablet owners said they mostly use the device at home; just 11% use them primarily on the go.
Some 43% of tablet owners spend more time each day with their tablet than with a desktop or laptop computer. Other select media receiving less time due to tablet usage are detailed in the chart below.
The most common tablet activity is playing games. Other activities are detailed below.
U.S. Tablet Owners Who Spend More Time Each Day on Their Tablet Than with Select Media, March 2011 (% of respondents)
- 59% Paper book
- 52% Radio
- 43% Desktop/laptop
- 41% Smartphone
- 34% TV
- 11% None of the above
Source: AdMob
Electronic Medical Records
Some 20-30% of all primary care physicians in the U.S. currently use basic electronic health records. Practices or physicians using electronic health records make an average of $44,000 more in net income per year than those who do not, basically because electronic processes are set up to log all procedures performed, which triggers billing that might be missed using a paper method.
Recession Affecting Breaks at Work
One-third of American workers (32%) take less than a half hour for lunch, 5% take less than 15 minutes, and 10% never take a lunch break. Almost one in five (18%) typically do not leave their desk but eat in their office daily. Since the recession began, 47% have been packing lunch more often than they used to in order to save money or to eat healthier.
The recession has also caused changes for smokers: 44% say they are more likely to quit because of the cost of their habits. In addition, 21% are taking fewer smoke breaks during the work day, and 20% have quit completely.
To put that into perspective, the majority of smokers take three smoke breaks per day (70%) and another 12% say they take four or five breaks a day. Some 78% of all smokers say their smoke breaks last up to 10 minutes each.
Retirement Planning: Women vs. Men
Women are less confident than men when it comes to retirement planning. While 27% of men say they are doing a good job of preparing financially for retirement, only 18% of women claim the same. In addition, men are less concerned about having enough money to take care of basic expenses during retirement (32% of men versus 24% of women).
Women (68%) are more likely than men ( 52%) to be “very concerned” that Social Security payments will be reduced, and worry that the age at which they become eligible for Social Security retirement benefits will increase before they retire (54% of women versus 44% of men). However, women seem to be more willing to rely on Social Security as a future source of income: 82% of women report that Social Security will be a source of income in retirement, compared to 72% of men.
Despite longer life expectancies, women are saving less for retirement than men. Women are more likely than men (35% vs. 26%) to think they will need less than $250,000 for retirement. Some 12% of women say they do not know how much they need to save, while only 5% of men said they were unsure of their savings needs. Men are also more likely to believe they need more than $1 million for retirement.
Workers’ Reasons to Quit Jobs
Some workers return from their summer vacations with a new outlook on work, which often leads to thoughts of quitting. The chart below details the reasons.
Reasons Workers Have Considered Quitting Their Jobs upon Returning From Summer Vacations, 2010.
Bullets
- Twitter users are more likely than average to write a blog (+506%); upload a video to a website (+451%); and post a comment or review on a blog, online forum or message board (+315%); They are also more likely to be a published author (+209%) and attend a political speech, rally or organized protest (+103%).
- Americans’ savings rate (as a percentage of disposable income) rose from 2.1% in October of 2007 to 5.7% in October of 2010.
- A weak handshake (cited by 26% of hiring managers) is less likely than poor eye contact (67%) or bad posture (33%) to adversely affect their decision to hire someone.