News, Entertainment Sites Need to Continually Measure Customer Experiences

Customer satisfaction trends suggest that news and entertainment web and mobile sites need to constantly measure overall customer experiences to increase future loyalty, according to a benchmark report released today by ForeSee.

Foresee’s new research reports on customer satisfaction trends for news and entertainment web and mobile sites during the first quarter of 2013. The research also quantifies the value of satisfaction in terms of loyalty and recommendations. The benchmark report comprises nearly 400,000 customer surveys on the web and mobile experiences provided by some of the major players in these categories.

This benchmark release includes several major categories of news and entertainment websites and mobile experiences. Each category is given an average satisfaction score on a 100-point scale so that organizations within that category can determine if they surpass or fall short of industry averages.

Highly satisfied visitors register satisfaction scores of 80 or above while the future behaviors of less-satisfied site visitors register scores of 69 and below.

News websites: The ForeSee news benchmark report includes websites for organizations such as Forbes Media, Bloomberg, the NFL, The Guardian, the Weather Channel, and Vanity Fair. Aggregate satisfaction for this category is 66 on ForeSee's 100-point scale, and individual website scores within the benchmark range from a low of 56 to a high of 79.

Since customer behaviors like loyalty and recommendations have a direct effect on a news organization's future success, ForeSee compared the behaviors of highly satisfied website visitors. Based on likelihood scores, highly satisfied visitors to news websites report being: 43% more likely than less satisfied visitors to return to the website; 137% more likely to recommend the website to a friend, family member or colleague, which results in more site visits and a premium on ad space; and 67% more likely to use the site as a primary resource.

Entertainment websites: This category includes websites for organizations such as ESPN, PBS, the NFL, Conde Nast, StubHub, and many others. Aggregate satisfaction for this benchmark is 67 -- slightly higher than the average satisfaction for news sites. Individual company scores within the entertainment benchmark range from a low of 49 to a high of 84. Highly satisfied visitors to entertainment sites, in general, are 52% more likely to return, 124% more likely to recommend, and 84% more likely to use the site as a primary resource.

Advertising-driven vs. Subscription-based sites: ForeSee researchers looked at the customers' perspective of both the media and entertainment sites that are advertising-driven and those that are subscription-based. At an aggregate level, the two segment groups each recorded a customer satisfaction score of 72. The scores for ad-driven sites range from a low of 66 to a high of 84, while scores for subscription sites range from a low of 53 to a high of 80.

Based on the research, highly satisfied visitors to advertising-driven news and entertainment sites, which include websites for organizations such as ESPN, Forbes, Businessweek, the NFL, the Weather Channel and many more, report being: 38% more likely than less satisfied visitors to return to the website; 88% more likely to recommend the website to a friend, family member, or colleague; and 63% more likely to use the site as their primary resource.

Highly satisfied visitors to subscription-based news and entertainment websites for organizations such as Golf Digest, GameFly, AutoTrader, and Forbes report being: 66% more likely than less satisfied visitors to return to the website; 100% more likely to recommend the website; and 126% more likely to use the site as their primary resource.

News and Entertainment Mobile Sites and Apps: Mobile sites and apps outperform traditional news and entertainment (both ad-driven and subscription-based) websites with an average satisfaction score of 73, with individual scores within the benchmark ranging from a low of 58 to a high of 85.

Eric Feinberg, senior director of Mobile, News and Entertainment at ForeSee, said in a release that given mobile’s rapid ascension in the past few years, measuring the customer experience across mobile devices is “quickly becoming a need rather than a want for news and entertainment companies."

With category scores ranging from the high 50s to mid-80s, there is some satisfaction disparity.

“The challenge now is for those companies that are doing well in mobile to continue to do so,” Feinberg added. “And those scoring low will need to step it up less they want to be passed by."

ForeSee's mobile research shows highly satisfied visitors to news and entertainment sites through a mobile device report being: 56% more likely than less satisfied visitors to return to the mobile site or app; and 98% more likely to recommend the mobile site or app to a friend, family member or colleague.

Larry Freed, president and CEO of Foresee, said in the release that the benchmark report revealed one constant theme – companies that provide a superior customer experience will have a “huge competitive advantage over another. The news and entertainment industry is remarkably competitive, and, as the low aggregate scores show, many companies can truly benefit from continuous measurement of the customer experiences across both web and mobile touch points.”

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