Today’s post is a little bit different from our normal posts. This Colloquy study: “The 2011 COLLOQUY Cross-Cultural Loyalty Study” caught my eye. It’s a good study and looks at the different views of customer loyalty in different countries.
The Colloquy guys focused on the differences between the emerging economies (Brazil, China and India), and developed economies (Australia, Canada and the U.S.). However, what hit me was how Australia looked at the world, not to the world, but at the world.
There are two charts in particular that I found to be an interesting comment on Australia and its perspective.
The first one, below, asks the question “Competition from foreign companies is a good thing.” I was surprised or perhaps disheartened to see Australia rank the lowest of any country. Turning this around it says that Australians would prefer no external competition.
It is not clear to me where this perspective comes from.
For many years, Australia was far removed from the global competitive arenas due to the “tyranny of distance”. That was 20 or 30 years ago. Perhaps this is a legacy of that time. However, in the current global market place this idea must surely be past it’s use by date.
More troubling to me is the apparent rejection of external competition by Australian consumers. A strong competitive market drives innovation, value for money and diverse options. There are constant calls for increased competition across a range of sectors in Australia but it seems that consumers only want local competition.
I find this a strange reaction from a country that prides itself in punching above its weight in many areas on the global stage from mining to biotech to Olympic medals.
The other chart that caught my eye examined optimism for the coming decade.
If the first chart was disheartening then this one is worse. Australia is the least optimistic for the coming decade of all the countries shown and well below countries in arguably a much worse economic position. We have enormous mineral wealth, a good economy by global standards, low unemployment, and good opportunities for most people. Yet we are caught up in pessimism that just does not seem to be justified.
Perhaps the U.S. is so much more optimistic because they are in a worse economic position at the moment and people there can’t, and don’t want to, imagine that it will get worse over the next 10 years.
On the other hand perhaps the bruising political debate here in Australia over the last two years has really taken a toll on the Australian psyche. If that is the case it is a pity because the “she’ll be right” attitude that Australians have been so proud of, and famous for, in the last 100 years seems to have been tarnished in the process.
Next week back to our normal programing but these two charts seemed too important to skip over. What do you think they represent?
Adam Ramshaw has been helping companies to improve their Net Promoter® and Customer Feedback systems for more than 15 years. He is on a mission to stamp out ineffective processes and bad surveys.
Hi Adam,
I cannot explain the optimism results, but the foreign brands data may be an example of the difference between survey results and actual behaviour.
Dick Smith will tell you that Aussies claim to support local brands vehemently – until it comes to paying a few cents more and then they buy the foreign brand. Our retailers are also crying poor and partly blaming online purchasing of foreign products, so this does not make complete sense to me.
I remember a loyalty comment that is relevant (from someone at Tesco I think); in survey after survey customers tell us they want immediate discounts not points, then they change their behaviour to maximise their points.
This gap between surveys and behaviour makes it really important to regularly correlate feedback scores (including NPS)with churn, repurchase rates etc., measures of actual behaviour.
Tim,
You make some good points about the disconnect between words and actions in surveys and I agree with them.
Even so I was surprised at the results, especially considering the strength of rhetoric surrounding competition in a variety of market areas in Australia.
Thanks for your comments.
Adam.
Hi Adam,
To me, the optimism chart is the complete opposite from what we should expect. We live in paradise and we know it. Through centuries, people have demonstrated a fear of change when times are bad; and more appetite for change when things are good.
I agree with you that the political debate might be to blame for a shift in culture, towards more intolerance for anything perceived not Australian. If that’s the case, the question is: is this a permanent shift or will it only last as long as the current political leaders dominating the media?
eveliene
Eveliene,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, the optimism chart is depressing. I’ve had some people try to explain it by “we’ve got it so good that people can’t see how it get better over the next 10 years”. I’m not sure I agree with that view.
I certainly hope it’s not a permanent change in view. The “can do” attitude of Australians is (was) one of our best attributes.
Adam