The 2016 ‘Salesforce Empowered Shopper Report’ reveals 66 per cent of consumers expect a consistent experience across all touch points, revealing massive opportunity for retailers to deliver a seamless customer experience online and in-store.
“Customer expectations have completely been reset and will continue to evolve as easy, frictionless and on-demand experiences become the new norm,” Salesforce Marketing Cloud, JAPAC Senior Vice-President And General Manager Lee Hawksley said.
“Our report shows that customer experience is now the number one driver for consumers when choosing between brands.”
The top three reasons shoppers will switch brands include a difficult purchasing or check-out process (70 per cent), inconsistent levels of service (66 per cent) and an inconsistent experience (60 per cent). This is contrasted with the key reasons for loyalty: ‘responds immediately when I reach out for help’ (79 per cent), ‘makes it easy to find products I need’ (77 per cent), ‘has knowledgeable sales reps’ (74 per cent).
The report also found that Australian shoppers are using mobile, email and in-person channels as part of their shopping journey, but the quality of these experiences can vary greatly. This presents a huge opportunity for retailers to look at all the channels their customers are using and ensure they are creating consistently amazing experiences across all of them – both digitally and in-store.
Looking to the future of customer service, shoppers expect innovation from brands through self service, including products that ‘self-diagnose issues and automatically order replacement parts/service’ (52 per cent), ‘products and services connected to the internet’ (52 per cent), ‘customer service that knows who I am as soon as I make contact’ (50 per cent), ‘service via virtual reality’ (43 per cent).