Consumers value quality of customer service when buying online

Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 11:53 by Sarah Collinson

A survey conducted by Salesforce has found that almost three quarters of British shoppers would be compelled to avoid engaging with a particular retailer if they had experienced unsatisfactory customer service, according to Econsultancy.

This shows that the quality of customer service has a bigger impact on buying decisions than almost anything else, with just 25 per cent of respondents saying that they would be dissuaded from engaging with a particular firm if they saw too much marketing material for its products and services.

Even less of a concern is the availability of a mobile app, with just four per cent saying that this would be a deal breaker in terms of doing business with a retailer or other organisation.

The good news is that outlets that offer safe shopping online in the UK seem to be getting better at meeting the needs of customers, as 50 per cent of those questioned said that in the past half decade they had seen a marked improvement in customer service quality.

Conversely, less than one in 10 believed that the experience had become worse in the same period, which paints a positive picture of the impact that the digital age and safe shopping online are having on the marketplace.

Retailers still need to make improvements when it comes to the multichannel experience, as 36 per cent of shoppers said that they would ditch a brand if there was a lack of cohesion when they moved from buying online to visiting real world stores or using m-commerce apps.

A similar proportion complained that they were regularly bombarded with offers that were irrelevant to their tastes, thus putting the offending retailers in their bad books and causing a schism in loyalty which it may be difficult to repair.