Various reports and studies have been conducted on consumer behaviour and what people look for when they’re choosing between businesses.
However, the most recent PwC Customer Sentiment Survey revealed a lot about the things consumers prioritise when they have first contact with brands — but also what encourages positive reactions towards certain brands over others. It may surprise you to discover these findings and what they mean for your business.
Good customer experiences matter the most
According to the survey, nearly 70% of customers would consider switching to another brand after just one bad experience. It highlights the importance of developing a positive experience for all customers, as this is what encourages them to choose one business over another — and, perhaps more importantly, to stick with that business for longer.
What’s interesting about this is that “customer experience” spans many factors, including:
- Support from staff: Businesses that are able to demonstrate great customer support with friendly staff tend to do better than those with the opposite. Consumers want to have good interactions with workers, so a smile and some empathy are key to this.
- Overall cleanliness: As explained by Jani-King, commercial cleaning is crucial for maintaining a professional image. Whether you work out of an office or rent a retail unit, cleanliness matters to customers because it forms part of their overall experience. If someone sees that a business is unclean, they are automatically less likely to use it.
- Product/service quality: Some would argue this is the most important factor in a good customer experience and it’s easy to understand why. If a product or service lacks the quality that a customer hopes for, it will mean they’ve not had a good experience with your brand. At this point, it is almost impossible to turn their feelings around and to convince them to give your business another shot. On the contrary, when the product or service is of a very high quality, it is infinitely more feasible to get customers to stick around - and to have positive things to say about your business.
Naturally, there are multiple additional things that factor into someone's customer experience, but the fundamental point is that good experiences matter to the vast majority of consumers. The PwC survey that we’ll continue to reference throughout this post also outlined that 88% of customers are more likely to repurchase after a good service.
Trust is huge — and certain channels build more trust
Trust is seen as one of the core factors in driving people to your business. It’s something that must be built as part of a company’s marketing strategy and consumers are way more likely to consider a business when there’s evidence of trust.
That being said, how can a business build as much trust as possible? Most of this will come down to your actions; you must demonstrate to consumers that they can trust you and this moves beyond a few words on your website. What’s interesting is that social media and online ads don’t seem to generate as much trust as businesses think, while traditional forms of marketing (TV, print and radio) are trusted by between 46% to 49% of customers.
This effectively means that it’s better to prioritise marketing through the more traditional channels if you want to build trust — but there is still one big factor to bring into the equation: word of mouth.
According to the survey, 74% of customers will trust word-of-mouth marketing when it comes to choosing between small businesses. There’s an interesting psychological reason behind this: people trust people. Word of mouth means that someone has recommended a business or written a real review for the business, which differs from seeing an advert on TV or social media. Real people trust real people — and that’s something that all businesses need to take into account when they want to build as much trust as possible.
Social responsibility means more than social media
There has been a definite trend in businesses attempting to build the biggest and best social media platforms possible over the last few years. You’ve seen the power of social media and how one viral post can change your business forever. It leads you to believe that this is the most worthwhile investment in terms of driving positive reactions from customers, but that’s not entirely the case.
Reports show that just 15% of customers see an “engaging social media presence” as the minimum expectation for a brand — and only 27% see it as a bonus. This data suggests that social media is not as important as it first seems, though there is another “social” element that does carry a lot of significance: social responsibility.
The same report outlines that 30% of consumers view “sustainability and social responsibility efforts” as the minimum expectation from modern brands. 46% see it as a bonus feature. Either way, these figures demonstrate that twice as many consumers prioritise brands with social responsibility features more than those with a strong social media presence.
So, businesses should maybe move away from investing loads of money into massive social media campaigns and allocate more towards doing things that have a positive influence on society and show some social responsibility.
The key takeaways
While you’re welcome to download and read the entire PwC survey yourself, the key takeaways from the research are clear for all to see. Businesses need to focus on building trust, especially through channels that consumers see as the most trustworthy — like word of mouth. At the same time, there needs to be some effort to create a socially conscious and responsible business as this appeals to a lot of consumers right now.
However, the most important thing to take is the point about customer experiences. Good experiences lead to repeat business almost 90% of the time, while one bad experience is enough to turn nearly 70% of your customers away. The nature of running a business means it is easy to drive positive reactions from customers, but it’s even easier for them to shift these feelings and turn away from your company.
