Part 2: Peer reviews more important for purchase decisions than company information

Source: © 123rf 123rf Peer reviews continue to gain momentum as a key source of information when making purchase decisions

The sixth consecutive South African Customer Experience found that consumers continue to share negative and positive experiences with others, breathing new life into the ecosystem of feedback and reviews.

Authored by Rogerwilco’s CEO Charlie Stewart, ovatoyou’s Amanda Reekie and CX Consultant, Julia Ahlfeldt the report was released recently, with Part 1 of its findings also presented on Bizcommunity.

Reviews reign supreme

Once a purchase has been made, consumers show a tremendous willingness to help others make informed decisions with 45% indicating that they post reviews to share their experiences for other people's benefit (up from 38% last year and from 32% in 2022).

That more people go online to post a review than do so to engage with brands for post-purchase support (27%) underscores the reality that there is a large constituent of silent seethers who would rather talk to their peers than follow up with the companies who sell them things.

Reviews are proof points of a brand’s service and experience.

They are third-party endorsements and go to great lengths to help businesses secure new and repeat business.

This has come through loud and clear in the 2024 South African Customer Experience Report.

Businesses would do well to place even greater focus on all their review channels.

When a consumer has a good experience i.e. the purchasing process was ‘reliable’ and the value good, they are increasingly using review channels to share what happened.

What’s more, consumers are also researching these testimonial-style reviews in great detail before purchasing – to ensure that what they buy is what they will get (or even something a little extra).

Preferred review channels

Their preferred channels to do this are a company’s website (66%); social media channels (64%) or asking friends and family for recommendations (61%).

On the other end of the scale influencers – who have been making big names for themselves in recent times – scored a dismal 30%, demonstrating how little faith consumers have in these paid partnerships.

Consumers would do well to question whether what they are reading is real or fake though – in an increasingly AI-generated world – and to look for hard evidence such as other customer reviews before buying.

The review ecosystem is a powerful force to be reckoned with, offering companies an opportunity if they are wise to encourage reviews without interfering with their authenticity.

Part 1: South African Customer Experience Report - The giant disconnect

30 Jul 2024

Help is at (a human’s) hand

A challenge facing brands is that the growing digitisation of society means that most customer interaction takes place via a screen.

This significantly reduces the opportunity for human-to-human connection - and, in many cases, the only instance where face-to-face communication takes place is when a problem has already emerged and organisations deploy warm bodies to find a solution.

When there is a problem with a product or service, email remains the preferred problem-solving channel (24%), with a call centre following in second place at 19%, then Google (18%) and a chat function (12%).

Social media ranked poorly with just 7% of respondents saying they use these channels to address pain points.

There has been a shift in the use of WhatsApp as a business channel, with businesses rating it as their third communication channel of choice, while consumers list it as their least favourite in terms of effectiveness.

Customers like speaking to a person, vs. a bot, and they seek help in-store as it’s not only a learned behaviour but offers the opportunity for human connection that contributes to an ease with the brand and immediate issue resolution.

Branches or stores have the added advantage of the human element. There is also a sense of efficiency and effectiveness in-store, trust and familiarity, good business nature and professionalism.

Tailoring the customer experience

The opportunity here is that the landscape of customer touchpoints is constantly changing and whether they like it or not, brands need to accept that their experience offering needs to evolve with customer preferences – and the human touch is still of optimum importance.

Tailoring the customer experience to customer preferences is the key to rising above your competitors.

The key insight is that human contact is an important attribute of post-purchase service experiences, with email and call centres remaining the first port of call for most consumers.