It’s official; we are a nation of switchers. According to research by Accenture, 72% of Irish people are active switchers, while the global average is 54%.
Two-thirds of Irish consumers are unhappy with the service offered by their providers, while only 12% feel loyalty towards them, down 3% from last year.
This year alone, 33% of those surveyed have switched retailers, 19% have switched banks, 16% have switched Internet service providers, and 1% switched telephone providers.
Many brands have tapped into this trend by targeting the dissatisfied, and making it even easier to switch.
But here is an interesting figure. 86% of those surveyed said they would have stayed with their original provider had their issue being resolved on first contact.
As we can see, companies have to work much harder to impress, win, and retain customers. Accenture report that 90% of all respondents use at least one online source to learn about a company’s products and services.
It’s time for Irish companies to align new technology with traditional interactions.
According to Rebecca Gilmore, head of customer and marketing services at Accenture, success in the age of the digitally savvy customer comes down to how to leverage the on- and offline worlds in a seamlessly integrated way, which gives people the ability to control how they interact.
Take Ryanair as an example. A company infamous for providing a less than satisfactory customer experience before, during, and after the service is going to great lengths to retain customers by developing customer relationship management.
Ryanair are improving the digital experience by enhancing the user experience on the website, and by having a strong customer service on Twitter which has answered 10,000 tweets since its launch last year.
A better ‘first contact’ response to complement and better on and offline experience is seen to be the insight we can take from the Accenture report.
After all, we don’t want valuable customers feeling switchy.
