Cape Town – South African consumers will support your brand if you deliver good service, a new study has found.
A staggering 94% of South African respondents claim “good service definitely makes me feel more positively about brands”, a study by Verint Systems revealed this week.
INFOGRAPHIC: The key findings
Source: Verint
Fast service crucial
South African consumers prefer companies that can deal with their requests quickly (55%) with the person they spoke to being able to make decisions without their manager (42%), it showed.
Four in five (79%) South African customers are likely to tell friends and family if they receive good customer service.
Privacy was an issue for three out five South Africans, who say they are suspicious about how their data is used.
South Africans are most loyal when they love a company’s products (29%) or because the company understands their needs as an individual (27%).
“This study is a wake-up call for brands looking to revamp their customer service to cater today’s more demanding and better-informed customers,” said Ovum analyst Jeremy Cox. “The study shows what people around the world actually value most are the basics: questions answered with minimal effort on their part.”
“The rules of customer engagement have less to do with personalisation at all costs, and everything to do with making life easier for people,” said Verint’s Rachel Lane. “On the whole, consumers have no patience with firms that don’t get the basics right.”