REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Support.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPRT), makers of award-winning Support.com® Cloud software (formerly “Nexus®”) for Support Interaction Optimization and a leading provider of tech support and turnkey support center services, today released a new report analyzing the business impact of customer effort for technology brands.
Customer effort has been gaining a lot of attention recently as a way to assess customer satisfaction and understand its effect on customer loyalty. The Support.com report showed that the consumer abandonment rate of technology products increases as the customer effort exerted in different interactions with the brand becomes too high.
A survey of over 2,200 U.S. consumers explored the levels of customer effort required in different stages of the customer journey from consideration and purchase to setup, troubleshooting and upgrade with technology products. The Customer Effort And The Direct Impact On The Brand Relationship survey uncovered the following key issues and consumer insights:
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Troubleshooting technical product issues is the most challenging part
of the customer experience, but the diverse expectations of support
preferences lacks consensus on the best approach
- Nearly 60 percent of consumers say that combined, setup/installation and troubleshooting with tech support is the most challenging part of their customer journey and requires the most effort
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Customers might be willing to invest more time and effort for
high-ticket technology products, but their tolerance for a complicated
customer experience is low regardless of price
- If a product costs over $200, 72 percent of consumers will spend more than one hour researching their purchase
- If a product costs less than $200, 87 percent of consumers will return the product within a week if the product set up and installation was too difficult
- Regardless of price, more than half of consumers (52%) are willing to put some amount of effort in to engage with support, whether it is through assisted support via interaction with a support agent (31%) or unassisted support via a self-service experience (21%)
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Customer effort has a direct business impact on brand loyalty and
revenue growth, especially when it comes to technology products and
customer support
- Sixty four percent of consumers will stop purchasing products from a brand altogether if they find it too difficult to interact with a certain technology brand
“The survey findings are a clear call to action for product and service organizations to invest in measuring customer effort and better understanding their customers’ challenges,” explained Alex Poulos, VP of Marketing and Customer Success at Support.com. “It is no longer viable for companies to count on brand loyalty as an incentive for customers to put more effort into a particular tech product or service. No matter how much customers like your brand, they shouldn’t have to work to love your products.
“By taking a deeper look at customer effort during different steps of the customer journey, the report also helps uncover some opportunities to reduce effort and impact the business,” continued Poulos. “For example, with setup and troubleshooting, companies have an opportunity to more proactively connect with their users to provide help and mitigate returns before they happen by employing a personalized and intelligent approach via both agent and self-service customer support.”
To read the entire set of survey data, download Customer Effort And The Direct Impact On The Brand Relationship.
About Support.com
Support.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPRT) is the leading provider of cloud software and services to deliver next-generation technical support. Support.com helps leading brands in software, electronics, communications, retail, Internet of Things (IoT) and other connected technology industries deepen their customer relationships. Customers want technology that works the way it’s intended. By using Support.com software and services, companies can deliver a fantastic customer experience, leading to happier customers, greater brand loyalty and growing revenues.
For more information, please visit http://www.support.com or follow us @support_com.
Support.com, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. For more information, visit http://www.support.com/about-us/careers.
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