Target, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Best Buy are keeping their customers extra happy this holiday season. The four brands were revealed as the top retailers offering the best customer service during the holiday season according to the 2013 ClickFox Holiday Customer Experience survey.
According to the survey, additional shifting consumer behaviors point to increased churn on customer service infrastructure to report negative customer experiences along with new influences guiding customer purchasing decisions.
“Consumers continue to prefer online retailers over going to the store,” ClickFox CEO Marco Pacelli said in a press release. “It’s convenient. They can easily see if the product is in stock and compare prices. Negative in-store experiences also encourage new brand journeys where consumers purchase product and resolve service issues in new or untraditional channels.”
Since Thanksgiving was as late as it can be this year, consumers indicated that they expect retailers to provide poor customer service and are willing to sacrifice great customer experience to buy the gifts they need on time.
The survey cites two dangerous areas for retailers.
First, consumers will demonstrate a false loyalty to their usual brands during the holiday season as price becomes the most important factor in consumer engagement, while they are likely to demonstrate true loyalty throughout the rest of the calendar year.
Second, if negative service experiences are not resolved at the first point-of-contact, consumers get the attention of service representatives in different ways, including self-service via email, leaving negative reviews on social sites, and calling customer service as a last resort.
“Many retailers have a siloed view in their engagement with their customers,” Pacelli added. “It is important to realize that consumers are more likely than ever to leave a trail of negative engagements in multiple channels before calling the contact center.”
According to the survey, 55% of respondents indicated that they plan to do the bulk of their holiday shopping online. While mobile commerce continues to be a major news driver in retail communities, only 2% of respondents intend to purchase the bulk of their gifts using mobile engagement.
Not surprisingly, consumers clearly indicated that negative customer experiences are driven by representatives across the sales floor, contact centers, and returns process -- which may be attributed to untrained temporary workers hired to meet holiday demand. Customer service hotlines and sales floor representatives are the worst offenders with 31% and 29%, respectively, of consumers identifying them as the worst service touch points during the holiday season.
Negative contact center experiences can be mitigated with more accurate consumer data and better proactive communication on order status while consistently negative experiences with sales floor representatives point to a lack of training, the survey shows. The returns process came in a close third in providing negative experience of 23% of consumers polled.
Consumers are most likely to respond to negative service experiences in-store by contacting store management to resolve issues, according to 32% of respondents, placing a strong burden on retail storefronts to solve service inquiries in person or else risk escalation on contact centers and additional service channels.
If consumers are unable to resolve their inquiries at the retail storefront, 20% of respondents polled will send an email to a customer service hotline and more than 16% will write a negative review on product review websites or on other social media. Only 8% of consumers audited noted that they would most likely report a negative service experience via customer service hotlines, indicating dwindling consumer belief in the channel to resolve their problems.
Consumers clearly indicated that they believe retailers emphasize having the best deals and prices during the holiday season more than 78% of respondents, and that giving the best customer service during the holiday season is the lowest priority, according to 51% of respondents.
Despite continued investment in marketing campaigns to shift brand loyalty and consumer behavior, ultimately peer influences from friends and family members were deemed the most influential in directing holiday shopping for consumers followed by online holiday advertising, online product reviews, holiday advertising on television, and sales floor representatives.
Social media does not directly influence purchasing as indicated by 70% of respondents. Facebook was the most influential with over 18% indicating that content they saw on Facebook influenced their purchase. Pinterest and Google + were tied for second most influential each with 4% of the vote. Twitter and Instagram registered as the least influential, checking in at 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively.
The ClickFox 2013 Holiday Customer Experience survey was conducted to explore changing consumer views on the holiday buying experience. The survey provides timely and relevant information reflecting 535 consumers and their opinions from across the U.S.