It may often be called the most wonderful time of the year, but for many shoppers the holidays can be more akin to a nightmare and many factors can contribute to a dreaded customer experience. It would seem that this, then, would present an ideal opportunity for brands and retailers to gain a competitive edge by offering a customer experience that mitigates some of the common holiday shopping frustrations, both in store and online.
For this holiday season, however, this does not yet appear to be the case.
In fact, the 2015 Eptica Retail Black Friday Customer Experience Study recently showed that British consumers are increasingly dissatisfied with this year’s holiday customer experience so far. Surprisingly, this dissatisfaction also extended heavily into the online realm as well.
Centering specifically on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Eptica found that British consumers are less satisfied with their customer experiences this year when compared to last year. Twenty-one percent of consumers complained that it was impossible or extremely difficult to find information on retailers’ websites, which marked a 7% increase over 2014. Over a third (37%) of Britons were also unhappy with the experiences in an actual store.
Eptica, a multichannel customer engagement software provider, also stated that a full 37% of UK consumers were disappointed with their overall online customer experience. Furthermore, almost 75% avoided Black Friday online altogether.
The research also showed that 21% of UK consumers complained that it was impossible or extremely difficult to find information on retailer websites
The one glimmer of good news was that, even despite the low satisfaction levels, the study still showed record Black Friday sales of £1.1 billion across the UK. However, that may be a small consolation in the future if satisfaction levels continue to fall.
“Black Friday 2015 may have seen record sales, but it has not been matched by the high levels of service that consumers demand,” said Olivier Njamfa, CEO and co-founder of Eptica. “Three times more British shoppers than in 2014 complained about not being able to find the right information when shopping online, highlighting basic flaws in how retailers are approaching the Christmas period. Given that consumers are becoming more demanding, and want to increasingly use channels such as mobile, retailers need to improve the experience before their customers simply go elsewhere.”
This could become more of a problem going forward as mobile and online shopping becomes more of a priority for consumers.
“Clearly companies need to work on their mobile customer service, with over half of those that bought in store via smartphones complaining about the service – 57% in the case of those purchasing from the retailer they were in, and 53% if buying from another company,” Eptica said in a statement. “This shows the importance being able to provide the right information at the right time to customers to help them move swiftly through the purchasing process, whatever channel they are using.”