Digital Shoppers Say They'll Switch Retailers if Service Lags

Survey finds high expectations

January 26, 2017 | Retail & Ecommerce

Customer loyalty is becoming a fragile thing in the age of everyday ecommerce. Today a bad digital retail experience is highly likely to lead UK consumers to seek out someone else to do business with next time.

YouGov research for a January 2017 report published by supply chain-related firm JDA and sponsored by Centiro, for one, found that 78% of UK internet users would make a switch to another retailer following a bad digital purchase experience this past Christmas.

That's the bad news. The good news is that some UK digital retailers appear to have risen to the challenge. The Institute of Customer Service's January 2017 UK Customer Satisfaction Index (UKCSI), which takes into account the views of 10,000 consumers on considerations such as staff professionalism, quality, efficiency and complaint handling, found Amazon.co.uk topping its chart of Top 50 organizations ranked by customer satisfaction, followed by online fashion retailer Asos in second place.

These large digital retailers may have the scale and resources to invest in their customer service efforts, but all retailers that operate in the digital space must take note. After all, any missteps are likely to result in customer churn.

—Bill Fisher