How it works
Data quality
Our audience
Expert support
Features
By Use Case
Brand tracking
Consumer profiling
Creative testing
Market analysis
New product development
By Role
Marketers
Insights professionals
The squeezed consumer 2023 (US)
The squeezed consumer 2023 (UK)
2023 UK media consumption report
2023 US media consumption report
Academy
Templates
Help center
Consumer research made simple
The data you need to inform decisions
Target the consumers that matter
Get the most from your research
Smart features, simple outcomes
Track brand health and performance
Know your consumers
Test creative and track effectiveness
Analyse competitors and new markets
Scoping and new product development
Simple, accurate research for ambitious marketers
Quick, reliable data for fast-moving insights teams
Learn from Attest’s experts in the Consumer Research Academy.
Get a head start with survey templates written by our research experts.
Need help with the Attest platform? Get answers and chat with the team.
NewVoiceMedia’s report for 2018 estimates that poor customer service has caused 42% of people to leave a brand. We asked UK consumers two simple questions: which brand have you fallen out of love with in 2018? And why?
At the end of the year, it’s natural to think about the progress you’ve made, and all the wonderful new customers you’ve acquired.
Taking stock of why people have crossed the threshold of your shops or websites to buy your products, or what exactly about their experience made them tweet about their purchase, highlights what you’re getting right.
What it can be less tempting to think about is what’s gone wrong. NewVoiceMedia’s report for 2018 estimates that poor customer service has caused 42% of people to leave a brand. The loss of spend here is enormous: not only are you losing their money, but you also risk the impact of them spreading negative reviews about you to their friends, family and colleagues.
It’s not just customer service that’s driving people away, either. We asked UK consumers two simple questions: which brand have you fallen out of love with in 2018? And why?
Eighty brands were listed overall, and the top twenty brands that we’ve lost faith in this year were as follows.
Going from left to right, we can see that brand giants Apple, Facebook and Nike take first, second and third place. Apple and Facebook have suffered concerns over privacy this year, and Nike have put themselves out there politically. Could these things be what got them to the top spots for brands people are leaving behind?
The range of reasons that people have gone off these companies was diverse and individual, showing that brands need to treat all areas of their CX as equally important and worthy of careful design. That said, themes emerged and many people’s answer converged (no matter the product or service in questions).
Read on to discover the common patterns found across the most memorable brand slip ups of 2018.
Whatever the surrounding branding and shopping experience, if product is wrong, consumers will leave.
Some of the product related issues cited were…
Predictably, rising costs were cited by many. However, this is not because consumers are reluctant to spend on brands they like. Often, cost changes were given as reasons in conjunction with a perceived fall in quality. They’re happy to pay, but if what they’re paying for isn’t getting better inline with the price tag, they’ll head somewhere else.
Apple, again, was a frequent offender with their now four-figure iPhone price tags seen as a “rip off.” This affects low-ticket items, too, though: Walkers were seen as too expensive in an increasingly crowded snacks market.
In addition, people disliked the incremental increasing of price in the hope they wouldn’t notice. Virgin Media was seen to be constantly rising in price.
This one is the most emotive. If consumers feel undervalued, or that a company doesn’t want to help them when they run into issues, they are sure to be out the door.
One respondent said of Argos: I spent lots of money with them, the next day they reduced the items but wouldn’t honour the price difference.
Another said of Halfords: They tried to charge me for a repair that wasn’t needed.
When people have already spent their money, it’s easy for brands to stop caring. But when you no longer need to secure someone’s spend, good customer service just for the sake of being helpful is where you can make enormous differences!
NewVoiceMedia found that the number one way to make people feel emotionally connected to any brand is to be contactable by any channel (31% of people). It’s about being on-hand to help, when something’s gone wrong, that counts.
A wide range of ethical issues were cited by consumers as reasons they no longer liked a brand.
Amongst the offending issues were…
Perhaps your brand is getting everything right, but if someone’s doing it even slightly better, you can still expect to lose out.
Coca-Cola was deemed less tasty than Pepsi by some; eBay was left for Amazon, whose delivery was free with Prime; and M&S was seen as “old fashioned” compared to other stores. One consumer had gone off Puma, because it was seen as lagging directly behind, and therefore copying Adidas in its designs.
When so much is online, and every day sees more headlines dominated by the falling footfall on the high street, it’s easy to forget about the brick-and-mortar shop experience.
Costa lost one consumer this year “because the stores near me have got worse, their cleanliness in particular.” Meanwhile M&S disappointed due to their failure to provide disabled loos.
There were also several complaints to do with brand. M&S’s recent advertising campaign was seen as “wasteful”; Gymshark’s recent Black Friday sale was, in some people’s eyes, “awful”; and someone had had enough of Gucci because their designs are so well-copied that it’s now difficult to distinguish between fakes and the real deal.
The ways in which you lose a customer can be inherently personal. There’s no one quick route to ensuring you step over all the potential pitfalls that lead people to wave goodbye to your brand. This is precisely why it’s vital to be in regular communication with a large pool of people who are both customers of, and new to, your brand.
Find out what you’re getting wrong as you go, and patterns will quickly emerge. This insight can direct your strategy to the winning formula that will retain customers already with you; stop others from leaving; and potentially give you hints as to how to win ex-customers back.
Get in touch with us today to ensure your brand’s not on this list in 2019!
Content Team
Our in-house marketing team is always scouring the market for the next big thing. This piece has been lovingly crafted by one of our team members. Attest's platform makes gathering consumer data as simple and actionable as possible.
3 min read
8 min read
Fill in your email and we’ll drop fresh insights and events info into your inbox each week.
* I agree to receive communications from Attest. Privacy Policy.
You're now subscribed to our mailing list to receive exciting news, reports, and other updates!