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Photo by Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash

Brands Have One Chance to Win Over Customers, Says Cisco AppDynamics

Cisco AppDynamics released a report, the latest in its App Attention Index research series, that reveals customers rely more and more nowadays on apps and digital services, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study examined the digital behaviors of more than 13,000 global consumers, identified those who will no longer tolerate poor application experience. They instantly blame the app and the brand, even if the performance issue comes from somewhere else.

Since the start of 2020, consumers have begun to rely more and more on digital services, which has altered the way they engage with brands, consume goods and services, and make purchasing decisions, says AppDynamics. The research indicates that people are using 30% more apps today than they did prior to the pandemic.

Because of their increasing reliance and use of digital services, AppDynamics finds, 76% of consumers say their expectations of digital services have increased since the start of 2020. When expectations aren’t met, 60% of consumers will automatically blame the application and the brand no matter where the issue actually lives. This means a page loading slowly, downtime, security failures, or even external factors like Internet connectivity, slow payment gateways, or technical issues with third party services, will all be blamed on the brand. AppDynamics says that, to the consumer, there is no distinction.

The study found that 72% of people believe it’s the responsibility of the brand to ensure that the digital service or application works perfectly and 92% say they expect digital services to have reliable, consistent performance.

Consumers are also using apps and digital services to facilitate social interactions in the absence of traditional ways of connecting in person. The research found that the majority of consumers (85%) say that digital services have become a critical part of daily life, with 84% stating those services helped them get through the pandemic in a positive way. Additionally, consumers are now loyal to brands based on how significantly they invested in digital services during the pandemic. Seventy-two per cent say they feel grateful to the brands that invested in digital experiences during the pandemic so they could get access to the services that they love and rely on, and 67% say they feel more loyal to brands that went above and beyond with the quality of their digital service during the pandemic.

In terms of the total app experience, 61% of consumers say their expectations for digital services have changed forever and they will no longer tolerate poor performance. The research goes on to find that 72% of consumers believe it’s the responsibility of the brand to ensure that digital services work perfectly, and more than half (57%) state that brands have one shot to deliver positive digital experiences before they switch to another provider. 

Interestingly, 72% say they simply don’t care who is responsible for problems with digital services, they just want them fixed and to work; while 68% consider it disrespectful to users for brands to offer a poor digital experience in this day and age. More than half (57%) believe most problems with digital services and applications are completely avoidable.

“Applications have become the lifeline to normality for people in every corner of the world, and consumers are no longer willing to settle for anything less than a perfect digital experience,” says Linda Tong, Vice President and General Manager of Cisco AppDynamics. “Technologists are now under more pressure than ever to deliver the ‘total application experience’ to users within their first interaction.”

One eye-opening stat: 73% of consumers stated that even as life returns to normal, they know they will continue to rely on the digital services they used during the pandemic.  

Photo by Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash