Technology savvy seek to strike the right deal

Today's exciting technology is propelling us forward at a lightening pace. It's changing the way we do many things as a survey into consumer behaviour has revealed...

After years of tempting customers with loyalty schemes and online marketing campaigns, private and public sector organisations are facing a new threat in consumer behaviour.

A survey carried out by BT Global Services and leading enterprise communications systems company Avayar into the 'autonomous customer' has highlighted a marked change in attitude and behavior.

The findings revealed this new technology savvy consumer as independent, well informed, more influenced by other consumers than by trusted brand names – and interestingly nearly half of those questioned believed that loyalty to an organisation is a thing of the past.

Changing consumer habits are also being driven by the huge growth in technologies. smartphones, webchat, social media and tablet computers like the iPad have all opened up more contact channels.

The findings also revealed some interesting contrasts. Nearly 90 per cent of people questioned said they still expect to phone a call centre in the future. While 31 per cent admitted to using trendy social media location based services such as Google Latitude and Facebook Places.

Barcode scanning

But according Dr Nicola Millard, customer experience futurologist at BT it's the smartphone that is making consumers more demanding and challenging.

She explains: “This group use the internet applications on the phone to research and compare prior to buying. And about 16 per cent of smartphone owners use barcode scanning to check prices online and offline before deciding where to buy."

“And they tend to challenge more when buying in the high street or online when they think they haven't got the best deal. Or more critically, when they've spotted an inconsistency between an online and shop price.”

Consumers armed with information obtained prior to buying are also placing extra pressures on organisations. For example, they are a greater number of complex questions being posed to agents in call centres or face-to-face.

A total of 48 per cent of people questioned rang a call centre to seek advice after they had looked things up online or tried to serve themselves.

Dr Millard says: “This is particularly interesting and a concern for organisations, as the caller is often better informed than the customer service agent. So having well-trained staff capable of answering complex questions is vital consideration for any call centre operation.”

The survey has provided some compelling data which both BT Global Services and Avayar will use to further improve their own portfolio of customer service 'tools'.

Stimulating debate with customer groups is also underway with Dr Millard and her colleagues anxious to get feedback on how organisations intend to react to the data.

*The autonomous customer survey was carried out on line in October 2010 with a sample of 1,000 consumers – 500 in the US and 500 in the UK – by Davies Hickman Partners Ltd.