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More than half of consumers are comfortable with purchasing all of their technology from a single brand ecosystem, and 42 percent even believe a single supplier will manage their entire home by the year 2025, according to a Xerox survey.
The study, which surveyed 6,000 consumers in the United States (2,000), the U.K. (1,000), Germany (1,000), France (1,000) and the Netherlands (1,000), found that technology consumers are the most satisfied, with the lowest risk of churn.
When compared to customer satisfaction in telecommunications (34 percent) and media (41 percent), more consumers are highly satisfied with technology brands (48 percent).
However, just 20 percent of respondents said they are comfortable with brands using their personal data.
At the same time, more than two-thirds (68 percent) of consumers expect at least basic personalization of communications and services from their technology brands, with only 10 percent of consumers feeling that technology brands fully understand them.
“Tech vendors have an opportunity to escalate privacy expectations and their customers’ comfort levels,” Jared Kearney, technology industry leader at Xerox, told eWEEK. “One option is to make a ‘privacy promise’ where brands take on the role of guardians of customer data, and are upfront with their customers regarding the level of personalization they get for their disclosure so consumers are confident in the contract.”
More than a third (35 percent) of all purchases still take place in-store, with 26 percent of Gen Z consumers (those aged 16 to 20) preferring to shop in-store.
“When buying technology, the opportunity to touch and feel, hold and compare, is a source of unparalleled consumer reassurance,” Kearney explained. “In fact we expect the store to become even more important but in a different way. Technology stores are a place to explore, consult, and learn about the devices.”
Despite technology users’ embrace of the store, 26 percent of complaints to technology brands went through the call center.
Overall, the retail store is still the channel of choice for consumers contacting technology brands in France (25 percent), Germany (28 percent), the Netherlands (25 percent), and the U.K. (25 percent).
In the U.S., the call center is the channel of choice (32 percent), with 21 percent preferring the retail store.
Nearly half (48 percent) of consumers were unable to contact technology brands through their preferred channels over the last 12 months and when consumers were unable to use their preferred digital channels, 60 percent stayed within the digital landscape, but 20 percent fell back to the call center.