A recent survey shows that consumers using the internet are becoming more demanding. Around 60% of people who buy goods and services online report less loyalty towards brands with poor app and web performance.
The survey was undertaken by performance monitoring experts Apica, and showed that 75% of people expect websites and apps to perform better than they did three years ago. And if they don’t, they’re happy to take their business elsewhere.
Global survey
Respondents were gathered from internet users in the USA, the UK and Sweden to best assess attitudes towards a company’s digital online performance. More than 2,000 respondents were polled, and revealed that almost 40% of users aren’t happy to wait more than 10 seconds for a website to respond. Around 11% won’t even wait five seconds for a website before going elsewhere.
The results show that this disappointment in digital performance directly affects loyalty to a brand. A tenth of respondents said that they would never use the brand again, with the biggest response of this kind from Sweden. Around 73% of Swedes surveyed said that they wouldn’t return to a brand with a poor online performance.
Limited patience for problems
Results from the survey clearly show that online consumers have little patience for delays or poor performance. There is an increased expectation that websites and apps should perform better and faster. This is enhanced by the high expectation from online-only organisations.
Businesses must respond to this demand, whether they are a financial service company or an online retailer. Peak online performance at all times will become the marker for a successful business.
How much downtime is OK?
This lack of patience for general problems also extends to scheduled downtime for site maintenance. Almost half of respondents said that a few hours of downtime is acceptable, provided communication was clear. However, 54% have an upper limit of one-hour downtime only, and 13% expect no downtime at all.
Brand reputation is negatively affected by poor digital experiences for consumers. Around 83% of respondents said that they would tell a friend or colleague if they had a bad experience using a website or app.
Proactive measures necessary
Businesses must focus on being proactive when it comes to their online performance. This includes constant monitoring of online services, along with pre-emptive performance testing.
If a company wants to retain revenue, customers, and brand loyalty then there is no room for mistakes with online service maintenance. It’s likely that customer expectation will continue to grow and standards will have to be ever higher.
