51% of Buyers Frustrated by Poor Customer Service in Consumer Durables Sector, Kapture Survey reveals

22nd May’24, India: Brands dealing in consumer durables must constantly upgrade their systems in order to resolve consumer complaints in a quick and effective manner. However, this is not the norm, and this fact was reflected in an online survey conducted by Kapture CX, a well-known enterprise SaaS Customer Experience Management platform that focuses on customer support and enables personal customer interactions using proprietary Gen-AI. According to the results, 51% of respondents highlighted poor customer service as the leading issue concerning kitchen appliances. Limited repair availability followed at 29%, while hidden fees and lack of self-serve options were each cited by 10% of participants.

More than half of the respondents saying that they are dissatisfied with customer service proves that enterprises should up their game and focus on providing a consistent, contextual and delightful CX (customer experience). This is especially crucial in the consumer durables category as appliances are often at the risk of getting damaged or inoperational due to wear and tear, frequent power outages, unideal usage or even due to inherent manufacturing defects.

Commenting on the results, Gaurav Juneja, CRO of Kapture CX, said, “In this increasingly competitive market, companies are risking losing customers, business and growth by not investing in a good customer service platform. Such platforms should be able to deliver seamless, personalized and efficient customer experiences across various touchpoints. Brands can not only differentiate themselves by doing so, they can avoid damaging their reputation too. Customer expectations are only increasing with every passing day; keeping up with them requires a formidable strategy. ”

In a world that is increasingly dominated by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), there is no excuse for consumer durable brands to not implement tools and options such as AI-driven chatbots, predictive analytics, to enhance efficiency and streamline interactions with the customer.

Additionally, authenticity is the cornerstone of a good CX system. Pricing policies should be transparent so that hidden charges do not surface later and cause the customer to lose faith in the brand. Additionally, customer support should be extremely user-friendly; keeping it simple yet effective is the way to go. For example, the customer will not be motivated to go through cumbersome steps or call multiple numbers to get something basic resolved. That is, if the process is overly complicated, they’d much rather switch to another brand.

The findings of the survey serves as a wake-up call for all enterprises and not just those dealing in consumer durables, to finally put the customer at the center of their operations. Leveraging technology systems along with training employees should be the two sides of the CX coin if business has to flourish.In this new emerging world order, technology and human efforts should go hand in hand for great business outcomes.