Retail customer feedback: why timing is everything

The fact that timeliness has emerged as the single most crucial factor in a retail customer feedback program is due in large part to the changing nature of the retail customer. Largely devoid of the long-term brand devotion that characterized prior generations of shoppers, this generation of retail shoppers is known for being fickle. Presented with a host of shopping options, today’s retail shopper is always looking peripherally for the next opportunity to switch and save. One recent study suggests that as many as 41% of retail shoppers switch primary retailers within a 12-month period.

Part of this is due to digital technology and the disruptive extent to which web-enabled devices have spawned a generation of instrumented shoppers who are permanently tethered to a universe of real customer ratings and reviews. Indeed, 78% of the wired US population admits to doing at least occasional online research into products and services prior to a purchase.

At the same time, today’s retail customer is fully conversational and utilizes social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to broadcast both praise and scorn, depending on the quality of their experiences with brands or products. This unprecedented, unfiltered stream of customer opinions has sharply amplified both the scope and the power of word-of-mouth.

In the pre-digital era, the power of word of mouth, though formidable, was constrained by what anthropologists call Dunbar’s number. Dunbar’s number refers to the relatively low number of people with whom a person can maintain a stable relationship and over whom a person can reasonably be said to exercise influence.

But that upper bound applied to an analog environment. In the digital century, a disparaging or laudatory exclamation on a social media platform can be read by an audience of tens of thousands of people in markets both domestic and global, while viral videos viewed by millions have the power to decimate credibility and permanently scar the face of a brand.
When we consider that word of mouth is the deciding factor in as many as half of all retail purchasing decisions, we understand the devastating impact that negative customer feedback can have on a retailer.

The blending of brand agnosticism with a predilection for spontaneous, viral outbursts on social media platforms is what makes today’s retail customer far more challenging to retain than the retail customer of the pre-digital era. And it means that retail customer feedback must be treated with a heightened sense of urgency. If we think of each piece of negative customer feedback as a final warning cry before permanent defection or as fair warning of intent to spread negative word-of-mouth through social channels, then it becomes critically important that feedback gets into the hands of someone who can act on it as quickly as possible.