Service drives brand loyalty among Singapore shoppers

Unresponsive customer service is the top reason Singapore shoppers will not use a brand again, according to the SAP Hybris Consumer Insight survey.

Singapore is the only Asia-Pacific market where lack of service (nominated by 81 per cent of respondents) out-ranked brands using personal data without customer’s knowledge as the main reason to break with a business.  

The survey found that 67 per cent of consumers in Singapore will not choose to purchase from a brand again if their data had been used without knowledge and that they expect transparency from brands when handling data.

More than 1000 consumers in Singapore were surveyed to uncover consumer preferences when engaging with brands, including what makes or breaks a customer experience and the continued use of a brand.  

“While data privacy and security remains to be of high concern and importance amongst customers across Asia-Pacific, including Singapore, customer service and personalisation are also critical,” said Nicholas Kontopoulos, global VP of fast growth markets marketing with SAP Hybris.

“True to the highly service-oriented market, our survey found responsive customer service to be Singaporeans top priority in the engagement with brands. Speed and privacy aside, it is just as important for businesses and marketers ensure relevant content is shared with consumers today – and this require a deep understanding of not just consumer preferences, but context at point of purchase or even consideration,” said Kontopoulos.

In this digital age, Singapore consumers not only expect brands to be responsive – they expect this to be done promptly. More than 40 pr cent of Singapore consumers expect brands to respond within three hours, with the survey findings further pointing to men being less tolerant to slow response than women (44 per cent versus 39 per cent).

While most consumers enjoy surprises from brands and see this as personalised customer experience, 78 per cent of Singaporeans aged 18-24 demand this more than baby boomers, aged 55 plus (50 per cent). For them, personalised customer experience is getting appropriate responses to their queries with a full understanding of their history with the brand at 58 per cent.

One key conclusion from the SAP Hybris survey highlighted that definitions of personalised customer service differ greatly across various customer groups, and the importance of brands’ capabilities in truly understanding and contextualising their efforts for it to matter.

“In fact, receiving too many direct marketing and sales calls (64 per cent) and irrelevant content (47 per cent) are the top two don’ts for Singapore customers,” Kontopoulos added.

“Beyond simply capturing customer data, the ability to analyse, contextualise and more importantly, act on insights gathered in real-time, are key to truly impress savvy customers today.”

The SAP Hybris survey found that Singapore consumers are most comfortable with sharing the email addresses (63 per cent), shopping history and preferences (53 per cent), and mobile numbers (36 per cent) with brands. While these allow brands to create personalised customer experience for the consumers, collection and usage of customer data have to be approached with extra caution: 77 per cent expect brands to protect their interest when using their personal data, followed by transparency in data usage (67 per cent), and ensuring customer privacy in the event of criminal investigations at (61 per cent).

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