Study: People want brands to listen to them

A growing number of consumers want brands to listen to them. That is a key takeaway from new Disqo data which finds, among other things, that more than 90% of consumers feel brands should listen to their opinions, and they're willing to do a little of the legwork to make their own voices heard.

by Kristina Knight

Disqo's new report finds that more than three-quarters of consumers are willing to take surveys to share their opinions and feedback with businesses. But what could be the most important finding is this: brands who rely on social media to 'listen' to their customers are missing out.

Disqo researchers found only about one-quarter (22.2%) of consumers share brand feedback via social media and only about one-third contact customer support to share their opinion about a brand. That is compared to 80% (March, 2020) who said they shared their opinion about a brand via a survey.

Comparatively, according to a recent Bazaarvoice report nearly half of consumers have complained via social media about brands or products and that about one-third (36%) have turned to chatbots to obtain brand or product information. And data out from Gladly finds that many shoppers want to be able to deal with customer service issues via text or email.

"People believe their voice has an impact. In addition to believing that brands listen to them, most people agreed that they believe their participation in surveys makes an impact on brands (80.9%) and products (80.5%), a sentiment that has been relatively stable thus far in 2020," write the authors of the Disqo report.

While brands shouldn't cut out social media, email or other avenues as listening channels, the Disqo research does highlight the need for brands to keep other lines of communication open - like offering email surveys for feedback post-purchase.

More data from the Disqo report can be found here.

Tags: advertising, advertising trends, customer experience trends, CX trends, DISQO