A report by customer engagement firm Twilio, has found 66% of consumers avoid purchasing from brands they find untrustworthy.
The platform has published its 2024 Consumer Preferences Report, which showed 70% of shoppers will quit purchasing from brands they don’t trust.
To gain that trust Twilio has highlighted that companies need to ensure interactions with customers are “recognisable and secure”, with 88% of consumers saying that they place more trust in brands with verification badges.
In its report Twilio said: “These elements of trusted communications reduce the risk of fraud and build consumer confidence in communications from businesses.”
The report also revealed 51% of respondents believed that brands should respond within an hour, with 40% indicating that they’ve made repeat purchases when retailers have responded swiftly.
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The survey also highlighted that 65% of global consumers felt frustrated or annoyed with slow responses.
According to the report, 91% of global customers expected brands to engage with them through their preferred method of communication. However, only 54% of brands met this expectation.
Across the board, a majority of UK customers (81%) indicated that they preferred to be reached via email, followed by text message (50%) and social messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and Instagram (32%).
“Ignoring consumer preferences, on the other hand, can be detrimental to your business. Ineffective communications not only drain resources but can also lead to lost sales and customers. Almost one in four consumers purchased from a different brand in the past year because a business didn’t use their preferred communication channels,” the report added.
“While some consumers may tolerate these missteps, they can still be negatively impacted by poorly targeted messages. In fact, 57% of consumers report being sometimes, often, or always frustrated when brands use the wrong channels to communicate with them. “
Furthermore, the study also showed that consumers were willing to spend 32% more on brands that engaged with them through their preferred channels. Moreover, Twilio reported that 46% of consumers stated they had abandoned a brand in the past year due to slow response times.
