News

Consumers say personalized interactions with brands drive purchase decisions

April 3, 2014

According to new research from Accent Marketing Services, the key to repeat customers is personalized communication from brands after purchases. Accent Marketing Services LLC, a provider of multi-channel customer engagement solutions, has announced findings from its 2014 survey, "Beyond the Point of Purchase — A Look at Behaviors that Build Brand Loyalists."

The company said its findings align with Forrester's expectations that organizations will explore the power of proactive pre-purchase and post-purchase engagements as a major marketing trend in 2014.

Key findings in the report include:

• nearly half of consumers interact with brands after a purchase;
• 86 percent of consumers say it's important to have a positive experience after making a purchase;
• word-of-mouth marketing is still critical, with 79 percent of consumers telling family and friends when they have had a great experience with a brand;
• 93 percent of consumers claim that a positive response or special offer can help restore the company's reputation after a bad experience; and
• brands can't focus solely on mobile for interaction post-purchase — only 26 percent of consumers have used a mobile app on their phone to contact a company after making a purchase.

"As consumers continue to evolve, we are seeing a significant shift in what CMOs are focusing on," said David Norton, EVP of customer analytics and insights at MDC Partners and chairman of Accent Marketing Services. "Their focus used to be solely on customer acquisition. CMOs today need to spend time to understand and engage customers across the entire lifecycle, not only pre-purchase. What our research has uncovered is that when CMOs consider the entire lifecycle, they can maximize return on investment."

For more on the findings of "Beyond the Point of Purchase — A look at Behaviors that Build Brand Loyalists", download the full report at http://www.accentonline.com/survey.