Retailers only responded to a third of public Twitter mentions citing a customer service request, and took over 12 hours on average when they responded, according to DataEQ’s managing director Melanie Malherbe.
The South African Retail Sentiment Index, conducted by DataEQ with PwC South Africa, which measures sentiment across pricing, customer service, and product offering, found that sentiment around pricing (32%) and products (21.8%) was positive, but shoppers’ views on customer service (-68.4%) were mostly negative.
Having tracked over one-and-a-half-million public social media posts about Woolworths, Shoprite, Checkers, Spar, Pick n Pay, and Food Lover’s Market for the period January 1 to December 31 2022, the index addresses consumer sentiment, key performance analysis, and industry risks.
Customer service was by far the most prominent pain point for both in-store and online shoppers, with turnaround time issues driving almost half (49.8%) of all service-related complaints.
Major concerns were food quality, stock and expired produce. These areas of concern were especially prevalent in the first six months of 2022, as the incidence of load shedding was on the rise.
Users reported buying rotten meat and vegetables, perishable goods past their expiry date, and dry goods such as flour and cereal that had worms in them. Consumers often posted pictures of these products, likely persuading many against purchasing from the retailer in question.
Consumers expect fast and efficient service across physical and digital retail channels.
Bad experiences — even just one — can cost the retailer customers.
More than half (55%) of respondents said they would stop buying from a company that they otherwise liked after several bad experiences, and 8% said they would stop after just one bad experience.
It doesn’t just have to be “bad” experiences for some to leave - 32% said they would drop a company if it provided inconsistent experiences.
The index showed that unanswered mentions and delayed responses on social platforms compounded consumer frustration about bad service.
Malherbe said local retailers should not omit social media from their customer service strategy.
“Customers typically reach out on social media when their queries aren’t being resolved through other channels, with the expectation that social service agents will be equipped to answer them or be able to communicate with other service teams quickly to resolve the issues at hand. This points to a growing need for retailers to integrate their social agents into their broader customer service teams,” Malherbe said.
To address these challenges, retailers needed to assess the capabilities needed to service customers across multiple platforms and resolve those queries efficiently through integrating technology and multi-skilled teams.
“This often requires a change in the traditional operating model and moving towards an omnichannel-led model, empowering staff with visibility of the customer at each touchpoint.”
Woolworths led the pack among the leading six retailers in terms of the index results.
Woolworths achieved an overall sentiment score of 19.2% — 15.9 percentage points above the industry average. The names of the other retailers and their overall sentiment scores were not mentioned.
When it came to customer service, however, even the top performer saw an overall negative sentiment result.
“That said, Woolworths did experience much fewer customer service complaints than the rest of the industry, with positivity stemming from compliments towards service received from staff such as cashiers and floor staff.”
Overall, Spar received the highest sentiment score towards special offers, but Woolworths was able to better control its pricing narrative through key partnerships and financial services, which resulted in their overall lead for pricing sentiment.
Woolworths had successfully leveraged off its key partnership with the Expresso TV show on SABC 3 to bolster not only its online presence, but also its key campaigns and special offers.
Through this partnership, Woolworths gained valuable promotion for its Christmas and Easter campaigns, which featured prominently in positive conversation, according to the compilers of the index.
With regards to pricing, South African shoppers argued that the premium retailer was at times less expensive than other stores, while product-related mentions saw Woolworths lauded for its house brands and high-quality goods.
“In this tough economic climate, shoppers are always on the lookout for good deals. So, while the positive consumer sentiment towards pricing may seem surprising, this was largely driven by feedback around well-priced promotions and specials,” Riaan Singh, PwC South Africa Experience Consulting Leader said in a statement.
Achieving a positive overall score of 3.3%, the retailers outperformed local telecom and insurance companies, but underperformed banks in a cross-industry sentiment comparison.
BUSINESS REPORT