57 percent of consumers claim brands have one shot to impress them and if their digital service does not perform, they won’t use them again, reveals the Cisco AppDynamics App Attention Index.

Since the start of 2020, consumers have experienced a sudden and total reliance on digital services. Research shows that people are using 30 percent more applications today than they did before the pandemic.

This unprecedented level of reliance on digital services has certain implications for the brand and one study by Cisco AppDynamics reveals that because of their increasing reliance and use of digital services, 76 percent of consumers say their expectations of digital services have increased since the start of 2020.

According to Cisco AppDynamics’ latest report in its App Attention Index research series, three broad patterns emerge that brands should take note of:

1. Consumers blame the brand when the application experience fails

When consumer expectations are not met, 60 percent of consumers will now automatically blame the application and the brand no matter where the issue actually lives. Whether it’s within the application itself – such as pages loading slowly, downtime, or security failures; or external factors like internet connectivity, slow payment gateways or technical issues with third party services – to the consumer there is no distinction and they will now place responsibility firmly on the brand, said the report. Similarly, 72 percent of people believe it’s the responsibility of the brand to ensure that the digital service or application works perfectly.

Also, 92 percent say they expect digital services to have reliable, consistent performance.

2. Loyalty lies with brands that invest in application experience

The research found that the majority of consumers (85%) say that digital services have become a critical part of daily life, with 84 percent stating they helped them get through the pandemic in a positive way. Additionally, consumers are now loyal to brands based on how significantly they invested in digital services during the pandemic.
    • 72 percent say they feel grateful to the brands that invested in digital during the pandemic so they could get access to the services that they love and rely on.
    • 67 percent say they feel more loyal to brands that went above and beyond with the quality of their digital service during the pandemic.

3. Brands have one shot to get the ‘total application experience’ right

According to the report, 61 percent of consumers now state their expectations for digital services have changed forever and they will no longer tolerate poor performance. The research goes on to find that 72 percent of consumers believe it’s the responsibility of the brand to ensure that digital services work perfectly, and more than half (57%) state that brands have one shot to impress them with their digital experiences before they switch to another provider.

    • 72 percent say they simply don’t care who is responsible for problems with digital services, they just want them fixed and to work.
    • 68 percent consider it disrespectful to users for brands to offer a poor digital experience in this day and age.
    • 57 percent believe most problems with digital services and applications are completely avoidable.

The research included interviews with more than 13,000 consumers, including 2,000 interviews in both the United States and the United Kingdom, and 1,000 interviews within Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. The research was conducted by Insight Avenue in June 2021.