Experience Over Product
Brands work relentlessly on product design and features, but today’s consumer increasingly values how a brand treats them as more important than the product they sell.  The Lithium-commissioned study found 43 percent of consumers would actually buy an inferior product from a brand that they had a great experience with, and 73 percent will spend more on a product if it is from a brand they love. But this works both ways, with 71 percent of consumers unlikely to ever use a brand again after only one bad experience. Worse, 44 percent would share their negative experience with friends and family, potentially leading to even more customers fleeing.

“Customers’ increasingly high expectations of brands have reached a critical point,” said Rob Tarkoff, president and CEO of Lithium Technologies. “When two-thirds of consumers say they are unwilling to stick with a brand that has treated them badly even if they love the brand’s products, it’s time to sit up and take notice. Brands need to dig deeper to understand how they can create awesome experiences for their customers across platforms.”

What’s A Brand To Do?
Brands can no longer dictate terms. They must connect with the customer in the channel of their choice, which is increasingly digital. The study reveals 29 percent of consumers prefer to engage with a brand via its website/blog/social channels, compared to 17 percent who prefer in-store engagement, and 16 percent who prefer to connect over email.

“This study shows that as consumers reach out on digital channels, they are highly sensitive to how and when brands respond to them,” said Tarkoff. “It’s a wakeup call for brands to realize that providing great experiences on digital is the surest path to attracting and retaining happy customers.”

Accompanying Assets
Download the “Path to Happy Customers” whitepaper here: http://lith.tc/happiness

About Lithium:
Lithium builds trusted relationships between the world’s best brands and their customers, helping people get answers and share their experiences. Customers in more than 34 countries rely on Lithium to help them connect, engage, and understand their total community. With more than 100 million monthly visits over all Lithium communities and 750 million online profiles scored by Klout, Lithium has one of the largest digital footprints in the world. Using that data and the company’s software, Lithium customers boost sales, reduce service costs, spark innovation, and build long-term brand loyalty and advocacy. To find out how Lithium can transform your business, and to share the experience enjoyed by 300 other leading brands around the world, visit www.lithium.com, join our community at community.lithium.com, or follow us on Twitter @LithiumTech. Lithium is a privately held company headquartered in San Francisco.

The Lithium^® logo is a registered Service Mark of Lithium Technologies. All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.

This survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Lithium from December 28-30, 2016 among 2,032 adults ages 18 and older in the U.S. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact [email protected].

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Eddie McGraw
Lithium Technologies
+1 (650) 430-1978
[email protected]