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Displaying posts tagged 'consumer_confidence'. Show all posts
Real people - real recommendations
Jonathan Bowers, July 11th 2007, 3:24PM
It is amazing what the internet has done for customer recommendation. With a record number of people saying that they search online for reviews of a product before purchasing, we're now finding that the general public are becoming very savvy about what is and what is not genuine independent praise.
The idea that we can trust real people to give good honest opinions is stronger than ever. So much so that it reflects very badly indeed when this trust is betrayed by a product or service. Earlier this week, the Manchester Evening News revealed that the GMPTA's (local transport organisation) new publicity drive promoting a congestion charge across the city is in fact falsely portraying members of the public as pro charging.
The people who appear on the site and in direct marketing campaigns are actually models and the images were bought from an American photostock supplier. The case studies that they accompany are fictional and no interviews with the public were done during the production of the promotional literature.
If you read the many comments on the MEN website, it's obvious that by misleading the public, the GMPTA has alienated a lot of people they were originally trying to impress their views upon. It was also crisis management at its worst when both the PR company involved and the GMPTA denied fabricating any element of the information when they were first challenged.
Trust is the most important element involved in customer relations and the Internet is instilling this ever more deeply. Manchester's congestion charge has now set itself an even harder task.
Tags: consumer_confidence, trust, word_of_mouth
# Comment (1 comments)
E-commerce transparency
Jonathan Bowers, May 24th 2007, 1:07PM
A new survey about internet consumers highlights a few very pleasing things that people like myself have been telling clients for some time. The survey by MoreComputers concentrates on the aspects of e-commerce sites that users find particularly displeasing.
Having to register before being able to buy irks more than half of us, while hidden delivery costs are a pain for over a third of us. One of the biggest 'trust rating' statistics is that 50% of those surveyed said they would never buy from a website that did not show it's telephone number. This is one thing, I am consistently advising people on.
It's also fairly ironic, because in order to find a contact number on the MoreComputers website you have to click deep into the contact us section. Eventually you find it but it might be an idea for them to take notice of their own research if they want to avoid alienating half their visitors.