NEW YORK, Sept. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Yext, Inc. (NYSE:
YEXT), the AI Search Company, today announced results from a new,
original survey about American consumers' preferences and behaviors
when resolving customer support issues online.
The company, which recently expanded its AI search platform to
customer support use cases with Support Answers, surveyed 1,500+
consumers in the US and uncovered new insights about their
willingness to self-serve, preferred support channels, and
more:
- Consumers prefer to self-serve, versus directly contacting a
company.
-
- 85% of respondents say that being able to find
information and resolve an issue themselves — versus contacting
customer support — is either "very important" or "fairly
important."
- 58% of respondents prefer finding information on a
company's website to resolve an issue, versus 40% preferring
to contact the company directly.
- Consumers want to trust information coming directly from a
brand.
-
- When asked how likely they are to trust an answer from a
company's website, 93% of respondents said "very likely" or
"somewhat likely," versus 82% for a search engine and
63% for a third-party website or blog.
- Consumers want smarter, more intuitive help site search from
brands.
-
- Respondents indicated that some of the biggest issues with help
site search are an inability to understand their questions
(60%), delivering unrelated search results (53%),
providing out-of-date or inaccurate information (39%), and
being difficult to use (24%).
- Investing in help site search can be the difference between
losing customers and building brand loyalty.
-
- 62% of respondents say that they may purchase from a
different company because a business could not answer their
questions themselves (specifically on their site search) either
occasionally, frequently, or very frequently.
- If site search fails, 21% of respondents say that
they'll turn to an external source, while 69% choose a
higher-cost channel (calling, live chat, email, etc.) with that
same brand.
- 56% of respondents say that they'll return to the brand
(versus a search engine like Google) if that brand provided a
direct answer to their question.
"Our research validated what we've been observing first-hand as
we innovate solutions for customer support teams: a major
disconnect between consumers' preferences and behavior," said
Joe Jorczak, Head of Industry for
Service and Support at Yext. "Consumers want to find answers to
their questions independently, but their preferred method of
self-serve has let them down too many times, simply because most
businesses aren't equipped with technology that's powerful enough.
What businesses can take away from our findings is that empowering
customers to self-serve can significantly improve bottom lines,
brand loyalty, and customer retention."
Explore Yext's AI-powered customer support solution, Support
Answers, here.
About Yext
Yext (NYSE: YEXT) is the AI Search
Company and is on a mission to transform the enterprise with AI
search.
With the explosion of information and data online, search has
never been more important. However, while the world of consumer
search has innovated over time, enterprise search has not. In fact,
the majority of enterprise search is powered by outdated keyword
search technology that only scans for keywords and delivers a list
of hyperlinks rather than actually answering questions.
Yext, the AI Search Company, offers a modern, AI-powered Answers
Platform that understands natural language so that when people ask
questions about a business online they get direct answers – not
links.
Brands like Verizon, Vanguard, Subway and Marriott — as well as
organizations like the U.S. State Department and World Health
Organization — trust Yext to radically improve their business with
answers-led AI search.
CONTACT: Amanda Kontor,
pr@yext.com
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SOURCE Yext, Inc.