Study: Incorrect business data online alienates Swiss consumers
A study by Yext shows that Swiss businesses need to better maintain online information on opening hours, addresses and products in order to remain credible.
Quickly look up the opening hours of the shoe store online and then head off. Two out of three Swiss people have found out that this doesn't always work smoothly. They have found themselves standing in front of a closed store door because the opening times or addresses of a store on the Internet were not correctly stated. Of the 18 to 34-year-olds surveyed, 74 percent have experienced this. These are the findings of a survey of 501 German-speaking Swiss people conducted by Yext, a provider of digital knowledge management, in January 2018.
Incorrect data damages sales and reputation
Incorrect company information on the Internet costs companies hard cash. If customers are faced with a closed store door, three quarters of respondents (76%) would buy from the competition if they needed the product quickly. 49 percent would go home frustrated and a third (36 percent) would store online. One in four respondents would even avoid those stores in future. A company's image can also suffer as a result of incorrect online information. Just under a third (31%) of all respondents would tell their friends about their experience via social media or write negative online reviews about the company.
Local search: search engine, company website, business directories
Whether address, opening hours or product selection - 83 percent of Swiss respondents say they are most likely to search for such company information via Google or other search engines. This is followed by the company website with 60 percent. Map services (38%) and online business directories (17%) are also among the research sources used by consumers.
Company website is the most credible
Half of those surveyed (53%) consider the company website to be the most reliable source of data, followed by Google or other search engines (27%). However, regardless of which online platform the consumer uses to find company-related information, for every second respondent (56%), the responsibility for data maintenance lies with the company itself.
These are the local businesses most frequently searched for online
The Swiss consumers surveyed most frequently search online for restaurants (47 percent), retailers (41 percent) and entertainment options such as cinemas or theaters (41 percent).
Michael Hartwig, Managing Partner Central Europe at Yext: "More and more consumers are searching the internet for information about local businesses and companies. The increasing use of digital voice assistants will further intensify this situation. Companies have it in their own hands to control their information on all relevant online platforms, services and end devices and keep it up to date at all times. In this way, they not only ensure a stringent brand experience, but can also positively influence sales both online and offline." (ank/pd)
