Over half of consumers (54 per cent) have lost their patience or become emotional (47 per cent) with brands wasting their time, and 37 per cent now expect companies to use AI to deliver more efficient services. That’s according to new research from Twilio, a customer engagement platform.
While mundane household tasks, like cleaning, food shopping, and meal prepping, regularly test our patience, almost half of Brits (49 per cent) also consider brand admin (or ‘brandmin’) – i.e. tasks to manage their accounts or interactions with brands – to be a significant chore.
With UK consumers spending a whopping 45 minutes a week on average on such tasks, amounting to over 1.5 days a year, it’s no surprise that 47 per cent of consumers see brand admin as an unnecessary time drain. It’s even resulted in many giving up on ‘brandmin’ tasks entirely, with Brits having lost an average of £95 each in the last year at their expense. This amounts to a whopping £3 billion collectively lost by UK consumers.
However, the research also found that streamlined customer engagement could benefit businesses as much as consumers, with 22 per cent of respondents saying they would likely use any time saved to browse more products and services. It highlighted a significant opportunity for brands to create more positive interactions with their consumers during the touchpoints they have, instead of burdening them with unwanted tasks.
‘Brandmin’ time drains
When asked what types of ‘brandmin’ are the most irritating, consumers ranked the following as the most arduous experiences:
- Being put on hold (43 per cent)
- Being passed around departments or incorrectly transferred (43 per cent)
- Lengthy resolution processes (27 per cent)
- Multi-factor authentication (25 per cent)
- Complicated returns processes (22 per cent)
Lack of choice also played into customer dissatisfaction, with Brits being forced into interactions on channels they don’t want to use (18 per cent) or having to reach out at inconvenient times (19 per cent).
Sam Richardson, customer engagement consultant at Twilio, comments: “It’s up to brands to course correct their customer engagement tactics to ensure they are having positive interactions with consumers, rather than those centered around burdensome ‘brandmin’ chores that ultimately dictate consumers’ perceptions of them. Beyond overcoming these universal ‘brandmin’ pet peeves, AI tools can also help brands better listen to, understand, and accommodate their different customers’ engagement preferences, so that being forced into interactions on certain channels and at restricted times becomes a thing of the past. AI can also take these preferences into account to ensure every customer interaction is entirely unique and hyper-tailored to the intended recipient.”
Such inconveniences often result in consumers giving up entirely on their ‘brandmin’ chores. Indeed, in the past 12 months, consumers have dropped a task or issue entirely due to communications taking up too much time (33 per cent), or it being a frustrating experience for them (34per cent). A quarter (25 per cent) even say they’ve ended up paying more, or lost money, by not following up on a ‘brandmin’ task. In fact, UK consumers report that they have lost £95 on average a year because they have not completed such chores.
Inefficient interactions are also impacting brand loyalty. Brits report the following knock-on effects:
- Taking their business elsewhere (36 per cent)
- Brands going down in their estimations (34 per cent)
- Complaining about it to friends and family (28 per cent)
- Seeing the brand as having incompetent customer service capabilities (28 per cent)
- Viewing the brand as not valuing them or their time (27 per cent)
In 2024, with customer expectations increasing, sub-par customer interactions simply aren’t good enough, with almost two-fifths (39 per cent) of consumers regularly left disappointed by their brand interactions. Twilio also found consumers want to cut down on the time they spend doing brand admin (57 per cent), and almost half (49 per cent) have missed out on doing more valuable things at the expense of brand admin – such as work, other household tasks, exercising, hobbies, and spending time with family and friends.
Thanks to the emergence of AI, customers expect rapid improvements in the next 12 months, with them hoping it can shorten waiting times (34per cent), provide 24/7 customer service availability (34 per cent), put them through to the correct department first time (28 per cent), automatically verify their identity (22 per cent), streamline or automate changes or cancellations to contracts (18 per cent), or streamline resolutions to complaints and product faults (17 per cent).
Richardson adds, “It’s alarming just how much ‘brand admin’ creeps into our everyday lives. It has a detrimental impact on customers’ moods and emotions when they can’t reach a resolution or get in touch on our preferred channel, putting a massive burden on them and negatively impacting their brand views. And with customer time incredibly valuable, we’re at a tipping point where people simply won’t put up with their time being wasted anymore, either.
In the age of AI, there’s incredible opportunity for brands to address this and create more efficient, positive communications. Brands need to rise to the occasion and remove the ‘time drain’ tasks that seem to go hand-in-hand with being a customer. Helping customers reach resolutions is the answer – it’s as simple as that.”
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