Customer feedback: 71% of respondents want to inform their peers

This article was originally published by the editorial team of RelationClient.

Informing others and gaining recognition for the time spent responding... these are the motivations of customers who agree to leave a review at the end of the purchase process, according to a study conducted by Avis Vérifiés on consumer psychology.

Avis Vérifiés, the European review collection specialist, conducted a survey (1) in January 2022 in France among 22,320 consumers to understand their motivations for leaving a review after purchasing a product or service.

Why leave a review?

The great majority of respondents tend to feel that they belong to a community of consumers rather than to a brand. Above all, they want to enlighten their peers (71%), advise them or warn them. Nevertheless, feedback to the brand remains a strong motivation for its customers (58%), whether positive or negative. So for brands, consumer reviews represent a genuine opportunity to engage in conversation with their customers.

Why not respond?

The main constraint to submitting an opinion is the lack of time (average of 53% for all age groups). This is particularly felt by 18-25 year olds (66%) and 26-35 year olds (64%). This propensity is less strong among the over-50s (43%), but they are the ones who feel too much pressure (40%). They nevertheless make the effort to respond when invited (30%).

The excessive demand from consumers clearly appears to be the second biggest barrier to submitting a review. This is the case for 34% of respondents on average. On the other hand, it is less felt by young people (19%) than by the rest of the age groups.

For 10% of respondents (all age groups) the response process appears too cumbersome and 8% are not interested (16% among 18-15 year olds).

What could motivate them to respond more often

One in two respondents recognises that they would be motivated to leave a review if they received some form of recognition from the brand. This is particularly prevalent among the 25-34 (56%) and 35-49 (57%) age groups.

On average, 22% of respondents would like to be able to leave a review from the retailer's customer area and 18% would like a more suitable timeframe.

Young people aged 18-25 preferred to be questioned via WhatsApp, Messenger or SMS (16%) as opposed to those aged over 50 (4%).