Australian consumers prefer smaller businesses to traditional industry leaders when it comes to customer satisfaction, a new study has found.
The national survey, conducted by the Canstar Cannex’s new ratings standard for consumer goods and services Canstar Blue, found that Australian consumers are generally more satisfied with less established brands across categories such as domestic airline, car, mobile phone provider and LCD TV.
The results show that smaller players are toppling the big brands when it comes to customer satisfaction, according to Canstar Cannex Head of Research Steven Mickenbecker.
“It turns out Australian consumers are more satisfied with brands that are challenging the traditional leaders in these categories. In the battle for the consumer, it seems that bigger is not necessarily better,” said Mr Mickenbecker.
“Our study shows that Hyundai has successfully taken on industry stalwarts such as Ford and Holden; Virgin Blue and Virgin Mobile have triumphed over Qantas and Telstra; and Hisense LCD TVs have come out ahead of brands such as Sony,” added Mr Mickenbecker.
The study, which surveyed more than 2,500 Australian consumers across key demographics, asked consumers to vote for their currently used brand in each category, covering aspects such as price, service, range of products, accessibility and clear bills.
It found that Australian women were more satisfied with their chosen brand in every category tested, while men were fussier when it comes to spending money, proving far less happy with the value provided by their airline, car and phone. Practicality is also important for men, with men the happiest with functional aspects of their brands such as service and product performance.
