One of the main roles of manufacturers is to boast the capabilities of their products. In their eyes, the features are always excellent, as well as the performance and capabilities compared to competing products.
However, when the equipment breaks down or has a blockage that leaves the user in the middle of a job, a game or a song, who is left with the task of arranging the product? It was on the basis of this question that the Pew Internet & American Life Project carried out a study and found that 15 percent of respondents who have already had a problem with a gadget in the last year they ended up being the same, that is, with no solution to the error.
The numbers were even higher for certain products. Almost a third of mobile phone users stated that they were never able to fix the damaged devices and, among those who found a solution, the arrangement was made by the user himself or by friends and rarely by specialized personnel from the brands.
The fact that 15 percent of users give up on products as soon as they give the first problems surprises the authors of the study, because Ā«it represents one in four consumers of mobile phonesĀ».
The analysis, which includes the use of products such as computers, Internet services, music players, smartphones and the already mentioned mobile phones, ends up not having a conclusive result with regard to the state of consumer support services in the digital age. which, according to analysts, represents Ā«the growth of technological complexityĀ».
According to experts, the gadgets it includes an Ā«ever-growing ecosystem of integrated devicesĀ» which, in other words, means that most devices no longer work just to serve the basic functions they should be offering ā an MP3 bed for listening to music, a mobile phone for making calls, among others. Instead, manufacturers preferred to connect them all, increasing the complexity of the products and hampering the services of those who provide support.
An example of this is that some companies are already beginning to ask online communities to provide assistance to those who have doubts about products and interaction between solutions. Aid thus comes from consumer to consumer rather than from those who manufactured the equipment.
One of the examples given in the study is what plagues those less experienced users: compatibility between products ā printer and laptop. In many cases, this doubt is taken by friends, by the sellers of the store where the equipment was purchased, on Internet forums and, obviously, with the brands.
About two percent of users confirm that communities online were one of the solutions found for this type of problem. In turn, 38 per cent decide to look for the brand, 28 per cent take risks alone and 15 per cent look for friends. The remaining 15 percent give up and do not resolve doubts, possibly, according to the study, because they do not understand the technologies they use in their daily lives.
