The findings of the survey of 2,000 people help reinforce the suggestion that automated-advice may not be such a welcome development in the mortgage market.
Although largely focused on the retail environment, it revealed that despite living in a world driven by technology, most people did not want to lose out on human opinions and experience.
Just nine per cent said they would enjoy being served by talking robots in store while 27% would feel very uncomfortable having a conversation with a robot or artificial intelligence-based device.
This was highlighted by 59% agreeing they would rather speak to a person to find out more information about a product.
Go the extra mile
When considering what made a great shopping experience, 49% of those polled by Gekko said it was down to having good staff, with 47% adding that staff who went the extra mile made it special.
A third also said they were more likely to buy again from a shop if they’ve received the personal touch, and more than a fifth claim they always spent more money in a shop if they were served by a good assistant.
When things go wrong having good people in the business also proved valuable with 61% preferring to deal directly with someone when making a complaint and 73% when trying to get a refund.
Over-reliance on technology
Overall, 81% said the personal touch had disappeared from customer service in modern Britain, with a third blaming an over-reliance on technology for this decline.
Gekko managing director Daniel Todaro noted that while technology and innovation was a major focus, the research “clearly shows that what consumers really want is the human touch”.
He added that “businesses need to focus on the customer experience to help revive their fortunes”.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the biggest bug-bears were using self-service checkouts, which regularly needed human intervention and automated phone lines which often resulted in the same information being repeated to a person later on.
