Achieve Proactive Product Support
Proactive product support for durable goods brands involves anticipating customer needs by providing easy access to manuals, warranties, and how-to guides, sending timely reminders about maintenance and updates, and offering self-service digital resources to prevent frustration, reduce costly support interactions, and retain customer trust, as 52% of customers would switch brands after a single bad experience.
Once a customer owns a product, their relationship with the brand evolves. When they have a question or run into a problem, they expect quick and helpful support. For durable product brands, like those that sell tools, appliances, or outdoor equipment, this support can be costly for brands to develop and maintain but is a critical part of the ownership experience.
Unfortunately, many owners still face unnecessary hurdles when trying to get help — it’s hard to find manuals, warranty details, claims options, or how-to guides. Customers are passed between various digital resources and support reps, needing to repeat their needs at various touch points. Even simple tasks don’t have self-service options. Poor product support is a pretty universal experience for many people, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
These problems can lead to frustration and lost trust. In fact, 52% of customers say they’d switch to a competitor after just one bad experience. That’s why proactive product support is so important: it helps customers before problems escalate and makes it easier for them to get what they need.
What does proactive product support look like?
Customers may not always know what support they need or when they need it, but they shouldn’t be expected to – the brands that provide them with their products are the experts, and the ones customers inevitably rely on for information. When product owners are given guidance through product support, they accept it. In fact, over 70% of appliance owners will immediately engage with digital resources after registering, while 60% will return to those resources to find more information and resolve needs on their own.
Instead of waiting for customers to reach out or providing generic resources that customers must sort through to find what they need, proactive support anticipates their needs:
- Send reminders about maintenance, warranties, or product updates
- Offer tools like how-to videos and setup tips after purchase
- Automatically surface the right resources when an issue is detected
- Enable live agents to see full customer and product history before the conversation starts
- Offer self-service options or AI-assisted guides so owners can solve common problems anytime
Ownership experience management capabilities are essential for making this possible. With centralized data, brands can connect customer profiles to specific products and deliver the right help at the right time. When done well, the benefits are clear:
- Higher customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Reduced call center costs
- Lower average call handling time (ACHT)
- Less customer churn from poor service
- Stronger employee morale with better tools
- Reduced environmental footprint by digitizing product resources
When owners can easily access support that’s tailored to their product and situation, they feel more confident and cared for, building trust that lasts.
This blog is part of our Customer Engagement blog series and one of the four fundamental framework pillars of building a strong ownership experience. The first two key pillars are identifying customers and their products and personalizing the customer experience. Subscribe to our newsletter for the rest of our Customer Engagement blog series and future insights from our customer engagement experts.
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What is the Ownership Experience (OX)?
The Ownership Experience (OX) refers to the comprehensive emotional and physical journey a customer undergoes from purchasing to using and eventually ending ownership of a durable product, encompassing all interactions with the product and brand—including appearance, performance, support, and services—which, when prioritized by brands, leads to improved customer engagement, higher opt-in rates, better support metrics, reduced churn, positive reviews, and new or enhanced revenue channels.
Why Centralizing Ownership Resources Is Essential for Consumer Brands
Centralizing ownership resources into a single, personalized customer hub eliminates friction by providing easy access to relevant product information and support, enhances self-service experiences expected by 79% of consumers, reduces repetitive support tickets, and fosters long-term brand loyalty by maintaining engagement throughout the product lifecycle.
Ownership Experience Best Practices
The article emphasizes that a successful Ownership Experience (OX)—the comprehensive, personalized interaction between product, customer, and brand throughout product ownership—relies on leveraging first-party data to create tailored Owner Journeys in onboarding, care, and commerce, which in turn boosts customer satisfaction, loyalty, and lifetime value, with best practices highlighting the need for organizational alignment and personalization as key differentiators in today’s market.