A Kaspersky-commissioned survey highlights the function of family members and buddies in serving to older folks use digital providers—and raises sensible questions on accessibility, account management and buyer assist.
Household tech assist can sit behind a banking transaction that seems totally digital. A relative could clarify a display screen, assist find a setting or work out why an software has stopped responding. For the service supplier, the transaction is full. For the shopper, it could have required help that the supplier by no means sees.
That distinction deserves consideration in South Africa. In a web-based survey commissioned by Kaspersky, 86% of South African respondents stated that they had helped an older relative or pal with expertise: 51% frequently and 35% sometimes. Kaspersky subsequently confirmed these figures to AfricaBusiness.com and outlined older folks as these aged 60 and above. [1][2]
The enterprise query is how banks, telecommunications firms and public-service platforms ought to accommodate help whereas making their providers simpler to make use of independently. Household tech assist might be beneficial, however prospects also needs to have a workable route when no trusted helper is obtainable.
What the household tech assist figures really measure
The analysis concerned 5,000 respondents throughout South Africa, Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, with 1,000 individuals in every nation. In keeping with data provided by Kaspersky’s consultant, fieldwork occurred in January 2026 and interviews have been carried out on-line. [2]
The South African consequence doesn’t imply that 86% of older South Africans want digital help. It describes the experiences of survey individuals who reported serving to somebody aged 60 or over. Respondents aged 60 and above have been themselves included and will have been supporting folks in their very own age group.
Amongst South African respondents who offered such assist, 59% assisted with putting in purposes, 48% with on-line transactions and banking software program, 46% with social media accounts, 41% with privateness settings and 29% with authorities providers. Kaspersky confirmed that these task-specific percentages use the helper group as their base. [1][2]
The survey doesn’t set up why every particular person sought help, whether or not the assistance was important or how efficiently a job was accomplished. These are questions service suppliers would want to research with their very own prospects.
A accomplished transaction can conceal a tough journey
Think about a hypothetical buyer who completes a cost solely after a member of the family explains the method. A dashboard displaying transaction completion would document success. It might not essentially reveal confusion, the time spent in search of assist or whether or not the shopper might repeat the method alone.
For product groups, this implies a helpful addition to usability testing: observe each impartial and assisted journeys. Ask the place assist was wanted, what the helper did and whether or not the shopper understood the ultimate motion. A profitable cost and a assured buyer are associated outcomes, however they aren’t interchangeable.
Testing ought to cowl bizarre issues in addition to first-time registration. Altering a telephone, recovering entry, correcting a type and understanding a failed cost could reveal totally different difficulties from downloading an app.
Suppliers also needs to study what occurs when help is unavailable. Can a buyer attain a skilled particular person, use an applicable various channel or pause a course of with out shedding their progress? These are sensible service questions that may be examined moderately than assumed.
Make household tech assist suitable with buyer management
Serving to somebody perceive an account display screen is totally different from having authority to function the account. A relative could also be welcome to elucidate directions whereas the account holder nonetheless needs balances, messages or private paperwork to stay personal.
A helpful design goal is to let prospects receive steering whereas retaining management of delicate actions. Suppliers ought to take into account whether or not directions clarify who’s authorising a transaction and whether or not assist might be delivered with out asking one other particular person to take over the shopper’s credentials.
The place a service provides formal delegated entry, its scope must be comprehensible: what the helper can see or do, how the shopper grants permission and the way that permission might be withdrawn. Availability and necessities will differ between suppliers; a household relationship alone shouldn’t be handled as proof of account authority.
Workers coaching issues too. A assist agent could encounter a buyer accompanied by an grownup youngster, pal or carer. The method ought to enable applicable help whereas guaranteeing that the shopper’s personal needs stay central. Sooner completion shouldn’t come on the expense of knowledgeable participation.
Accessibility begins with the bizarre interface
When all South African survey individuals have been requested what might enhance older folks’s cybersecurity and digital confidence, 37% chosen easier, extra intuitive instruments, 29% pointed to cyber-risk training and 21% emphasised extra energetic household assist. These are respondents’ views about potential enhancements, not measurements of their effectiveness. [1][2]
The World Extensive Internet Consortium’s Internet Accessibility Initiative explains that older customers’ wants typically overlap with these addressed by established accessibility requirements. Modifications in imaginative and prescient, dexterity, listening to or reminiscence can have an effect on how folks work together with digital interfaces, though particular person wants range significantly. [3]
Readable textual content, sufficient distinction, clear labels, usable controls and comprehensible suggestions present a sensible place to begin. Product groups ought to take a look at these options with older customers moderately than assume {that a} simplified look alone makes a service accessible.
Age shouldn’t turn into an alternative to understanding the shopper. Some older persons are skilled digital customers; others could also be unfamiliar with a selected service moderately than expertise usually. Testing ought to embrace totally different ranges of confidence, languages, gadgets and accessibility wants.
Measure whether or not the redesign helps
A service supplier might start with one incessantly used journey, resembling account restoration or submitting an software. Observe the place prospects cease, request assist or misunderstand the subsequent step, then take a look at a revised model towards the prevailing course of.
Helpful measures might embrace completion with out undesirable help, repeated errors, time spent recovering entry and subsequent assist contacts. Buyer understanding additionally issues: can the particular person clarify what they’ve authorised and what’s going to occur subsequent?
The survey doesn’t quantify potential financial savings from redesign. Diminished assist prices, fewer deserted transactions or stronger retention ought to subsequently be handled as outcomes to check, not advantages already demonstrated by these findings.
Household tech assist will stay a reputable alternative for a lot of prospects. The chance for South African digital-service suppliers is to assist that alternative whereas giving older customers a clearer, extra accessible path to appearing independently.
In regards to the analysis
Kaspersky commissioned the survey. Its representatives provided clarifications to AfricaBusiness.com on the net methodology, pattern sizes, age definition and share bases. The analysis company’s title and detailed recruitment, quota and weighting procedures weren’t provided within the correspondence reviewed. The outcomes are subsequently introduced as findings from the surveyed individuals, with no declare of nationwide representativeness. An internet survey additionally can’t straight seize the experiences of people who find themselves totally offline. The design proposals on this article are editorial evaluation, not interventions examined by the survey.
Illustration provided by Kaspersky.
Sources
- Kaspersky.
Household IT assist turns into important for older generations in South Africa, Kaspersky survey highlights,
15 September 2026. - Written clarifications provided to AfricaBusiness.com by Kaspersky by way of INK&Co., 16 and 30 September and 1 October 2026. Unpublished correspondence.
- W3C Internet Accessibility Initiative.
Older Customers and Internet Accessibility: Assembly the Wants of Ageing Internet Customers.
