13 Shocking Customer Service Statistics

It’s frightening to think just how much poor customer service can impact the customer experience and the overall reputation and bottom lines of brands and organizations. Recent consumer surveys have shown that just a single poor customer service experience can lead to the sudden demise of even the longest customer relationship.

On the other hand, satisfying customer service has scary-good results, increasing customer acquisition, retention, brand loyalty and advocacy. Treat yourself to the 13 shocking customer service statistics below to encourage bigger and better buy-in for your 2016 customer service initiatives:

1. 76% of consumers say they view customer service as the true test of how much a company values them. (2015 Aspect Consumer Experience Survey)

2. 90% of consumers now expect a brand or organization to offer a self-service customer support portal; 60% of consumers have a more favorable view of the brand if their self-service offering is mobile-responsive. (2015 Global State of Multichannel Customer Service Report)

3. 73% of consumers want the ability to solve product/service issues on their own; one-third say they’d ‘rather clean a toilet’ than speak with customer service. (2015 Aspect Consumer Experience Survey)

4. According to NewVoiceMedia, an estimated $41 billion is lost by U.S. companies alone each year due to poor customer service.

5. 77% of US online adults say that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service. (Contact Centers Must Go Digital or Die, Forrester Research, 2015)

6. 45% of customers can’t remember having a recent successful customer experience. Most failures were related to disappointing customer service: 35% of the survey respondents experienced poor response times; 30% said the employee they contacted was poorly trained; 31% said the employee they spoke too wasn’t empowered to help; 29% of customers received inaccurate or conflicting information when they did talk to customer service representatives. (SDL 2015 The Global CX Wakeup Call Report)

7. In relation to the above, most customer experience successes are also dependent on customer service: 35% of consumers surveyed rated their experience a success because customer service was pleasant or helpful (35%); customer service was very knowledgeable or well-trained (27%) and customer service was empowered to help properly (24%). Only great product quality ranked equally high as these satisfying customer service experiences at 25%. (SDL 2015 The Global CX Wakeup Call Report)

8. 60% of UK consumers prefer a balance of price and service and will not accept low service levels in exchange for a lower priced product. (UKCSI Customer Satisfaction Index)

9. 97% of global consumers say that customer service is very important or somewhat important in their choice of and loyalty to a brand. (2015 Global State of Multichannel Customer Service Report)

10. 62% of global consumers have stopped doing business with a brand or organization due to a poor customer service experience. (2015 Global State of Multichannel Customer Service Report)

11. When it comes to sales, the probability of selling to an existing happy customer is up to 14 times higher than the probability of selling to a new customer. (Marketing Metrics: The Definitive Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance)

12. 60% of consumers have higher expectations for customer service now than they did just one year ago. (2015 Global State of Multichannel Customer Service Report)

13. Nearly 80% of contact centers say their current customer service systems won’t meet their future needs. (Dimension Data 2015 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report)

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Want More Current Customer Service Statistics? 

The 2015 Global State of Multichannel Report includes more key stats including customer service expectations for the phone, social media, self-service portals and more.

Click here to access the complimentary full report or original post.