20 Customer Service Statistics for 2011

With customer service and experience industries undergoing rapid change, here are 20 interesting customer service and customer experience statistics to keep in mind as we head into 2011.

1. Even in a negative economy, customer experience is a high priority for consumers, with 60% often or always paying more for a better experience.
   Source: Harris Interactive, Customer Experience Impact Report
2. 81% of companies with strong capabilities and competencies for delivering customer experience excellence are outperforming their competition
   Source: Peppers & Rogers Group, 2009 Customer Experience Maturity Monitor
3. Out of best in class companies: 91% provide customers the ability to track issues over the web, 57% measure support center success across email, chat, web, and voice, and 62% use integrated voice response (IVR)
   Source: Aberdeen Group
4. 70% of customer experience management best in class adopters use customer feedback to make strategic decision. 50% of industry-average organizations and 29% of laggards do.
   Source: Aberdeen Group, Customer Experience Management: Engaging Loyal Customers to Evangelize Your Brand
5. The top three drivers for investing in customer experience management are:
   1. Improve customer retention – (42 %)
   2. Improve customer satisfaction – (33 %)
   3. Increase cross-selling and up-selling (32 %)
   Source: Aberdeen report – Customer Experience Management: Engaging Loyal Customers to Evangelize Your Brand
6. A dissatisfied consumer will tell between 9 and 15 people about their experience. About 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people.
   Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC
7. Retailers and hotels provide the best average customer experience in North America overall as an industry.
   Source: Forrester Customer Experience Index 2010
8. 90% of North American firms view customer experience as important or critical to 2010 plans. 80% of the firms would like to use customer experience as a form of differentiation.
   Source: Forrester’s The State Of Customer Experience, 2010
9. In any contact center, labor costs are typically the largest annual expense component, exceeding 60% of total operational costs
   Source: Avaya, Contact Center Costs: The Case for Telecommuting Agents
10. US contact centers spend $12.4 billion annually verifying the caller is who they say they are. 59% of calls require identity verification, but only 3% of these are handled entirely through automated processes.
    Source: ContactBabel, The US Contact Center Decision-Makers’ Guide
11. 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience, up from 59% 4 years ago
    Source: Harris Interactive, Customer Experience Impact Report
12. For every customer complaint, there are 26 other customers who have remained silent
    Source: Lee Resource Inc
13. Health insurance plans and tv service providers deliver the worst average customer experience in North America overall as an industry.
    Source: Forrester Customer Experience Index 2010
14. The best North American car manufacturers in terms of their dealers’ service departments in 2009 in descending order were: Lexus, Jaguar, BMW, Cadillac, Acura.
    Source: JDPower 2009 Customer Service Index Study
15. Customer churn is caused by customer feelings of poor treatment 68% of the time
    Source: TARP
16. It takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience
    Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner
17. 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with your organization again
    Source: Lee Resource Inc.
18. Happy customers who get their issue resolved tell about 4 to 6 people about their experience.
    Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC
19. Attracting a new customer costs 5 times as much as keeping an existing one
    Source: Lee Resource Inc.
20. 76% of companies motivate employees to treat customers fairly and 62% provide effective tools and training to gain trust with their customers.
    Source: Peppers & Rogers Group, 2009 Customer Experience Maturity Monitor

Tags: contact center, customer experience, customer service