We’re in an incredibly fast paced ever changing world! Customer expectations are ever demanding and ever increasing, customer choice is expanding and the world is becoming ever more transparent. It means that we’re all busy trying to anticipate and deal with these incessant changes and we’re constantly ‘on the go’!
Our research suggests that successful business leaders consciously take time out to reflect, review and refocus themselves and their business to survive, even ‘thrive’ in these Dramatically and Demonstrably Different times!
So, as we come to the end of 2012, I thought you might find these statistics on customer service, customer expectations and customer experiences that all appeared on my website in 2012 to help you ‘reflect and review’.
Crucially, why not ‘reflect’ on what they mean to your business, ‘review’ how you measure up in these areas and ‘refocus’ your business on what you’re going to do in 2013!
Here goes…. (be careful, some of them are a bit scary!)….
- 83% of UK business leaders feel that customers are the biggest driver of change and are the biggest pressure point for businesses today.
Source: Fit To Change report
- 53% of UK businesses believe that customer service has become more important over the past 12 months.
Source: Sage UK Research
- 66% of UK consumers believe customer service has either stayed the same or deteriorated over the past three years. Only 3% believe it has improved a lot and 22% a little.
Source: Cognito
- 81% of customers would be willing to pay more in order to receive superior customer service
Source: Oracle report: Why Customer Satisfaction is No Longer Good Enough
- Only 29% of the UK’s small businesses believe that customer service is a key differentiator in today’s competitive marketplaces. This compares to 88% of Spanish businesses and 77% of Italian businesses who see customer service as being the differentiator that helps them stand out.
Source: Epson Business Council Report
- UK businesses lose 21 million customers a year due to long queues. 59% of shoppers are not prepared to wait in a queue with 18% saying that they would go to an alternative shop, and 32% of frustrated shoppers say they would turn to online retailers!
Source: YouGov
- 90% of UK shoppers walk away without buying something if they get bad customer service! 41% of shoppers said the biggest frustration is lack of interest in their needs.
Source: Market Force Research
- 59% of UK shoppers want more staff to recommend products, as it makes the experience more personal and 80% of shoppers want to be taken to a product when asking its whereabouts.
Source: Market Force Research
- When asked what were the key drivers for a customer to spend more with a company 40% said improvement in the overall customer experience and 35% said provide quick access to information and make it easier for customers to answer questions.
Source: Oracle Report: Why Customer Satisfaction is No Longer Good Enough
- 57% of customers will wait 3 seconds or less for a website to load before abandoning it.
Source: “Consumer Response to Travel Site Performance” study conducted by PhoCusWright and Akamai
- 74% of customers leave if a website doesn’t load on their smartphone in 5 seconds. In fact a one-second delay in load time would cost Amazon an estimated $1.6 billion a year!
Source: Fast Company
- Rude staff are the most common reason for poor customer service by over 50% of UK customers, followed by timeliness (19%) and the inability to fix a customer’s reported problems (19%).
Source: Cognito
- The top 5 reasons that create a decrease in customer loyalty are:
– Being transferred between staff
– No response to an email
– Length of time on hold
– Being unable to reach a human
– Unknowledgeable staff
Source: Oracle Report: Why Customer Satisfaction is No Longer Good Enough
- 71% of customers go online first whenever they have a problem with a product.
Source: Sword Ciboodle and thinkJar report
- 49% of customers wanting help from a company’s customer service team contact them by email and 43% pick up the phone!
Source: Rakuten’s Play.com report
- 51% of people who make a complaint on line expect a response, but 85% of those questioned have never received one!
Source: Maritz Research
- 85% of customers said they were delighted (27%) or very/somewhat happy (58%) on receiving a public response to their comments on social media from a brand.
Source: Maritz Research
- 46% of customers aged 24 and below use social media to air their grievances. 33% of them say that responses are too slow.
Source: Rakuten’s Play.com report
- 91% of customers don’t always complain when they receive poor customer service with over 40% of them thinking it is not worth complaining as companies simply don’t care!
Source: Report by Rapide
- Only 27% of customers said they either always or often feedback when they’ve had great customer service!
Source: Report by Rapide
- 81% of customers would be more likely to give feedback if they knew there would be an instant response!
Source: Report by Rapide
- When asked what is most likely to keep them loyal, UK customers responded:
– Improved trust in the business 3.1%
– Outstanding reputation of the business 4.9%
– Good loyalty rewards 17.1%
– Cost 17.3%
– Excellent customer service 27.5%
– Quality of product or service 30.2%
Source: Portal
- 86% of customers are more likely to purchase something following a good customer experience and 64% are unlikely to repurchase something if they are very dissatisfied with the customer service interaction.
Source: 2012 study by the Temkin Group
- 48% of Internet users told other people “all the time” about a good customer service experience with a company.
Source: American Express study
- 78% of online customers recommend a brand to friends and other contacts after a great customer experience and 68 % reported that they spend more money on the company’s items.
Source: ClickFox
Here’s a ‘bonus’ 26th statistic (that’s ‘Customer Delight’!)….
- Over 65% of UK bosses believe that businesses can’t keep up with the pace of change in today’s competitive markets and 57% agree that an inability to respond rapidly and effectively to change is one of the most significant risks their business faces today.
Source: Fit To Change report
Hope you found these useful. If you’d like a bit more, you may want to download a free 44 page ebook ‘Customer Delight As Competitive Advantage’ . It will help you address and deal with some of these ‘challenges’ in your business to help you get ahead of your competitors in 2013!
Equally, if you want to be ‘stay ahead’ of them, then why not sign up for my 3D Thoughts – free, short, sharp audios that provide you with rants, raves, ideas and suggestions to help you and your business compete by being ‘Dramatically and Demonstrably Different’!
Here’s to a 3D 2013 for all of us!!!!
Andy, thanks for assembling this list.
There’s some very powerful stuff here that any business leader can use to map out a Loyalty Improvement Plan for 2013:
1. Read each Statistic, and think about how it applies to your own company.
2. Pick the top 4 Stats where your company can most improve.
3. Identify 3 specific initiatives that that will improve performance / satisfaction for each Stat.
4. Begin working on new Initiative each month, so that by the end of each Quarter, you’ve addressed each Stat, and can begin working on the next.
If you’ve selected the rigth Stats for your business, by the end of 2013 you should see significant improvements in Service, which will lead to significant improvements in loyalty.
Thanks again Andy, and Happy New Year!
Jim Watson
Portland, Maine
http://bit.ly/RmufcF
Thanks so much for that Jim – it works really well. I do think if people use this stuff to create some focus for their business it could really help them.
Your suggestions make that even more likely!
All the best for the New Year!
Andy