Source: Genesys Research: “The cost of poor customer service”
Genesys conducted research to determine some of the hard costs associated with provision of poor service in the US.
They found than $83 billion annually is either lost to competitors or lost for good as consumers are so turned off they don’t buy at all.
“More than 65% of consumers have ended
relationships there due to poor customer service. And,
while 61% of those relationships end up with a competitor,
39% of them are lost or abandoned completely
as consumers decide not to purchase from anyone.”
So why are customers leaving?
Some of the reasons mentioned in the report by consumers were:
• Having to repeat themselves
• Being trapped in automated self-service
• Forced to wait too long for service
• Representatives don’t know my history and value
Add to this other research that has shown the number one reason customers leave a business is because they believe the business simply does not care about them and their business.
Solutions?
The number 1 factor involved in a great customer experience cited by the Genesys research was an interaction with a competent, knowledgeable customer service person. I would add to this a customer service person that actually cares about getting the right outcome for the customer.
Do all of your staff understand the importance of great customer service? If it costs businesses $83 billion a year, how many jobs could it save?
The key point here is customers want to interact with someone knowledgeable – but what is difficult is collecting the knowledge scattered across your customer service team and making it available. This makes creating a central multichannel knowledgebase that can be accessed by agents and through channels such as web self-service a prerequisite for keeping customers satisfied and happy.