Business success is driven by much more than just product/service and pricing. In fact, consumer research over the past few years has found that consumers are increasingly choosing companies they do business with based on the company’s customer service and experience, as well as its corporate social responsibility agenda.
This means successful transactions today are fully customer-driven, which is why customer service and experience have become a priority for businesses across industries.
But why take our word for it?
Related: Answering Services for Small Businesses
We’ve compiled 200 customer service facts and figures so that you can see for yourself why customer service is now more important than ever and that exceptional customer service can lead to more leads, sales, loyal customers, and revenue.
Customer Service Statistics: Key Facts and Figures for 2020
Statistics Supporting Great Customer Service
1
The global customer experience management market size was valued at USD 6.5 billion in 2019 and is expected to register a CAGR of 17.7% from 2020 to 2027.
2
Customer experience management helps organizations to strengthen their brand presence, improve consumer loyalty, reduce customer churn, and in turn boost business revenue.
5
US consumers say they’re willing to spend 17 percent more to do business with companies that deliver excellent service.
6
94% of consumers who give a company a “very good” CX rating are likely to purchase more products or services from that company in the future.
7
About three-quarters of consumers who give a company a “very good” CX rating are likely to forgive a company for a bad experience.
9
There is a 38-percentage-point difference in likelihood to recommend between consumers rating a company’s CX as “good” versus those rating a company’s CX as “poor.”
11
The companies leading in customer experience are more successful than their peers. They are three times more likely to have significantly exceeded their 2019 business goals
14
95% of respondents cite customer service as important in their choice of and loyalty to a brand.
15
70% of consumers have a more favorable view of brands that offer or contact them with proactive customer service notifications.
16
90% of customers have a more favorable view of brands that give them the opportunity to provide feedback.
18
Consumers report a 25 to 30 percent increase in loyalty with the introduction of modern engagement capabilities.
19
76% of consumers agree that they will use a company that gets them to the appropriate individual with a minimal number of menu selections.
20
68% of consumers say they would buy more from brands that put the service back in customer service.
22
By the end of 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product to become the key brand differentiator.
23
Superior customer experience has been found to drive stronger bottom lines and stock prices.
24
Customers with good service interactions reported that they were not only less likely to show disloyalty toward the company, but more likely to advocate, renew and spend more.
25
Good customer service interactions increased customers’ confidence in their original purchase decision or helped them achieve more with the product/service.
26
After experiencing value-enhancing customer service interactions, there is an 82% probability that the customer would stay even when presented an opportunity to switch.
27
97% of customers are more likely to share positive word of mouth after they receive value during a service interaction.
28
79% of consumers say customer service is extremely important when deciding where to shop.
29
59% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for a brand or provider known to have outstanding customer service, with most consumers reporting they are willing to pay 5-10% more.
30
Good customer service was ranked as the number one attribute when choosing where to do business, even above price, for those aged 18-24.
31
Even with the disruption of a global pandemic, consumers prefer doing business with companies that can make and maintain positive connections – 38% of consumers are ready to pay more for a product or service if it means receiving a superior customer experience.
33
62% of consumers said they were more likely to be a repeat customer of a brand if the brand responded to their questions on digital channels.
Financial Statistics on Great Customer Service
34
73% of all people point to customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions. Yet only 49% of U.S. consumers say companies provide a good customer experience today.
37
Among U.S. customers, 65% find a positive experience with a brand to be more influential than great advertising.
39
31% of teams think their company considers customer service as an expense, not an opportunity for growth.
40
Only 32% of companies are using customer relationship management (CRM) software to manage customer data.
41
Over 70% of CX leaders struggle to design projects that increase customer loyalty and achieve results.
42
63% of business leaders believe that to build customer loyalty, their CX teams must be primarily focused on creating new and innovative experiences for their customers.
44
Compared with two years ago, four in 10 consumers find themselves evaluating or considering other providers more often.
45
Of the consumers who switched to another provider due to poor service, more than 80% said they could have been retained.
46
Only 14 percent of consumers overall strongly agree that companies are effectively providing a positive customer experience through convergence between new digital, mobile and social channel interactions and more traditional ones.
47
The percentage of consumers saying their biggest frustrations with providers—failure to deliver on their promises, inefficient and slow customer service, and lack of interaction convenience—have remained consistent in the past few years.
49
Less than 30% of companies offer self-service, live chat, social messaging, in-app messaging, bots or peer-to-peer communities.
50
Companies offering omnichannel support resolve tickets more than three times faster, and their customers spend 75% less time waiting for agents to respond.
51
Just one in five people rate their digital experience of large multinational organisations as excellent.
52
82% say it would be good if organisations used AI to monitor the condition of products and services.
53
59% of consumers say they have higher expectations for customer service now than you had a year ago.
54
47 percent of consumers rate humanizing the customer experience the most important benefit in modern engagement capabilities.
55
Our research suggests only about 15% of customer interactions currently produce value enhancement but many more could.
56
The greatest chance to enhance the value the customer perceives is during inquiry calls. The lowest likelihood of success is during complaint calls.
58
Customer service is the most important driver-category of customer experience quality across most industries and markets.
59
Eighty-two percent of decision-makers say their company’s customer service must transform in order to stay competitive.
60
Nearly seven in 10 decision-makers say executives allocate the budget needed to modernize customer service operations. What’s more, the majority of service teams expect budget increases next year.
61
Seventy-eight percent of service professionals say their company views agents as customer advocates, and 75% view them as brand ambassadors.
62
85% of service decision-makers view investment in agents as a vital part of service transformation.
63
Fifty-six percent of agents say they must toggle between multiple screens to find all the information they need to do their job
65
Seventy-three percent of customers say one extraordinary experience raises their expectations of other companies.
66
Fifty-four percent of customers say it’s harder than ever for companies to earn their trust.
67
Eighty-nine percent of customers are more loyal to companies they trust, and 65% have stopped buying from companies that did something they consider distrustful.
69
Over 95% of organizations have adopted a journey-based approach to CX and eight-in-ten respondents say a journey-based strategy is critical to the overall success of their business.
70
40%of CX leaders agree that quantifying the ROI of customer experience is the #1 overall CX challenge today.
71
48%of enterprise CX leaders agree that lacking a single view of the customer and customer journey is the #1 challenge for effectively measuring customer experience.
72
The majority of CX organizations (95%) collect customer feedback data. For customer experience professionals, three of the top five high-priority KPIs are NPS® (62.7%), CSAT (54.2%) and CES (30.9%).
73
61 percent of consumers report that brands aren’t using their personal information intelligently or thoughtfully to predict their needs.
74
78 percent of consumers report they are more inclined to be loyal to brands that understand them and what they are looking to achieve through interactions with a company.
76
76 percent of global consumers are more likely to be loyal to a brand that understands them on a personal level.
77
6% stated that good digital customer service is “very important” when it comes to affecting their brand loyalty.
78
Over two thirds (74%) of respondents reported it took “some effort” when resolving issues on digital channels—with 9% stating it took “too much effort.”
Stats on the Real Costs of Bad Customer Service
79
Even if people love your company or product, in the U.S. 59% will walk away after several bad experiences, 17% after just one bad experience.
81
64% of U.S. consumers and 59% of all consumers feel companies have lost touch with the human element of customer experience.
82
60% of all consumers said they’d stop doing business with a brand if the service they received was not friendly.
83
80% of consumers say they’ve stopped doing business with a company because of a poor experience.
84
About half of customers who encountered a poor service experience shifted a portion of their spend from existing to new providers.
86
Customer service interactions are nearly four times more likely to lead to disloyalty than loyalty.
87
52% of customers – including 56% of consumers – say companies are generally impersonal.
88
52% of customers – including 56% of consumers – say companies are generally impersonal.
89
Forty percent of customers won’t do business with a company if they can’t use their preferred channels.
90
Less than a third of organizations say they are effective at engaging customers with the right experiences at the right times through their preferred channels.
92
Nearly one-in-three consumers report that it was not easy contacting a business to handle their last customer service issue.
93
30% of consumers frequently speak with an agent who isn’t friendly or polite.
95
Nearly half (49 percent) of consumers say brands they engage with don’t meet their expectations for a good experience.
92
60% of consumers have stopped doing business with a brand due to a poor digital customer service experience.
Customer Experience Statistics
98
48% of U.S. consumers point to friendly, welcoming service as uniquely defining success in an industry.
99
Nearly 80% of American consumers point to speed, convenience, knowledgeable help and friendly service as the most important elements of a positive customer experience.
100
Only 3% of U.S. consumers, for instance, want their experiences to be as automated as possible.
101
71% of Americans would rather interact with a human than a chatbot or some other automated process.
102
90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as important or very important when they have a customer service question
103
Two-thirds of consumers report that the most frustrating aspect of getting customer service is waiting on hold or having to explain the same information to multiple representatives.
107
The most frustrating aspects of a bad customer service experience include long hold/wait times, automated systems that make it hard to reach a human agent, having to repeat my information multiple times.
108
The most important aspects of a good customer service experience include: being able to resolve an issue quickly, 24/7 support, friendly support staff.
110
51% of respondents expect a response in under five minutes on the phone, and 28% of respondents expect the same on live chat.
112
76% of survey respondents expect personalization ( engagement over their preferred contact method, account type or status, recommendations based on purchase or search history).
113
67% say they are often asked to repeat their account details on the same call which is irritating.
115
More than 75% of respondents expect customer service representatives to have visibility into previous interactions and purchases.
116
Nearly half of those surveyed said agents almost never or only occasionally have the context they need to most effectively and efficiently solve their issue.
117
Our survey participants said getting their issue resolved in a single interaction is the most important aspect of a good service experience.
118
79 percent want their issue to be resolved in one interaction and don’t want to be told what channel they should use.
120
Among customer service organizations with AI, over four-fifths (81%) use it to gather preliminary case information.
121
Eighty-nine percent of service professionals say partnering with other departments is critical to providing great customer experiences.
122
84% of service professionals say a unified view of customer information is key to providing great customer experiences.
123
Although customers say they prefer certain channels or even a variety of channels, it is resolution, not channel choice, that is paramount to delivering a high-quality service experience.
125
56% of customers expect to find whatever they need from a company in three clicks or less.
127
72% of customers expect all company representatives to have the same information about them.
128
96% of consumers told us it is important being able to return to and pick up a customer support conversation where it left off.
129
Only 19.6% have a centralized and accessible source of customer data that provides unified customer profiles across all sources and channels.
130
66% of US online adults said that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good online customer experience.
131
Seventy-one percent of consumers believe their problem should be solved immediately upon contacting customer service, but 52% report that they’ve experienced hold times longer than fifteen minutes.
133
53% of consumers expect a business to know about them and personalize how they interact.
134
76% of consumers expect companies to proactively follow-up and reach out to them if there is a problem.
135
50% of consumers have been given contradictory information when contacting customer service.
136
43% of consumers still rank the most important aspect of good digital customer experience as getting an issue resolved in a single effortless interaction.
Customer Preferred Methods of Communication Statistics
137
17 percent of people between 18 and 24 resolve their issues with a company via social messaging apps.
143
Three in four of us called a contact centre over the last 12 months, making voice calls the most-used channel.
145
80% expect organisations to use AI and automated voice services to answer simple queries from customers.
147
Customers who speak directly with an agent are 27% more satisfied than customers who first reach an IVR system.
150
70% of service professionals say their organization can deliver consistent customer experiences on all channels.
151
96% of companies say their primary focus is either adding new channels or integrating those they’ve added in the past.
152
Although 70% of customers start their resolution journey in self-service, only 9% are wholly contained there.
153
Most customers are using both live and self-service channels in their attempts to resolve a single issue.
155
Millennials and Gen Zers are the most omnichannel generations by far — citing, on average, 51% more channels as “preferred” than the silent and baby boomer generations.
156
55% of customers — including 68% of millennials/Gen Zers — prefer digital channels over traditional ones.
157
83% of respondents would make messaging their primary means of contacting customer support if they could be guaranteed an immediate response.
158
In 2019, 29% of people used social media to get customer service from a company, down from 38% in 2017.
159
Most customers are using both live and sel39% use social media to read other people’s comments about brands, products and services.
160
59% of consumers have a more favorable view of brands that respond to customer service questions or complaints on social media.
161
The phone remains the fastest, easiest, and most preferred channel; Consumer preference for online chat is on the rise; Email is on the decline.
162
64% of consumers say they experience difficulty when trying to navigate websites.
163
Two-thirds of consumers report waiting a day or more for a resolution when using social media.
164
By gravitating toward live assisted channels, consumers are demonstrating a preference for human interaction, especially for complex issues.
165
Many consumers report they will make a second contact using a different channel if their issue is not resolved within an hour.
166
55 percent of consumers agree that brands are behind the times with how they interact with customers, both online and offline.
167
78% of U.K. and 65% of U.S. consumers now prefer connecting with brands via digital channels to resolve issues.
168
For 35% of all consumers (and 42% of Gen Z and millennials), being able to find an answer to a question or resolve an issue for themselves when they encounter a problem with a product or service is a crucial element of the customer experience.
169
53% of consumers that want a self-service option want it because they believe it is faster than using any other channel and 22% are looking for a service or solution that’s always available, day or night, rather than during typical business hours.
170
Whether the conversation is via email, chat or on the phone, 87% of consumers still feel connecting with a live customer representative is the best way of resolving a critical issue.
171
54% of customers are less concerned that a human is involved in their digital service interaction, as long as they get a resolution.
172
70% of respondents have used a private messaging channel to engage with a brand, but only 39% rated their experience as positive.
Live Chat Support Statistics
173
90% of service teams found live chat to be a successful channel for helping customers. However, only 29% of companies say they use it.
174
For 35% of all consumers (and 42% of 81% think human agents should check the more complicated responses of chatbots.
175
53% of consumers that want a self-Customers who use chat give higher scores for agents, have higher levels of satisfaction, show greater loyalty, and are more likely to recommend the company.
176
Research also revealed a 19% year-over-year drop in the number of consumers who found chatbots annoying.
177
The proportion of consumers for whom chat-based messaging is the preferred method of contacting customer support for complicated issues has risen by 25% in the past year.
178
Unhelpful responses from chatbots continue to be the second biggest annoyance, reported by 35% of consumers in 2019 (a 13% decline since last year).
180
42% of consumers reported that they would be willing to buy a product or service from a chatbot.
181
Only 40% of companies provide online chat even though it is a basic expectation of consumers.
182
68% of consumers said chatbots were able to answer their questions more quickly than a human agent could/would.
Stats on Tech and A.I. in Business
183
Eighty-four percent of customer service organizations using AI have seen improved prioritization of agents’ work.
184
68% of service professionals at organizations using AI chatbots say their teams have seen reduced call and email volume.
185
53% of service organizations expect to use AI chatbots – a 136% growth rate that foreshadows a big role for the technology in the near future.
186
Use of AI by customer service teams is projected to increase by 143% over the next 18 months.
187
51% of agents without AI say they spend most of their time on mundane tasks, versus 34% of agents with AI.
188
More than half (56%) of service organizations are investigating ways to use artificial intelligence (AI).
189
80% of service decision-makers say emerging technology is transforming customers’ expectations of their service organization.
191
In the near future, channels with the biggest growth will include mobile chat and video support. Over the coming 18 months, the use of voice activated personal assistants like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa in customer service will see 152% growth.
192
Seventy-five percent of customers expect companies to use new technologies to create better experiences.
193
67% of customers say the way a company uses technology indicates how it operates in general.
194
74% of customers expect companies to use existing technologies in new ways to create better experiences.
195
62% of customers are open to the use of AI to improve their experiences — up from 59% in 2018.
196
23% of customer service organizations are using AI chatbots, which are often in voice form, and an additional 31% plan to within 18 months.
197
Issues that agents and bots worked on together resulted in the highest CSAT at 4.40, when averaged across 6 months. This is 7% higher than the average CSAT across all messaging issues, and 1% higher average CSAT than tickets that did not invoke a bot.
198
The focus on ease of use for digital channels will continue to drive adoption and preference.
199
75% of consumers agree that the problem with automated experiences is that they are too impersonal.
200
When asked if they were comfortable with an entirely non-human customer service interaction, consumers were perfectly divided—50% said yes, and 50% said no.
201
Private messages replied to on messaging channels grew by 58% in 2019 compared to 2018.
202
23% of customer service organizations are using AI chatbots, Inbound Instagram messages shot up by 27% and WhatsApp messages skyrocketed by 21,906% in 2019.
203
Over half (56%) of respondents have used messaging channels for customer service or brand engagement than tickets that did not invoke a bot.
204
71% of customers already expect brands to offer customer support over messaging channels.
205
96% of respondents said a good customer experience over messaging channels was at least somewhat important to their brand loyalty.
207
The majority (95%) of customers still believe having a human element is important when it comes to CX delivery.
208
When asked if they are comfortable with an entirely non-human customer service interaction, consumers are almost perfectly divided — 48% said yes, and 52% said no.
209
Messaging & automation allows agents to handle 5x more conversations concurrently meaning they can provide an answer quicker.
210
94% of respondents feel brands should allow for customers to provide feedback on their experience.
Sources:
- Pwc https://www.pwc.com/us/en/advisory-services/publications/consumer-intelligence-series/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-customer-experience.pdf (year, 2018)
- HubSpot https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-service-stats (year, 2020)
- HubSpot https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/live-chat-go-to-market-flaw? (year, 2018 | updated 2020)
- Amex https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171215005416/en/ (year, 2017)
- Qualtrics https://www.qualtrics.com/xm-institute/roi-of-customer-experience-2020/ (year, 2020)
- Gartner https://emtemp.gcom.cloud/ngw/globalassets/en/marketing/documents/creating-a-high-impact-customer-experience-strategy-gartner-for-marketers-11-22-2019.pdf (year, 2019)
- Adobe https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/www/us/en/offer/digital-trends-2020/digital-trends-2020-full-report.pdf (year, 2020)
- KPMG https://assets.kpmg/content/dam/kpmg/xx/pdf/2020/07/customer-experience-in-the-new-reality.pdf (year, 2020)
- Accenture https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/accenture/conversion-assets/dotcom/documents/global/pdf/dualpub_6/accenture-customer-2020-future-ready-reliving-past.pdfla=es-es (year, 2020)
- ZenDesk https://d1eipm3vz40hy0.cloudfront.net/pdf/cxtrends/cx-trends-2020-full-report.pdf (year, 2020)
- BT, Cisco https://www.globalservices.bt.com/en/insights/whitepapers/5-trends-in-customer-experience-for-2020 (2019)
- Microsoft https://info.microsoft.com/rs/157-GQE-382/images/2018StateofGlobalCustomerServiceReport.pdf (2019)
- CFI Group https://cdncom.cfigroup.com/wp-content/uploads/CFI-contact-center-satisfaction-index-2019.pdf (2019)
- HubSpot https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-delight?_ga=2.91044890.189017126.1569010855-457193333.1556111594 (2019)
- Oracle http://www.oracle.com/us/dm/seo100703953-ww-gb-wh-ce1-ie1a-ev-4428153.html (2019)
- Gartner https://www.gartner.com/en/customer-service-support/insights/customer-loyalty (2020)
- Gartner https://www.gartner.com/en/customer-service-support/insights/effortless-experience (2020)
- Forrester https://go.forrester.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Forrester_Predictions-2020.pdf (2020)
- Grandview https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/customer-experience-management-market (2020)
- Salesforce https://www.salesforce.com/form/service-cloud/3rd-state-of-service/?d=7010M000001yv6OQAQ (2019)
- Gartner https://www.gartner.com/en/insights/top-insights/customer-service-2020 (2019)
- Salesforce https://c1.sfdcstatic.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/assets/pdf/salesforce-state-of-the-connected-customer-report-2019.pdf (2019)
- Helpshift https://go.helpshift.com/State_of_CS_Automation_Report_TY.html (2019)
- Pointillist https://www.pointillist.com/blog/report-customer-journey-management-cx-measurement-2020/ (2020)
- Forrester https://lmistatic.blob.core.windows.net/document-library/boldchat/pdf/en/forrester-2018-customer-service-trends.pdf (2018)
- Kustomer https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/industry-resource/2020-research-what-modern-consumers-expect-from-the-customer-experience/#register (2020)
- The Northridge Group https://www.northridgegroup.com/insight/state-of-customer-service-experience-2019-report/ (2019)
- Acquia https://www.acquia.com/resources/ebooks/closing-cx-gap-customer-experience-trends-report (2019)
- Sitel https://www.sitel.com/white-paper/covid-19-the-cx-impact/ (2020)
- Sinch https://www.sinch.com/insights/resources/mobile-consumer-engagement-2020-2/ (2020)
- Conversocial https://www.conversocial.com/hubfs/StateofDigitalCustomerExperienceReport2019.pdf (2019)
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