30 Customer Service Stats You Need to Know

30 Customer Service Stats You Need to Know
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Statistics are powerful. Our own opinions and ideas are certainly important, but in the world of customer service, it’s essential to know what real customers want, think, and need through statistics and trustworthy research. Customers’ needs and wants change over time, so statistics that aren’t recent won’t give you the snapshot you need to make growth-geared decisions.

30 Customer Service Stats You Need to Know

Presenting 30 customer service stats you need to know. Read through these statistics and let them help shape the changes you make to your business in your efforts to improve your customer service and the experience you’re delivering to your customers.

As you’ll see below, any statistic-backed effort to improve customer service or experience will not be in vain – even small steps in the right direction will yield benefits for your business.

Why improve customer service?

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The perceived effort it takes to improve customer service stops many companies from even trying. Don’t let that be you! There are a host of reasons to improve customer service, but perhaps these customer service stats from the 2017 Digital Marketing Trends survey will help drive the point home:

  • 86% of customers said they would pay more for a better customer experience
  • 3 out of 5 Americans say they’d try a new brand if it meant a better customer service experience
  • 80% of companies believe they deliver superior customer service
  • …but only 8% of customers said they agreed
  • 70% of buying experiences are based solely on how the customer feels they are being treated
  • 87% of customers said they think brands need to provide a more consistent customer experience
  • 96% of customers said they don’t complain about bad service; instead, they just leave
  • Friendly customer service agents succeed at upselling 42% more often than agents customers rated as unfriendly or neutral

An overwhelming majority (87%) of customers think brands should step up their customer service game and nearly the same amount (86%) say they’d be willing to pay more for a better customer experience.

“But we haven’t heard many complaints about our customer service – could that really be the issue that’s causing customers to leave?” Absolutely. Most customers won’t stop to complain about your customer service, leave a negative review, or give you any sign that you’ve goofed up. Many times, according to these customer service stats, the answer is that you didn’t provide a great customer experience.

So, why improve customer service? It’s simple really – if you want to stay in business and gain customers rather than lose them to your competition, you have to provide top-notch customer service.

“We were a little nervous to enter a competitive industry, but we quickly found that by ensuring our customer service quality was consistently above average, we were able to gain a serious competitive edge. If your competitors are slacking in the customer service department, that’s only more reason to work hard on improving your customer experience!” - Mike Chadwell, Founder, Wreefs.com
  • 78% of consumers have decided against a purchase because of a poor service experience in the past
  • 91% of dissatisfied customers say they won’t shop at the offending business again

The dangers of a bad customer experience

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Offering a bad customer experience is pretty far down on the list of terrible, awful things that could happen to your business, but it’s dangerous nonetheless. More than half – 67%, in fact – of your customers take no issue with leaving after they’ve had just one bad experience with your company, and bad experiences are not uncommon.

Chances are, most of your customers are interacting with your business on mobile. If your mobile customer experience is not optimized, you’re delivering a bad experience for your customers. Ninety percent of customers say they’ve had a bad customer experience on mobile. Sadly, many companies don’t optimize their website and content for mobile users even though a majority of their users are utilizing that platform.

Having a great customer experience on the desktop is great, but without offering an equally good mobile experience, you’re going to inadvertently send many customers packing.

What customers actually want

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Simple is better, and your customers agree. The number one factor in customer loyalty is reduction of customer effort, according to the Harvard Business Review. Your customers aren’t lazy or entitled; they’re busy, and they want a simple experience when they work with you.

How easy is it for customers to use your website, contact customer service, and use your service or product? Find ways to simplify it for your customers’ sake, and you’ll be rewarded with increased customer loyalty.

“Reducing effort is the most important thing that your service strategy should accomplish. Using neverending IVR systems? Ridiculously long response times? Does resolution require channel hopping and repetitive info inputs from your customers? If you answered yes to any of these, you might be solving your customer’s problem, but you’re definitely not capturing their loyalty and future business.” – Conversocial

Check out the following customer service stats:

  • 73% become loyal to a company based on a friendly staff and great service
  • 55% become loyal based on ease of access to information and support
  • 78% of customers say competent service reps are responsible for a great customer experience
  • 38% of customers say personalization creates a great customer experience

Speaking of customer loyalty, what makes a loyal customer so important? Is there really a need to work to increase customer loyalty?

Why increase customer loyalty?

Making an effort to keep more of your current customers around will certainly pay off. Increasing customer loyalty is not only smart, but it’s also one of the best ways to truly differentiate your brand from your competitors. Here are some interesting customer service stats on increasing customer loyalty.

  • It’s 7X more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep a current customer
  • By 2020, customer experience will overtake price + product as the key brand differentiation
  • Customers who leave based on customer service-related issues are 4X more likely to go to a competitor
  • Customers are 70% more likely to stick with a company that resolves a complaint in their favor
  • Loyalty program members spend up to 13% more than two non-members
  • Repeat customers spend more than 2X more than first-time customers; $24.50 vs. $52.50
  • On average, loyal customers are worth up to 10 times the dollar amount of their first purchase.
  • You have an average of 5-20% probability of selling to a new prospect
  • But you have a 60-70% probability of selling to an existing customer

Turning stats into strategy

When it comes to developing an effective customer service strategy, the first thing you need to consider is who’s handling your customers. Is it you alone, a customer service team, a freelancer, or a trusted third-party provider? Are you outsourcing or offshoring? Is the person(s) responsible for delivering customer service to your clients friendly, professional, and experienced? If you’re not sure, there’s a good chance you’re already looking at the barrier that’s been holding you back from earning loyal customers and offering top-notch service.

Note: This article was originally published on the Conversational virtual receptionist blog.

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