100 Important Customer Service Satisfaction Statistics and Trends for 2019

With recent advances in digital and communication technologies, customer service has been changing quickly. Social media interactions between customers and businesses are driving engagement to new levels.

Attitudes and expectations are changing, driven by millennials who are placing higher demands on customer service. Well-informed customer service department can make a huge difference by capitalize on new technologies while navigating a complex customer-centric marketplace. Here are 100 stats that can help you achieve a higher level of customer service satisfaction.

Content Summary

State of the Industry
Brand Building and Brand Loyalty
Reaping the Rewards of Good Customer Service
Poor Customer Service Loses Out
Millennials Drive Demand
How Customers Communicate
Social Media and Customer Service
The Rise of Automation and Self Service
Ask The Experts
Reference

State of the Industry

Eight in 10 Americans (81%) report that businesses are meeting or exceeding their expectations for customer service, compared to 67 percent in 2014.
40 percent of Americans say businesses have increased their focus and attention on customer service, a significant increase in just three years (up from 29% in 2014).

– 2017 American Express Customer Service Barometer: #WellActually, Americans Say Customer Service is Better Than Ever

Globally, 54% of consumers say they have higher expectations for customer service today than they had one year ago. This number jumps to 66% for the 18–34-year-olds surveyed.
According to 67% of global respondents, customer service as a whole is getting better.
52% of people around the globe believe that companies need to take action on feedback provided by their customers.

– Microsoft: 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report

In 2017, 64 percent of Americans stated that they contacted customer service for any reason in the past month.

– statista: Share of customers in the United States who have contacted customer service for any reason in the past month from 2015 to 2017*

75% of brands report that they are measuring customer engagement, but cannot define what it is.

– Esteban Kolsky – CEO of thinkJar (Twitter: @ekolsky): 50 Important Customer Experience Stats for Business Leaders

46% of global contact center decision makers project their contact centers to grow 5% to 10% (as measured by number of agent seats) in the next year and 14% project growth of more than 10%.

– Forrester Data Global Business Technographics Networks And Telecommunications Survey, 2017: 2018 Customer Service Trends: How Operations Become Faster, Cheaper — And Yet, More Human

That’s because a superior experience earns stronger loyalty, turning customers into promoters with a lifetime value 6 to 14 times that of detractors.

– Bain: Are you experienced?

Brand Building and Brand Loyalty

67% customers feel that engagement levels have gone up in the last 2 years, as compared to previous years.

– Ameyo: Customer Experience Statistics Which Will Impact Your Business in 2016

Across the globe, 96% of consumers say customer service is an important factor in their choice of loyalty to a brand.
A whopping 72% of consumers expect agents to already know who they are, what they’ve purchased and have insight into their previous engagements when contacting customer service.
77% of customers have a more favourable view of brands that proactively invite and accept customer feedback.

– Microsoft: 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report

33% of customers who abandoned a business relationship last year did so because personalization was lacking.
48% of consumers expect specialized treatment for being a good customer.

– Accenture Strategy 2017 Global Consumer Pulse Research: Put Your Trust in Hyper-Relevance

Participants were asked to rank a series of factors in the order in which they impact the level of trust they have in their vendors. Excellence in customer service ranked as the #1 factor that most impacted participants.

– Dimensional Research: Customer Service and Business Results

34% of companies are undertaken Customer Journey Mapping (CJM) into their customer service.

– Esteban Kolsky – CEO of thinkJar (Twitter: @ekolsky): 50 Important Customer Experience Stats for Business Leaders

Two-thirds of customers are willing to share personal information with companies, only in exchange for some perceived value.

– Accenture, Digital Trust in the IoT Era, 2015.

89% of consumers have switched to doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience.

– Harris Interactive

Reaping the Rewards of Good Customer Service

70% of consumers say they have already made a choice to support a company that delivers great customer service.
68% of customers believe the key to great customer service is a polite customer service representative.
Service insight and knowledge is also key to a good experience according to 62% of consumers.
Americans will pay 17% more to do business with firms with great reputations when it comes to customer service.

– 2017 American Express Customer Service Barometer: #WellActually, Americans Say Customer Service is Better Than Ever

52% of consumers say they have made an additional purchase from a company after a positive customer service experience.
More have read positive reviews (69%) of customer service online than negative reviews (63%).
The vast majority of participants who have seen reviews claimed that that information did impact their buying decisions. This was true of both positive reviews (90%) as well as negative reviews (86%).

– Dimensional Research: Customer Service and Business Results

It is 6-7X more expensive for companies to attract new customers than to keep existing customers.

– Esteban Kolsky – CEO of thinkJar (Twitter: @ekolsky): 50 Important Customer Experience Stats for Business Leaders

30% of those polled say the most important aspect of a good customer service experience is speaking with a knowledgeable and friendly agent.
Globally, companies respond to customer service questions 85% of the time.

– Microsoft: 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report

Across a wide range of businesses, customers generate increasing profits each year they stay with a company. In financial services, for example, a 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit.

– Bain: Prescription for cutting costs By Fred Reichheld

Companies that excel at the customer experience grow revenues 4% to 8% above their market.

– Bain: Are you experienced?

Friendly employees or customer service representatives are what make a memorable experience that causes consumers to stick with a brand, for 73% of customers.

– Harris Interactive

Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.

– Harvard Business Review

Poor Customer Service Loses Out

More than half of Americans have scrapped a planned purchase or transaction because of bad service, and 33 percent say they’ll consider switching companies after just a single instance of poor service.
The majority of Americans have decided to not go through with a purchase because of a poor customer service experience.
As in previous years, Americans across the board report telling more people about poor service (15 people on average) than about good experiences (11)
Men are especially chatty when it comes to service, telling twice as many people as women both about their poor experiences (21 compared to 10) and good ones (15 compared to 7).

– 2017 American Express Customer Service Barometer: #WellActually, Americans Say Customer Service is Better Than Ever

67% customer churn is preventable if the customer issue was resolved at the first engagement.

– Ameyo: Customer Experience Statistics Which Will Impact Your Business in 2016

27% of Americans report “lack of effectiveness” as their number one frustration with customer service; 12% of Americans rate their number one frustration with customer service as “lack of speed.”

– statista: From your experience, what has been the one most common cause of your customer service frustration?

79% of consumers who shared complaints about poor customer experience online had their complaints ignored.

– Harris Interactive

91% of unhappy customers who are non-complainers simply leave without complaining.
44% of customers confirm that they have received the wrong answer from a customer service representative in the past.

– Esteban Kolsky – CEO of thinkJar (Twitter: @ekolsky): 50 Important Customer Experience Stats for Business Leaders

56% of global respondents have stopped doing business with a brand due to a poor customer service experience and 47% of those respondents say they have made the choice to switch to a different brand due to bad customer service within the last year.

– Microsoft: 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report

72% of consumers blamed their bad customer service interaction on having to explain their problem to multiple people
39% of customers will continue to avoid vendors two or more years after a bad customer service experience.
Four out of ten consumers will recommend others not frequent a business if they have had poor customer service from them.

– Dimensional Research: Customer Service and Business Results

According to a report published by the Institute of Customer Service, consumers today face significantly fewer problems when buying goods and services than they did five years ago, but they are more inclined to complain when things go wrong.

– Deloitte: The digital transformation of customer services: Our point of view

Millennials Drive Demand

84% of millennials say that businesses are meeting or exceeding their service expectations, significantly more than older Americans (79%).
Millennials willing to spend 21% more to do business with companies who excel at customer service.
Millennials are the only demographic of Americans who tell more people when they have a good customer service experience rather than a bad one.

– 2017 American Express Customer Service Barometer: #WellActually, Americans Say Customer Service is Better Than Ever

63% of millenials begin their customer service interactions online.
74% of millennials say social media responsiveness improves their perception of a brand.
One in two millennials has complained about a brand on social media.
43% for millennials use their mobile devices to initiate customer service engagements.
66% of 18 – 34 year-olds say their customer service expectations have risen in the last year.

– Microsoft: 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report

31% of customers report reaching out to a company via Twitter.

– Forrester Data Global Business Technographics Networks And Telecommunications Survey, 2017: 2018 Customer Service Trends: How Operations Become Faster, Cheaper — And Yet, More Human

How Customers Communicate

55% of customer requests for service on social media are not acknowledged.
67% of escalated social interactional go back to channel of origin.
29% global companies prefer mobile devices to computers.

– Esteban Kolsky – CEO of thinkJar (Twitter: @ekolsky): 50 Important Customer Experience Stats for Business Leaders

57% customers prefer companies who can be reached via mail, chat, video-chat, social media platforms over those using traditional means of voice-based customer support.

– Ameyo: Customer Experience Statistics Which Will Impact Your Business in 2016

As the complexity of the issue increases, such as with payment disputes or complaints, customers are more likely to seek out a face-to-face interaction (23%) or a real person on the phone (40%).

– 2017 American Express Customer Service Barometer: #WellActually, Americans Say Customer Service is Better Than Ever

88% of consumers are influenced by online customer service reviews when making a buying decision.
86% of millennials say they are influenced by negative reviews when purchasing a product or service.

– Dimensional Research: Customer Service and Business Results

33% of customers have contacted a company using Facebook and similar social channels.
Nearly 1/3 of customers report sending a mobile/SMS message to the company requesting assistance.

– Forrester Data Global Business Technographics Networks And Telecommunications Survey, 2017: 2018 Customer Service Trends: How Operations Become Faster, Cheaper — And Yet, More Human

68% of customers have a more favourable view of brands that offer or contact them with proactive customer service notifications.
79% of millennial respondents have a more favourable view of brands that offer a mobile-responsive customer support portal.
90% of our respondents say they expect brands and organisations to offer an online portal for self-service.
Out of all customer service engagements around the world in 2017, 52% began online.
66% of global respondents say they actively use 3 or more different communication channels to contact customer service.
One-third of all customers use their mobile device to initiate contact with customer service.
Globally, only 5% of customer service interactions begin with a face to face meeting.
74% of Americans have used the landline to contact customer service.

– Microsoft: 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report

Over 50% of companies report their most critical customer experience issue as being “providing a seamless experience across multiple channels.”

– Incite Group

Social Media and Customer Service

48% of consumers expect a response to social media questions and complaints within 24 hours.
33% of consumers in the United States do not expect a response when asking a question of a company’s social media.
Both in the United States and world wide, 18% of customers expect a response from a company’s social media within one hour.

– statista: What is your expected response time for social media questions or complaints?

35 percent reported reaching out in social channels, up significantly from the 2014 survey (23%) and double the percentage from 2012 (17%).

– 2017 American Express Customer Service Barometer: #WellActually, Americans Say Customer Service is Better Than Ever

55% of people age 18-34 have praised a brand or its customer service over social media.
33% of people aged 18-34 have contacted a company’s customer service via social media.
Of the Americans who have sent customer service requests over social media, 84% report receiving a response from the company.

– Microsoft: 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report

The Rise of Automation and Self Service

It’s estimated that by 2020, 85% of interaction between a customer and an organisation will be without interacting with a human.

– Ameyo: Customer Experience Statistics Which Will Impact Your Business in 2016

More than six in 10 U.S. consumers say that their go-to channel for simple inquiries is a digital self-serve tool such as a website (24%), mobile app (14%), voice response system (13%) or online chat (12%).

– 2017 American Express Customer Service Barometer: #WellActually, Americans Say Customer Service is Better Than Ever

30% of US consumers rate chatbot interactions as “very effective” in dealing with customer service issues.
Over half of consumers say that the main reason they cannot resolve an issue on their own is because there is too little information online.
30% of consumers say not being able to reach a real human is the most frustrating part of a bad customer service experience.
77% of consumers report having used a self-service support portal.
Only 12% of Americans say they cannot find the information they need in self-service portals.

– Microsoft: 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report

37% of customers report using an online virtual agent or chatbot from a website, and nearly that many have used a virtual agent or chatbot on a smartphone.

– Forrester Data Global Business Technographics Networks And Telecommunications Survey, 2017: 2018 Customer Service Trends: How Operations Become Faster, Cheaper — And Yet, More Human

Ask The Experts

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” — Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999), Bill Gates

– Oxford Reference: Oxford Essential Quotations (4 ed.)

“Customer service should not be a department, it should be the entire company” -Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos

– Utama: Customer Care: the most Powerful Marketing Engine

Your customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. ~ Damon Richards, Customer Service Expert.
“Loyal customers, they don’t just come back, they don’t simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you.” — Chip Bell, Author of Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers.

– Forbes: 40 Eye-Opening Customer Service Quotes

“You’ll never have a product or price advantage again. They can be easily duplicated, but a strong customer service culture can’t be copied.” — Jerry Fritz, Author of Breakthrough Customer Service.

– Ritz Carlton Leadership Center: Inspired Thinking: Customer Service Culture

Despite all the growth and change in the customer service realm, the golden rule still reigns supreme.

The customer is always right, even when they are wrong.

Most research shows it’s just as important to treat the customer with respect and courtesy as it is to fix the problem. It’s likely the industry will always need to have friendly staff available to add that human touch. On the other side of the coin, amazing technologies are emerging that are changing the dynamics of customer service, such as social media for customer service, self-service portals and customer journey mapping will help firms deliver the best experience possible. Finding the balance between efficiency and politeness may be the key to customer retention.

Source

nextiva blog: 100 Essential Customer Service Statistics and Trends for 2019, Last Update: January 10th, 2019

Reference

Microsoft: 2017 State of Global Customer Service Report
statista: Share of customers in the United States who have contacted customer service for any reason in the past month from 2015 to 2017*
Esteban Kolsky – CEO of thinkJar (Twitter: @ekolsky): 50 Important Customer Experience Stats for Business Leaders
Forrester Data Global Business Technographics Networks And Telecommunications Survey, 2017: 2018 Customer Service Trends: How Operations Become Faster, Cheaper — And Yet, More Human
Bain: Are you experienced?
Ameyo: Customer Experience Statistics Which Will Impact Your Business in 2016
Accenture Strategy 2017 Global Consumer Pulse Research: Put Your Trust in Hyper-Relevance
Dimensional Research: Customer Service and Business Results
Bain: Prescription for cutting costs By Fred Reichheld
Harvard Business Review
statista: From your experience, what has been the one most common cause of your customer service frustration?
Deloitte: The digital transformation of customer services: Our point of view
statista: What is your expected response time for social media questions or complaints?
Oxford Reference: Oxford Essential Quotations (4 ed.)
Utama: Customer Care: the most Powerful Marketing Engine
Forbes: 40 Eye-Opening Customer Service Quotes
Ritz Carlton Leadership Center: Inspired Thinking: Customer Service Culture