Customer service is a big deal for many companies and it shows that an emphasis on customer service leads to more happy customer and better retention of customers. The statistics bear this out. Many customers will not want to do business again with a company when they have a poor customer service experience.
- 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with you again.
- Almost 9 out of 10 U.S. consumers say they would pay more to ensure a superior customer experience.
- In the last year, 67% of customers have hung up the phone out of frustration that they could not talk to a real person.
- Research shows that it takes 12 positive experiences to override a negative experience.
Customer service experiences can be frustrating on numerous levels. Companies are more apt to use automated systems to filter calls to the correct department. This can frustrate many consumers who are wanting to talk with an actual person. It may be frustrating for customers who have to go through numerous prompts in the automation before reaching a person.
Those prompts may be useful from a company’s standpoint in that it is easier to reach the correct person without going through an operator but from a customer’s standpoint, the frustration can lead to unhappiness and 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with that company again, as mentioned above.
Customers expect numerous things in a call. To be treated with respect is one, and that sometimes is lacking in a customer service call. A customer may be looking to deal with an issue, while the customer service representative is behaving in ways that is disrespectful, such as talking down or belittling the customer.
A customer may be looking to speak to someone with English as their first language (some customers go even farther and have wanted to speak to someone who is from America). But many times, someone in another country answers the phone and it may be difficult to understand them, which can lead to the customer being upset.
A customer may be looking to be treated with friendliness, but that is sometimes not the case. In general, employees only ask for the customer’s name 21% of the time. This is a common way of treating people with friendliness, as pointed out in the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie.
A customer may be looking to have their problem treated quickly and efficiently but may be placed on hold for long lengths of time while the problem is still not being solved. This can lead to frustration from the customer and a possible loss in their business, as people don’t like to be held on the phone for long stretches of time.
Along with the problem being treated quickly and efficiently is the problem of waiting a significantly to hear the voice of another human being. These long “wait times” can influence a customer to take their business elsewhere, as it becomes a negative customer experience.
Small businesses have a tendency to place more emphasis on customer service than large businesses, according to 80% of Americans. Small businesses are thought to be more personable and possibly trying to establish relationships within the community. Large businesses are impersonal and tend to have worse customer service.
Customer service and customer experience are important components in whether a customer is going to stay with a company or find another company to go to that offers a similar product but better customer service. One way to gauge whether a customer is satisfied with a company’s customer service is to use consumer satisfaction survey questions.
Consumer satisfaction survey questions are offered by many companies after a telephone call or a online customer service experience. Consumer satisfaction survey questions ask a person to rate how they felt about the customer service experience. The key with consumer satisfaction survey questions is to find enough customers to take the survey.
Customer experience has the potential to take a company from a good place to a better place or a good place to a worse place. It all just depends on the customer service. Finding the right blend between professionalism and helpfulness is key, along with a human answering service. All three help with customer experiences.
