Use these stats as an argument to prove to your executives the power and value of investing in customer service.
It’s often more challenging to see the value of customer service costs compared to other business investments. Sure, you sense that it’s worth spending resources on your customer experience team to keep your customers happy and differentiate your business from the competition, but how do you prove it?
It turns out there’s plenty of stats out there on the value of customer service.
Here are 40+ recent stats that prove that focusing on customer service is not just the right thing to do – it’s a powerful tool to increase the success of any business. Use these stats as an argument to prove to your executives the power and value of investing in customer service.
Good customer service encourages people to be loyal to a brand
Loyalty is rooted in trust, and people trust people more than ideas, Instagram posts, or values written on a website. By spending resources on your customer service team, you’re strengthening your customers’ relationships with your business.
In addition to investing in your customer service team, partnering with influencers who align with your brand values and can authentically promote your products or services can also be an effective way to build trust and credibility with your target audience.
1. 77% of customers say they’re more loyal to businesses that offer top-notch service. (Zendesk)
2. Customers overwhelmingly agreed (83%) that they feel more loyal to brands that respond and resolve their complaints. (Khoros)
3. 65% of customers say that they have switched to a different brand because of a poor experience. (Khoros)
4. 92% of consumers think they are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience. (Salesforce Research)
The ROI of Personalization
Personalization in customer service is offering customers services that are tailored to their specific priorities and taste. For example, an agent uses the information about the customer they already have available to provide advice that is specific to that customer’s needs. Offering personalized support can build trust, which leads to higher brand loyalty.
5. Some organizations have seen a revenue increase of 30% or more from adopting a needs-based approach and proactively reaching out to customers at the right time with the right offering. (McKinsey)
6. 68% of customers will spend more money with a brand that understands them and treats them as individuals. (Khoros)
7. 38% of respondents to a survey agree that the second-most annoying thing is receiving “robotic auto-responder emails”. The most annoying thing (for 50% of people) is having to explain their problems multiple times. (Hiver)
8. 46% of customer experience professionals found that the best strategy to meet customers’ changing needs is to develop a customer-centric culture, followed by simplifying products and processes. (McKinsey)
Excellent customer service is more than a business strategy
Customer experience is precious. It matters so much that customers are literally willing to pay more to interact with a brand that does it well.
9. 50% of customers will take their business elsewhere after just one bad experience. This leaves little room for error, and 63% of companies prioritize customer experience more in 2021. (Zendesk)
10. 75% of customers are willing to spend more to buy from companies that give them a good customer experience. (Zendesk)
11. Almost 70% of consumers have based their purchase decisions on the quality of customer service they received. (Salesforce Research)
12. In 2020, 40% of customers in the United States stopped doing business with a company due to its poor customer service. (Statista)
13. E-commerce sales jumped 30% during the pandemic, and half of the customers say customer experience is more important to them now than it was a year ago. (Zendesk)
14. The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 – 70%, while the chance of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%. (Investp)
15. Attracting a new customer costs five times as much as keeping existing ones. (Investp)
16. Nearly two-thirds of consumers will sever a relationship with a business due to poor customer service. (Microsoft)
Your willingness to improve your CS matters
The attitude you have as a business is perceived through your customer support team with every single interaction. When you have a customer-centric culture with excellent customer service, your customers will be more forgiving, which means a higher chance they’ll remain customers.
17. 94% of consumers who give a company a “very good” CX rating are likely to recommend the company, while only 13% of those who gave a company a “very poor” CX rating say the same. (Qualtrics)
18. A whopping 64% of consumers appreciate when a brand seeks out their feedback or opinion in a survey. (Khoros)
19. If the customer service received was excellent, 78% of consumers are willing to forgive a company for its mistake. (Salesforce Research)
20. 89% of customers publicly talk about their poor customer support experience. (Hiver)
21. 66% of people think a company’s customer service reputation is a critical factor while making a purchase decision. (Hiver)
Speed matters in customer service
Customers think it’s essential to get the response they need fast – and, for most consumers, fast means under a few hours. Offer speedy support and you’ll have a higher chance of making your customers happy.
22. 79% of consumers want to receive a fast response. (Khoros)
23. More than 50% of consumers consider ‘resolution time’ as one of the most critical factors to decide whether a customer support experience qualifies as good. (Hiver)
24. Nearly half of all customers (46%) expect companies to respond faster than 4 hours. And 12% expect a response within 15 minutes or less. (Superoffice)
25. At every customer lifecycle stage, a majority rated an immediate response from businesses as “important” or “very important” – 82% when they had marketing or sales-related inquiries, and 90% when a customer support issue came up. (HubSpot Research)
26. Two-thirds of consumers report that the most frustrating aspect of getting customer service is waiting on hold or explaining the same information to multiple representatives. (HubSpot Research)
27. For 70% of consumers, a long customer service wait time will make them choose not to buy from a company. (Salesforce Research)
Customers expect companies to lead with their values
As a global pandemic changed the way we live, interact with one another, and make business, people are forced to think about their values and what they feel it’s important. By being honest about what you value as a business, you can forge deeper connections with your customers.
28. 63% of customers want to buy from socially responsible companies. (Zendesk)
29. A large majority of consumers, 90%, expect companies to demonstrate their values clearly. (Salesforce Research)
30. Almost 60% of consumers have switched to a company because its values aligned with theirs. (Salesforce Research)
31. Research shows that 64% of customers choose to buy from socially responsible brands, which has grown significantly in the past two years. (McKinsey)
32. 54% of people want to buy from companies that prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion in their communities and workplaces. (Zendesk)
33. 90% of customers say how a company acts during a crisis demonstrates its trustworthiness. (Salesforce Research)
Meet your customers where they are
There’s a clear winning communication channel in the post-covid era we live in: customer service messaging. As customers spend more time at home, people want to contact businesses not just via phone, but also via WhatsApp and text.
34. 62% of customers want to be able to engage with brands across multiple digital channels. (Khoros)
35. Nearly a third of customers messaged a company for the first time in 2020, and 74% of those say they will continue to do so. (Zendesk)
36. 79% of consumers had a valuable experience participating in an online chat with a customer service rep. Additionally, 75% of consumers found value from interacting with other customers in a brand’s online community, and 67% found value from messaging a brand through their mobile app. (Khoros)
37. 53% of companies that rolled out a new channel last year added messaging. (Zendesk)
38. 67% of consumers have increased their usage of messaging in the past two years. (Accenture)
39. In the post-covid era, the United States has seen a 20% increase in preference for contactless operations, with numerous industries adapting to this change. (McKinsey)
40. Almost three-quarters of consumers prefer messaging over voice when contacting customer care. (Accenture)
41. Globally, 90% of consumers believe customer service is crucial in the choice of a brand. (Microsoft)
42. Though customers prefer reactive service, proactive service results in significantly better customer experience outcomes, such as lower effort and higher satisfaction, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and perceptions of the product value. However, Gartner predicts that by 2023, only 30% of customer service and support organizations will have a proactive campaign (Gartner)
43. 83% of customers cited good customer service as their most important criterion for deciding what to buy (not including logistical considerations, such as products and prices offered). (Khoros)