Top 5 Customer Service Stats to Know in 2022
Virtually all businesses have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in one way or another. Whether it’s due to tough economic conditions or the sudden massive shift to online sales and curbside delivery, businesses have had to rethink how to operate and provide value to their customers. Customer service stats are crucial to understanding how to better optimise your service.
One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the high expectation for excellent customer service. In fact, customer service is arguably more important than ever before. As a McKinsey & Company report notes, “In times of crisis, a customer’s interaction with a company can trigger an immediate and lingering effect on his or her sense of trust and loyalty.”
And while many parts of the world have gradually, but cautiously, returned to pre-pandemic life, these changes in customer attitudes are likely to stick around for good.
In this guide, we’ve put together a list of five customer service stats that have a high likelihood of affecting your business in 2022 and beyond.
1. 78% of customer service professionals saw customers turn to self-service during the pandemic
According to a State of Service report by Salesforce, over three in four customer service professionals saw self-service activity rise during the pandemic. Moreover, Salesforce also found that 65% of customers prefer self-service for simple tasks.
Self-service or self-serve is a user experience (UX) feature in which users complete actions or processes without any human intervention. For example, a customer with a customer service question can interact with a chatbot to find the information they need rather than call your customer service hotline to speak with one of your agents.
2. 78% of customers forgive mistakes if they get excellent customer service
Great customer service not only benefits the bottom line, it can restore lost trust when a company makes a mistake. Salesforce’s fourth edition of the State Of The Connected Customer report notes that 78% of customers will forgive mistakes if they receive excellent customer service.
3. Companies with excellent customer service generate up to 8% more revenue
Research by Bain & Company shows that businesses with a track record of delivering top-notch customer service experiences perform around 4% to 8% better than other organisations in their same niche or industry.
This is hardly surprising: customer service is the foundation of lead generation, customer acquisition and customer loyalty. In fact, a 5% bump to customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%.
4. 90% of customers expect an “immediate” response to their customer service questions
Customers don’t enjoy the experience of being put on hold to speak with an agent (does anyone?). According to HubSpot, the vast majority (90%) of customers consider an “immediate” response to their customer service questions to be important or very important.
Of course, this begs the question: what exactly does “immediate” mean? HubSpot’s respondents said this would be a response in 10 minutes or less.
5. 94% of customers will gladly recommend a company with “very good” customer service
Providing great customer service doesn’t just enhance customer loyalty, it gets your customers to act as your brand ambassadors. A 2020 report by Qualtrics shows that 94% of American customers would recommend a company whose service they see as being “very good.”
In contrast, only 13% of consumers would do the same if they received customer service that was “very poor.”
Author: Andy Wilkins
| Andy is the co-founder and CEO of Futr, a tech start-up providing superpowers to critical support teams across the UK. Futr was born in 2017 when Andy and co-founder Lee Skyrme saw the massive opportunity to use cutting-edge artificial intelligence to transform the way we access public services. Four years later, with the support of an amazing team and fantastic VCs, Futr is proud to include the police, the NHS, and many amazing charities and social services as valued customers. |
