Surprising Customer Service Facts
- Written by Tom Carter
Customer service is one of the most important pillars of any successful business, but a lot of people still skimp out on it thinking that they can focus on other areas that would allow people to take them seriously instead. However, these people rarely know the truth of the matter, assuming that their knowledge is complete because of the fact that they just don’t have the experience necessary to understand why customer service is so important. Listed below are some surprising customer service facts that will show you just how important customer service truly is.
Problems That Bad Customer Service Causes
To start off with, about half of consumers in America have reported that they stopped purchasing products and acquiring services from a company because of the fact that the customer service that they were receiving was not on par. This shows that customers know what their worth is, and that companies stand to lose a lot of otherwise dedicated customers by not putting the adequate amount of effort into securing customer loyalty. What’s more is that about a third of the consumers that end up switching companies because of the fact that they did not receive adequate customer service did so after just a single bad experience.
What this means is that your customer service needs to be top notch at all times. If you don’t stay on your toes there is a good chance that you are going to start losing customers. What’s more is that customers are more likely to tell people about bad experiences than good ones. Customers will tell an average of fifteen people if they have a bad customer service experience with a company, but only eleven if they end up having a good customer experience. Hence, poor instances of customer support and service can get around fast, thus making it even more important for you to stay on your toes.
If this wasn’t enough, you should know that companies lose over sixty billion dollars every year simply because of the fact that they provided bad customer service. This cost becomes even more serious when you consider the fact that it costs ten times as much to acquire a new customer than to simply keep the ones that you already have. This isn’t just about post purchase support either. Making the purchasing process easy is a part of customer service. Three quarters of customers simply won’t buy what you are offering if the purchasing process is even moderately too difficult.
The Benefits of Good Customer Service
Now that you know what you stand to lose when you slack off in terms of customer service, it is important for you to realize the benefits that can be attained by giving good customer service. After all, understanding the benefits of good customer service would allow you to plan accordingly and make sure that all of your employees are united in the singular goal of making your customers as happy as possible.
To start off with, if you boost your rates of customer retention the benefits can be astounding. If you manage to pull off a 5% increase in customer retention you would be able to see a boost in profits that could range anywhere from a healthy 25% all the way to a whopping doubling of your overall profits. What’s more is that about 70% of customers that took part in a recent survey stated that they ended up spending more money on the products that a company offered simply because of the fact that they got good customer service.
The customer base is changing quite drastically as well. Millennials are soon going to be the biggest group of customers that companies have, and they are willing to spend money to get good customer care. This means that companies can cover the costs of good customer service in their pricing since the customers they have are probably going to be willing to pay that extra amount. However, one thing that should be kept in mind about customer service is the fact that personalization is highly important. You need to serve customers on a pretty big scale so getting a customer support software such as the one offered by Kayako is definitely important. That being said, you need to have real, human CSRs that can give customers quality customer support as well. Many companies make the mistake of trying to scale without any concern for the dip in customer care that it will end up resulting in.
The bottom line is that the benefits of customer service are tangible. Good customer service can help you and your company earn more money, and it can become a way for you to set yourself apart from other companies in an increasingly saturated and competitive marketplace.
