If there was any doubt about the importance of customer service, doubt no more: A full 77 percent of consumers will not buy from a company where they’ve had a bad customer service experience.
That’s according to Five9’s Customer Service Index research, conducted by Zogby Analytics, which polled 250 U.S. business decision makers for retail, education, healthcare and financial services, and over 1,100 adult U.S. consumers.
It also found that customer service is a key to retention, unsurprisingly: Almost all (96 percent) of respondents said that positive experiences factor into whether or not they’ll continue to purchase from a company in the future.
Interestingly, gender plays a role in the impact of customer service: 92 percent of women surveyed said they value great customer service, compared to the 85 percent of men.
When it comes to business decision-makers, they are aware of the importance of good customer service: 90 percent of business respondents ranked it as “very important.” Slightly more than half of the businesses surveyed monitor customer satisfaction on a weekly basis, while 29 percent monitor it daily.
On the omnichannel front, more than 81 percent of respondents, regardless of age, expect customer service to be quick, across the communication method they choose. Consumers typically prefer using more instant forms of communication, including SMS, Facebook messaging or Twitter, rather than email.
