What percentage of consumers end a relationship with a business due to poor service?

Here we’ve collated over 100 customer service statistics, customer satisfaction statistics and quotes from various brands, industry leaders and researchers which reflect the fast-changing landscape.

Customer experience and delivering high levels of customer satisfaction is now the top priority for all forward-thinking businesses.

Customers are no longer basing their loyalty on brands, products and prices. Their loyalty is far more dependent upon the service they receive, their experience of a business and their level of satisfaction.

Read all the stats and quotes below, or download our bumper customer service statistics infographic by clicking the image:

What percentage of consumers end a relationship with a business due to poor service?

Customer Service, Satisfaction and Experience Statistics and Quotes

Here are some interesting customer service, satisfaction and experience stats which demonstrate how times are changing.

54% of customers have higher expectations for customer service today compared to one year ago.
This percentage jumps to 66% for consumers aged from 18 to 34 years old.
Microsoft

Gartner predicts that 89% of businesses are expected to compete mainly on customer experience.
Gartner

Gartner have also predicted that by 2019 more than 50% of organizations will redirect their investments to customer experience innovations.
Gartner

Worldwide, 67% of people believe that customer service as a whole is improving.
Microsoft

In 2017, 64% of Americans contacted some form of customer service.
Statista

52% of people around the globe believe that companies need to take action on feedback provided by their customers.
Microsoft

Around the globe, 96% of consumers say customer service is an important factor in their choice of loyalty to a brand.
Microsoft

When asking consumers what impacts their level of trust with a company, offering excellent customer service is ranked number one.
Zendesk

A customer experience promoter has a lifetime value to a company that’s 600 to 1,400% that of a detractor.
Bain

34% of companies are implementing “customer journey mapping” into their customer service.
Salesforce

70% of consumers say they have already made a choice to support a company that delivers great customer service.
American Express

Service insight and knowledge is also key to a good experience according to 62% of consumers.
American Express

Americans will pay 17% more to do business with firms with great reputations when it comes to customer service.
American Express

52% of consumers say they have made an additional purchase from a company after a positive customer service experience.
Zendesk

90% of customers are influenced by positive reviews when buying a product.
Zendesk

More people read positive reviews of customer service online than negative ones by 6%.
Zendesk

Gartner predicts that by 2019, more than 50% of organizations will redirect their investments to customer experience innovations.
Gartner

With 89% of businesses soon to be expected to compete mainly on customer experience, organizations that take customer experience seriously will stand out from the noise and win loyal customers.
Gartner

99% of Customer Experience and Success leaders believe Customer Experience Management has a positive impact on their business.
Lumoa

In 2019, customer experience will continue as a major factor in how companies do business.
Forrester

87% of organizations agree traditional experiences no longer satisfy customers.
Accenture.

A moderate improvement in CX would impact the revenue of a typical $1 billion company an average of $775 million over three years.
Temkin Group

67% of consumers and 74% of business buyers say they’ll pay more for a great experience.
Salesforce

By 2020, more than 40% of all data analytics projects will relate to an aspect of customer experience.
Gartner

65% of companies measure NPS compared with 44% that measure CSAT and 14% that measure CES.
Lumoa

Organizations that lead in CX outperformed laggards on the S&P 500 index by nearly 80%.
(Watermark Consulting, 2018)
Qualtrics

84% of organizations working to improve CX report an increase in revenue.
Dimension Data

Benchmark Net Promoter Score for companies in the education sector was reported as 69 in April 2018.
NPSBenchmarks

Benchmark Net Promoter Score for financial services companies was indicated to be 49 in January 2019.
NPSBenchmarks

Benchmark Net Promoter Score for the healthcare sector was indicated at 76 in January 2019.
NPSBenchmarks

Benchmark Net Promoter Score for manufacturing companies was recorded at 76 in January 2019.
NPSBenchmarks

Benchmark Net Promoter Score for technology companies was reported to be 60 in January 2019.
NPSBenchmarks


Poor Service and Customer Churn

Customer retention is a high priority for most businesses since it costs so much more to win new customers. Poor customer service is one of the key factors contributing to customer churn. Here are some interesting, relevant stats that will will help you to hang on to your valuable customers.

Attracting a new customer is 6-7 times more expensive than retaining a current one.
Salesforce

Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.
Harvard Business School

Customers who had a very good experience are 3.5x more likely to repurchase and 5x more likely to recommend the company to friends and relatives than if they had a very poor experience.
Temkin

Loyal customers are seven times as likely to test an offering, five times as likely to buy again and four times as likely to refer.
Temkin

95% of customers tell others about a bad experience and 87% share good experiences.
Zendesk

67% of customer churn is preventable if firms resolve issues the first time they occur.
Ameyo

The average American tells 15 people when they’ve had a poor customer service experience.
American Express

Men tell the most people (21 people) when they have had a poor customer service experience.
American Express

On average women tell about 10 people when they have had a poor customer service experience.
American Express

33% of customers who abandoned a business relationship last year did so because personalization was lacking.
Accenture

68% of customers believe the key to great customer service is a polite customer service representative.
American Express

48% of consumers expect specialized treatment for being a good customer.
Accenture

89% of consumers have switched to doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience.
Harris Interactive

According to Esteban Kolsky, if a customer is not satisfied, 13% of them will tell to 15 or even more people that they are unhappy. On the other hand, 72% of customers will share a positive experience with 6 or more people.
Kolsky

67% of customers mention bad experiences as a reason for churn, but only 1 out of 26 unhappy customers complain.
Salesforce

63% CX professionals use customer feedback to prioritize investment in better products, services and customer experiences.
Oracle

One-third of consumers say they would consider switching companies after just one instance of bad customer service.
American Express

The majority of Americans have decided to not go through with a purchase because of a poor customer service experience.
American Express

79% of consumers who shared complaints about poor customer experience online had their complaints ignored.
Harris Interactive

12% of Americans rate their number one frustration with customer service as “lack of speed.”
Statista

27% of Americans report “lack of effectiveness” as their number one frustration with customer service.
Statista

56% of people around the world have stopped doing business with a company because of a poor customer service experience.
Microsoft

47% of consumers have made the choice to switch to a different brand due to bad customer service within the last year.
Microsoft

After a bad customer service experience, 39% of customers will avoid a company for two years.
Zendesk

91% of customers who are unhappy with a brand will just leave without complaining.
Salesforce


Millenials Customer Statistics and Quotes

Millenials, people born between 1980 and 2000, are very much influencing the way in in which customer service, support and experience is evolving in the digital age. Their behaviour and expectations are not influenced by the pre-digital age. These people are digital natives who have become the largest consumer demographic. Anybody involved in customer service and experience needs to pay special attention to the stats that apply to this demographic. Here are some interesting numbers.

Millennials will pay 21% more to do business with companies who excel at customer service.
American Express

Millennials are the only demographic of Americans who tell more people when they have a good customer service experience rather than a bad one.
American Express

63% of millenials begin their customer service interactions online.
Microsoft

One in two millennials has complained about a brand on social media.
Microsoft

86% of millennials say they are influenced by negative reviews when purchasing a product or service.
Zendesk

74% of millennials report that their perception of a brand improves when it is clear the company responds to customers’ social media inquiries.
Microsoft

31% of customers report reaching out to a company via Twitter.
Forrester

66% of 18-34-year-olds say their customer service expectations have risen in the last year.
Microsoft

More than 65% of customers aged 18-44 use mobile to seek for service more than once a month.
SoftwareAdvice

65% of people aged 18-34 believe social media is an effective channel for customer service, while 75% of people aged 55 and over do not.
Microsoft


Customer Communications

Not so long ago there were basically just two key ways to contact a business or organisation: by telephone or by fax. Today we can use email, many social media platforms, websites, live chat, SMS, mobile and landline telephones. Businesses need to deliver consistent and integrative customer service across all channels. According to the Aberdeen group businesses that provide consistent customer service quality across multiple channels will retain 89% of their customers whereas companies which do not provide consistent omni-channel customer service are only able to retain around 33% of their customers.

About one in three people (30%) say the most important aspect of customer service is speaking with a knowledgeable and friendly agent.
Microsoft

57% of customers would rather contact companies via digital media such as email or social media rather than use voice-based customer support.
Ameyo

Friendly employees or customer service representatives are what make a memorable experience that causes consumers to stick with a brand, for 73% of customers.
Harris Interactive

For more complicated interactions, such as payment disputes, 40% of customers prefer talking to a real person over the phone.
American Express

23% of consumers seek out a face to face interaction for complicated customer service issues like troubleshooting.
American Express

88% of consumers are influenced by online customer service reviews when making a buying decision.
Zendesk

Nearly 1/3 of customers report sending a mobile/SMS message to the company requesting assistance.
Forrester

68% of consumers say it increases their perception of a brand when companies send them proactive customer service notifications.
Microsoft

90% of consumers expect an online portal for customer service.
Microsoft

Globally, only 5% of customer service interactions begin with a face to face meeting.
Microsoft

54% of customers used email customer service channels making it the most commonly used digital customer service channel.
Forrester

9 in 10 consumers want absolute omnichannel service – they expect a seamless experience when moving from one communication method to another, such as phone to text or chat to phone.
NICE inContact

84% of companies, who claim themselves to be customer-centric focus on the mobile customer experience.
Visioncritical

By 2019, mobile search will generate 27.8 billion more queries than desktop search.
Mobile marketer

90% of customers say they have had poor experience seeking customer support on mobile.
Software Advice

75% of people complete surveys on their mobile.
IMImobile

48% of consumers expect a response to social media questions and complaints within 24 hours.
Statista

Both in the United States and world wide, 18% of customers expect a response from a company’s social media within one hour.
Statista

One-third of Americans have used social media to complain about a brand or its customer service.
Microsoft


Self Service and Automation

Supporting the demands of today’s customers with intelligent self-service and automated customer contact systems is increasingly being recognised as beneficial. Customers want businesses to make it easy for them to solve their customer service issues for themselves, without the need to interact with a service agent. Here are some recent, interesting stats regarding self-service and automation.

A report by Aspect Software indicates 73% of customers want to solve product or service issues on their own
Aspect Software

According to a Radial and CFI Group survey, 55% of customers are likely to use Visual IVR when given the option.
Zappix

50% of customers think it’s important to solve product or service issues themselves
Zendesk

70% of customers expect a company’s website to include a self-service application.
Steven Van Belleghem

63% of customers are happy to be served by a chatbot, if there is an option to escalate the conversation to a human.
Forrester

It’s estimated that by 2020, 85% of customer service interactions will be automated.
Ameyo

Over 60% of US consumers prefer an automated self-service, such as a website or mobile app, for simple customer service tasks.
American Express

30% of US consumers rate chatbot interactions as “very effective” in dealing with customer service issues.
Microsoft

77% of consumers report having used a self-service support portal.
Microsoft

Over half of consumers say that the main reason they cannot resolve an issue on their own is because there is too little information online.
Microsoft

Only 12% of Americans say they cannot find the information they need in self-service portals.
Microsoft

By 2021, 15% of all customer service interactions will be completely handled by AI, an increase of 400% from 2017.
Gartner

8% of CX professionals said that although their companies embrace digital, they don’t think they’ll keep pace with the speed of technology change.
Oracle

31% of organizations have already invested in technology like AI to outpace the competition.
Accenture

76% of collaboration leaders are investing or expanding their emerging technology investment.
Accenture

26% of companies leading financially use CX technologies, compared to 7% of laggards.
Bain

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What percentage of consumers end a relationship with a business due to poor service?

How much revenue is lost annually due to poor encounters with sales associates?

Additionally, in the United States, $84 billion in revenue is lost annually due to poor encounters with sales associates, with 61% of consumers switching to competitors.

How does poor customer service affect business?

Shrinking Profits Lost sales, higher costs due to employee turnover, and a bad reputation are a recipe for disaster. Once you've lost the customer's trust, it becomes near impossible to get it back. Taking the steps to improve your customer experience will have a dramatic effect on the health of your business.

What is the result of bad customer service?

Whether you choose to believe it or not, bad customer service can have a serious impact on the overall health of your business. In the short term, it can affect sales, and in the long term, it can affect your business in a myriad of ways. For example, it can harm your brand, your reputation, and more.

What percentage of customers leave because of bad service?

84% of customers report that their expectations had not been exceeded in their last interaction with customer service. (Harvard Business Review) 78% of customers have given up on a transaction because of a negative customer experience.