Customer Service Statistics (How Important Is Customer Service?)

Do you want to keep yourself updated with the latest customer service statistics because you know how crucial customer relationship is?

That’s great! We prepared an extensive list of forty stats touching various customer service segments.

The effects of good and bad service are significant, but we also shared how it can impact ROI and what are customers’ biggest frustrations.

Let’s dive into customer service stats that highlight key metrics and trends you should be aware of if you want to stand out from the masses.

Get the insights, apply them and boost your customer satisfaction through the roof.

This post covers:

• How Important Is Customer Service?
• Customer Service ROI Statistics
• Benefits Of Great Customer Service
• Cost Of Poor Customer Service
• Customer Service Frustration Statistics
• Customer Experience Statistics
• Customer Service Channels Statistics

Customer Service Statistics (Our Top Picks)

• 90% of Americans base their decisions on customer service
• 61% of customers won’t leave after a bad experience with a brand
• 79% say personalized service is more important than personalized marketing
• 70% of customers spend more with companies that offer great customer experiences
• 62% of customers will recommend a brand to a friend because of great customer service
• More than 60% of customers wrote a bad review after a negative customer service
• 33% of customers’ frustration is due to being left waiting on hold
• 69% of customers are OK with interacting with a bot on simples issues

How Important Is Customer Service?

1. 90% of Americans base their decisions on customer service

Roughly said, nearly all Americans use customer service as one of the main factors in deciding whether to do business with a company or not. You have a much higher chance of making them your customers when offering THE best customer service.

The word “bad” shouldn’t exist in your vocabulary when it comes to customer service.

Source: SalesIntel

2. 94% of customers say they’ll purchase again because of excellent customer experience

The importance of (excellent) customer service plays a big role in making a customer more likely to purchase again from the brand.

Source: Salesforce

3. 64% of business leaders say customer service has an impact on the company’s growth

Because we all know how vital customer service is, it also positively impacts the company’s growth, according to nearly 65% of business leaders.

Source: Zendesk #1

4. 61% of customers won’t leave after a bad experience with a brand

Don’t worry just yet if you made a mistake because over 60% of customers say they would not switch to a competitor after just one bad experience with the current brand. (Customers became more loyal in just one year. In 2021, only 39% would stay after a negative experience.)

Attention: If you make a customer undergo two negative experiences, 76% of them are likely to replace you with someone else.

Source: Zendesk #1

5. 60% of professionals say customer service helps them improve retention

It’s easier to retain an existing customer (70% say it’s cheaper, too) than to win a new one, and offering (great) customer service is one major factor in keeping them around (forever) – at least that’s what 60% of professionals say.

In addition to that, more than 50% say customer service increases their chance of cross-selling.

Source: Zendesk #1

6. 56% of businesses will prioritize customer service in the next 12 month

Globally speaking, 56% of businesses say they will prioritize improving customer experience in the next twelve months.

Priorities	Global	US	Australia	Brazil
Drive better customer experience	56%	65%	48%	68%
Improve efficiency	37%	34%	37%	46%
Drive stronger customer relationships	31%	26%	33%	26%
Increase customer satisfaction	23%	20%	22%	28%
Increase sustainability	21%	22%	28%	21%

Source: Zendesk #1

7. 79% say personalized service is more important than personalized marketing

When asked which is more important, 79% of respondents said personalized customer service is more important than personalized marketing (21%).

What customers expect a business to know about them

What brand should know about their customers	Share of respondents
Identifying info	66%
Previous conversations	56%
Purchase history	55%

If a business lacks personalization, 64% of customers feel like a ticket number – only 36% feel like individuals.

Source: Gladly #2

Customer Service ROI Statistics

8. 70% of customers spend more with companies that offer great customer experiences

If you want your customers to spend more with you, one way of making that happen is by offering a fluid, personal and seamless customer experience. Just imagine if 70% of your customers would spend more – pretty cool, huh?

Another report by Gladly states that 82% of customers will spend more money on brands that deliver great service online.

Source: Zendesk #2, Gladly #1

9. A 5% increase in customer retention produces a 25%+ increase in profit

By increasing your customer retention by 5% (which you can do through improved customer service), you can reap a solid boost of over 25% increase in profits. Return customers are one of the best because 1) they spend more over time, and 2) they’ll refer your business to others.

Source: Bain & Company

10. Almost 70% of customers will pay more for products and services from a company known to offer top-notch customer service

If you tell me, “Hey, Rok, XYZ company offers the best customer service ever!” I am way likelier to buy from them and spend more on the products and services they offer. And that’s what 68% of respondents said.

Interestingly, 33% would pay 1-9% more, 27% would pay 10-20% more and 8% would pay 20%+ more.

Source: HubSpot

11. 83% of customers are more loyal to brands that respond (and resolve their complaints)

If you have many loyal customers, you’ll experience a satisfactory ROI – that’s a guarantee. One (simple) way is to ensure the ultimate customer service by actually responding and resolving customers’ complaints.

No matter what they say and how they behave, don’t go silent – strategic customer service is key to building a loyal relationship.

Source: Khoros

12. Most highly engaged customers spend considerably more

By considerably, I meant 300% more than the non-highly engaged customers. They are also five times likelier to buy from the brand again, are purchasing 90% more frequently and even spend up to 60% more per transaction.

Source: Rosetta

Benefits Of Great Customer Service

13. 65%+ of people have a higher expectation for customer service than 3-5 years ago

A much larger percentage of people have high expectations for customer service today than they did three to five years ago. Because of this, businesses should be naturally inclined to offer excellent customer service to enjoy the benefits (mentioned above and below).

Source: Netomi

14. 62% of customers will recommend a brand to a friend because of great customer service

Referrals are much easier to win over because they are already pre-sold. And because of your fantastic customer service, over 60% of customers will recommend your brand to their friends.

Source: Gladly #1

15. 63% become a brand’s fans because of great customer service

While products and services matter a lot, many customers favor great customer service – 63% naming it the leading factor in falling in love with a brand. And because of the superb service, they are likelier to stay in a good relationship with a brand long term.

Source: Gladly #1

16. Less than 20% of consumers believe customer service exceeds their expectations

Only 19% of consumers believe customer service today exceeds their expectations. While this percentage is very low, it’s a good indicator that you can beat your competition just by ramping up the quality of your customer service.

By the way, yes, the other 81% of consumers believe customer service falls below their expectations.

Source: Gladly #1

17. 83% of customers say good customer service is the most important measure for deciding what to buy (outside product and price)

When looking outside the product and price, 83% of customers say that good customer service is their leading and most important factor when deciding what to buy.

Source: Khoros

Cost Of Poor Customer Service

18. 33% would consider switching companies after a poor service

Around one-third of customers would consider switching companies immediately after poor customer service. But 60% would consider doing the same after two or three negative instances.

Source: American Express

19. 47% of US adults will abandon their purchase if they can’t find quick answers

When doing online shopping, nearly half of the US adult online shoppers will abandon their purchase if they can’t find a quick answer to their question. Excellent self-service or chatbot can contribute to finding quick answers greatly.

You may also want to review these shopping cart abandonment statistics at this stage.

Source: Forester Opportunity Snapshot

20. 96% of customers are likelier to be disloyal to brands when experiencing high-effort issue resolutions

Unfortunately, 96% of customers are more likely to be disloyal to brands and 81% will share negative word-of-mouth when they experience high-effort issue resolutions.

Remember, customer service interactions are almost four times likelier to lead to disloyalty than loyalty.

Source: Gartner

21. More than 60% of customers wrote a bad review after a negative customer service

Working on scoring positive reviews matters in this day and age, and one of the ways of getting them is by offering excellent customer service. But if you don’t take care of your customers and they experience negative customer service, a bad review will follow.

Source: ArenaCX

22. Poor customer service costs companies $4.7 trillion globally

The price of bad customer service is exceptionally high. It generates a massive $4.7 trillion in losses in global consumer spending.

Source: Qualtrics

Customer Service Frustration Statistics

23. 27% rank “lack of effectiveness” as the leading customer service frustration

Statista reports that 27% of US consumers say lack of effectiveness is their most common cause of customer service frustration.

Cause of customer service frustration	Share of respondents
Lack of effectiveness	27%
Lack of speed	12%
Lack of accuracy	10%

Source: Statista

24. 33% of customers’ frustration is due to being left waiting on hold

Knowing that 82% of customers want an immediate response when they have sales questions (and 90% when they have customer service questions), putting them “on hold” frustrates them.

Most frustrating aspect of customer service	Share of respondents
Waiting on hold	33%
Repeating yourself	33%
Slow response time	19%
Not able to resolve the issue	14%

Source: HubSpot Research

25. 54% of customers say most businesses’ customer service feels like an afterthought

More than half of the global customers report that it feels like customer service is an afterthought for most of the businesses they do business with. The percentage jumps to 64% for customers under 40.

Source: Zendesk #3

26. 68% say businesses need to train their customer service agents more

Almost 70% of global consumers say it feels to them that most of the businesses they buy from need to train their customer service agents better.

Source: Zendesk #3

27. 54% of customers are frustrated due to too many chatbot questions

54% of customers report that one of their main frustrations when interacting with a chatbot is the numerous questions they need to answer before they get transferred to a human agent.

Source: Zendesk #4

Customer Experience Statistics

Note: We also have an extensive list of must-know customer experience statistics you should not miss.

Here’s a quick recap.

28. Customers will share their single good experience with fewer people than their bad experience

Sadly, a bad customer experience gets spread more than a good one. Americans will share their positive experience with eleven people, while they will share a negative one with fifteen. And men are likelier to spread good and bad experiences with others than women.

29. A good customer experience can increase customer spending by 140%

When it comes to returning customers, those who remember an excellent past experience will spend, on average, 140% more than those whose past CX was bad.

30. Improve your customer experience, and you can boost revenue by 4-8%

Everyone good (more like excellent) at offering the best customer experience enjoys a 4-8% revenue growth. If you feel like you could improve your CX, just do it.

31. 74% say customer experience impacts their buying behavior

Now you know how vital quality customer experience is because it impacts nearly three-quarters of customers’ buying behavior. In short, make them experience an excellent CX, and they will be more prone to buying from you.

32. Customer loyalty is most impacted by customer experience, not brand or price

While the brand we buy from and the price of the product or service matter to us, it’s actually the quality of customer service that builds more than two-thirds of customers’ loyalty.

Customer Service Channels Statistics

33. 69% of customers are OK with interacting with a bot on simples issues

In 2022, 69% of customers said they were completely fine with interacting with a bot on their simple issues, which is a 23% increase from 2021. This shows that we are more used to chatting with bots now than we were in the past.

Source: Zendesk #4

34. The knowledge base is customers’ preferred self-service channel

When it comes to self-service channels, most still prefer accessing the knowledge base. Remember, nearly 70% of customers prefer to solve issues independently (me, too!), while 63% will search a company’s online resources before contacting an agent.

Source: HubSpot

35. 33% of consumers prefer interacting with customer service over social media than by phone

One-third of consumers want to contact a brand’s customer service through social media rather than by phone. While most use their smartphones for both activities, contacting via social media feels more natural for 33% than calling.

Because social is part of our everyday lives, don’t miss checking these social media statistics to stay up with the trends.

Source: Invesp

36. Millennials prefer live chat over any other customer service channel

The three main reasons why millennials like to be serviced via live chat are 1) they want quick responses, 2) they want to have access to brands anytime, anywhere and 3) they prefer to have a conversation via text.

Source: Comm100

37. 78% of customers expect a brand/product to have a self-service option over traditional customer service channels

Because we know a large percentage of customers want to resolve their issues on their own, it’s not shocking that almost 80% of them expect a brand/product to have an online self-service option over traditional customer service methods.

Source: Document360

38. 14% of business pros deal with short-term communication crises weekly

14% of business professionals deal with communication channel service issues every week, which causes a short-term communication crisis.

Source: Nextiva

39. Email is still the most preferred communication channel

While email leads the list of the ten most preferred communication channels, the other favored methods are phone, in-person, online chat, mobile apps, messenger apps, text/SMS, online portals, video chat and social media.

Source: Salesforce

40. 84% expect seamless customer support communication across multiple channels

Good customer service means seamless communication with support agents across multiple channels, and that’s what nearly 85% of consumers expect a business to offer.

Source: Gladly #2

Conclusion: Improve Your Customer Service

The level of quality customer service is more important than ever before.

If you lack delivering the necessary service through various channels and stay consistent with it, you may (you will!) lose customers (lots of them).

Hey, customers have high expectations.

However, after reviewing all these stats, I’m sure you’ll rethink your approach to offering customer service.

Prioritize customer service and strive for excellence to cultivate long-lasting and loyal relationships and propel your business for long-term success. That’s what you deserve!