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What does Poor Customer Service REALLY do?

We are all aware that poor customer service affects your business negatively. But what makes customer service “poor” and what are some of the negative effects of bad customer service?
Poor customer service often consists of automated self-service, long wait times, inadequate attention to detail, and inexperienced customer service agents (Salesforce). Customer service might also be bad because of a rude customer service agent. Perhaps you have to speak with four people before you get the answer you need. These are some of the major bad practices with customer service, but there are certainly others. Here are a few statistics for you that might encourage your business to kick up the customer service a few notches.

The Stats:

  • 66% of customers switch businesses due to poor service (Accenture).
  • 40% of customers start purchasing from a competitor because they were great for customer service reputation (Zendesk).
  • 25% of customers switch businesses because they are tired of being put on hold (New Voice).
  • 32% of customers change businesses because they are fed up with speaking to multiple agents (New Voice).

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  • 53% are irritated if they don’t speak to a real person immediately (New Voice).
  • 56% of customers have to re-explain an issue when speaking to customer service.
  • 72% blame their bad customer service experience on having to explain their problem to multiple people (Zendesk).
  • 58% are willing to spend more on companies that provide excellent customer service (American Express).
  • It is 6-7 times more costly to obtain a new customer than it is to keep an existing one (White House Office of Consumer Affairs).

After reading some of these stats, it’s easy to see that speed in customer service is a pretty big deal. No, it’s not everything, but it certainly is a difference-maker. Many of the issues people deal with during a poor customer service experience can be fixed with the right tool.

With Texting:

  • The customer is not put on hold for a long time. They simply send in a text, and your dispatcher (the same person who answers your calls) assigns the text to the appropriate person. If you have a customer on the phone, you can even offer to send him a text back instead of making him wait on hold on the phone.
  • Transferring the conversation is seamless. Does another team member need to take over? No problem. Simply transfer the conversation to that employee. The process is smooth. The customer can go on about his business as he waits for a response, and he won’t even know a transfer is taking place unless you specifically tell him so.
  • All conversations are recorded, so there’s no need for your customer to ever explain or ask something twice. This might not sound like a big deal, but it certainly is to your customer.

With texting, your business enables customers to communicate in a way that’s quick, easy, and comfortable for them. In a world where customer service is everything and technology is abundant, it just makes sense to take your business’ customer service to the next level with texting.