Tag: AI Customer Service

50 Customer Service Statistics You Need To Know (Updated For 2023)

Written by Dylan Max  on   Sep 10, 2022

Customer service is becoming a critical driver of how a company is perceived, what drives consumer loyalty and determining where they open their wallets. Companies are equally praised for the exceptional support they provide, while others are relentlessly chastised for failing to deliver. Below, we want to show you how that perception has become reality with 50 customer service statistics you need to know for 2023.

AI customer service is transforming how companies support the people who support them – working alongside human agents to provide quick, convenient, and personal support. We thought it would be a good idea to get a real sense of where customer support is today by sharing these 45 customer service stats from leading research organizations.

Here are some of the best customer service statistics that really paint the picture of:

  1. What consumers expect
  2. The baseline of where many brands are today
  3. The opportunity for AI to catapult a brand’s customer service to the next level

To review some of our own research on this topic, please check out any of our four eBooks on the topic of customer service:

Customer Service Stats On Consumer Expectations

this statistic states that 40% of consumers want companies to prioritize quick resolutions
  • 59% of consumers have higher expectations for customer service than they did just a 1 year ago [Microsoft]
  • 60% don’t see customer service as getting any easier [Microsoft]  
  • Customers expect to receive service through any channel and on any device, with 59 percent of respondents using the omnichannel experience to get questions answered. [Microsoft]
  • Americans are telling an average of 15 people about poor service  [American Express (1)]
  • Nearly 50% of consumers expect a response on social media questions or complaints within an hour, with 18% expecting an immediate response [American Express (1)]
  • 33% say getting their issue resolved in a single interaction (no matter the length of time) is the most important aspect of customer service  [American Express (1)]
  • 40% want companies to focus on taking care of their needs quickly; The future of service belongs to those who deliver quick, convenient and personalized customer service in the customer’s channel of choice [American Express (1)]
  • 66% of US online adults said that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good online customer experience [Forrester (1)]
  • 86% of customers have to contact customer service multiple times for the same reason [InfoLink]

Many companies rely on these stats to benchmark customer service. You might not need all these fancy customer service statistics to know what’s the most important: customer satisfaction.

Satisfaction = Reality – Expectations. If you can beat expectations on a consistent basis you have entered the powerful realm of leveraging customer service to promote your brand. When it comes to customer service as a marketing tool (think “word of mouth”), we’ve carved out a whole separate section for that below.

Key Statistics Covering How Customer Service Is The New Marketing

A visualization showing 61% of customers will switch brands due to poor customer service
  • 95% of consumers cite customer service as important in their choice of and loyalty to a brand  [Microsoft]
  • 90% of Americans use customer service as a deciding factor when choosing to do business with a company [American Express (2)]
  • 78% of customers say the quality of service is fundamental to earning their loyalty and repeat business [Netomi]
  • Seven in 10 U.S. consumers say they’ve spent more money to do business with a company that delivers great service [American Express (1)]
  • 61% have switched brands due to poor customer service with nearly half having done so in the past 12 months  [Microsoft]
  • More than half of Americans have scrapped a planned purchase or transaction because of bad service  [American Express (1)]
  • US consumers say they’re willing to spend 17 percent more to do business with companies that deliver excellent service, up from 14 percent in 2014  [American Express (1)]
  • 33% of Americans will consider switching companies after just a single instance of poor service  [American Express (1)]
  • 61% of insurance consumers in the United Kingdom, 76 percent in Germany and 79 percent in Spain say their insurer choice is influenced by the carrier’s claims handling and customer service quality [Accenture] (click the link to get more insights on the benefits of insurance chatbot solutions)

Proactive Customer Support Statistics

This shows the importance of rapid responses and proactivity. 90% of consumers rate immediate answers as one of the most important factors when thinking about quality customer service
  • 90% of customers rate immediate responses as important or higher when they have a question. [Hubspot (1)]
  • 82% of people say good customer service is extremely or very important [Netomi]
  • 71% of consumers under 25 believes quickness in responses from customer service representatives improves their experience [Comm100]
  • 70% have a more favorable view of brands that offer proactive customer service notifications [Microsoft]
  • 87% of customers want to be proactively reached out to by a company for customer service related issues  [inContact (via MyCustomer)]
  • Over a 12 month period, proactive customer service can lead to a 20-30% reduction in call center calls — lowering call center operating costs by as much as 25% [Enkata (via MyCustomer)]
  • 83% of customers expect to interact with someone immediately when they contact a company [Salesforce] (click the link to learn more about our salesforce chatbot integrations)

Customer Service Statistics That Show Agents Need Help

One customer service stat points out 84% of agents need help answering support questions
  • More than 75%of consumers expect customer service representatives to have visibility into previous interactions and purchases, Yet nearly half say agents almost never or only occasionally have the context they need to most effectively and efficiently solve their issue  [Microsoft]
  • 68% say a pleasant representative is a key to their recent positive service experiences [American Express (1)]
  • 40% of customers want agents to focus on taking care of their needs quickly  [American Express (1)]
  • 62% of consumers have been ghosted by company customer service call-back options more than once [Netomi (2)]
  • 53% have publicly shamed a company following an instance of poor customer service [Netomi (2)]
  • 73% of customers have experienced an agent being rude to them [Netomi (2)]
  • 84% of customer service agents can’t answer the questions [InfoLink]
  • 83% of consumers have to repeat the same information to multiple agents [InfoLink]
  • 82% of customers expect to solve complex problems by talking to one person [Salesforce]
Related Reading: Check out the Top 38 Chatbot Statistics you need to know for customer service

Customer Service Is A Real Business Issue (And Opportunity)

Companies that provide excellent customer service see a 93% repeat purchase rate according to one report
  • $62 billion is lost by U.S. businesses each year following bad customer experiences [New Voice Media]
  • 93% of customers make repeat purchases with companies that provide great customer service. [HubSpot (1)]
  • 69% of US online adults shop more with a retailer that offers consistent customer service both online and offline [Forrester (1)]
  • Poor customer service causes consumers to abandon intended purchases, which translated to an estimated $62 billion in lost sales in the US in 2015 — an alarming 51% increase over the previous two years [Forrester (1)]
  • Customers are 4x more likely to switch service providers if the problem they are having is service-based. [Bain and Company]
  • 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]
  • Within the last year alone, reported merchandise returns went up from $351 billion to $369 billion, and an estimated $24 billion was lost to return fraud and abuse. [Appriss]
  • Businesses can grow their revenue by as much as 8% above their competition when they improve the customer service experience. [Bain and Company]

All Of These Customer Support Stats Pave The Way For AI

This statistic from Forrester states that 54% of consumers use email when they want to reach customer support
  • 54% of consumers use a customer support email for customer service, making it the number 1 customer service communication channel. [Forrester (2)]
  • 42% of customers want to communicate with companies via live chat for customer service. [HubSpot (2)]
  • Millennials prefer live chat for customer service over other channels [Comm100]
  • By 2021, 15% of all customer service interactions will be completely handled by AI, an increase of 400% from 2017 [Gartner (1)]
  • 80% of customer engagements can be handled by bots [Accenture]
  • 73% of consumers ascribe no value to agents engaging in small talk when fixing their issue [Netomi (2)]
  • By 2021, more than 50% of enterprises will spend more on bots than traditional mobile [Gartner (2)]  
  • By 2030, 70% of companies will have adopted some form of AI and the majority of enterprises will be using a full range of AI technology [McKinsey]

We have shown you through these 50 customer service stats that support is more important to your business than ever before.

Are you ready to see how AI in customer service can transform your business? Use AI to answer high-volume, repeatable issues without delay while looping in your human agents to manage the other inquiries. Let’s chat. 

For more information on customer service, visit:

Resources cited in this post

The 12 Most Important Customer Service Expectations

Written by Dylan Max  on   Jul 14, 2022

It’s no secret that customers today have high expectations when it comes to customer service. In order to keep up with the competition, businesses need to meet (or exceed) these expectations. Every business has customers, no matter what field or industry, and it’s vitally important to be aware of what they expect.

What are Customer Expectations?

Simply put, customer expectations are the standards that customers have for a product or service. These standards can be based on many factors, such as previous experiences, what they’ve heard from others, or even societal norms. And when customers don’t feel that their expectations have been met, they’re likely to take their business elsewhere.

There are a few key things to keep in mind when it comes to customer expectations:

– They’re constantly changing: What customers expect today may be different tomorrow, so it’s important to stay on top of trends and changes.

– They vary by customer: Not all customers have the same expectations, so it’s important to tailor the experience to each individual.

– They should be met or exceeded: Meeting customer expectations is the bare minimum — businesses should aim to exceed them whenever possible.

The 12 Most Important Customer Service Expectations

While customer expectations can differ depending on the company or industry, there are some common themes that businesses should be aware of. Here are 12 of the most important customer service expectations:

1. Honesty and Transparency

Customers today expect honesty and transparency from businesses. They want to know that they can trust the company, and they want to be able to easily find information about the product or service. For example, if a customer is buying a product online, they should be able to easily find shipping costs, return policies, and other important information. Companies should not try to hide this information or be vague about it.

2. Friendliness and Courteousness

It seems like it should go without saying, but sometimes it’s easy to forget about basic decency. Friendliness and courteousness are two of the most important customer service expectations. Customers want to feel like they’re valued, and they want to be treated with respect.

3. Being Understood

Customers want to feel like they’re being understood, and they want businesses to take the time to listen to their concerns. This includes everything from active listening to providing support in their language of choice. Customers want to feel like they’re being understood, and they want businesses to take the time to listen to their concerns. This includes everything from active listening to providing support in their language of choice. Active listening is a customer service technique that involves giving your full attention to the customer, paraphrasing what they’ve said, and checking for understanding. This can help to make sure that the customer feels heard and that their issues are being addressed.

4. Innovation

Innovation is one of the most important customer service expectations in today’s climate. With new technologies and platforms constantly emerging, customers expect businesses to be on the cutting-edge. They want companies to be constantly improving and adapting to change. Innovation also means being able to meet customer needs in new and unique ways, like using chatbots or artificial intelligence. Innovation should never be made at the expense of smooth function–after all, the latest and greatest technology is hardly great if it hampers your customer service agents from giving customers the best possible experience.

5. Proactivity

Customers today expect businesses to be proactive, and they want companies to anticipate their needs. This includes everything from proactively addressing problems to offering personalized recommendations. A proactive approach means identifying potential issues and taking steps to prevent them before they happen. It also involves awareness of customer needs and offering solutions or recommendations before the customer even knows they need them.

6. Speed and Efficiency

Customers today want speed and efficiency when it comes to customer service. They don’t want to wait on hold for hours, and they expect problems to be resolved quickly and efficiently. Quick reaction time from customer service is essential in today’s climate.

7. Multi-Channel Service

In order to meet customer expectations, businesses need to provide multi-channel service. This means that customers should be able to reach out through a variety of channels, such as phone, email, chat, or social media. And they should be able to receive a consistent experience no matter which channel they use. In addition to this consistent access, they also want continuity–a conversation that begins on one channel should continue on another.

8. Privacy and Security

With all of the recent data breaches in the news, it’s no surprise that privacy and security are top customer service expectations. Customers want to know that their personal information is safe, and they want businesses to take steps to protect their data. This includes everything from ensuring that data is encrypted to offering secure payment options.

9. Personalization

Customers today expect a personalized experience, and they want businesses to take the time to get to know them. This includes everything from using their name to providing tailored recommendations. Not only this,  but customers also want the feeling that they’re more than just a number. They want to be treated as individuals, and they want their customer service experiences to reflect that. 

10. Empathy

In addition to being understood, customers also want businesses to show empathy. This means that businesses need to be able to put themselves in their customers’ shoes and understand their needs. This is more than just a sympathetic ear or a kind word–it’s about being able to truly understand what the customer is going through. The Human connection is an important one and should be a cornerstone of any customer service approach. 

11. Constant Availability

With the rise of online shopping, customers now expect businesses to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means that businesses need to have customer service representatives available around-the-clock to answer questions and resolve problems.

12. Customer Self-Service

Finally, customers today expect to be able to serve themselves. This means that businesses need to provide easy-to-use self-service options, such as FAQ pages, online chatbots, and step-by-step guides.In addition, businesses need to make sure that these self-service options are easily accessible and easy to use by their customers. Efficient and convenient self service is not only great for customers, but it’s also cost-effective for businesses. 

How to leverage AI in the quest for customer service excellence

There is power to be realized in partnerships and the strategic combination of forces, and companies using chatbots for customer service can further enhance the CX, taking it to new heights. While platforms can streamline the agent experience and can decrease resolution times, omnichannel conversational AI platforms like Netomi are now acting as the first line of defense when it comes to customer support. Netomi’s virtual agents sit alongside human agents to supplement and enhance the capacity of support teams, ensuring the seamless resolution of customer queries.

No matter which platform you choose to implement in your customer service operations, the Netomi AI helps you by taking the best course of action with every incoming support ticket:

  • The AI can automatically resolve common, highly repeatable tickets without having to loop in a human agent (‘auto-pilot’ mode)
  • For more complex tickets, the AI can gather information from the customer or back-end systems, and even draft a response for review, before handing off to a human agent (‘co-pilot’ mode) 
  • For the most complex tickets that require a human hand, the AI can summarize and route tickets to the most appropriate agent for the task 

By leveraging the out-of-the-box Netomi virtual agent integration, companies enhance both the agent and customer experience, while also reducing costs. Other chatbots don’t sit natively within the agent desk, but with Netomi, virtual and human agents work alongside each other, creating an efficient and ultra-powerful customer service team.

New eBook: Transforming Customer Support with AI

Written by Can Ozdoruk  on   Jul 31, 2019

Welcome to the Relationship Economy. 

Doing business today is a lot different than it was a few years ago.  Customer service is now just as important as price, quality and brand name in determining where people spend their money and build long-term relationships. Customers have quick-rising expectations for personalized, convenient and immediate support on their channels of choice, and swiftly take their business elsewhere if they are not satisfied. 

In our latest eBook, Transforming Customer Service with AI, we explore this new era of doing business, the challenges that companies face and how helpdesk AI can accelerate a customer support organization into a customer relationship powerhouse. You’ll learn: 

  • What customers expect from companies when they have an issue 
  • How AI can impact the customer service function of businesses of all sizes 
  • Best practices to follow when implementing AI within your business 
  • How to create a continuous-learning AI that improves over time

Customer service now has a direct impact on consumer buying habits, either posing a great risk or presenting an incredible opportunity. Customer service can no longer be an after-thought; it must become a core part of the overall customer experience strategy and business focus moving forward. 

Get your free copy of your eBook here. 

For more information on customer service, visit:

How to Get Executive Buy in for AI-Powered Customer Service

Written by Emily Peck  on   Mar 12, 2019

A Quick Guide to Becoming a Champion for Automated Support Within Your Organization.

AI is no longer reserved for the companies that are first-to-market; the ones that liberally trial new technologies on a whim with varying degrees of success. No… AI-powered customer support solutions are often now fundamental to a company’s success. Customer service is now a competitive differentiator on par with cost and quality, and AI-powered automation is the means to deliver the world-class experiences that your customers demand. [Read more about customer expectations here].  

Many customer service executives on the front lines of managing CX understand the value AI can bring:

  • Personally responding to repeatable issues, about ~50% of support tickets, instantaneously [Higher CSAT → Brand Loyalty]
  • Deflecting tickets from human agents by automating resolutions [Cost Savings]
  • Empowering human agents to work better – using AI integrations, such as Zoho chatbot, to recommend replies, pull relevant information, etc. [Faster resolutions → Higher CSAT]
  • Improved agent performance and job satisfaction as the day-to-day focus is on high-impact work and less mundane tasks [Less Agent Turnover → Cost Savings]

There’s often polarizing views of AI within an organization: Some are entranced with the buzz around the new shiny object, excited for the opportunity to say that their organization uses AI. Others are skeptics, wondering if it’s all just hype; if it’s affordable; if the real value will be seen or if human agents are going to be replaced with machines.

The reality is that companies can’t afford to not adopt AI-powered solutions. According to Microsoft, 95% of consumers cite customer service as important in their choice of and loyalty to a brand and 61% have switched brands due to poor customer service, with nearly half having done so in the past 12 months.

——–

“Most traditional companies don’t think of digital as being strategic to the organization. It’s often thought about as a support function. We’re thinking about how to make digital, and a culture of innovation, be part of the DNA of our company.” — Alfredo Tan, WestJet’s Chief Digital Officer. [Watch a video here]

——–

So as you champion AI within your organization, use our guidelines to ensure a successful program is introduced that the entire organization can see value in.

1) Start Small With AI-Powered Customer Service

Identify very defined use cases for customer service automation with AI, such as order status or refund requests. This will not only help keep costs down, but it will enable everyone within a customer service organization to learn the process of implementing AI and witness how it evolves over time.

2) Identify the Right Use Cases

Pinpoint where there is a lot of historical data that can be used to train AI. AI and customer service is such a great place to start, as companies have troves of historic emails, chat and social messaging data that can be used to bootstrap AI training, and new tickets are continuously being created to give your AI the ability to learn in action. Determine what to delegate to AI by identifying which queries come infrequently and don’t require human oversight.

3) Create a Game Plan for a Human Agents and AI-Powered Customer Service

AI will not – and should not – replace human workers. It will help them work more efficiently while freeing them up to work on complex and unique tickets. Outline the situations in which AI will manage autonomously, which use cases will be exclusively managed by human agents (more sensitive issues), and which queries AI can help a human agent work faster by clarifying or pulling information from various business systems.

4) Solve Real Issues and Map Out KPIs

Set a clear understanding of what success will look like and how it will be measured. You should be implementing AI to solve real pain points for the business. Many companies struggle with meeting customer expectations for immediate, personal and convenient support. Even by leveraging AI to respond to 30% of your incoming tickets at first, the impact will be felt immediately.   

We like to tell our customers to measure AI as they would an employee: How is it learning and improving? Is it doing its job (i.e. resolving tickets)? Is it having a positive impact on the customer experience? Is it working well with others?

Some of the specific KPIs that our clients use to measure the success of a customer service AI is a deflection, CSAT, cost savings and time to resolution. Set realistic goals based on where your organization is performing today and how AI should impact this in 3, 6 and 12 months.

5) Educate Your Organization About What AI is… and What it Isn’t

Ensure everyone understands the capabilities of AI. Often, there are some within an organization who have been swept up into the hype and have a very unrealistic view of the maturity of the AI market today.

Set your AI up for success by educating your colleagues on what AI can manage – tasks that are a high-volume, highly-repeatable, low business risk. Communicate how an AI learns from real-world experience and how it will get better over time. The performance on Day 1 is not what it will be on Day 30 or 60.  AI should not be expected to be creative, have empathy or manage complex or long-form queries.

The Time is Now for AI-Powered Customer Service

You cannot afford to delay adopting an AI-powered customer experience into your organization. AI Agents improve over time, in terms of accuracy in understanding questions as well as learning how your human agents respond in various situations. Your competitors have adopted AI; it will be impossible to catch up if you don’t move fast.

Are you ready to become an internal champion for AI and transform your customer support with automation? Let’s chat about AI and chatbot tools.

For more information on customer service, visit:

How Humans and AI Can Work Together to Transform Customer Service

Written by Can Ozdoruk  on   Feb 26, 2019

News flash: AI is not going to wipe out human jobs. Automated customer service will augment and change jobs, helping humans work better and faster. A great example of this is with AI in customer service.

AI works best with highly repeatable, high volume tasks. The majority of our customers see that upwards of 50% of their customer service tickets span the same 5-7 issues. It’s with these issues that automated customer service needs to be used to respond instantaneously, without a customer ever getting into the human agent queue.

When a customer has a complex issue, AI should be an Agent Assistant to prepare information for a human agent to work faster. AI can determine a customer’s intent, clarify or ask for additional information, and pull data in from other systems before a human rep becomes involved. By using AI to prepare the information, the human agent can focus on reviewing, making a decision and communicating back with the customer quickly. Consumers no longer wait for hours to get a response.

Agents today spend their time doing five primary things:

For the tickets that are routed to a human agent, an AI Agent should assist with the first three steps. Here are a few examples:

  • A customer reaches out to ask for a refund outside of the policy-allotted 30-day return window. The AI accesses the CRM to confirm which product the user would like to return and inquire about the reason before packaging all of the information to the human agent for a decision.
  • An airline customer is asking for available options on an earlier flight today. The AI pulls up the customer’s loyalty status and confirms he is a Gold Star customer while confirming his current booking details. The AI simultaneously searches for flight availability, including First or Business class options, and presents the human agent with what’s available for them to decide if change fees should be waived, which upgrades could be presented at no cost, and the best options to offer.
  • A CPG customer is reporting an issue with a product. The AI clarifies the issue she is facing and confirms the product SKU before passing off to a human for follow up.
  • A hotel customer claims that she has been overcharged. The AI looks up the recent history and provides an itemized bill to enable the guest to review. Once the guest confirms that she believes she has been overcharged, the AI confirms the last 4 digits of the credit card and kicks the conversation to a human.

Automated Customer Service Can Decrease Agent Turnover

Customer service reps are leaving their jobs at one of the fastest rates of any industry, propelled by stressful, long days in which they often have to deal with less-than-pleasant, emotional customers. When AI is used to respond to the mundane, highly repetitive tickets, the job itself becomes more fulfilling: the focus shifts to high-impact, high-touch work. Furthermore, human agents are empowered with the right information to make more informed, faster decisions. The benefits are clear: Agent work is less tedious; they are more fulfilled and I would predict that this leads to less attrition (where businesses save on the cost savings for hiring and training new reps).

Looking Forward

The move to automate customer service does not mean that all support should be managed by AI. The main priority needs to be on providing high-quality resolutions to customer issues quickly and conveniently. Companies should not try to automate issues that AI is not equipped to handle – customers will become frustrated and increasingly annoyed as they try to reach a human on other channels. Automate repeatable customer queries, but also empower human agents with the information they need to more efficiently solve complex and unique issues.

The future is not 100% automation. The future is AI + Human collaboration.

Interested to learn more?  Let’s chat. 

For more information on customer service, visit:

New eBook: Transforming Customer Support with AI

Written by Can Ozdoruk  on   Jan 30, 2019

The promise of bots made many companies jump in early with lofty AI predictions. AI customer service solutions opened the door for a new type of connection with consumers:

  • 1-on-1 direct conversations
  • On-demand 24/7
  • At scale

This gold-rush led to a plethora of purposeless bots that held little value, could not help consumers accomplish a task or enable them to engage in conversations naturally, as would be expected on the messaging channels in which they were deployed. As a result, Forrester predicts that backlash will start to emerge against these purposeless bots.

Companies can’t afford, however, to not deploy AI within their customer service channels. Consumer expectations for immediate, personal support are increasing; it’s becoming a key differentiator, akin to cost and quality.  Without the help of AI, it’s difficult, and very expensive, to meet consumer expectations through an omnichannel experience.

How can companies protect themselves against negative consumer predisposition and effectively leverage AI to transform customer service?

  • AI as a workforce multiplier: Companies need to use AI in tandem with human agents. Delegate the issues that AI can handle with high accuracy while leaving human agents to focus on more sensitive, complex issues from the start.
  • Solve real business issues: Don’t deploy a bot for the sake of having a bot. Identify the specific support issues that can be automated by AI predictions, like repeatable, low business risk, minimal exception management. Then enable your AI to learn from the droves of historic data that exist.

In our most recent eBook, we explain how AI can be the catalyst to accelerate a digital support organization to a customer relationship powerhouse. You’ll learn:

  • How to scale customer and agent happiness with AI
  • The real benefits of adopting AI to transform digital customer support
  • How customers perceive the customer support they receive today
  • What to keep in mind when adopting AI to make a measurable impact on CSAT and ESAT
  • How to train an AI to ensure a business sees an immediate impact and increased ROI

To read our eBook on how companies can launch a bot that enhances the customer experience featuring Forrester research as well as a recipe for launching a successful customer service AI, visit here.

For more information on customer service, check out: