“The customer is always right” is a tried and true adage that exhorts customer service reps and businesses to hold customer satisfaction in the highest esteem. While we’ve known this for the better part of the last century, believing anything besides that comes at a hefty price.
A Genesys survey delved into the topic of just how much it can cost a company that has demonstrated poor customer service, and the results say that poor customer service cost upwards of $338.5 billion worldwide annually. In fact, globally, 7 out of 10 consumers ended at least one relationship annually because of poor customer service.
Close to 9,000 consumers were surveyed, with a minimum sampling of 500 per country, of which included the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, and Russia.
According to survey results, the average annual value of each customer relationship lost to a competitor or abandoned because of poor customer service is $243 (USD).
So what does this tell us? For one, the success of any company isn’t just measured in revenue dollars. The link between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty may be hard to quantify, but to ignore the contact center and the customer experience is not only foolish, it’s expensive.
Dissatisfaction amongst customers has a significant financial outcome for businesses, and by quantifying this particular impact, businesses can make the moves to correct and establish good customer service practices that will lead to increased revenue, customer retention and customer loyalty.
It behooves businesses to get behind their contact centers and the staff employed within to get on the customer-satisfaction train. Customers today are understandably more tech-savvy, and paired with higher expectations, contact centers are realizing that in an effort to be the all-out customer experience hub, their contact center technologies must evolve to meet the increasing demands of their educated customer base.
Many companies today are moving toward cloud environments to help them respond to the rapid advances in today’s market environment while simultaneously ditching many of the high costs and hassles of maintaining complex internal systems. After bringing their centers up to speed, technology-wise, make sure agents are prepared to serve the customer.
One of the first elements of avoiding contact center mistakes is training staff properly. Whether your center consists of three or 300 agents, training everyone in the art of customer service is essential to call center success. Customers do not tolerate rude or ineffective agents, and when a customer experiences one, rest assured, they will take their business elsewhere.
Technology offers software solutions that can help manage inbound, outbound and blended call centers, and properly trained agents help keep customers happy, the key to keeping your business afloat.
When your customers are happy, it’s reflected in your bottom line. By identifying any mistakes you might be making with your customers, you can take swift action to remedy them and ensure that customers keep returning to your business for their future needs.