A report from Sugar CRM has found that 73% of customers fall in love with a brand because of friendly customer service reps and 80% of people will pay more for a better experience.
The whitepaper, called Customer Service Essentials for CX Success, also revealed seven in 10 customers will spend more money to do business with a company that delivers great service.
The report also revealed how customer service plays a central role in decisions to stay loyal to a brand for 96% of customers. It added that the segment of customers who report the highest levels of customer service satisfaction is willing to spend 140% more than those who report the lowest.
The report reads: “As organisations recover from this old way of thinking, a whole new approach is becoming not only necessary, but vital to survival. Customer experience (CX) is now the lifeblood of organizational success, and it’s bringing customer service to the frontlines of battle.
“More than 80% of companies say they will soon be competing mostly, or completely, on the basis of customer experience within two years.2 Companies that fail to follow suit by taking care of existing customers face significant risks and profit losses: research shows that investing in new customers is five to 25 times more expensive than improving customer service to retain existing ones.”
The whitepaper also gives top tips for ways technology can boost CX. Based on SugarCRM’s experience with more than 2 million frontline employees in 120 countries, there are several must-have essentials that every business needs to survive and thrive in today’s environment:
- An Intuitive Agent Console: To resolve issues quickly, agents must be equipped with an intuitive, easy-to-use console that guides them to the next best action. Another important feature is the ability to route cases to the right agent and automatically escalate inquiries based on service level agreements
- Robust Self-Service Tools: The easier it is for customers to find relevant answers quickly, the more likely they are to stick with a product or service. Being able to quickly and seamlessly add, remove and edit content to a knowledge base is vital to ensuring customers can find what they need fast. Likewise, self-service portals empower customers to find information quickly, without having to pick up the phone or wait for an email reply
- Customer Service Analytics: Easy access to real-time customer service data is another essential, as it allows organisations to identify problem areas before they have a chance to become full-blown issues. Use customer service analytics to let support centre managers see what’s going well and what needs to be addressed
The whitepaper can be accessed here.
