Your customer service offering can often make or break a customer’s experience with your brand. Positive experiences encourage customer retention, while negative ones can result in a poor online reputation. The following statistics provide insight into the way in which your customer support offering can impact your business for better or for worse.

Covid-19 Has Changed The Industry

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, nearly every aspect of the world went digital. The customer support field was no exception. Many of the changes that were implemented during the height of the pandemic remain intact. The way people communicate with brands has changed drastically.

Customers expect quick responses now more than ever. Those reaching out to brands are hoping for more personalization than they have received in the past. Simply put, consumers expect more — these statistics prove that much.

• 93% of customer service teams say customers have higher expectations than ever before. (Hubspot)
• 75% of consumers say the pandemic will drive long-term changes in their behavior. (Forrester)
• 75% of consumers say customer service worsened during the pandemic. (NBC)
• 45% of customers are more likely to use self-service than before the pandemic. (Acumen)
• 50% of consumers report that Covid-19 has somewhat or greatly increased their prioritization of great customer service as a factor when deciding to do business with a brand. (Stella Connect)
• 52% of customers stopped buying from a company during the pandemic as a result of their response times and insensitive communications. (Freshworks)
• 41% of sales leaders say their customers now want to communicate digitally more often than prior to the pandemic. (Zendesk)

Related: 11 Social Media Trends to Look Out for in 2022

Customers Want to Stay Loyal

Customer experience and excellent customer service go hand-in-hand with one another. If your customer service representatives provide a poor experience during an interaction with a customer, that customer will be more inclined to turn to your competition for their products and services. But on the flip side, brands with a great customer support experience are more likely to achieve higher customer loyalty. These statistics show how important it truly is to make sure happy customers become loyal customers.

• 69% of customers have stopped doing business with a brand because of a bad experience with the customer service team. (ArenaCX)
• When customers experience long-winded issue resolutions, they are 96% more likely to be disloyal to brands and 81% more likely to share negative word-of-mouth. (Gartner)
• 56% of customers say that they would be willing to pay a premium price for a product to get outstanding customer support. (PR Newswire)
• If customers have high-quality customer service interactions, they are 94% more likely to repurchase the product or service and there’s an 88% probability of increase in spend. (Gartner)
• 95 percent of all consumers consider customer service to be important for brand loyalty. (Oberlo)
• 61 percent of consumers would switch to a competitor after just one poor customer service experience. (Oberlo)
• If provided with great service, 62% of customers will recommend a brand to a friend. (Gladly)
• 77% of consumers think good customer service is critical to earning brand loyalty and generating business. (Netomi)

Related: Why Your Business’s Customer Experience Matters

It’s Time to Get Social

Many elements of business begin on social media, meaning that your customer service offering should go social as well. If your team already has a presence across social networks, the odds are that customers are already engaging with your brand online. When your business drives the conversation and leverages social media to resolve inquiries, your brand trust will skyrocket. These statistics speak for themselves.

• It’s estimated that companies only acknowledge around 45% of customer service requests over social media. (Kolsky)
• 33% of customers have contacted a company using Facebook and similar social channels. (Forrester)
• Consumers will spend 20-40% more if you engage and respond to them through social media. (BigCommerce)
• 64% of customers want a reply within an hour of posting on Twitter, and 85% of customers said they expect a company to respond within six hours. (Social Stamina) 
• Nearly 70% of consumers have said that they have used social media for issues to do with customer service on at least one occasion (Social Media Today)
• When filing a complaint or asking a question on social media, 79% of consumers expect a response within a day. (Truelist)

Closely examining every aspect of your support offering and the way it impacts your customers will only benefit your brand in the long run. Better customer support means you’ll have happier customers, which will ensure you’ll have a more successful business for the foreseeable future.

Keep Reading: Four Customer Experience Trends to Look out for in 2022