Should They Stay or Should They Go?

New Research from Aspect Software Reveals Half of U.S. Consumers Ready to Leave the Brands They Do Business With

Last year, just over 50 per cent of American consumers said they felt underappreciated by the companies they do business with. This year unfortunately, that number is nearly 60 per cent and that under appreciation is leading to lost business.

According to new research from the 2016 Aspect Consumer Experience Index, half of U.S. consumers moved from at least one company in the past year because of a poor service experience. While waiting a long time continues to top the list of things customers dislike about customer service, frustrations like the length of time it takes to get an issue resolved and having to repeat their issue to several people, increased noticeably from last year’s survey.

General retail, the industry still most susceptible to bad service turning into lost business, was the only tracked industry which saw a decrease in customer attrition from the 2015 survey. Travel, Telecom/Cable and Big Box Retail saw small to sizable increases in lost business while the Financial industry saw the number of customers who left banking institutions nearly double because of unacceptable service.

“The customer dissatisfaction revealed in our 2015 consumer survey should have been a wakeup call to any business-to-consumer company delivering a substandard customer experience. So the fact that consumers today say they are even more inclined to leave a brand because of bad service is very alarming,” said Joe Gagnon, Aspect’s Chief Customer Strategy Officer. “For some time we’ve been talking about the growing consumer desire for self-service and digital-first interaction with brands. Now 71 per cent of consumers want the ability to solve most customer service issues by themselves. What’s more, 65 per cent of respondents said that they feel good about both the brand and themselves when they can resolve issues on their own. This continues to be a huge opportunity for companies looking to quickly and easily improve the customer experience and keep the customers they work so hard to acquire.”

If a company could get it right, 49 per cent of consumers in the survey said that they would rather conduct all their customer service interactions via texting/messaging. And nearly 40 per cent of them said texting is a more effective communication option for them versus talking to a company that they are interacting with. However, while providing self-service options like interactive text or intelligent assistance on Facebook Messenger addresses these consumer demands, an overwhelming majority (86 per cent) said that any automated interaction should always have an option to talk to a live person.

This dramatically underscores the need for brands to deliver omni-channel customer service where connected, contextual experiences enable customers to pick up where they left off on any channel without having to repeat themselves. 73 per cent of consumers said it was very important, a 5-point increase from 2015.

To see the Aspect Consumer Experience Index infographic, click here.