6
But this doesn’t mean all companies serving customers directly are doing well. In fact, despite being home to a few shining examples that are top-of-mind for customers, most B2C companies are struggling. Being a company serving customers directly has a more profound negative effect on a customer support team’s metrics than almost anything else. Holding other factors constant, being a B2C company leads to a more than 5% dip in CSAT and a 2.6 hour increase in the average time it takes to reply to customers. Less satisfied, more demanding Customers aren’t just comparing everyone to leading companies. They are also broadly less satisfied and more demanding when it comes to customer support interactions. There’s been a global dip in customer satisfaction across the companies we measured. Over the past five years, CSAT is down 2.1%, from 94.6% in 2013 to 92.5% in 2018. It’s even decreased 0.9% in the past year.
This lines up with what we hear from customers. Half of customers say they’re more demanding than they were a year ago. Agents, who are on the front lines of interacting with customers, are noticing this, too. 59% of agents agree that customers have higher expectations.
Customers have higher expectations than last year
46% of customers said they have higher expectations
59% of agents said customers have higher expectations
Customers care about customer service when considering which companies to give their business. 84% of customers say customer service is important when considering whether or not to buy from a company—outranking both convenience and reputation. And companies are struggling to keep up with requests from customers. For those using Zendesk in the past five years, daily tickets have increased by 145%, outpacing growth in team size, which is up only 66%. Combine rising inquiries from customers with these higher expectations, and the decrease in customer satisfaction worldwide makes sense. So what should companies do? Our data shows a clear benefit from investing proactively in support and using customer service to differentiate against the competition. This report examines shifting attitudes toward customer service, identifying the top trends for 2019 and how support teams can best adapt to make the most of them.
100%
98%
96%
94.6%
94%
92.5%
92%
90%
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
When you’re consideringwhether or not to buy froma company, how important are the following attributes?
Unimportant
Important
Neither important nor unimportant
88%
9% 4% 3%
Price
87%
10%
Product/service oerings
84%
11%
4% 5% 5%
Customer service
81%
15%
Convenience
79%
17%
Reputation
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
% of surveyed customers
The Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report 2019
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