Consider outsourcing your customer service for e-commerce

It is generally agreed that the last couple of years have seen the rise of an ever increasing number of e-commerce portals, like Amazon, Ebay, etc., all over the world.

It is worth noting that the new-age businesses founded by young technology entrepreneurs have expanded into almost every possible category of products and services, including travel booking, digital wallets, appointment scheduling, grocery shopping, electronics, and so on.

Many e-commerce companies are currently providing customers with almost every single need that they can possibly have at the moment.

However, despite the fact that there are a number of these new-age enterprises which have achieved “cult status” in their nations of origin with multiple billion dollar variations, there have also been a number of them which have flopped.

Figures showing the growth of the e-commerce industry

In this highly competitive industry, newspaper reports and studies confirm that failures are fairly higher than successes in regards to this industry.

It is true that virtually all e-commerce firms work in a similar way on a basic level. There are 2 ways in which they operate, either they operate on an open market model or they execute their own inventory-based model.

In spite of the fact that e-commerce businesses tend to follow a more or less similar business model, how do successful ventures differ from unsuccessful ones?

Although technology is a non-negotiable factor that determines business success, experts think that after-sales service and customer support are some of the most significant factors that determine the success of e-commerce businesses.

The success of any e-commerce business depends in no small part on getting prompt and effective support from its customer care team.

As a result of consumer activism's recent resurgence, individuals with dissatisfaction can greatly damage a company's reputation by updating the widely embraced social media platforms with just a single comment.

Businesses looking to achieve a competitive edge in this extremely competitive market should adopt the best practices of client relations management in order to aid them in achieving this objective.

Therefore, I would like to say the following:

How Should We Outsource Support for E-commerce? When Should We Outsource Support For E-commerce?

The e-commerce sales cycle

Outsourcing this service is a tactical decision that needs to be taken very carefully and should be done only after careful consideration. As we said in the previous section of this post, in this section we will be highlighting five actions where outsourcing of customer service makes sense, specifically when it comes to E-commerce.

1. If you are starting a new company.

Assume for a moment that you are running a startup business. In the current situation, you have a small team of employees and you wish to focus on the core functions of your business for the time being.

Depending on your client base, you may be able to handle all customer service inquiries coming to your company just fine if the number of clients is still somewhat small. It's likely that you will require more and more time to devote to your clients as the number of clients increases.

Research has found that 45% of Business to Consumer (B2C) clients are more likely to make a purchase after an impressive customer experience. There are 62% of businesses who are buying from other businesses, which is a stunning percentage rate.

Your startup venture's success in its early stages can be directly attributed to the quality of customer care service you offer. Besides the channel you use for your customer service service, and the language that your clients speak, how difficult it is for you to provide service to them.

You might want to think about outsourcing if you have clients based in different countries, or if you use several channels to communicate.

It is crucial for any new business to receive a good level of customer feedback so that they can continually improve their products and services. Therefore, once you outsource, make sure you pick a partner who passes this feedback on to you, so you remain informed at all times.

2. You might require customer service in several languages if you need it.

Clients from all over the world might be a part of your client base. You need customer service agents who are able to speak your customer's language if you want your client to have a great experience.

In the event that the queries will come in different languages and the volume of each language will be comparatively low, you should consider partnering with an outsourcing company that can provide you with a shared account representative.

This means that these agents can work on several projects at the same time, thereby reducing costs per project that are passed on to you, the customer.

Additionally, when you partner with a shared agency, you'll be able to cover a variety of languages within the same budget as hiring one agent in-house.

3. In case you need multi-channel customer service.

As far as customer care is concerned, every single channel that is utilized is treated as a separate discipline. A social media channel is a bit different from a phone call, and an email is very different from a chat.

Channels require their own set of skills, as well as their own infrastructure. You should consider working with an outsourcing company well versed in providing support on this new channel, if you have plans to integrate a new customer care channel into the existing offering of your business.

You will be able to save time and money when you avoid investing in new infrastructure, as well as training new representatives for that specific channel.

4. If you need flexibility.

You may want to think about partnering with an outsourcing company if you anticipate large fluctuations in customer service.

Coaching and assisting representatives for short periods of time makes little sense.

In the event that your projects incoming volume drops, some of these agents can be re-trained to work on other projects, as various outsourcing partners already employ shared agents.

It is easy to scale up the number of agents once the volume returns to normal so that no call goes unanswered.

5. Get skilled individuals fast if you need them.

To be a customer care service representative, one needs to have a certain set of skills. If you want to be relied upon to represent your firm, you need to make sure that the individuals directly involved with your clients are outstanding at their jobs.

If you work with an outsourcing partner with experience in hiring customer service agents, you can be sure that they know what to look for in a new hire.

E-commerce companies can build their own customer support functions, but most prefer to outsource these functions to experienced outsourcing partners. An e-commerce company benefits from this simple arrangement in several ways.

Here are a few benefits summarized.

1. They get to focus on what they do best.

Clearly, e-commerce companies benefit from engaging third-party customer support services by reserving their internal resources for core functions such as analytics, data mining, marketing and sales, accounting, engineering, and more.

2. They are able to obtain industry-specific services.

In order to provide customer support to businesses engaged in e-commerce, it is necessary to adopt modern technology equipment and acquire a specialized skill set.

More than that, e-commerce marketplaces need a multi-channel customer care support contact center that includes SMS, e-mail support, live chat, and voice calls so as to provide a seamless experience to their clients.

A company that focuses on providing call center services, for example, will possess the necessary tools and resources to provide such services flawlessly to its customers, improving customer satisfaction scores overall.

3. They get to access specialized talents.

It is a dedicated function that requires experienced professionals to ensure that it is well managed.

E-commerce firms can benefit from outsourcing this function since they can gain access to well-experienced customer service agents without having to hire and train individuals internally.

4. The customers will be provided with round the clock customer service.

The 24*7 customer support helps to take care of the customer's questions and complaints in a prompt manner, which improves the brand's perception and results in an increase in business.

In addition to these services, a number of the customer care service providers also ensure that they manage feedbacks and customer reviews across all social media platforms and client networks.

Across all social networking platforms, these service providers train their employees how to track client feedback, respond to their questions, and make clients feel valued.

In this new era of social networking, where if one tweet or status update goes wrong, it may have a detrimental impact on the ability of e-commerce firms to generate revenue from their businesses, it is vital that e-commerce firms maintain their reputations.

They are well trained to provide the best experience to their clients by combining empathy with knowledge in order to understand the issues that a client might be dealing with after purchasing a particular product or availing certain services.

A customer support service provider's employees are thoroughly and regularly trained on all the products and services they will be providing their clients with in order to serve their needs.

The customer support service providers have, in addition, enacted formal recognition policies for their employees with regard to order processing, registering requests, handling complaints and/or troubleshooting.

E-commerce businesses that use these services from certified and trained specialists enable them to deliver an incomparable level of service experience in a timely and professional manner.

Final Thoughts

Most of the established e-commerce companies and organizations are achieving their business objectives through outsourcing customer support functions to outsourcing partners. In light of this, startups and new e-commerce firms have been following the footprints of established markets.

by Costi

Why Outsourcing Customer Support To E-Commerce Brands Makes Sense

It is no secret that retail can be a challenging industry, with low margins and brands vying for market share even at the best of times. Companies have been scrambling to find a way to stay competitive and to carve out more profit from the current crisis, while simultaneously delivering their products and services to customers with a best-in-class experience. Taking advantage of e-commerce has provided brands with wonderful opportunities to grow market share and customer acquisition through amazing customer service that they will be able to offer to their clients.

The adoption of digital technologies by retail brands has also been equally challenging; those that are 'native e-commerce' companies, however, have certainly been riding this post-pandemic wave with ease, whereas others late to adopt digital transformation have faced some serious challenges. There hasn't been much of a change in game fundamentals since brands are still selling products and selling services to their customers. In the case of delivering those items, and the experience presented to the end users, irrevocably changed, is the medium in which those items are delivered. Is it possible to purchase items in an online environment while staying connected with customers?

Customer experience starts with understanding the customer and what they want, wrapped up in CX. In a recent report, COVID has revealed some interesting facts about how we make purchasing decisions as consumers. It is understandable that during these times, customers may still feel a sense of loneliness and isolation; therefore, they require more trust from our brands and long for a feeling of relationship, assurance, and deeper personalization.

Based on a survey done by the Capgemini Research Institute, they found that the three primary reasons consumers now choose brands are convenience, health and safety, and purpose. It is without a doubt that companies with contact centers that utilize live agents, supported by technology and automation, have an undeniably competitive edge in regard to increasing customer acquisition as well as retention of customers.

Listed below are five benefits of outsourcing customer service operations to call centers for e-commerce brands.

Brand Loyalty & Customer Loyalty

Building and maintaining trust with customers is the most important thing for a brand. There is a lot on the plate of e-commerce companies, especially startups, in terms of managing a business, keeping in touch with suppliers, and dealing with administration. As a result, the customer is often neglected in all the commotion and may get overlooked a bit. When a company outsources customer support, it puts the focus back on the customer and helps them start building that intrinsic trust necessary to form long-lasting relationships.

With the changing needs of online customers, e-commerce brands are being forced to customize their communications, both through live, experienced agents and technology, in order to remain competitive. In order to deliver a seamless customer experience across all channels, the contact center agents become the face of the company. By leveraging the ability of contact center agents to be empathetic, brands can make absolutely certain that customers receive the best possible service, while solidifying both their trust and their loyalty to the brand.

Globalize your business model

There will often be a lack of cultural and linguistic abilities on the part of companies that want to service customers in different countries. Furthermore, it may be that such firms do not possess the personnel and technologies needed to deliver omnichannel services to their customers. There is no doubt that global contact centers, especially those that are native cloud providers like TalentWorldGroup, have scaling down to a science, and are prepared and in the position to address customer needs in any language, dialect, or culture.

Effective in terms of cost

It is both a logistical challenge as well as a costly undertaking for any company to build out an entire department as quickly as possible. There are so many things to take into consideration; hiring, training, equipment, work-spaces... the list is endless. It makes sense to hire one provider to handle all of this for a fraction of the price. There is an opportunity for brands to develop their business strategy so they can invest capital in services and results, rather than bodies and overhead.

Analysis of customers

A contact center, if data is the new oil, can provide the refinery process by providing support. When a brand gathers customer information about its customers, it can transform this data into actionable insights. There is no doubt that having the right service support allows companies to offer a better informed approach to their client's needs, whether it is data on customer journeys or data on the client themselves.

Result-oriented Workbooks

The more brands experience this, the more likely it may be that their management will discover after the fact that a particular area of business was not maximized, not because there was a lack of incentive, but rather because of other constraints. In order to ensure that results are delivered, and that money isn't left on the table, an outsourced customer team is dedicated to driving sales, conversions, or any other metric that drives sales. 

Final Thoughts

According to an article by McKinsey & Company, Customer Service and Care are expected to continue to evolve over the next decade. The need for personalization --and the empathy and connection that come with it --are more important than ever... Human agents won't disappear for quite some time, but technology will enable companies to be better targeted and more efficient in how they deploy their agents in pursuit of personalization."

Customers care can no longer be a reactionary activity. Instead, e-commerce brands must understand their customers better and develop a customer journey that is unified, cohesive and enriching at every touchpoint. Outsourcing contact center agents to manage this ultimate standard of service delivery plays a far more pivotal role in addressing and managing customer expectations for e-commerce brands when it comes to addressing and managing customer requests.

As the world is beginning to slip into a second pandemic wave, outsourcing customer service to contact centers that are able to provide their services in an omni-channel manner, particularly with live experienced agents working for them, assures that brands continue to stay close to their customers throughout all seasons.

by Costi

Statistics on Live Chat

As a consequence of the advancement of technology, there has been a massive change in customer behavior in recent years. There has been a time when it was enough to have your call center number and social media icons on your website, but that is no longer enough today -customers expect real-time communication via email or chat, and they are more likely to choose that method than the old-fashioned way. The last thing you want is for them to leave you if you cannot satisfy their needs. A recent study reveals that live chat has become the number one choice for customer communication in the past few years. You need to find the perfect balance between technological advances and the presentation of your message, in order to provide your audience with a high-quality experience. It's important to understand what you need to do to figure out how to do it.

The top live chat statistics are as follows: 

• The number of shoppers in the US who demand live chat features is approximately 69%.
• Customers between the ages of 18 to 49 are among the most likely to opt for live chat as a service option.
• Approximately 73% of customers consider live chat to be the most satisfying means of communicating with a company.
• There is a 20% greater likelihood that millennials will use live chat over any other demographic.
• By 2023, the market for live chat will be worth $987.3 million around the world.
• When a customer uses live chat to conduct a purchase, they are likely to spend 60% more than a customer who does not.
• When live chat is used, conversion rates increase by 3.84%.
• In comparison with telephone support, companies are able to save between 15-33% with live chat.
• Amongst brands that believe customers prefer using chatbots to resolve problems, only 29.3% use them (CCW).
• In a survey conducted by Vivocha, 44% of consumers said that the ability to speak to a live person during the purchase process was the most important feature of an online site (Vivocha).
• Among the brands that offer customer service, live chat, chatbots, in-app messaging, peer-to-peer communities, or social messaging, less than 13% actually do so (Zendesk).
• On average, in 2019, mobile devices (Comm100) accounted for 74.5% of the time spent on live chats.
• In a survey conducted by Gladly, 86% of consumers expected their conversations with support agents to transition smoothly between channels.
• The majority of consumers choose their support communication channel based on how quickly they want to get a response (Zendesk).
• By the year 2025, 53% of brands expect to debunk the notion their customers don't matter to them (CCW).
• The average consumer (68%) is irritated when he or she is transferred between departments, and the majority of consumers (70%) expect their agents to communicate and collaborate with others on their behalf (Zendesk).
• It is expected that live chat will have a greater impact on brands by the year 2025, with 76% of brands saying so (CCW).

How should live chat be benchmarked in terms of standard?

The current technology allows chatbots to answer up to 90% of queries (Deloitte) with a high degree of accuracy.

An AI-powered chatbot with modern capabilities for natural language processing can handle at least 68.9% of the communications from start to finish without a human agent, as opposed to an AI-driven chatbot with basic capabilities for basic conversational processing.

In the CCW (live chat) industry, 81% of brands make use of automation.

The number of brands that use messaging automation to facilitate live chats has increased to 59.56% (Comm100).

There is a 99.45% chance that a brand that communicates via live chat (Comm100) offers a mobile option for live chat communication as well.

Consumers expect the live chat agents they use to interact with them to be familiar with their identification information (66%), previous conversations (56%), and purchase history (55%) (Gladly).

The utilization of chatbots can result in a reduction in communication abandonment of ~5% (Deloitte).

Among managers who are using bots, 84% plan to improve self-service support including live chat (Zendesk) continuously in the future.

Using chatbots can drastically reduce the time it takes to handle customer questions by 77% (Deloitte).

According to Zendesk, 22% of sales teams use live chat for their customer communication.

Generally speaking, when a brand initiates a live chat with a customer, there is a high acceptance rate of 9% for the consumer service sector, and a low acceptance rate of 2.18% for the travel sector (Comm100).

On average, one out of every six website visitors who are proactively greeted by a live chat agent responds to the chat (Vivocha).

A customer can increase satisfaction by 7% within four minutes of accessing their screen or browser via a support tool like Comm100 (in relevant industries like IT).

Vivocha's research shows that 60% of website visitors who engage in live chat with a representative are receptive.

Approximately 29% of brands benchmark their customer communication metrics against those of their competitors (CCW).

(Deloitte) claims that conversational artificial intelligence can reduce the costs of contact centers by 15 - 70%.

 It has been estimated that 97% of global consumers place importance on customer service when choosing a brand.

This information can be found on the Customer Think website (source)

Around the world, customers are demanding higher standards of service from their service providers. It's not just about getting the right price and quality of the product and attracting them, with the wide variety of choices available to them in most sectors. As brands work conscious towards providing consistently flawless service by 2021, they will be better able to compete and win customers. Further, a recent study on branding revealed that 89% of marketers stated that their top goal is to increase brand awareness. The fact remains that customer support is regarded as one of the most important pillars of successful branding.

Among 73% of consumers, the most important thing a company can do to provide good customer service is to value the time of the customer.

According to Forrester, (Source: )

There is a cliche that says, "time is money". In the year 2021, this statement is as relevant as it has ever been. A majority of customers believe that good service is equated with businesses responding to them as soon as possible. So, if you think about it from a customer service point of view, using an online live chat can be incredibly useful.

In fact, 95% of customers rate high-quality support higher than speed.

(Source: Kayako)

Despite this, even more customers place a higher value on effective customer support than on time saved. If they get a good response in a short amount of time, they don't mind a small delay. In the end, getting a satisfactory response to a customer in one go can save the customer the time that they would lose if they had to ask more questions or find a solution on their own.

One of the most important features that a website can offer is the ability to talk to a live person in order to answer questions during an online purchase. About 44% of online consumers agree.

(Source: Inc.)

Live chat statistics show that many businesses don't opt for this feature mainly due to fears that it will interrupt the online experience or a lack of knowledge on how to use it effectively. The fact remains, however, that customers often require assistance when they are shopping online, and it is important to them that this assistance is provided by someone who will not offer them stock answers.

It is recommended that you use Facebook chatbots as a first point of contact for the remaining 56%.

Furthermore, I would like to point out that:

According to 47.5% of US internet users, the biggest issue with chatbots is that they provide too many unhelpful responses.

(Source: Statista)

Live chat studies show that a lack of a live person is one of the biggest threats to businesses, as it wastes valuable customer time with scripted responses that do not apply to the specific situation and end up wasting the customer's time.

More than half of consumers report that they view a company more favorably if the company offers more personalized customer service to meet their individual needs and interests.

(Source: Emarketer)

Also, a real person is more likely to be able to customize the response to fit the customer's specific needs. Nowadays, personalization of services and even products has become a huge feature of today's economy, and unless you achieve this, you will not be able to impress your customers.mpress your customers.

Approximately 51% of customers desire that businesses are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

(Source: Inc.)

Live customer chats are another major benefit of having access to one. In view of the fact that numerous companies have geographic spreads, it is only expected that many companies will be contacted at odd hours of the night. It is clearly not the customer's desire to wait for the store to open its doors at 9:00 in the morning in order to get an answer to their question.

The research shows that 53% of consumers are likely to abandon their online purchases if they are unable to find answers to their questions.

(Source: Forrester)

In order for you to retain your customers, it is very important to respond immediately to them. If you do not satisfy them in the short period of time you have with them, you may lose half of them. If you do not provide quick answers to your customer's queries, they will perceive that you do not value their patronage. It is important to keep in mind, however, that the global cart abandonment rate is 75.52%, so you must make sure that your customers can find their answers easily.

The number of companies using a live chat on their website is only 9%.

(Source: Super Office)

With so many customers requesting a live chat, it's shocking to see that so many companies are still unable to provide this service to their customers! You have an advantage over your competitors who do not have a live chat option on their site if you have one on your site.

Statistics on live chat adoption

By the year 2022, it is expected that 85% of businesses will opt for live chat support.

Despite the fact that web chat customer service has been around for a while now, it has only gained traction in the last decade. There are numerous reasons for this growth, with one of the most common being digitalization, which has allowed many companies to automate their operations and improve efficiency. Similarly, customer demands are on the rise, and businesses need to be able to meet them as well. In today's world, tech-savvy customers are more familiar with the messaging platforms, and according to a study, 79% of them prefer live chat over other methods since they have access to support instantly.

(Software Advice)

According to the company, about 60% of customers want a quick response from support when they contact them.

According to live chat statistics, the majority of customers prefer a response or support that is provided within 10 minutes after contacting the customer support team. In accordance with the answers from the study respondents, 46% of customers think that any contact with the marketing team is of the same importance. The number of customers who are the most 'impatient' when they make a request to the sales department is the highest - 62 percent.

(Hubspot)

35% of businesses believe that live chat is the preferred method of communication.

What is strange is that there is a disconnect between what companies think their customers want, and what they actually want. The number of business owners thinking about using online chat customer service is only 35%. In contrast, they are overstaffing their contact centers with operators, since it seems that 42% of firms consider this to be what customers prefer when it comes to customer service. Additionally, 14% of respondents think that their customers prefer to communicate via email, while 9% say the same about social media.

(Kayakoo)

It has been found that 63% of consumers who spend $250-500 each month on the Internet make their purchases from businesses that offer live chat service.

Additionally, they are also more likely to remain loyal to this company as well. On top of that, based on the live chat sales statistics, it is expected that 51% of customers will buy again from a company that offers live chat. By comparison, it has been found that 38% of people are more likely to make their first purchase on a website with a live chat widget. Therefore, 79% of companies report that the presence of this feature has positively impacted their revenue, sales, and customer relationships over the last two years.

(Kayakoo)

Customers between the ages of 18 and 49 are most likely to prefer live chat over other options.

According to the National Institute of Health, 36.5% of women aged 18-29 in the United States have used it at least once. Furthermore, in the group between 30 and 39 years of age, there are 37.5% of people who have used it at least once. In spite of this, only 62% of retail owners have put it into practice on desktop and 55% have put it into practice on mobile. According to Gartner, there are some examples of excellent online chat customer service that stand out from the crowd. It is one of these companies that used Apple Business Chat to enable its SMS service.

(Gartner, eMarketer)

Live chat customer satisfaction in Mexico is the highest, with 94.11 %.

Moreover, the average chat duration of this chatroom is one of the longest (21 minutes and 12 seconds) out of all chatrooms. According to the live chat customer satisfaction statistics, Canada and Australia do not seem to be that far behind. The former has a customer satisfaction rate of around 88.36%, while customers of Down Under are more satisfied with 93.59 %. As a result of this, most of the live chat transactions occur between the hours of 10 A.M. as well as 3 P.M. On average, 50% of all live chat transactions occur between these hours.

(Performance Magazine)

The desktop chat engagement rate is 1.7% while the mobile chat engagement rate is 1.4%.

A desktop user is likely to make a purchase 14% of the time on average, but mobile users will make a purchase 7% of the time on average. In addition to that, they are incredibly engaged when it comes to web chat customer service on desktop, which is considerably higher. It is estimated that mobile chatters convert 6.1 times higher than non-chatters on mobile devices.

(Upscope)

8. It was estimated that 51.68% of chat queries originated from mobile devices in 2018, on average.

The live chat support statistics show a strong growth of 7.9% comparing the previous year to last year. In order to put this into a more elucidatory perspective, let us say that there were 23 million chats in total. According to the chart above, we can clearly see that live chat usage for primary purposes is shifting from desktop to mobile in a general sense (or basically everywhere). Live chat was the most popular form of communication for mobile users when they were shopping, taking part in leisure activities, as well as when they needed consumer service. On the one hand, the first group of users had a mobile usage of 72% while the second had a mobile usage of 70%. The transportation industry, on the other hand, had the lowest percentage at 19%.

(Comm100)

There are around 2% of customers who engage in proactive live chats.

The difference is not that significant when compared with the higher reactive chat engagement rates (up to 7.8%). Although proactive chat provides customers with great opportunities for recommendations, they do not seem very willing to engage in proactive chat. It has been found that on average there are 23 seconds between the time that livechat responds to a customer's inquiry in a reactive chat. For proactive chat, however, the amount of time is harder to determine.

(Fair Trade Outsourcing)

According to research, around 73% of customers find live chat to be the most effective way of communicating with a company.

On the other hand, live chat has been deemed more satisfactory by 73% of customers compared to email and phone. In contrast, 51% of customers expressed pleasure while communicating via email with the company. Last but not least, 44% of respondents felt the same way with regard to the business' phone engagement.

At the same time, live chat engagement statistics meanwhile confirm that 42% of customers indicated that live chat was the preferred way for them to leave their contact information. This makes live chat the most effective lead-generation method in this regard.

(Invesp)

According to 79% of customers, the main reason they use live chat is for the immediate answer to their questions.

As we can see from the live chat performance benchmarks, this is indeed true. The reason for this, however, is not the only one. More than half of all customers find multitasking important. Furthermore, 46% think it is the most efficient means of communication for them. Also, 29% believe it is the most accurate way of receiving information. There are 22% of people who do not enjoy talking on the phone, however there are 21% who can chat while at work. In addition, 15% of those surveyed said that they thought the information that they received was better than if they had called, according to live chat statistics.

(Invesp)

Besides promoting sales, live chat is used 29% in marketing to raise awareness of the products and services of the company.

The entire customer journey is encompassed in our live chat customer support. According to a study, the use of social media for marketing awareness is reported in 29% of cases. Afterwards, 39% of cases report the conversion of leads from social media. 32% of this amount goes to early engagement, and 24% to mid-stage engagement. As a final note, 18% of respondents cited it as a tool for closing the sale, and 39% cited it as a means of post-sale support.

(AMA)

Millennials are 20% more likely than baby boomers to use live chat than they were ten years ago.

In fact, this age group, along with millennials, is one of the fastest-growing segments of the market. Due to this fact, they tend to be the ones who use it the most, citing convenience as their number one reason for doing so. The latest live chat statistics show that 63% of millennials prefer their questions answered by live chat, rather than traditional forms of customer support.

(ICMI)

In a recent survey, 36% of Gen Z customers feel that they would prefer to contact customer service using live chat.

It is also likely that they will prefer channels such as WhatsApp or live chat customer support via video instead. Apparently 61% of customers under the age of 24 do not intend on calling companies for help on purpose when they need it.

(Live Agent)

In the B2B space, live chat is used by 61% of users.

As you might have guessed, this is rather surprising, considering that B2C is a larger customer segment. Despite this, adoption statistics for live chat show that B2B has almost twice as many users as B2C. For reference, B2C has a 33% rate of adoption from customers. Further, we have B2G and non-profit sectors, each with 2% and 5% live chat users, respectively.

(Zoho)

By 2023, it is projected that the global market for live chat will reach $987,3 million.

During the forecast period, the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.3%. As the customer-centric approach gain more and more traction, online chat customer service is gaining more and more prominence. With this approach, companies are able to gather valuable insights about user preferences, which allows them to increase sales and conversion levels.o increase sales and conversion levels. Consequently, live chat will continue to become an increasingly popular solution for companies. There will continue to be a need for customers to have access to real-time communication, and this will continue to drive the growth of the live chat market.

(Knowledge-Based Value Research)

The global live chat software market is expected to reach $997 million by the year 2023. (Allied Market Research, 2020)

The percentage of organizations that use live chat when they have less than 100 customers is staggering at 56%. 

Furthermore, 74% of organizations implemented live chat when they had fewer than ten employees on board with them. (Zoho, 2018)

Additionally, 25 percent of businesses adopted live chat in their first year, while the other 25 percent did so in their second year or after 

A third of organizations implemented live chat ten years or more after they were founded. (Zoho, 2018)

85% of businesses in the B2B sector and 74% of businesses in the B2C sector use live chat to help close sales. (Zoho, 2018)

In the B2C sector 67% of companies use live chat for customer service, while 66% of companies in the B2B sector use it. (Zoho, 2018)

54% of businesses in the B2B sector use live chat as a marketing tool, compared to 31% of businesses in the B2C sector. (Zoho, 2018)

Moreover, there is new data showing that live chat has been able to boost revenue of travel and hospitality companies by $16 million in the last year. (Nuance Communications, 2019)

Insurance companies have also benefited from live chat by saving $1 million in call deflection costs in the last 90 days. (Nuance Communications, 2019)

The lack of cross-departmental collaboration is one of the main reasons why 38% of companies fail to provide excellent customer service. (Conversocial, 2019)

The shocking truth is that 26% of businesses believe they are not prepared to offer live chat support via public social media apps. (Conversocial, 2019)

Statistic on Live Chat Conversions

It has been reported that a customer who uses live chat spends as much as 60% more than one who does not use live chat.

This is because live chat support can deal with customer concerns and questions quickly and efficiently. Additionally, 38% of customers are likely to purchase a product after a positive real-time chat with the customer service representative. (Software Advice)

A recent survey found that 57% of consumers would abandon a purchase online if they didn't receive a response to their question.

In order to retain your customers and have them complete an order, Webchat customer service plays a vital role. When customers do not receive prompt responses to their questions, more than half of them abandon their shopping cart. Additionally, 63% of consumers also said they'd be happy to return to a shopping site that has a live chat feature integrated into it in the future. (Acquire)

The conversion rate for live chat has increased by 3.84 percent.

Statistics indicate that the main reason for the rise of live chat marketing is the possibility of including some strategies for this. A company can get leads at a fraction of the cost of what it would have to invest in a regular method of getting leads. In the event that the chat agent makes an initial contact with the visitor, the sales department will be able to swoop in and convert those leads into paying customers. In addition to this, some businesses have implemented integrated customer relationship management solutions in order to better interact with their agents. (Software Advice)

 For example, Virgin Airlines increased conversion rates by 23 percent after the implementation of live chat.

According to the company, based on its benchmarks for live chat performance, they claim that live chat converts customers at 3.5 times more than those who don't use it. Nevertheless, the following are a couple of facts worth mentioning. Virgil doesn't use this chat as a means of closing sales, rather it uses it in order to solidify additional revenue and achieve an increase in average order value. For reference, the company's average order value (AOV) has increased by 15% in the last year among its customers who use the live chat service, compared with the rest of the customers. (Digital Commerce 360)

Following the implementation of live chat, Intuit's conversions rose to an astonishing 190%.

This figure decreased to about 170% for the Mint and QuickBooks seller. In a matter of just a few months after the chat widget was added to the product comparison page, the sales levels of the company increased by an impressive 211%. There is no doubt that the presence of a live chat widget brought a 43% increase in the average order value at the checkout process when compared with the presence of no chat widget at all. (Template Monster)

Rescue Spa increased its revenue by 286% as a result of introducing live chat.

At Rescue Spa, we offer upscale beauty services and products and sell a variety of upscale beauty products. A few years ago, the company decided to become involved in the online space by launching an e-commerce platform. The company brought in a new site vendor, enhanced the checkout process, and enabled the live chat feature to use. There was an average growth of 175% in revenue per year after that. The fact that companies that offer live chat support enjoy higher conversion rates and sales is just another proof that they benefit from this service. (Marketing Sherpa)

Customer Satisfaction Statistics for Live Chat

38% of customers are frustrated by the poor customer service they receive when using the live chat service.

In most cases, these frustrations are caused by the fact that live chat support is unavailable, or how they are disconnected from the chat, or having to fill out a form in order to initiate a chat. Approximately 28 percent of customers find that scripted responses are the most frustrating, while 24 percent of customers are frustrated by long wait times. Another nine percent of customers find it frustrating if they have to repeat themselves. (Kayakoo)

Live chat stats show that the longest waiting time for a response to a live chat query is nine minutes.

You can imagine the frustration of the customer in this situation. In other words, long waiting times are one of the reasons a customer may decide to stop being a customer of a given company. During our customer journey, response times in live chat play a vital role. In our experience, the customer waits a total of two minutes and forty seconds from the moment that they initiate the chat to the moment they receive an answer. It is not uncommon for agents to be able to reply within the first 30 seconds, but not all are as quick. A response that was returned in seven seconds was the fastest response we have ever recorded. (Super Office)

In 21% of all companies, live chat requests do not get answered.

The percentage of customers that are not satisfied with the product justifies their doubts. On the other hand, for those who receive a reply, according to live chat statistics, the wait time is two minutes and 40 seconds on average. 45% of companies don't ask for user feedback after the chat is completed (55%), and 55% don't offer transcripts after the chat is completed. In addition, 23% of all chatbots never ask for contact data prior to starting a conversation. (Super Office)

Around 69% of organizations use canned messages in live chat to communicate with their customers.

The fact remains, no matter how crucial it is for customers to have real-time communication with their providers and to have their questions answered, not all of them receive a personal touch. According to Jeff Epstein, the VP of Product Marketing and Communication at Comm100, agents know that no matter how unique they are, they don't come up with responses from scratch every time. As time passes, all their responses become more automated and they sound like they are pre-recorded. (Forbes)

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Support Statistics for Live Chat vs Phone Support

The cost of handling live chats is more than 50% less than handling phone calls.

As an example, companies with live chat support that have traditionally used phone models when providing support would find this form to be significantly cheaper than using phone models. In addition, live chat has the added benefit of being more efficient than phone models. For instance, in traditional call centers, agents can respond to one call at a time or answer one email at a time. However, in customer service with live chat, an agent can engage in up to six different chats at once, in contrast to that in phone support. In some estimates, on the other hand, the cost of call center support on the phone can be as much as $12 per call, compared to $5 for a web chat. (Super Office)

Since introducing live chat, Magellan GPS was able to decrease phone call costs by 55.8% between 2013 and 2015.

The company's spending on contact centers decreased from $1.5 million approximately to $840,000 approximately between 2013 and 2014, based on data from live chat chats. After deploying Velaro's live chat solution for a year, this has amounted to a 43% reduction in costs. The number of direct costs decreased by 22% between 2014 and 2015. The majority of support queries that Magellan receives are rerouted to live chat, reducing the need for telephone support. Thus, the number of people using the phone declined from 66.9% to 33.1% (Velaro)

By the end of 2021, 71% of people believe that the popularity of live online chats will surpass that of traditional support channels. (Source: bold360)

In most cases, the reason for this is because people increasingly prefer to communicate through chatting rather than making phone calls.

The fact is more than half of all customers prefer to use real-time online chat rather than telephone support. (Source: Super Office)

Shortly put, live chat has overtaken phone support in terms of popularity, while only 23% of customers prefer email. It drops even lower for social media and forums, with the number falling to just 16%. 

The main reasons why more customers prefer live chats are that they are more convenient (26.9%) and that there are no waiting times (34%) involved. (Source: ProProfs)

Statistics from live chat tell us that the main reason why customers prefer this method is because it is so convenient and they do not have to wait, contrary to phone calls. Also, customers say that the brand allows them to engage with them better, outline concerns, and receive immediate results.

There is a strong correlation between customer satisfaction and the quality of the live chat experience. (Source: Help Scout)

Statistics from Comm100 indicate that the majority of customers are happy with the help they receive over live chat, and this is being revealed in the live chat customer service statistics released by Comm100. With the percentage falling to 61% for email support, the figure dropped to only 44% for phone support. Thus, if businesses want to improve their phone support, then they can either work on improving their live chat support or focusing on phone support.

There is an average 60 % increase in spending per transaction among 'chatterers' compared with non-chatterers. (Source: invesp)

It is therefore unclear why this was brought up in the discussion of live chat vs. phone support statistics? It's worth noting that if you only have telephone support, you could be losing out on a lot of money to your competitors.

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Implementation of ChatBots

An average of $300,000 was saved by organizations by using chatbots in 2019. (Intercom, 2019)

Further, it is predicted that by 2023, retail sales generated by chatbots will amount to $112 billion. (Retail Dive, 2019)

In the United States, Europe, and China, 40 percent of businesses are already using chatbots and virtual agents by the year 2020. (Forbes, 2020)

There is a 73% chance that bots and automation are going to play a significant role in the near future for businesses in North America. 74% of companies in Europe agree with this statement as well. (Conversocial, 2019)

Human-intermediated chatbots have been found to be successful in certain cases, the Dutch airline KLM, has seen a 50% reduction in handling times because agents no longer have to type everything. (Forrester, 2019)

Even so, only 14% of US online consumers believe that interacting with chatbots will have a positive effect on their experience, while 8% think that they will have an extremely positive interaction with them. (Nuance Communications, 2019)

According to a more recent report, 41% of consumers believe the use of chatbots and Artificial Intelligence could benefit their customer experience. But 59% believe otherwise. (Conversocial, 2020)

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Statistics on Customer Preferences

It's true that 41% of customers prefer live chat over phone interactions, but 42% of businesses believe that their customers prefer live chat. (Kayako, 2021)

The highest global customer satisfaction rate for live chat usage was recorded in the real estate industry (98.56%), followed by the transportation industry (90.86%), technology sector (90.13%), business services sector (89.47%), and education sector (88.69%). (Comm100, 2020)

More than 79% of companies say that live chat has improved their customer loyalty, sales, and revenue as a result of live chat. (Kayako, 2021)

The number of consumers who are likely to buy from a business that provides live chat support has increased to 38%. (Kayako, 2021)

51% of customers say they are more likely to return to a business that provides live chat support or make another purchase from them. (Kayako, 2021)

As well as this, 94% of customers also say that brands that provide customers with a satisfying experience through messaging platforms are more likely to have repeat customers. (Conversocial, 2020)

There is an 85% chance that customers who use the live chat feature on a website will become customers if they use the feature. As well as being bigger chatterers, they would also spend 13% more than non-chatterers. (Intercom, 2019)

63% of consumers who spend $250 to $500 per month online are more likely to become loyal to and buy from a business that offers live chat support than one that doesn't. (Kayako, 2021)

A recent survey revealed that 71% of customers expect brands to offer customer support via messaging platforms in the future. (Conversocial, 2020)

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Response Time Statistics for Live Chat

There is no doubt that long waiting times are one of the major sources of consumer frustration, as reported by 24 percent of consumers. (Kayako, 2021)

There are 19% of businesses who report that their customers are frustrated with long waiting times. (Kayako, 2021)

There was an average wait time for a consumer with a team of 26 to 50 agents which averaged over 80 seconds. Teams with a range of 26 to 50 agents had the longest wait times. (Comm100, 2019)

It has also been found that teams composed of 26 to 50 agents have the longest chat duration at an average of 13:41 minutes per chat session. (Comm100, 2019)

The average wait time for live chat for the recreation industry is only 0:15 seconds, which is the best among other industries. (Comm100, 2019)

In an updated report, it was found that agents on average take more than 52 seconds to respond to a customer question on live chat. (LiveChat, 2020)

A live chat session will typically take an average of two minutes and forty seconds to complete once it has been initiated. (SuperOffice, 2021)

Usually, a live chat agent needs to spend an average of 11 minutes and 34 seconds to comprehensively resolve a customer case. (99Firms, 2020)

The majority of consumers, 95% in fact, prefer slow, personalized live chat support if it ensures a higher level of service. (Kayako, 2021)

According to a study by ZDNet, organizations that reported live chat customer satisfaction scores of 90% or higher had an average chat duration of 12 minutes and 26 seconds, which was 13% longer than organizations that reported lower scores on customer satisfaction. (Forbes, 2019)

A team with more than 50 live chat agents has the highest rate of customer satisfaction (88%). A team with more than 50 live chat agents also has the smallest number of chat sessions per agent. (Comm100, 2020)

There are 21% of companies that do not respond to live chat requests, which is unfortunate for them. (SuperOffice, 2021)

In comparison, only 43% of businesses know that they don't offer their customers a good enough user experience. (Kayako, 2021)

There is a consensus among 87% of consumers that brands need to make more effort to provide consistently good customer experiences, especially since 54% of them base their purchasing decisions on their overall experience. (Nuance Communications, 2020)

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Statistics on live chat mobility

According to the World Bank, by 2020 there will be more than 5.19 billion mobile phone owners, which represents a 2.4% increase over the previous year. Moreover, the percentage of people who spend time online using their mobile phones has increased to 50.1%. (We Are Social, 2020)

As of 2019, mobile devices accounted for 74.5 percent of all live chats, an increase of 82% from last year. (Comm100, 2020)

It is estimated that 89% of all mobile apps are chat apps. (We Are Social, 2020)

The percentage of companies that did not provide mobile chat in 2019 was only 0.54%. (Comm100, 2020)

By 2020, there will be 167.77 million mobile phone owners in the United States. It is projected that the number will reach 187.5 million by 2024. (eMarketer, 2020)

76.5% of chats in the recreation industry were conducted on mobile devices. (Comm100, 2020)

In the industry of consumer services, 71% of chats were done on a mobile device. (Comm100, 2020)

The industry where the least amount of live chats was received in 2019 was technology, where 24% of the conversations took place. (Comm100, 2020)

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Statistics on Live Chat Technologies Emerging in the Industry

With the assistance of chatbots, 82% of common customer questions could be answered without the assistance of a human agent. The results of the study showed that 88% of customer requests were successful when human agents and chatbots worked together. (Acquire)

It is estimated that an automated chatbot is able to resolve 80% of all customer issues without a human agent's assistance. (Acquire)

The number of organizations using canned responses in live chat sessions is approximately 69%. (Forbes, 2019)

It is estimated that 69% of consumers prefer to use chatbots as they enable them to communicate with brands more efficiently. (Mordor Intelligence, 2020)

More than 71% of consumers would gladly use a chatbot if it meant that they could improve their customer experience. (Conversocial, 2020)

It is reported that retail companies using chatbots are seen by customers as efficient (47%), innovative (40%), and helpful (36%). (LinkedIn, 2020)

By 2025, $102 billion will have been generated by the chatbot market from $17.17 billion in 2019. The market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 34.75% during 2020 – 2025. (Mordor Intelligence, 2020)

In spite of the rise of chatbots on the internet, there is still a high preference for human agents over AI technologies among consumers. (99Firms, 2020)

It is important to note that proactive live chats, where an agent welcomes visitors to chat, are slowly gaining traction. As of 2019, over one million live chats have been initiated by agents across the world. (Comm100, 2020)

Using co-browsing, where an agent is able to access the customer's browser while resolving the issue, helped increase customer satisfaction scores by more than 6 points compared with the market average. (Forbes, 2019)

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The effects of COVID-19 on live chat

According to Euromonitor International, customer service tickets received in North America during the pandemic were 16% higher than pre-pandemic levels. (Zendesk, 2020)

Compared to January to March 2020, the average number of monthly live chats increased by 23% from April to August 2020. (Comm100, 2020)

At the beginning of the pandemic, on average, every live chat agent had to handle 18% more sessions than they normally would. (Comm100, 2020)

Ecommerce customers used messaging apps such as WhatsApp (up by 352% compared to pre-pandemic levels) and SMS/text messaging (up by 102%) more than other customer service channels since the pandemic began. (Zendesk, 2021)

As compared to January to March 2020, many industries reported an increase in mobile chats received between April and August 2020: travel (+16%), healthcare (+6%), business services (+4%), telecoms (+5%), recreation (+1%), and real estate (+1%). (Comm100, 2020)

32% more tickets were solved by companies that leveraged live channels during the pandemic. (Zendesk, 2021)

There was a study that discovered that people who have to work from home in order to provide their customers with quality customer service found it difficult due to inadequate infrastructure to provide them with high quality customer service. After COVID-19 was declared a pandemic two weeks ago, hold times and escalations increased by 34% and 68%, respectively, within just two weeks. (Harvard Business Review, 2020)

As a result of the pandemic, the number of calls rated as "difficult" more than doubled from a usual 10% to more than 20% during the initial months. (Harvard Business Review, 2020)

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Metrics for measuring the first response time

For live chat, in 2020, the average first time response time was between 46 (Comm100) and 48 seconds (Live Chat).

As of 2019, customer support teams with 90 percent or higher customer satisfaction ratings had an average response time of 1 minute, 32 seconds (Comm100).

It is estimated that the average response time of support teams whose satisfaction rates are less than 90% is 30 seconds in 2019 (Comm100).

According to Zendesk, 28% of consumers expect a live chat response within five minutes.

It is estimated that long wait times are the number one cause of "bad" customer service (Zendesk).

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Metrics related to Resolution Time

In 2020, the average duration of support chats ranged from 11 minutes, 24 seconds (Live Chat) to 11 minutes, 55 seconds (Comm100).

Comm100 reports that customer support teams with satisfaction rates above 90% chatted for an average of 11 minutes, 47 seconds, while those with lower satisfaction rates chatted for an average of 8 minutes, 42 seconds.

The top factor contributing to "good" customer service is the speed with which you resolve the issue.

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What is the popularity of live chat?

In the next year (2020) (Zendesk), live chat is expected to grow by 65% (or 500%).

According to Zendesk, 17% of people between the ages of 18-24 use social messaging apps to resolve issues with brands.

The average use of automated live chat messaging among support teams of 50 or more people was 2.1% compared to teams of 1-50 agents (0.4-1%) (Comm100).

The vast majority of live chat conversations are initiated by visitors to a website (Comm100).

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How do consumers feel about live chat? What do they think of it?

The average satisfaction rate for using live chat is 87%, a rate that is higher than all other types of communication channels (Infinite Global).

When a consumer asks a sales or marketing question, 82% of consumers would like a direct response (Infinite Global).

When asking a customer service question, 90 percent of consumers expect an immediate response (Infinite Global).

When it comes to communicating with a brand, 36% of consumers expect to be able to choose the communication channel of their choice (Gladly).

According to Gladly, 30% of consumers have used live chat to resolve issues within the past 12 months (2020).

The number of consumers who say that personalized service is more important to them than targeted marketing is 79% (Gladly).

The numbers of consumers who perceive improvements in their live chat support experiences have gone up to 12% over the past decade (Comm100).

In contrast to this, only 11% of consumers say they are confident that brands are taking their feedback seriously (Comm100).

The majority of consumers (57%) said that they feel loyal to a particular brand when they receive satisfying customer service (Zendesk).

It is estimated that 84% of consumers will go out of their way to purchase more products from a brand that offers outstanding customer service (Gladly).

According to the Comm100, customer satisfaction plateaued between 2018 and 2019 and dropped to 83.04% in 2020, a decrease of 0.06%.

Approximately 23-28% of consumers use chat and messaging to resolve issues with a brand (Zendesk) .

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How to Optimize Your Live Chat Experience Using These Numbers

The easiest, quickest, and most accessible way to get help from a customer support representative has been live chat. As a result, AI chatbots have emerged as cheaper, more efficient and more effective alternatives to human agents. In addition, they improved the quality of service delivery and have helped reduce the burden on human agents. The incorporation of live chat customer service makes more sense as it can be performed from home, at least in the short term, since telephone customer service could present a minor problem. In addition, a live chat customer service option requires less infrastructure in general.

It is possible to implement live chat in your small business with the help of one of the many small business live chat apps available today. In addition, do not forget to use the live chat trends as well as the statistics we mentioned earlier if you want to develop a strategy that will enable you to reap maximum benefits from your live chat. Some companies have already proved that live chat sales techniques deliver more revenue than any other sales channel. Live chat for marketing is a creative tool, and some companies use live chat for marketing and for sales.

It is very important to keep in mind that no matter how powerful your live chat channel is, if you want to drive its uptake, you must promote it. For example, you should make sure your live chat channel is clearly visible on your website to increase the rate of consumer adoption. In addition to that, customers expect you to be available 24/7 when you offer a live chat channel. Due to this reason, it is important that you have the right number of customer service agents on hand to respond to any customer queries effectively during all working hours (day or night).

by Costi

Statistics about Customer Service

Today, the relationship between businesses and consumers is very different from how it was a few decades ago. At that time, low prices, as well as high quality, were what mattered the most to customers. Advertising was more product-oriented, emphasizing the tangible benefits of the product, emphasizing how high quality is correlated with a more recognizable brand.

These days, many advertisements tend to be more consumer-oriented and emphasize the positive experiences that a customer will experience after using the product. This is not surprising considering that customers are increasingly being focused on their experience.

In addition to product quality and price, customer service has become a new factor consumers consider in their decision to choose between competing brands. Investing in a brand that focuses on the customer's needs and continually offers value beyond the initial purchase is a better option for customers.

Customers can gain loyalty by focusing their brands on their needs. Take the following statistics on customer service into consideration when brainstorming new strategies for strengthening your customer service team.

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Customer Service Statistics That Will Blow Your Mind

It is estimated that 48% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company because of a bad experience with them.

According to surveys, 89% of companies compete solely based upon customer service quality!

In addition to this, 89% of clients decided to switch to another company after having an unpleasant experience with customer service.

It is estimated that businesses in the United States lose $1,7 trillion due to poor customer service every year!

According to a recent survey, 95% of people believe customer care is vital to making them loyal customers.

86% of all customers would be willing to pay more to get great service!

Dissatisfied customers represent only around 4% of the total customer base...

for every complaint, there are another 26 unhappy customers who remain silent.

Do you think you are doing a good job? There are 77% of customers who believe that it takes too long to reach a live agent, while 26% have been transferred from agent to agent without resolution.

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Why High-Quality Customer Service is Important ---

90% of Americans attribute their decision to doing business with a company to the quality of customer service that the company offers. (Microsoft)

The cost of acquiring a new customer is between 5 and 25 times more than the cost of keeping an existing one. (Invesp)

The poor customer service experience is the number one reason why consumers switch companies. (Microsoft)

89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience. (Salesforce Research)

Sixty-three percent of consumers expect that businesses will know their specific needs and expectations, while seventy-six percent of B2B buyers expect the same. (Salesforce Research)

In a recent study, 68% of consumers responded that they would be willing to pay more for products and services if the brand offered a good customer service experience. (HubSpot)

In 86% of the cases, good customer service is what converts one-time clients into long-term advocates for a brand. (Khoros)

An NPS Promoter score has a customer lifetime value of 600%-1,400% higher than a NPS Detractor score. (Bain & Company)

The percentage of consumers that are likely to make another purchase after a positive experience with customer service is 89%. (Salesforce Research)

93% of customers who have experienced excellent customer service are likely to purchase from the same company in the future. (HubSpot Research)

After a mistake has been made by a company, 78% of consumers will use the company again if the customer service is excellent. (Salesforce Research)

By increasing customer retention rates by just 5%, a company can increase its profits by anywhere between 25 and 95%. (Bain and Company)

Almost three out of every five consumers report that good customer service is vital when it comes to feeling loyal to a brand. (Zendesk)

Consumers strongly recommend a company if they had a good experience with customer service. When consumers rate a company's service as "good", they are 38% more likely to recommend the company to others. (Qualtrics XM Institute)

It is estimated that the cost of acquiring a new customer is between 5 and 25 times that of retaining an existing one. (Invesp)

More than 80% of customers say they feel loyal to brands that respond to their complaints and resolve them. (Khoros)

It has been proven that businesses can increase revenues by between 4% and 8% above their market by prioritizing a better customer service experience. (Bain & Company)

It is estimated that 80% of companies analyze and improve the customer experience using customer satisfaction scores. (Harvard Business Review)

More than 72% of companies believe analytics reports can be used to improve customer service. (Deloitte)

It is expected that the customer experience management market will be worth $7.6 billion in 2020. A 16.9% increase over its value of $6.5 billion in 2019 represents a 16.9% year-over-year increase. (Grand View Research)

When a company's customer service is exceptional, 78% of consumers are willing to do business with them again if they make a mistake. (Salesforce Research)

Three out of five consumers believe it is important to have good customer service in order to feel loyal towards a brand. (Zendesk)

Customers who feel they have received good customer service are more likely to recommend a brand. There is a 38% higher likelihood of consumers recommending a company whose service they rated as "good.". (Qualtrics XM Institute)

The number of customers who are likely to repeat their purchase with a business that offers excellent customer service is 93%. (HubSpot Research)

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A Poor Customer Service Experience Can Cost You a Lot

According to a recent report, approximately half of consumers say they would switch to a new brand after having a bad experience. (Zendesk)

80% of consumers say that if they experience a negative experience more than once, they would rather do business with a competitor. (Zendesk)

 Only one in five consumers will forgive a bad experience at a company whose customer service they rate as “very poor.” Nearly 80% will forgive a bad experience if they rate the service team as “very good.” (Qualtrics XM Institute)

Over 78% of customers have decided not to make a purchase due to a bad customer experience. (Glance)

In order to make up for one negative customer experience, you need 12 positive ones. (Ruby Newell-Legner’s ”Understanding Customers“)

American consumers are more likely to switch companies as a result of poor customer service. (Microsoft)

It is estimated that 65% of customers have switched to a different brand because of a poor experience at their previous brand. (Khoros)

It is estimated that around 80% of consumers will prefer to do business with a competitor after more than one bad experience. (Zendesk)

There is only one in five consumers willing to forgive a poor experience at a company whose customer service they rate as "very poor." (Nearly 80% of consumers are willing to overlook a poor experience if they rate the service team as "very good.").

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Customer Service Channels That Are Most Effective

In general, more than half of customers, regardless of age, use the phone to get in touch with a customer service representative, making it by far the most popular method of customer contact. (Zendesk)

The effectiveness of bots has fallen to 28% when it comes to resolving issues. The American consumer believes that bots are ineffective, with 40% of consumers relying on other channels to contact customer service representatives. (Microsoft)

The American consumer prefers knowledge bases over all other forms of self-service. (Forrester)

Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the United States, with more than 79% of internet users accessing it. (Lyfe Marketing)

More than any other communication channel, Millennials prefer live chat for customer support. (Comm100)

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Some of the frustrations customers face

include the need to wait on hold for too long, which is the source of frustration for 33% of customers. A third of respondents said they were most frustrated by having to repeat themselves to multiple customer service representatives. (HubSpot Research)

According to a similar study, almost 60% of those surveyed believe that long hold times and waiting times are the most frustrating parts of a service experience. (Zendesk)

According to a survey conducted by Ipsos, 53% of shoppers believe their feedback is not passed on to anyone who can actually act on it. (Microsoft)

If a customer has a problem with a service he or she is having, they are four times more likely to switch to a competitor. (Bain and Company)

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The value of sharing customer service experiences

Approximately 36% of consumers overall will share their experience of customer service, whether it was good or bad. Facebook and Instagram are the platforms where most consumers are posting their experiences. (CFI Group)

Almost nine out of ten customers in the United States would recommend a company whose service they consider "very good." (Qualtrics XM Institute)

A Qualtrics XM Institute survey found that only 13% of consumers would recommend a company whose customer service they had rated as "very poor.".

Over half of customers say that they don't use social media to share their good or bad service experiences. (CFI Group)

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Taking advantage of the customer service opportunity

A whopping 90% of consumers trust a business whose service they have rated as "very good" to take care of their needs. (Qualtrics XM Institute)

Just by increasing customer retention rates by at least 5%, businesses can increase their profits by at least 25% to 95%. (Bain and Company)

By prioritizing better customer service experiences than their competitors, businesses are able to grow revenues between 4% and 8% above their market. (Bain & Company)

There are 89% of companies that perform better financially than their competitors when they have "significantly above average" customer experiences. (Qualtrics XM Institute)

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Statistics about Customer Experience

Approximately 70 percent of the customer journey is influenced by how the client feels they are being treated. (McKinsey)

Adding personalized consumer experiences to your online conversions can improve your conversion rate by an average of 8%. (Trust Pilot)

An average of only 21% of customer service agents ask for a customer's name when they are contacting the customer. (Glance)

There is a 71% belief that a quick response from your customer service team can drastically improve the experience of your customers (age 16 - 24). (Comm100)

Almost 90% of customers report trusting a company whose service they rate as “very good.” On the other hand, only 16% of those who give a “very poor” rating trust companies to the same degree. (Qualtrics XM Institute) 

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Statistics on Customer Satisfaction

The vast majority of consumers consider an "immediate" response to be important or very important when they have a question regarding customer service. According to 60% of consumers the term "immediate" means within ten minutes of their call. (HubSpot Research)

There is a majority of consumers who believe that companies should collaborate on their behalf, so that customers do not have to repeat information to different representatives. (Zendesk)

It has been reported that almost 70% of customers are irritated when their calls are redirected from department to department. (Zendesk)

In the first instance, 69% of consumers try to resolve their problems on their own, but fewer than one third of organizations offer self-service options such as knowledge bases. (Zendesk)

 A customer with a NPS® promoter score will have a customer lifetime value 600% - 1400% higher than a customer with a detractor score. (Bain & Company)

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Listening to what customers have to say

The majority of customers feel that an immediate response is essential or very important when they have a question for customer service. According to 60% of them, “immediate” refers to 10 minutes or less. (HubSpot Research)

Almost two thirds of consumers believe that companies should collaborate on their behalf so they do not have to repeat the same information to different representatives. (Zendesk)

According to Zondex, 90% of customers are concerned with how issues are resolved in their customer service interactions. (KPMG)

Approximately 70% of customers report that they can easily take their business to a competitor with the help of technology. (Salesforce)

In order to decide whether to do business with a company based on customer service, 90% of American consumers use this factor when making their decision. (Microsoft)

71% of consumers (age 16-24) believe that if a service team responds immediately to a customer's problem, then their customer experience will improve significantly. (Comm100)

Only 16% of those who give a service an "inferior" rating trust their company to the same extent as customers who give a "very good" rating. Almost 90% of customers trust a company whose service they rate as "very good." (Qualtrics XM Institute)

About 70% of a customer's journey is based on how they feel they are treated by the customer service department. (McKinsey)

In fact, 53% of shoppers believe their feedback isn't passed along to anyone who is able to act on it. (Microsoft)

The likelihood of a customer switching to a competitor increases by four times when the issue they are experiencing is a service-related one. (Bain and Company)

More than 90 percent of consumers believe they will be well taken care of by a company whose service has been rated as "very good" by consumers. (Qualtrics XM Institute)

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A personal touch can have a powerful impact on a company

It has been reported that 70% of customers believe maintaining their business is fundamentally dependent on service agents' understanding of sales interactions. (Salesforce)

80% of customers agree that the experience a company provides is just as important as the products or services it offers. (Salesforce)

In general, 63% of consumers expect businesses to know their unique needs and expectations, while 76% of buyers in the business-to-business sector expect the same. (Salesforce Research)

There is a perception that companies must provide cutting-edge digital experiences to retain their customers, as 59% of customers believe this to be true. (Salesforce)

It has been estimated that 90% of people are more likely to trust a company that has a firm policy regarding their privacy. (Salesforce)

If you use personalized consumer experiences in your online marketing campaign, you can improve your conversion rate by 8%. (Trust Pilot)

It is reported that 88% of people trust companies which promise not to share their personal information with third parties without their permission. (Salesforce)

There is no doubt that 92% of customers appreciate businesses giving them control over what information is collected about them. (Salesforce)

In order to collect and analyze data, 23% of businesses make use of social media as a tool. (Gartner)

In exchange for context-driven interactions in which they are immediately understood and known, 79% of customers are willing to share relevant information about themselves. (Salesforce)

It has been reported that 56% of customers are willing to share their personal information in exchange for better service. (Salesforce)

In the average customer service call, agents only ask a customer's name 21% of the time. (Glance)

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There is no doubt about the importance of word-of-mouth marketing

36% of consumers will share either a good or a bad experience with their customer service experience with others. Facebook is the most popular platform to share customer service experiences followed closely by Instagram. (CFI Group)

Consumers are expected to read online reviews for local businesses 87% of the time in 2020. (Bright Local)

The majority of customers will tell others about their good experiences 72% of the time. (Salesforce)

When customers have a good experience, 72% of them will tell six or more people about it. (Esteban Kolsky)

94% of American customers are more likely to recommend a company whose service they rate as "very good." (Qualtrics XM Institute)

Sixty-seven percent of customers credit a horrible customer experience with their decision to switch companies. (Esteban Kolsky)

The Qualtrics XM Institute found that only 13% of consumers would recommend a company whose customer service they rated as "very poor."

In fact, a majority of customers say they don't share their good or bad service experiences on social media. (CFI Group)

It is estimated that 33% of consumers would recommend a brand that responds quickly, but ineffectively. (Nielsen-McKinsey)

78% of consumers who complain to a company on Twitter expect to receive a response within an hour. (Lithium)

In the case of a bad experience, 13% of customers tell 15 or more people about it. (Esteban Kolsky)

In a recent study, it was found that 79% of customers who complained online had their complaints ignored. (RightNow)

Only 17% of consumers would recommend a brand that provides a slow but effective solution. (Nielsen-McKinsey)

A customer service fact shows that only one in twenty-six customers will share their negative experience with a business; the rest simply leave. (Esteban Kolsky)

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Having to deal with angry customers

The fact that 21% of people had to wait too long at a hospital pharmacy made them decide not to fill their prescription there and go to another pharmacy to fill it. (Sage Journals)

Over 70 percent of customers are irritated when their calls are transferred from one department to another. (Zendesk)

The number one reason customers switch products and services is the feeling that they are unappreciated. (New Voice Media)

Customers are most frustrated when they have to wait on hold for longer than expected, and 33% of customers are most frustrated when they have to repeat themselves to different support staff. (HubSpot Research)

70% of unsatisfied customers whose problems are resolved are willing to shop with that business again if their problems are resolved. (Glance)

The most frustrating part of a service experience for nearly 60% of consumers is waiting on hold and waiting to be served. (Zendesk)

The majority of customers would prefer to be given parking tickets than to wait in a phone tree for service or to have their questions repeated multiple times between different team members. (HubSpot)

Customer service has been reported to have become angry with 35% of customers. (American Express)

Almost 27 percent of Americans report that the most frustrating aspect of customer service is ineffective service. (Statista)

The top level of customer service frustration cited by 12% of Americans is "lack of speed." (Statista)

More than seventy percent of customers say talking to multiple people about their problems is poor customer service. (Dimensional Research)

In a recent survey, 79% of consumers say that they were ignored when they complained about a bad customer experience through online feedback. (Harris Interactive)

The majority of customers (84%) report that their expectations were not exceeded by the customer service they received during their last interaction. (Harvard Business Review)

There are 78% of customers who have given up on a transaction because of a negative customer experience. (American Express)

When customers cannot reach a customer service representative, they end a call in frustration 67% of the time. (Glance)

by Costi

Statistics on Customer Experience

By 2020, customer experience (CX) will become one of the key aspects of how businesses grow and increase their revenue. By using all channels to interact with the brand, customers expect an exceptional experience. With a unique customer service strategy that incorporates all channels of communication, any business can significantly improve its brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, traffic, sales, business revenue, and ultimately, profitability. 

In order to improve customer experience, there are several things you can do in order to communicate with your customers. In order to assist with this there are several platforms at your disposal. Based on the statistics of customer experience, the ultimate goal of your business should be to convert them into regular visitors who return often, regardless of the channel you employ for communication (e.g. social media, live chat, website, etc.).

Customer experience can be defined in a number of different ways.

In other words, customer experience is the perception of how your company treats your customers. As a result, these perceptions affect their behavior, and these memories and emotions play a huge role in their loyalty to the organization.

To put it another way - if they like you and continue to like you, then they are going to do business with you for a long time to come and they will also recommend you to others.

This makes it easy for us to see the importance of customer experience in so many companies today.

It is true that you must get to know your customers in order to make sure you are liked by them. In order to deliver a personalized experience, you need to invest in the long-term relationship (also known as relationship marketing), which means understanding your customer, so you can deliver a personalized experience across the entire client journey.

Gaining this kind of in-depth knowledge about a customer is something that doesn't just happen. Customer data (i.e. the voice of the customer) is something you need to collect. Then you need to harvest valuable insights with greater speed and precision from that data.

There is good news for everyone - regardless of what kind of business you run - improving the experience for your customers has been proven time and time again to increase retention, satisfaction and revenue.

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The Customer Experience Statistics for 2021 are eye-opening

This is a list of some eye-opening statistics about customer experience that show why you should take the issue seriously.

60 percent of customers say they trust the reviews they read from their friends, family, and other customers when learning about new products.

A study has shown that businesses that focus on improving the customer experience gain up to 80% more revenue than those who don't.

In fact, two-thirds of companies compete based on their customer experience.

The majority of consumers (73%) say that customer experience plays a key role in their decision to buy.

A recent study suggests that 86% of customers are ready to pay more for a better customer experience if it means getting a better product or service.

You will be able to double your business' revenue in 36 months if you can improve the customer service of your business to a satisfactory level.

Sixty-seven percent of customers indicate that companies are making efforts to improve customer service.

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Here are some reasons why customer experience is so important 

One of the main reasons why customer experience is so important is that customers value it. Studies have shown that customers are willing to pay more for a high level of customer service. In contrast, the number of bad experiences has been shown to result in a bad reputation and lost revenue. 

A good customer experience can lead to customers paying a premium of as much as 16 percent. (PwC)

An impressive 32% of consumers are willing to give up a brand they love if they have a bad experience with it just once. (PwC) 

More than half of U.S. consumers believe that positive experiences with a brand are more influential than advertising. (PwC)

In fact, 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a website after a bad experience. (SWEOR)

According to a recent survey, 80% of customers think the experience that businesses provide is as important as their products and services. (Salesforce)

The customers who had the most positive experiences in the past spend 140% more than those who had the worst experiences. (Harvard Business Review)

Efforts to improve customer experience can result in an average reduction of 33% in customer care costs. (Harvard Business Review)

In fact, the differences between direct competitors in terms of their net promoter scores explain between 10% to 70% of their revenue growth differences. (Bain & Company)

More than 80 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase a product when a business offers a personalized experience. (Epsilon) 

Approximately 9 people are told about positive experiences by customers, but an average of 16 people are told about negative experiences by customers. (Deloitte) 

It has been reported that eighty percent of companies view customer experience as a competitive advantage. (Dimension Data)

There is no question that 90% of CEOs believe that the biggest influence on a company's strategies comes from customers. (PWC)

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Now more than ever, the customer experience is crucial

The customer experience is becoming increasingly important as the years go by. In the new digital age, customers expect seamless experiences enabled by technology to ensure a seamless experience.  

Sixty-seven percent of consumers say they are looking for better experiences than they did ten years ago. (Salesforce)

Eighty-one percent of businesses compete primarily based on how well they treat their customers. (Gartner)

It is estimated that 67% of the business leaders believe their businesses will not be competitive if they do not embrace digital transformation. (Gartner) 

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The ways in which businesses are failing to deliver 

Customer experience is one of the most important factors for businesses to succeed. It seems, however, that many businesses aren't living up to their customers' expectations. 

A majority of customers - 51% - report that most businesses aren't able to meet their expectations in terms of customer service. (Salesforce)

Consumers are disappointed by 82% of the brands they buy. (Oracle)

There are many organizations that recognize the importance of digital transformation, however their operations are simply not ready yet. 

According to 72% of strategists in corporate organizations, their companies' digital efforts are failing to meet revenue expectations. (Harvard Business Review) 

70 percent of employees lack mastery over the skills they need in order to be successful in their jobs. (Gartner)

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Experiences on mobile devices are important 

It has become more and more common for customers to search for solutions on their smartphones these days. Businesses must adapt and make sure they are delivering a fantastic mobile experience in order to be competitive. 

It is estimated that 52% of website traffic occurs on mobile devices. (Statista)

Almost 90% of customers have had a poor experience when seeking customer service support through their mobile devices. (Software Advice)

It is estimated that 84% of CIOs are concerned about the mobile customer experience. (Vision Critical)

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Businesses want their customers to have a better experience when interacting with them 

Any person who has called a business but been left on hold or went straight to voicemail knows that customer interaction is an essential part of the customer experience. It's not enough for customers to be satisfied with just phone and email support in 2022. There are plenty of convenient methods by which customers can communicate, including livechat, text messaging, Facebook messenger, Google messenger, Instagram messenger, and more. However, it is also important they receive some kind of human touch. 

The number of customers who are satisfied with business communication is only 14%. (EY)

According to our research, 59% of customers feel that brands have lost touch with the human element of the customer experience. (PwC)

In spite of the fact that 89% of customers want businesses to utilize text messaging for communication, only 48% of businesses are equipped to handle text messages. (Twilio)

It has been reported that 79% of businesses believe live chat has a positive effect on sales, revenue, and customer loyalty. (Kayako) 

At least three different channels of communication are used by 66% of customers. (Microsoft)

There are 60% of customers who want to interact with a live person. (Oracle)

59% of customers believe tailoring interactions based on past engagements could be the key to winning their business. (Salesforce)

Virtual assistants and chatbots will be used by 25% of companies in the near future. (Gartner)

In a recent survey, 57% of businesses claim that chatbots deliver a high ROI with little effort. (Accenture)

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Customer Experience Statistics in General

Following are some statistics that will give you an idea of why customer experience has become one of the most important factors in business growth.

60 percent of customers say they trust the reviews they read from their friends, family, and other customers when learning about new products.

(Source: Hubspot)

We all don't want to go shopping only to find out that the product we bought wasn't what we expected. It is important that you read reviews before you make a purchase because they give you a glimpse into a product's features and benefits. They make sure that their customers are aware of what to expect when they shop and are satisfied when they leave. 

A study has shown that businesses that focus on improving the customer experience gain up to 80% more revenue than those who don't.

(Source: Forbes)

Considering the marketing customer experience statistics, it stands to reason that improving customer experience comes down to making data-driven decisions. There is a good chance that they are going to revisit your business in the future if you do this. You will also be able to get recommendations from them to others, which inadvertently results in a larger number of sales.

There are two-thirds of companies that compete based on the customer experience.

(Source: Forbes)

In 2010, only 36% of companies were competing on the basis of customer experience in the world. There is no doubt that marketing has changed from being a fundamental differentiator based upon price and product to being able to differentiate based upon the customer experience, which is now taking center stage.

Customer experience is an aspect that drives 73% of customers to make a buying decision based on the experience.

(Source: PWC)

It is essential to remember that excellent customer service begins even before your customers ever make contact with your company, and it does not just end when they are satisfied with your product. Consider how many times you have left a website that took an excessively long time to load just because the page was too slow to load. If you want to avoid this, make sure you are using a good website building service, backed up by reliable hosting service.

In addition, how many times have you purchased a product just because the seller offered free delivery or installation as well? In order to successfully gain your customers' trust, you would need to make the buyer journey convenient, engaging, and flexible enough to meet their needs. Based on statistics related to customer satisfaction, this drastically increases your chances of them purchasing from you again.

The majority of consumers (86%) say they would be willing to pay more if it meant they could experience a better customer experience.

(Source: Super Office)

I wonder if anyone doesn't want a proper treatment at some point. Is there anyone who would not want to deal with a brand that goes the extra mile in making sure that the buyer's journey is as stress-free as possible? It turns out that according to customer experience statistics for 2021, customers are willing to spend as much as 13% to 18% more for a product or service as long as the customer experience is excellent. 

The revenue of your business could double if you can improve the level of customer service you provide to your customers to a satisfactory level within 36 months.

(Source: Super Office)

From various angles in your business, the customer experience (CX) helps you to increase sales and save money at the same time. Let us take, as an example, the issue of employee onboarding and engagement. By ensuring that your CX system is an excellent one, you are already ensuring that your workforce is engaged. The fact that your company's employee retention rate increases with the inclusion of a highly engaged workforce is a fact regarding customer experience. As a result, you will be saving yourself the expense of new hires and their onboarding, which can run into millions of dollars. 

According to 49% of consumers, they have made impulse purchases after experiencing an excellent, personalized personal experience with a brand.

(Source: Dot Digital)

Increasing sales and increasing revenue can be directly linked with personalizing the customer experience. This creates products or services which are tailored to meet the individual needs of customers. Statistics have shown that, based on customer buying experience statistics, marketing personalization should begin as soon as you exchange your first message with a client right up until they make their purchase. According to recent research findings, a majority of customer experience professionals believe that more personalization of communication is the key to improving customer experience.

Business owners are concerned about improving their customer experience for a number of reasons, among them increasing customer retention and satisfaction, plus improving upselling and cross-selling.

(Source: Super Office)

The customer is the lifeblood of any business. In the event that you are not trying to keep your customers happy, then they will not stay with your company too long. It is only when your customers believe that your brand is excellent that they will remain loyal to it. Once you have established a loyal customer, you have a greater chance of success when upselling and cross-selling other products to them. A study conducted on customer experience statistics shows that the reasons businesses may be interested in improving customer experience are improved cross-selling and up-selling (42%), better customer retention (33%), and better customer satisfaction (32%). The impact on the bottom line of any business can be significantly positive by addressing some or all of these factors.

The customer experience is a priority for 88% of businesses in their entire contact center network.

(Source: Sharpen CX)

According to research conducted by a company called Digital Customer Experience, contact centers are shared facilities used by large organizations to handle all types of customer communications. This can be done via email, phone calls, faxes, social media handles, or even live chat. In the near future, these contact centers will be equipped with the ability to respond to customer needs in a more timely manner and to engage one-on-one with them via varied means of communication. These all serve as ways to enhance the customer's experience in a positive way.

Over eighty percent of business leaders agree that exceptional customer experience is a must in order for a company to succeed.

(Source: Smart Insights)

When it comes to choosing which business to work with, prospective customers look out for the customer experience factor when making their decision. Quite a few businesses offer similar services, but not all of them can deliver the same level of service to their customers. It is reported that the majority of business leaders believe that customer experience is one of the most important aspects of their businesses. However, 11% feel that customer experience is at least somewhat important. In fact, less than 2% of companies say that customer service is neither very important nor not important at all.

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The impact of customer experience on business

The customer experience and profitability statistics indicate that when you deliver a great customer experience, you will have a greater chance of gaining more customers and making more sales. The following are some of the impacts that customer experience may have on any business.

Customer experience is a key driver of revenue growth for businesses, which have a 4-8% higher revenue increase than their competitors.

(Source: Forbes)

There is so much competition in the market today that businesses have the best chance of succeeding if they offer the best customer experience. If your brand has previously had an interaction with your customers, then they will probably return to do business with you again in the future. Furthermore, according to B2B customer experience statistics, you get free referrals from clients who are satisfied with the service provided to them.

In response to a poor customer experience with a brand, 89% of consumers have moved to a competitor.

(Source: Lumoa)

What is the number of times you have abandoned a shopping cart due to the difficulty of making the purchase? It is likely that you have done so many times. If you are a business owner, you know how bad it can be to have poor customer service. In addition, most of these customers are likely to leave without telling you why they left.

Compared to companies that do not focus on customers, customer-focused companies are 1.4 times more likely to increase their revenue.

(Source: Forrester)

As a result of customer experience value statistics, the lifetime value of the customer also increases by 1.6x for companies which place an emphasis on customer service. When a workforce is highly engaged, things tend to be done faster and more efficiently. Additionally, a great customer experience will increase loyalty to your brand, and customer lifetime value will increase as a result.

By 2022, businesses will have to spend $641 billion on customer experience technologies.

(Source: Statista)

In recent years, a growing number of companies have begun to recognize the importance of the customer experience. Consequently, this has led to an increase in investment in technologies like Big Data, artificial intelligence, and data analytics that bring about actionable customer insights. This knowledge can be applied in a variety of ways in order to improve the customer experience. A total of $471 billion was spent in 2018 on technologies related to customer service. It was reported that at the end of 2019, that figure had grown to $508 billion. It is anticipated that the number will rise even further in coming years, given that many companies have yet to jump on board the customer experience bandwagon.

 According to surveys conducted by market research firms, 74% of customers are most likely to switch brands if their favorite brand's purchasing experience is a bad one.

(Source: iPerceptions)

The most effective means by which to drive customers away is to make the purchase process a difficult one. Customer satisfaction research statistics reveal that convenience is one of the most important factors in providing a satisfying experience to customers. Your customers will probably choose your competitor if they do not feel comfortable when dealing with your customer service department.

A customer experience mindset will help companies drive revenues that are 4-8 percent higher than those of their competitors in the same industry.

More than two-thirds of companies compete on customer experience now, compared with just 36% of companies five years ago.

By nearly 80%, companies with a superior customer experience outperform their laggard peers.

The majority of companies who work to improve the customer experience report an increase in their revenue as a result of improving customer service.

The number of companies that provide an above-average level of customer satisfaction is 73% higher than that of their competitors.

It has been estimated that 96% of customers cite customer service as an important factor in choosing to remain loyal to brands.

Eighty-three percent of companies that place importance on the importance of making customers happy also report growing revenues.

Customer experience is a deciding factor that leads to more revenue for brands that provide superior customer service compared to those that don't provide outstanding service.

73% of consumers agree that the quality of their experience dictates whether they will stay loyal to a brand.

More than seventy seven percent of consumers agree that having an inefficient customer experience affects their quality of life.

Customers-centric companies have a 60% higher rate of profitability than companies that aren't focused on customers.

The cost to U.S. companies of losing customers because of poor service amounts to $1.6 trillion annually.

The likelihood of loyal customers purchasing again and the likelihood of their referring a friend to the company is five times greater than the average customer.

Consumers in this country are willing to spend 17 percent more if they know that a company with a good reputation will offer great service.

There is a 1.5 times greater level of engagement among employees of companies that excel in customer service than companies that are not as customer-centric.

An organization that focuses on improving customer service is more likely to have its employee engagement increase by 20% on average.

There is a 147% outperformance between companies with engaged employees and those that don't.

In fact, 81% of companies view customer experience as one of their competitive differentiators.

In accordance with the survey, 68% of customers believe a positive experience with a service representative is crucial.

Customer switching is due to the fact that they feel unappreciated as being the top reason for switching brands.

It is estimated that 64% of companies with a customer-focused CEO believe that they are more profitable than their rivals.

According to CEOs surveyed, a top investment priority for them is to rally organizations around customers.

It is a well-known fact that 90% of CEOs believe that the most important part of their business is the customer.

Those who lead company-wide customer experience initiatives are more likely to have senior executives as well.

22% of Fortune 100 companies employ a C-level customer officer, compared to 10% of Fortune 500 companies and 6% of Fortune 1000 companies.

90 percent of CEOs believe that customers play the most significant role in shaping the strategy of their companies.

Customer experience is considered by 75% of customer experience management executives as one of the most important factors for their business.

A CEO who has made customer experience a priority has been found to increase revenue growth in 59% of companies, and only 40% of companies without a customer-focused CEO had reported growth.

Three quarters of CEOs state that customer experience is the most effective method of gaining a competitive advantage, which is the most common answer.

90% of the executives who used data analytics reported that they were able to deliver a better customer experience as a result of using their data analytics.

According to one study, 77% of consumers view brands more favorably if they seek out and use customer feedback.

Within three years of investing in customer experience, companies earning $1 billion a year will gain an average amount of $700 million as a result of the improvement.

A positive brand experience is told to an average of nine different people, but a negative brand experience is told to an average of 16 people.

Sixty-nine percent of Americans say they will be more inclined to shop with brands that provide consistency in store and online.

There are companies that reduce their cost of service by 15-20% when they use tools like customer journey maps.

Those firms which have embraced digital transformation have an average profit margin of 26% higher than their peers.

In comparison with the bottom 10 companies, the companies that exhibited the most empathy increased their value by nearly twice as much.

By providing an excellent customer experience, you can cut the cost of serving your customers by as much as 33%.

There is no doubt that the cloud has played a major role in influencing customer experiences in 71% of the companies.

More than half of companies feel it is very important to improve their data analysis for the purpose of improving their customer experience.

In order to get a value-for-money offer from brands, two-thirds of customers are willing to share their personal information with those brands.

An individual who reports a negative experience is likely to spend 140% more than one who reports a positive experience.

In the United States, 70% of people have spent more money to conduct business with a company that provides excellent service.

A study conducted by Experian found that companies that build relationships with their customers on an emotional level outperform their competitors by 85%.

By implementing a 2% increase in customer retention, you can increase your profits by 10% as well as by cutting costs by 2%.

Almost 87 percent of customers who had a great experience say they would purchase another item from the company, as opposed to 18 percent of customers who had a bad experience.

The majority of marketers have been adapting their strategies and tactics in response to customer feedback and interactions.

Customers say that 80 percent of them would be more likely to do business with a company if it offered them a personalized experience.

In our survey, 75% of marketers said they would be responsible for the end-to-end experience over the lifetime of the customer.

More than half of marketing leaders say their companies have used online customer data more frequently in the last two years, and more than 70 percent anticipate using online data more in the next two years.

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Customer Experience Statistics That Are Positive

This is a list of some positive customer experience statistics that indicate just how important customer experience is to an organization's success.

In the opinion of 70% of customers, excellent service should be convenient, fast, and helpful, and all of these aspects should be delivered in a friendly manner.

(Source: Adobe)

Having the above qualities on your customer service team is a foundation for a successful customer experience team, as confirmed by the statistics in the Customer Experience Report. If the goal is to deliver an exceptional customer experience throughout the buyer's journey, then these are not qualities to take for granted.

It has been proven that a positive customer experience encounter can increase customer spend by as much as 140%.

(Source: Deloitte)

If their previous experiences with you have been good, people will probably deal with your brand in a much larger capacity, they will become more loyal to it, and they will likely recommend it to others if they had a positive experience with it previously.

It is estimated that 87% of consumers would consider making another purchase from a brand after having experienced a very good experience with them in the past.

(Source: Experience Matters)

The point I have been trying to make throughout this article is the same one I have tried to make from the outset. Customers would become loyal once they have a fast, convenient, friendly, consistent, and accessible customer service department. However, according to statistics provided by the Customer Experience Survey, only 18% of customers would return if they had a truly miserable experience with your brand.

It is estimated that 72% of customers who are happy with their experience will tell their story to six or more people.

(Source: Nice Reply)

Even though this is certainly an excellent development, customer experience stats also show that 13% of customers are likely to tell 15 or more people about their bad experience.

As a business, one of the best approaches is to make your customers happy by ensuring they have a good experience by ensuring that they have the best possible interaction with your business.

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Statistics on Bad Customer Experiences

The problem is that a bad customer experience can lead to the loss of your brand reputation, customers, and more importantly, money. Below you will find the statistics related to bad customer experiences.

There are 57% of customers who say that they will not recommend a brand that has a poorly designed website that has not been optimized for mobile devices.

(Source: Sweor, Statista)

It has been proven that mobile usage has been on the rise for the past decade. In the first quarter of 2021, it represented 70% of all the traffic on the internet worldwide.

The 3.9 billion potential customers your business can potentially attract if your website is not optimized for mobile is a missed opportunity if you do not optimize it for mobile users.

If a website is not mobile-friendly, 50% of customers will not visit it anymore.

(Source: True List)

In terms of ease, speed, convenience, and cost-effectiveness, conducting business on the mobile device has a lot to offer. This is why you should find a way to make your business appear on mobile devices as soon as possible. It is highly likely that your competitors have optimized their websites for mobile devices as well, and if you don't do the same, then you will soon be out of business.

After experiencing two or more negative customer experiences with that same brand, 92% of people would then forget about that brand.

(Source: Super Office)

The customer experience statistics show that one out of three customers will forget about a brand after just one negative experience. In order to survive the current market, you cannot ignore the importance of providing a great customer experience.

A customer's bad experience with a brand will only be reported directly to the brand if she has had a bad experience with that brand.

(Source: Smart Insights)

In addition to that, 33.7% of these customers are likely to tell their family and friends about their poor customer service experience via the telephone, the internet, or in person. A further 10.7% of these customers will prefer to write about their bad experience on Facebook as a result of their bad experience. Meanwhile, 4.5% of your customers would prefer to do the same on Twitter. Approximately 9.9% of customers would leave a negative review on a third-party blog reEven one negative experience with a customer can have a significant impact on your brand's reputation as a whole.nificantly affect your brand’s reputation. This is more reason why customer experience needs proper attention.

What are the trends for customer experience in 2021?

There are a number of trends taking over the market and have quickly become a norm for businesses today, in order to create a better customer experience.

It appears that omnichannel experiences are now one of the top priorities for 80% of the organizations that I have spoken with.

(Source: Super Office)

An omnichannel approach is generally defined as a multichannel approach whose sole purpose is to offer clients seamless shopping experiences, regardless of which sales channel they choose. A number of ways are available today for you to conduct business, including by mobile, desktop, tablet, phone, or even in-store. A number of channels are available today but the level of customer service remains unchanged regardless of which channel is used. 

As per customer experience statistics from 2010, we had only 20% of companies investing in the omnichannel experience in 2010 worldwide. It has only been recently that most businesses have begun to incorporate it into their infrastructure, and we can expect for even more to follow the same trend in the coming years.

The companies that develop the best omnichannel experiences for their customers are able to achieve a 10% year-over-year growth.

(Source: Adobe)

The omnichannel experience, in addition to addressing the aforementioned issues, goes a long way toward improving your retention rates and reducing your cost per lead. The customer journey is seamless, convenient, and highly engaging when your brand embraces the omnichannel approach. Thus you will have a higher chance of retaining them in the long run. In addition to the increased retention rate, you spend less money acquiring new customers since your retained customers are more likely to come back to make more purchases and recommend your services to others. 

A whopping 84% of companies that are customer-centric are now focused on improving their mobile customer experience.

(Source: Super Office)

Enhancing the customer experience is a good thing, but it must be done across all your communication channels. Today there is more time spent on mobile than any other device that customers use. This is according to customer statistics. The improvement of the mobile user experience will not only result in increased sales, but will also help you increase your brand's popularity.

More than two-thirds of respondents (67%) said that they would prefer to use self-service over the telephone.

(Source: Zen Desk)

It is becoming a norm for customers to use self-service, and they are already raving about it. They are all more likely and capable of doing their own sourcing if there is a possibility that they can do so on their own, but this is true of the millennials in particular. During this stage, your job is to make sure that your shop is easy to navigate and that they are provided with the tools and information they need in order to do so. 

I think that by the year 2023, AI and machine learning will handle about 40% of all customer interactions.

(Source: Super Office)

It's an important breakthrough technology that has been applied across a variety of industries across the globe, and it's one of the most crucial developments in the field of science. Customer service is one such sector that it has been applied to. Using machine learning and other AI-related tools, bots have been designed to be capable of handling customer communications 24/7 with the aid of machine learning. As of 2018, customer service statistics show that only 25% of customer interactions were being automated via artificial intelligence and machine learning.

According to a recent survey, 90% of business leaders who are utilizing data analytics reports reported that their customer experience has improved significantly.

(Source: Forbes)

In order to help you draw insight from your customers' data, data analytics can be used to draw insights about their needs and wants. It is becoming more and more obvious that companies not using data analytics in today's market are phasing out because those with the right data will always be miles ahead of the competition and get the most sales. There are many reasons why the data visualization market has been on the rise for the last few years. 

Eighty-seven percent of businesses believe that traditional experiences are no longer sufficient to satisfy their customers.

(Source: Nice Reply)

Since there is a lot of competition in the market nowadays, "good" customer experiences won't cut it anymore because of the abundance of competition. These days, discounts, fast responses and other forms of customer satisfaction are simply insufficient to satisfy customers.

Therefore, in order to ensure a superior customer experience, you need to go beyond the call of duty. The only way you can wow your customers and maintain the base of your users is if you do this.

In order to create a great customer experience, consistency is essential.

(Source: Astute Solutions)

Every customer experience counts when it comes to ensuring a positive customer experience. Statistics regarding customer satisfaction indicate that around 65% of customers become loyal to businesses that deliver a pleasant customer experience at every touch point with them. 

In the United States, 69% of adults say they prefer shopping at retailers who consistently deliver good customer service, both in-store and online.

What are the main points to take away from this? It is important to maintain a consistently good level of customer service at all times.

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for your time.

It is essential to check out customer experience statistics, as they will help you gain a better understanding of the current state of the market. The fact of the matter is that there are just too many competitors in the market, and they would gladly switch to anyone of them if you gave them the chance to receive unsatisfactory results.

by Costi

Outsourcing eCommerce Customer Service: A Guide

There is no alternative to excellent customer service. If you want to succeed in your business, it should be at the heart of everything you do. A customer experience that is positive can lead to 77% of the consumers recommending a company to their friends. In fact, 86% of customers who have experienced a bad brand experience have stopped buying from that brand in the future.

It's more than just fixing problems when it comes to delivering quality customer service. Your brand will grow, you will retain current customers, you will upsell products to existing customers, and you will increase sales. As a result of eCommerce's fast-paced and competitive nature, these points are only accentuated further, and they create unique demands on your customer service strategy.

Ultimately, it is wise to outsource your customer service function to a third party as an eCommerce business. Due to the continued boom in the retail industry, it has become more and more clear that the development, management, and scalability of a customer service offering are tasks that are best outsourced. Our objective here is to show you how to set up an outsourced customer service function that is tailored to the needs of e-commerce companies. It's time to get started.

eCommerce has the following unique features:
What is the purpose of outsourcing for an eCommerce business?
Effective customer service has to be geared towards the specific needs of a business in order for it to be successful. There are a number of unique factors that need to be considered when it comes to eCommerce businesses that should be taken into consideration:

The hours of operation for brick-and-mortar retail stores are usually posted, however eCommerce businesses are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Your customers are going to expect the same 24/7 availability from your customer service teams as well. The customer support team must work 24 hours a day so that they can provide full service capabilities to your customers.
With eCommerce, you are probably selling products to a variety of geographies. These customers may speak different languages, and they may operate within different cultural frameworks.

In other words, you would need to have a customer service function that is capable of accommodating these differences in language and culture. You should therefore have a flexible team of skilled professionals who can match your customer demographics to your products and services.
Digital-first: eCommerce customers are already using their computers to interact with your brand, and they will likely go directly to your website when something goes wrong.

Although it is not possible to ignore traditional phone support, you should make sure that you also provide live chat and email support options (or even a chatbot) for customers to get answers to immediate questions online.
If you have a customer that buys online, they haven't had any face-to-face interactions with your brand and are paying for something that they haven't seen and haven't yet experienced.

It means that in most cases, engagement with a customer service representative is the only human interaction your customers will have with your brand. Ensure that their concerns are taken seriously and that their experience is seamless, positive, and quick.
In both eCommerce and brick-and-mortar retail, there will be plenty of overlap between the customer service functions. In order to build a successful outsourcing strategy, it is important to keep these unique factors in mind and build your strategy accordingly. I will elaborate on four key points that you should know about before moving forward. They are as follows:

1. The importance of omnichannel customer service cannot be overstated
In the world of online shopping, there is no such thing as one size fits all. Each customer and each inquiry is different. Having a wide range of channel options is essential to providing high quality customer service (live chat, chatbots, email, phone support, social media) - especially when engaging with clients who have already been in contact with your brand online.

It does not come as a surprise, then, that establishing a customer service function in-house that is capable of operating across an omnichannel strategy is not only expensive, but time-consuming as well. For example, you have to hire the appropriate staff, train them and provide them with the necessary materials in order for them to provide exceptional customer service across email, phone, live chat and chatbots (for example). When you outsource your customer service function, you gain access to a group of experts that has extensive experience working across many different channels and can be accessed quickly, scalable and flexible. Basically, you can focus on growing your e-commerce business while they focus on serving your customers in an exceptional way.

However, it is still important to know your customer so that you can offer them the best service. In general, older customers prefer phone support (51% of Baby Boomers jump straight on the phone when they have a problem), while younger audiences are looking for text-based support and quick response times. As a result, phone support remains to be the number one choice for overall support.

Customers' preferred channels of communication are shown in the following graph
The most important thing is to make sure that communication between these channels is as easy as possible. Multi-channel options shouldn't be the end of flexibility. It is expected that 71% of customers will be able to transition seamlessly between a chatbot and a phone call without having to repeat themselves. It is important to note that outsourcing omnichannel customer service offers that continuity - and allows customers to switch seamlessly from one channel to another.

It is possible to resolve small problems, such as checking a delivery schedule or resetting a password, using online channels. The truth is, even an online store needs phone support for more serious issues, or for customers who prefer that method of contact.

2. A priority should be given to self-service
I am a big fan of the self-service options. The advantages of these are that you are able to keep costs under control and cater to the needs of customers who would prefer not to speak to a live person directly. The nature of e-commerce makes self-service a particularly useful option, as a customer service option that is self-service, apart from being more cost-effective and easier to set up, is also easier to scale. Regardless of how much of your customer service offerings you outsource to a third party, establishing essential self-service options is a key step to building a comprehensive and exhaustive customer service offering.

There are a number of things that every online shop should provide, at least in part:

There is a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page on the website. It is the expectation of customers to be able to find simple answers to questions such as order status, returning products, and requesting a price themselves.
Documents pertaining to onboarding complex products. As a result, customers will no longer need to call our customer service team for help.

A proactive approach that attempts to prevent problems before they arise. A good example of this would be if you are setting up your website to automatically offer a live chat or phone call option to your customers once they have searched through the FAQ for some time.
The steps outlined above can be taken as a series of simple, easy steps that you can implement with your outsourced customer service efforts in order to guarantee your customers have a seamless and enjoyable purchasing experience, from prospect to purchase to review.

3. Make sure you are prepared to scale
It is important for online businesses to be aware that demand can change rapidly. Ensure that you analyze your previous sales statistics from previous years to determine what is causing the demand to change - for example, is the demand seasonal or due to other factors that you can track? Outsourcing your fulfilment and customer service will provide you with flexibility with regards to fulfillment and customer service.

How to scale up a business
The growth of an eCommerce business can often be very rapid. You will need to consider how you will assemble an in-house team of customer service representatives who can handle increased demand without slowing down the response time. It's not realistic to expect this to be the case. It would be unlikely for your business to be able to fluctuate the level of staff directly in response to fluctuations in demand.

Imagine that you have built your own Customer Service team and you have 5 permanent employees. What happens when demand triples around Christmas and you cannot afford, both time-wise and financially, to lose one of the agents while the 3 new agents are being trained.

The good news is that if you deploy an outsourced customer service strategy, your chosen provider will be able to augment your team with extra members within hours, sometimes even within minutes.

Many eCommerce businesses are looking to outsource to customer service partners because they want to scale and be flexible, these are just two of the reasons why they are doing this. In the next section, we will be discussing the pros and cons of outsourcing vs. in-house customer service.

4. Don't forget that customer service isn't just about solving problems
A great customer experience is the key to providing great customer service. In order to achieve a great customer experience, we have a user-friendly website and high quality products. The quality of our products and timely delivery are also at the top of our list. You might, for example, inform the customer in advance if you realize that you will be late or that the product will not be as anticipated.

This already important element of customer service is elevated by the "trust factor" in eCommerce (the fact that the customer pays for items that they haven't even seen yet in person). You may want to consider offering generous return policies, investing in quick delivery, and ensuring that you deliver on your promises. A good customer service experience is detrimental to the growth of your business. There is a high probability that your customers will continue to use your products, and they will recommend your brand to others.

Stats and insights on ToF's essential customer service trends

In order to find a good outsourcing partner, you need to look at the following:
Can you tell me a little bit about how you work out what is right for you and your business?
In order to implement an outsourced customer service strategy, eCommerce businesses have a variety of options to choose from. The right choice may not exist, nor will there be a one-size-fits-all solution. However, you should take this decision seriously.

Outsourcing on-demand versus outsourcing on a fixed contract
It can be argued that both of these options stem from an outsourced approach to customer service.

This refers to the ultimate scalable customer service offered by the most on-demand outsourcing system available
Outsourcing contracts with strict terms and conditions: These refer to contracts that do not vary with regard to the number and specialization of the customer service representatives, the number and combination of the channels covered and more.

In the end, fixed contract outsourcing is as restrictive as it seems on the surface. In fact, from a flexibility standpoint, it offers you nothing more than using an in-house customer service operating model. The point is that neither offers flexibility or scalability in the real world. You will find that in both cases, your customer service function will be linked to the way you predict demand. Regardless whether you take your customer service in-house or outsource it but on a fixed contract basis, you can be assured that your CS requirements will be unmatched. There are several reasons why in-house teams and fixed contract outsourced teams are unable to deliver the kind of flexible capacity that is needed to match the resources to the requirements of the business.

We typically see the highest levels of customer inquiries during the holiday season, when we see up to a 75% increase in customer queries. You cannot expect the same level of customer service all year round, so you do not need to rely on it. You can scale your customer service on a demand-based basis to match demand and cultivate customer satisfaction by outsourcing your customer service on an on-demand basis.

You need to invest in quality - onshore vs. offshore
In order to answer the “offshore question,” both in-house and outsourced options have to provide solutions. There is often a confusion between outsourcing and offshoring, yet the two are actually quite different, and offshoring is a cost-saving move that can be implemented inside (or outside) of the outsourcing context.

The benefits of outsourcing to an offshore location include:
Despite the fact that having your customer service function off-shore will certainly reduce your operating costs (by taking advantage of lower overseas wages), we do not consider it to be a wise choice. In general, cutting corners in eCommerce comes at the expense of quality, and the importance of good customer service means that cutting corners can be a mistake.

An example of this is that the inability to understand a customer service representative is rated as one of the most frustrating parts of dealing with customer services. It will result in longer-term value if you choose a quality onshore provider.

Among the advantages of outsourcing onshore are:
Economies of scale and specialisation enable offshore outsourcing providers to offer excellent customer experiences on demand, taking advantage of economies of scale and specialisation. Even if onshore outsourcing is more expensive than offshore outsourcing, it is generally less expensive than the cost of building your own infrastructure. We recommend that if you are considering outsourcing, you do so with a partner that is located onshore.

The following information is being made public: Odondo is an onshore customer service provider. If you would like advice tailored to your specific needs, please contact us.

Service centers distributed throughout the country
In this digital age, we are living through a revolution of "work-from-home" work, therefore agility and flexibility have never been more important. However, in the field of customer service, this shift had already begun a long time ago. As a result of moving away from the traditional call center and service center, the adoption of a distributed network of WFH agents brings with it a number of significant benefits:

There is no doubt that 70% of workers would prefer to work from home rather than in an office. By allowing employees to work from home, the company is not limited by geographical location, and the distributed service centres can recruit higher quality agents with more experience, allowing them to provide better customer service.
It is possible to hire a broader range of agents with WFH's flexibility since it allows a variety of agents to work in the call centre who might not have considered it in the past. It includes retired people, people with disabilities, and parents who are staying at home with their children. Therefore, you will be able to engage with the right skills and demographics that are in a position to meet your customers' needs in a more flexible manner.

Reduced costs: A distributed approach to call centers removes a number of overheads (rent, office amenities, etc.), helping you to reduce your overall cost. On top of that, it becomes much easier to scale and dynamically dialup and dialdown resources according to requirements.
Flexible on-demand service: By redistributing your CS reps and embracing the WFH environment, you are able to operate with agility. Your reps will be able to work from the comfort of their own homes and set their own hours to suit both their needs and yours.

It is possible to operate a distributed call centre either within the organization or through an outsourced partner - but both scenarios bring benefits.

It's also important to note that there are a number of operational challenges to overcome when implementing a distributed call center. Quality control, management, training, security, and infrastructure support are just a few examples. It would be a mistake to underestimate the importance of these aspects when building a capability in-house.

Don't forget to put your customers' needs first
The purpose of customer service is not just to solve a problem, but to take care of the entire journey of the customer. Excellent customer service should permeate every aspect of a company's business model. You should remember that 86% of customers expect good customer service when doing business with you. Excellent customer service can be used by a brand to attract and retain loyal customers by providing them with exceptional customer service.

A customer may only have one human interaction with your eCommerce brand when they talk to a customer service agent. So make sure it's a good one.

by Costi

The 5 Reasons Why Every Ecommerce Store Needs Live Chat

When you're shopping at your favorite shoe store, you want to find your size in a pair of boots that caught your attention, but you're not able to find it. You wonder: do they have them in stock at the moment? And if they don't, are they going to make half-sizes available as well?

Trying to find a helpful member of staff isn't working, since there is no one around. You only find a plaque on the wall that says you can reach a representative by calling a phone number on the wall. While you could do that, it seems to be a lot of effort for a simple question to be asked.

As a result, you begin to wonder, “Do I really want these boots?””””

As a result, eventually you decide that it wasn't meant to be and leave without buying anything.

If you don't have live chat on your ecommerce website, this is exactly what will happen to your website. In most cases, customers are not going to wait around for an email response or in a phone queue to ask a question about the product that they are considering. Customers will leave your store if they are unable to get a quick answer to their questions.

Live chat has five major advantages for ecommerce stores when it comes to customer service

You don't need live chat for your ecommerce site, but if you're still not convinced, take a look at these five ways live chat helps your store drive sales.

1. You can save both you and your customers a lot of time by using live chat

It has been reported that 73% of customers feel that a company that values their time is the most important part of good customer service. That's right: good customer service isn't about providing a free shipping service, making returns quick and easy, or being nice – it's about not wasting the customers' time.

It is one of the most efficient ways to respect your customers' time by offering them live chat support. It enables your customers to get answers without ever leaving their shopping experience, and it does not require them to get on the phone or wait for someone to respond to an email.

In addition to saving time for your company, live chat can save you money as well. By using the system, customer service representatives can serve multiple customers at the same time, making their work more efficient.

2. Live chat gives customers the opportunity to ask questions before they become hesitant

Customers who are looking for an answer to a question but are unable to find it right away are likely to hesitate before making a purchase. The questions quickly turn into doubts once they cannot find the answer.

Let's say your customers have a question about shipping costs to their city, but there is nowhere for them to get an answer while they are on your website. Whether or not the shopper feels confident that the shipping costs will be reasonable, the shopper may start to doubt if the purchase is worth the cost of shipping.

When will my order for an item be delivered if I order it today?

Is there a special deal I can get if I buy more than one item at a time?

Can I get a free sample from you?

Live chat can also be used to address other common types of questions such as:

Is the information about my credit card secure?

Can you tell me how true to size this item is?

In the event that I am not satisfied with this product, will I be able to return it?

A customer may lose momentum within the purchasing process, even if a team member responds to an email query within a few hours of receiving it. If you had been able to answer those queries in real-time, it would have taken a lot less effort to get that shopper to want to come back to your store.

Live chat gives customers a chance to get answers as soon as possible, so they can continue shopping in confidence.

3. Customers' communications are kept on brand with live chat

When your ecommerce website features live chat, the customer experience is seamless since it is incorporated directly into your website.

As live chat is a written communication, it allows you to continue the conversation you started on your website without requiring your customers to change their mindset. You can instruct your live chat representatives to respond in the same tone of voice as your website as a whole.

The other forms of customer service entail customers making a phone call or sending an email from a separate "contact us" page, which takes them out of the careful customer experience you've created through your website.

4. With live chat, you can gain valuable insights into how your customers behave

Live chat allows you to ask customers for feedback immediately after they have solved their problem within the chat - this is more convenient for the customers than a follow-up phone call or email survey.

Furthermore, since it happens in real-time, there is no delay - which is why positive feelings from a helpful phone or email support interaction can decay over time. This way, you are capitalizing on the momentum of a good interaction that has just happened.

5. You can humanize your ecommerce store by using live chat

There is a friendly chat window that offers instant support from a real person, which makes it feel more like being in a physical store than just having a number customers can call or an email address they can use to contact someone.

Live chat can also be programmed to appear in the form of a friendly “How may I be of assistance?””” query, mimicking the experience in traditional stores. (Bonus tip: You should take advantage of the opportunity to be human by instructing your representatives to have genuine conversations - for example, make sure they do not sound like robots.)

by Costi

8 Strategies To Skyrocket Customer Loyalty In The E-commerce Sector

Then you have built your ecommerce store using some of the best tools on the market. You have uploaded some products, and you have even managed to make some sales.

You probably know this, but here's some news to let you know: Your work is far from over.

In the midst of those initial sales, you are actually at a critical point in your business in terms of making sure those customers make repeat purchases at your online store.

Several studies and trend reports have shown, after all, that up to 80% of your business' profits can be attributed to 20% of repeat customers and/or returning customers. A surprising fact is that only 32% of business owners admit they place a priority on retaining their customers.

It is not necessary for you to be the same. It is possible to keep your customers for a long time if you are serious about doing so. The purpose of this blog post is to provide you with the eight most effective strategies you can use to build loyalty among ecommerce customers.

The following are eight effective ways to reward your customers for their loyalty in ecommerce

Have you decided to take the first step in getting more loyal customers for your business? Here are eight strategies that can help you do just that.

1. Put customer service at the top of the list

As a way to meet customers halfway, businesses should invest in customer service as a way to ensure that they are meeting their needs. In order to have a successful customer service team, you'll need to develop a few different skills, including patience, empathy, clear communication, among others.

The power of a customer's interaction with your company shouldn't be underestimated. We know for sure that a little more than half of customers say they aren't likely to do business with a merchant after having a bad experience, ensuring that we are dealing with people who are willing to talk about their experience online.

Despite the fact that you may not be able to prevent every negative brand encounter that occurs in your business, good customer service can be the point of intervention that can help you placate customers or fix any problems that might have arisen.

2. Personalize the content and recommend products based on the customer's preferences

A personalized experience shows that your brand is relevant to your customers' lives and aims, so it makes sense that customers pay attention to brands who seem to provide the best content and products for them.

A study by Tolleson Business reveals that a majority of consumers were willing to pay a premium if they were offered personalized services, and more than half have expressed that they did not mind trading personal information such as names and emails as long as they received personalized content.

You should be able to recommend products to your customers based on what you know about them: their tastes, their preferences, their previous purchases, etc. Using this information you can also use it to send them free resources and content - such as blog posts and videos - that show that you have knowledge of what they are looking for.

3. Give exclusive perks, such as discounts and free shipping, to your customers

The best way to reward your customers is by offering them exciting perks like coupon codes or free shipping vouchers. This tactic also helps to encourage repeat purchases or to increase the average order value of online store shoppers by encouraging repeat purchases.

You are going to want to take care not to give away these perks too frequently; in the event that they do receive them, you want them to be extremely excited about it.

You might be able to offer these discounts several times a year, depending on what you sell, to encourage repeat purchases, as doing so is common in the case of retail stores.

If you sell subscription-based services, you might be able to entice existing customers by offering them perks such as discounts on early renewals.

4. Give them an insight into your business that they will not be able to get anywhere else

There is nothing more enjoyable than getting to know a brand beyond the products or services that it offers. If you show customers different sides of your business and brand, you can effectively let them know that your business is not just about making sales.

This is where a great content marketing strategy can come in handy. You can use this platform to give value to your customers in various ways, including high-value educational posts and exclusive sneak peeks inside the day-to-day operations of your business.

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5. Design a customer loyalty program that is irresistible to customers

If you have an incentivized customer loyalty program, then you can kick start the process of obtaining customer loyalty. You can first encourage new customers to visit your store again, then give them an irresistible gift or perk that they can work toward.

As part of their e-commerce strategy, several brands utilize a point-based system as part of their marketing strategy. From every purchase they make on their account, the customer earns points, which she or he can use later as credit for her next purchase or for exclusive products from the brand.

6. Create a retargeting ad campaign in order to retarget potential customers

It may be useful to give a gentle nudge to a customer who was browsing your site and spending time looking at a few products on other platforms, including social media.

Occasionally, users are simply unable to check out items from your store or plan to return at a later time.

Advertising online using this method also keeps up with the trend of personalizing content and campaigns: By the very fact that customers are already looking at these products, you know that they are showing some level of interest in them.

7. Send abandoned cart emails to them to follow up with them

The average abandonment rate in ecommerce stores is estimated to be up to 79% according to current reports.

Even though there can be several reasons why a user may decide to abandon a cart - from losing interest in the products or simply forgetting to check out - it does not hurt to remind them of what they had been about to purchase.

A gentle reminder to your customers in the form of an email can be an excellent way to let them know that you would not want them to miss out on a great product they were considering.

8. Provide multiple communication channels

You make it easier for customers to send feedback, comments, or queries by providing them with a variety of ways to contact you.

Ensure that you are accessible via email, phone, or social media. Take advantage of live chat as a customer service touchpoint if you have the resources.

It's important to remember: Customers will have a better experience with your brand if they are able to reach you easily. You will need to provide your customers with as many positive brand experiences as you can if you want to increase their loyalty.

Loyalty programs for online retailers

Sales and marketing are never-ending processes for business owners, but it helps if your customers remain loyal to you for a long time.

To help you keep, nurture, and even equip customers to be lifelong fans of your brand, combine the strategies above with your other marketing efforts like social media campaigns and outreach campaigns.

by Costi

Ecommerce merchants: 7 retention marketing strategies 

The goal of retention marketing is to engage current customers so that they are more likely to buy from you again and tell others about your business. In contrast, acquisition marketing involves acquiring new leads and converting them into customers.

SuperOffice surveyed customers to find out the top three reasons why they leave companies:

The company isn't interested in them, they believe.

They are unhappy with the service provided by the company.

A competitor lures them away.

It's easy to understand why an effective customer service strategy as well as a nurturing process are essential to retention marketing.

Here are some key tactics you can use to increase your online store's customer retention rates.

7 key retention marketing tactics for ecommerce merchants

Adopt these seven effective retention marketing tactics to create a customer retention strategy and increase customer loyalty.

1. Plan your communication schedule

Communication calendars differ from editorial calendars in that they tell you when and what to do to keep in touch with customers.

Sending postcards or surprises to loyal customers may be within your reach according to your company's budget, but emailing is often the most cost-efficient way to communicate.

After a customer's first purchase, it is imperative that they remain in touch with the company. People who shop online check their email inboxes frequently to see if any new discounts or specials have been announced by their favorite stores.

Your ecommerce store needs to build a list and use email marketing to stay competitive. Email marketing has yet to prove it can outperform other platforms when it comes to making a sale, particularly.

Beyond allowing you to encourage repeat purchases, email marketing can improve your relationship with your customers.

According to a study by Accenture, 33 percent of customers who abandoned a business relationship last year did so due to a lack of personalization. Thus, please segment customers according to their demographics, preferences, and interests.

You can send the following types of email to your list to keep customers engaged:

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Business updates.

Creating campaigns and promos they'll love.

Content available only to subscribers.

Your upcoming launches: a behind-the-scenes look.

Lookbooks, inspiration, and product showcases.

2. Track the right metrics

Your retention marketing efforts will be more successful if you monitor the right metrics. The following metrics are worth paying attention to:

The repeat purchase rate tells you how many customers have bought from your brand more than once.

The customer lifetime value (CLV) reveals how much revenue your company earns from one loyal customer after they become a repeat buyer, similar to the repeat purchase rate.

Visitors who return to your website - Knowing the number of returning visitors can help you determine how often your brand is being engaged with. A return visitor may indicate a non-customer who is likely to make a purchase - or a returning customer who wishes to make another purchase.

3. Prioritize customer service

According to a study by Aberdeen group, businesses that provide consistent customer service quality across multiple channels stand a better chance of retaining 89% of their customers. A customer who failed to provide consistent customer service quality could only retain about 33% of customers.

Creating a customer service guidebook or playbook that explains how to handle a variety of scenarios will help you keep customer service high-performing. In addition to frequently asked questions, this playbook may include recurring requests, such as refunds and exchanges.

Additionally, it is of utmost importance that your customers are able to contact you easily. When needed, this might mean being accessible through email, social media, or even by phone.

Make sure all your social media profiles, website, and product pages clearly display your contact information. Make sure it's in a prominent place so it's easy to find.

4. Mobile-optimize your website

It might be impossible for your customers to buy from you if your ecommerce store isn't mobile-friendly. The mobile experience plays an important role in retaining customers, so be sure to use themes and tools that allow you to customize it for mobile.

Consider making your online store available as a mobile app. Your customers can be met where they are with a dedicated app that gives them a seamless experience.

5. Make return options flexible

It might not be possible for your online store to have pop-up stores or physical locations your customers can visit. As a result, customers cannot try on or handle your products to determine their quality or texture.

Make sure you have a flexible return policy so your customers feel comfortable purchasing from you. Give them as many options as possible. Make these policies easily accessible so that customers can review them before making a purchase.

6. With an irresistible lead magnet, you can convince non-clients to join your list

You can keep users engaged and make them return to your site over and over again if you provide a unique way to register and create an account on your site.

If you want them to sign up and sign in, consider offering them some exclusive, high-value perks. Could you offer them member-only virtual meetups or webinars - or perhaps additional features such as wishlist items or access to lookbooks for members only?

7. Let your customers know what you're doing

Does your business have a cause that's close to your heart? Perhaps your customers do as well.

We've noticed a shift in customers' expectations of brands in the past few years. Just having great products isn't enough anymore. We must do good as well as have great products.

When you support causes you are passionate about as an ecommerce merchant, your brand becomes more meaningful to consumers.

Let your customers know how you're supporting the causes that you believe in as a company.

This is exactly what Patagonia does. In their corporate mission statement, they state that they aim to create long-lasting, sustainable products that consumers can use for years on end. Fast fashion and consumerism commonly blamed for wastefulness and environmental decay are not what their business is all about.

Their Don't Buy The Jacket campaign was their most successful campaign, which encouraged consumers to think twice about buying their products - a bold move, but rooted in a cause to reduce wasteful fashion purchases.

Retaining customers for the long haul

It is common for many businesses to treat customer retention as an afterthought, but this shouldn't be the case for you. Utilize the steps above to develop an effective retention marketing strategy for your ecommerce store, and watch your business grow for years to come.

by Costi

What Are The 10 Most Important Benefits Of Live Chat You Should Know

Furthermore, you may be familiar with the fact that even though live chat and instant messenger applications (such as Facebook and Twitter) do share some similarities - for example, they both allow you to chat and transfer files - these platforms have distinct differences as well.

However, what you may not know is that live chat can provide significant benefits to your business in comparison to other communication methods, such as email, phone support, instant messenger services, etc.

The purpose of this blog post is to explore the reasons why live chat is a must-have tool for your business, as well as the key benefits of live chat software. This article will take a quick look at some of the biggest advantages that live chat has to offer:

Reduced the company's operating costs

In the past, companies have traditionally offered phone support to their customers as a means of reaching out to them. However, this can be incredibly costly, both in terms of toll charges and man hours.

A live chat service costs about the same as a quality email provider. In addition, it is much cheaper than phone support. In fact, studies conducted by Forrester Research show that live chat customer service is 17-30% cheaper than a phone call.

There are many reasons for this, but most importantly, live chat enables your agents or team members to multitask and assist several visitors at the same time. The average live chat agent, with proper training, is able to handle three to five simultaneous chats at any one time.

Chat concurrency, a benefit of live chat, is a way for companies to cut their personnel costs, by allowing small teams of live chat agents to serve the same number of customers as a large team of customer service agents.

Increase in sales

A series of studies has repeatedly shown that live chat increases sales - and companies are reaping the rewards as a result. It has been shown that live chat can drive between 3x and 5x more conversion and deliver as much as 6000% return on investment. The report also mentions that customers that use live chat are three times more likely to make a purchase than those that don't.

It is clear from these numbers that live chat is a very effective tool to make sales and generate leads. Due to the fact that visitors can instantly access your support staff and your sales team (and vice versa) when using live chat, your team has many more opportunities to turn your visitors into paying clients or customers.

Increased customer loyalty and improved customer service

Consider the eDigital Customer Service Benchmark survey of 2000 consumers as a way of getting a better understanding of how much customers appreciate being able to access live chat. The study found that live chat had the highest satisfaction levels with 73% of customers, as opposed to only 61% for email support and only 44% for traditional phone support.

Benefits of live chat - high satisfaction rate

When you see statistics like these, it's easy to see why customers return to businesses that offer live chat. When a company makes support easy, seamless, and instantaneous, customers can feel more confident about doing business with them. Oracle conducted a study of its customers, and the results showed 90% of them said the "Live Chat" button gives them confidence that they can get help is they require it.

You can use live chat to give your customers quick answers to questions about your products, solve problems faster, and show them you are ready to assist them at any time. This is a simple, but very effective, way of improving both customer service and loyalty to your company.

Finding out what the customer's pain points are

Several new business terms have evolved as a result of the Internet Revolution and digital marketing, one of them being "pain points". In this context, a pain point is a problem that a customer is experiencing that has not been addressed, or a need that has not been met.

The problem with traditional support systems, such as email or phone calls, is that it can sometimes be difficult to identify the pain points of your customers, since the issues may only come into the ears of one specific team or individual.

With live chat, however, administrators and supervisors have full access to all history of all chats, which can be sorted, searched, and filtered, so they can understand what the customers' pain points are.

So management can easily discover the problems or needs of their customers and come up with ways of addressing and resolving these problems. Using live chat as a tool is one of the most valuable solutions available today.

Faster Resolutions to Problems

Knowledge bases and help articles are excellent ways for companies to offer support to their customers and to solve problems for them. There is a possibility, however, that if you have many of these documents or help articles online, your clients may have a difficult time finding and using them.

With live chat, agents have the option of providing users with links to help and training documents quickly via the chat window. The purpose therefore is to reduce the time spent by agents on troubleshooting and resolution procedures by speaking directly with visitors instead of having them walk through step-by-step procedures.

As a result, even the most difficult of problems to troubleshoot can be solved in an efficient way and on the spot with screen-sharing capabilities.

There is nothing you can do with phone support in this regard. This is a set of features that can be extremely helpful to agents and businesses in helping resolve customer problems in a very efficient fashion.

Live chat software with powerful features

Your customers and agents will love the real-time, personalized, efficient support you will provide them at 1/3 the cost of voice support.

Convenience for the customer

It's important to keep in mind that at the end of the day, whether or not your business is successful will be determined by the overall quality of your product or service. However, how easy and convenient is it for your customer service to get in touch with you? This might be a close second.

You can provide your visitors with instant access to salespeople and support staff through live chat on your website. Your visitors will be more satisfied with your company as a vendor and a reliable source of valuable knowledge and support if they can easily contact you with any questions or problems that they may have.

Compared to other methods of communication, live chat has clearly been rated as the preferred method of communicating for online shoppers according to a report by Aberdeen Group.

You can find out more about the report by downloading it here. In the report, you'll discover that live chat makes it easy for your customers to do business with you, which typically leads to them increasing their loyalty and spending. It also results in better reviews being posted on the likes of Amazon, Yelp, and other sites, all of which can help you attract new customers as well.

As a result of another study conducted by Econsultancy, it reveals that customers value being able to use live chat without having to invest a lot of time and attention into doing it. The report states that over half of the customers prefer live chat for multitasking purposes, with another 21% preferring it so they can browse and shop at the same time. With the advancement of technology, people are becoming more accustomed to convenience, and what is convenient is in many ways what drives us as consumers and as individuals.

Advantages and competitiveness of the company

What are the competitive advantages of live chat in terms of customer service?

There is a recent report published by TELUS International that found that many major companies still do not have live chat systems available on their website. The reality is that a recent study of 1,000 websites found that only 9% of the sites use live chat for customer support in real-time to provide them with help in real-time.

The bottom line is that if you opt to install live chat software on your site(s) - and you should - chances are good that you will stand out from your competition in terms of accessibility to a friendly, real-time support representative. It is also going to be easier for you to interact with your website visitors proactively and make more sales, capturing customers before your competitors do.

The number of U.S. online shoppers using live chat has increased from 38% to 58% over the past five years (Forrester), which indicates that every year, more and more companies are implementing this solution in order to meet this growing demand. Additionally, millennials prefer live chat, and as this group of people gains spending power, many companies are scrambling to gain their favor.

For that reason, if you want to fully differentiate your business from that of your competitors - and the opportunity to grow your business as a result - the time to implement live chat on your site is now and not in the future. Check out some of the best practices you can implement when you add live chat to your website.

Expand the market reach of your products and services

In case you are like most business owners, your shop or office is probably not flooded with visitors who drive or fly from great distances to make purchases or request services. Customers and clients like to do business with companies that they have quick and easy access to, as this is what consumers and clients prefer.

There is no doubt that the Internet helps you reach a far wider audience that extends beyond your local area, but just having a website does not necessarily mean your visitors will feel comfortable placing an order there. With the help of a live chat function on your website, even customers who are located thousands of miles away from your physical location can make inquiries or arrange purchases as soon as they get to your site. Among them are international customers, who may not be able to reach your company over the phone because of the high international dialing rates.

With live chat, you are able to expand your market reach in areas you might not have thought were possible. Therefore, in the event you receive an inquiry from a person on the other side of the world, you can be sure that you will greet the person with the same warmth and consideration that you would someone who pays a visit to your office or shop.

Outreach that takes a proactive approach

It cannot be overstated how important it is that your visitors and customers have the ability to reach you instantly through live chat. But what makes live chat the most powerful tool for your business is the proactive outreach capabilities that it provides.

It is true that your website visitors are able to contact you by clicking the chat button on your website at any time, but better live chat systems allow your agents to do the same thing.

Live chat systems in today's market not only allow agents to receive chat requests, but also to initiate them if they so desire. In addition to sophisticated monitoring and tracking features, live chat platforms can send agents alerts when visitors arrive on their websites and provide valuable information that they can use to initiate conversations.

A chat request from a customer service agent can be sent either manually or automatically based on pre-defined rules. Taking advantage of proactive chat initiations like this can help visitors find the information they need faster and potentially convert more browsers into customers.

Data and Analytics Reports

You have an audit trail of all the emails sent between you and your customers or individuals who make inquiries, and that provides you with a limited level of accountability and the capability to evaluate the performance of your staff.

However, you may find it difficult to review staff performance if you do not have enough time to record all the calls and listen to at least some of the conversations when it comes to phone support.

In addition to the ability to view all kinds of custom reports, you also have the ability to view the chat histories of your agents through quality live chat providers.

You have the opportunity to keep track of a wide range of visitor metrics, such as the number of visitors to your site, the number of chat requests accepted or ignored, and an array of other metrics that will allow you to better implement marketing strategies to draw more traffic to your site.

You can also get valuable insights into the performance of your agents by using live chat analytics. If you combine visitor data with chat history, agent performance reports, wait time reports, and even more, you have a powerful combination that allows you to monitor agent performance, adjust staffing, and adjust training as necessary.

by Costi