In customer service, data isn't just numbers—it's your north star guiding strategic decisions.
How we approach customer service is changing rapidly. Staying abreast of the latest trends and leveraging the right customer service statistics can be the difference between stagnation and contact center transformation.
Consider this:
US companies lose a staggering $75 billion yearly due to poor customer service[31]
This is just one of many statistics supporting a focus on customer service improvements in 2024 and highlighting the money left on the table due to poor customer experiences.
But where there's challenge, there's opportunity.
Only 25% of call centers have successfully integrated automation into their daily operations [45]
This 75% gap represents major untapped potential for those ready to embrace AI innovation strategically.
Yet, amidst the AI revolution, the human element still remains paramount to exceptional customer service.
76% of employees report higher engagement when experiencing empathy from their leaders [34]
Happy, engaged, and well trained frontline employees are the backbone of exceptional customer service.
After all, it isn't all about how we can make more money in 2024, it's also about where we can save more money. Saving is synonymous with revenue.
Take for example agent attrition.
Replacing a single agent can cost upwards of $10,000 (22)
And that is just the dollar cost. Losing those rockstar agents that deliver exceptional customer service brings us further away from improving customer experiences that will drive brand loyalty in 2024.
Adopting strategies that engage and retain superb talent should be at the heart of your business decisions moving forward.
But these statistics are just the tip of the iceberg.
We've compiled the most relevant customer service statistics for 2024, covering:
Armed with the latest customer service statistics, you'll be better equipped to craft data-driven service strategies, elevate customer satisfaction, boost employee performance, and make tech investments that deliver real ROI in 2024 and beyond.
Customer Service Statistics on Customer Expectations
(1)45% of consumers want their issues resolved in the first interaction.
(2)80% of customers feel that a company's experience is as essential as its products and services.
(3) Customers these days are now looking for solutions to their problems instantly. Almost half of all customers (46%) want companies to reply to their queries faster than 4 hours. Only 12% of customers expect a response within 15 minutes or less.
(4) Customer expectations over the years have been spread across the following areas: Speed of response (63%), Speed of resolution (57%), Availability (49%), Knowledge and expertise (49%), Politeness and empathy (43%).
(5)68% of millennials will be more comfortable using self-service for general issues.
(6)11% of consumers want to see responses to their reviews within the same day. Meanwhile, 34% are okay with a response within 2 to 3 days.
(7)80% of consumers expect to interact with an agent when they contact a company.
(8) Solving issues without a customer service representative is bliss for customer service representatives. 59% of customers of all generations feel the same.
(9)80% of customers expect chat agents and support agents to assist them with everything they need.
(10)99% of customers feel more comfortable with a human assisting to resolve their issues.
(11)87% of support teams believe customer service expectations reached new heights in 2023.
Customer Service Statistics on Unpleasant Customer Experiences
(12)2 negative experiences can lead to brand abandonment.
(14) One bad experience and customer will speak about it with friends and neighbors. 17% of the dissatisfied customers will discuss their interaction to raise awareness. Unhappy consumers tend to tell twice as many people about their negative experiences as satisfied customers do.
(15)30% of customers generally exit from the websites when they cannot find what they are looking for and eventually abandon shopping carts.
(16) In the US, online retail showcases the worst customer services in the retail sector (36%), followed by utilities/ service providers (33%) in the second spot and health insurance third (29%).
(17)32% of customers will leave a brand after just one bad experience.
Customer Service Statistics on Satisfactory Service
(18)50% of customers (including three-fifths of millennials) are okay paying extra for better customer service.
(19) Keeping your customers satisfied and providing high customer service will push 88% of customers to re-purchase. 75% of customers will even ignore the company's mistakes after receiving satisfactory customer service.
(20) A positive customer service experience can push 72% of customers to share this with six or more people.
(21)60% of consumers will likely repeat purchases after a personalized shopping experience.
Customer Service Statistics on Representative Impact
(22) Agent attrition is not just a headache; it's a costly one. Replacing a single agent can cost upwards of $10,000.
(23)50% of the inquiries that are assigned to the agents are automatically based on their skill set or other pre-decided rules.
(24)61% of C-level support executives feel more optimistic about AI enhancing their team's productivity than just a year ago.
(25) Customer support teams measure customer experience on the following parameters:
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score: 44% |
Feedback forms: 38% |
Online reviews and ratings: 30% |
Follow-up calls or emails: 30%
(26) A positive customer service experience can push 72% of customers to share this with six or more people.
(27) According to a Cornell University study, 87% of contact center agents said their job causes stress.
Customer Service Statistics for Leadership
(28) When asked to rate the level of emotional intelligence (EQ) in their organization, 42% of respondents perceived it as low (ratings of 1 and 2), while 35% rated it as high (ratings of 4 and 5). This suggests that while a significant portion of employees recognize a higher level of EQ within their organizations, a nearly equal percentage still see substantial room for improvement in developing emotional intelligence in their workplace.
(29) Only 12% of all customer journeys are contained in self-service, allowing leaders to improve the self-service experience.
(30) Companies can witness an increase of 10-15% in revenue by improving customer experience.
(31) US companies lose roughly $75 billion yearly due to poor customer service.
(32)68% of business leaders feel there is a direct correlation between employee enablement and business growth.
(33) The top 6 areas where CX leaders feel their customer support teams require improvement:
71% from eliminating manual or repetitive tasks |
64% improving customer experience |
55% improving support efficiency |
47% faster time to resolution |
44% boosting agent morale
(34)76% of employees who experienced empathy from their leaders reported they were engaged in the workplace.
(35)61% of employees said they could be more innovative if their leaders were high on EQ.
Customer Service Statistics on Future Investments
(36)40% of the companies are planning to invest in chatbots for their call centers.
(37) Over the next two years, nine out of 10 CX leaders will spend more on additional self-service capabilities to drive customers to conversational IVRs, interactive FAQs, or chatbots.
(38) By 2026, 42% of CX leaders foresee generative AI influencing voice-based interactions.
(39) Data protection and cyber security are top customer service security strategies for 83% of CX leaders.
(40) In 2024, 70% of C-level support execs plan to invest in AI.
(41) For support teams, the top areas to invest in 2024 are:
44% in chatbots |
42% in customer behavior analysis |
29% in Knowledge base enhancement
Customer Service Statistics on AI Technology Adoption
(42) By leveraging an AI-driven performance enablement tool, COX improved AHT by 3 seconds in the accounts department and by 49 seconds in the residential technical department, significantly contributing to streamlining customer interactions.
(43)One out of three decision-makers implementing AI highlights that forecasting consumer needs and providing personalized experiences is essential for driving ROI.
(44)79% of marketers feel that Generative AI will help businesses serve customers better.
(45) Only 25% of call centers agree that automation is integrated into their day-to-day operations, creating a balance between humans and AI in customer interactions.
(46)45% of custom support teams are already using AI.
(47) There has been a $22 billion increase in global gen AI market valuation compared to 2023.
(48) Almost half of support teams feel that customer service roles are evolving because of AI. 69% of C-level support executives perceive that roles are evolving, compared to 34% of support agents. While 43% of support agents think roles aren't evolving.
(49) As per 75% of support teams, traditional customer service metrics are changing due to developments in AI.
(50)88% of the call centers use AI-powered solutions in their call center for improving customer experience.
(51) The KPIs which are likely to evolve due to AI are:
CSAT: 38% |
Time to resolution: 31% |
Average handle time (AHT): 30% |
First response time: 29%
(52) Since 2020, voice/ text analytics use has significantly increased from 62% in 2020 to 81% in 2022.
(53)88% of executives said that call recording is the most adopted contact center technology.
Customer Service Statistics on Preferred Channels
(54)16.7% of businesses have integrated upcoming customer service channels, such as chatbots or video calls, into their contact centers.
(55) Only 7% of the contact centers offer multiple service channels that transition customers seamlessly between channels by providing data, history, and context to the following agent or system.
(56) Customers prefer phone calls (16%) and emails (16%) as preferred customer service channels for resolving general issues. However, phone calls (29%) are the preferred communication channel for complex issues.
(57) Only 53% reported that organizations are now developing customer service mobile apps. Indicating the least adopted form among the technologies.
Customer Service Statistics on Quality Control
(58)61% of the contact center agents shared that as a part of their QA programs, organizations measure all three metrics – customer-critical error accuracy, business-critical error accuracy, and compliance-critical error accuracy.
(59)49% of contact centers consider employee satisfaction as a top five KPI after customer satisfaction, response time, and quality assurance.
(60) A majority (76%) of call center agents agreed that companies nowadays try to understand the relationship between QA data and customer satisfaction for agents.
(61)35% of customer service agents agreed that maintaining support quality was crucial while scaling a team.
(62)92% of the contact center agents agreed that their organizations have a QA program in place.
Customer Service Statistics for Call Centers
(63) On average, the cost of a call at a contact center ranges between $2.70 and $5.60.
(64) In 2023, around 2.86 million people were employed in contact centers, a slight decline from 2022.
(65)61% of contact center leaders reported growth in the total number of calls handled by agents, which impacts contacts per customer and a growing customer base.
(66) According to estimates, the global call center market will be worth USD 29.44 billion in 2024 and grow to $47.57 billion by 2030.
(67) We all know that post-call surveys are standard practice for contact centers, but only 38.8% of centers ask customers to complete a survey after every contact.
Customer Service Statistics of General Interest
(68)49% of Gen Z find conversing with a contact center agent is too hard.
(69)80% of customer service companies will abandon native mobile apps by 2025 in favor of messaging to provide a better customer experience.
(70) Currently, two-thirds of workers are leveraging more communication and collaboration tools. On the contrary, 71% say these tools have made work more complex.
(71)82% of marketers agree that insights from inbound calls and call experiences can help translate costly blind spots.
Customer Service Statistics on the Service Recovery Paradox
(72) "When customers attribute a service failure to something beyond the company's control and see the company making sincere efforts to rectify the situation, they're more likely to respond positively to service recovery attempts."
(73) "When a company's service recovery efforts positively deviate from customers mental scripts, it can lead to increased satisfaction and loyalty."
(74) "When companies admit fault and take responsibility, it can alleviate customer anger and trigger feelings of guilt for their own negative reactions. This guilt can lead to increased satisfaction when the company then provides excellent service recovery."
(75) "All three types of justice, distributive, procedural, interactional significantly influence customer satisfaction and trust after a service recovery effort."
(76) "When a company's service recovery exceeds a customer's revised expectations, it can lead to higher satisfaction than if no service failure had occurred."
(77) "Effective service recovery can resolve the mental discomfort caused by a service failure, reinforcing the customer's positive view of the company and potentially strengthening their loyalty."
(78) "An exceptional and unexpected service recovery can create a memorable positive experience that stands out more in the customer's mind than routine good service."
(79) "When a company goes above and beyond to rectify a mistake, customers often feel compelled to reciprocate with increased loyalty and positive word-of-mouth."
(80) "81% of call center agents prefer to work from home (WFH), 16% like the hybrid model, and only 3% like physically going to the call center for work. "
Customer Service Quotes
Need a quick dose of inspiration for your customer service team or your next customer-centric piece? We've assembled a collection of our favorite quotes from top customer service leaders.
"When a customer complains, DO take it personally. Because at that moment, to that customer, you don’t represent yourself. You represent the company. Be the CEO of that moment. DO take it personally. Do take it professionally. Just DON’T take it home."
“The people who move fast will shape the customer service philosophies and strategies that get embedded in these tools that are only iterated on daily”
“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
— Bill Gates
“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”
— Jeff Bezos
“Advances in GenAI and shifting customer preferences are pushing service and support leaders to reimagine what’s possible for their organization in 2024.”
“Customer Support leaders need to be strategic and have the ability to think outside the box. They need to have a hunger to continue to develop their leadership skills as well as business acumen. They must be people-centric (not customer-centric).”
“I can’t stress how important it is for companies and their support teams to place themselves deep in their customers’ shoes, understand how their expectations are currently evolving, and provide support that is more human and relatable.”
"People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel."
— Maya Angelou
“AI makes support teams happier because it reduces the number of queries they have to handle, making their workload far more manageable. This means they can spend less time putting out fires and more time making customers’ lives better, which is far more rewarding”
"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."
— Sam Walton
Top 10 Tips to Improve Customer Service
Here are some easy tips that can help you improve your customer service game:
Push your team to listen attentively to customers' concerns and feedback without interrupting. This will help them better understand their needs.
Providing customers with a personalized experience shows that you value their individuality. Train your agents to address customers by name and customize responses to specific requirements whenever possible.
Your team should be fully equipped with the right technology stack to work efficiently throughout the day. Having efficient call center QA software will help ensure all customer interactions are compliant and positive, fostering a customer experience that builds loyalty.
Provide your contact center agents with effective coaching and training sessions to ensure they stay updated on product specifications and customer service best practices. Instead of having a unified training system for all your call center agents, invest in a data-driven platform to help you coach agents based on their current performance gaps.
Respond promptly to customer inquiries, messages, and feedback. Customers expect quick resolutions to their issues, so timely responses are crucial.
Train your agents to empathize with customers' concerns and reassure them that you're there to help find a solution.
To cater to customer preferences, offer various communication service channels like phone, email, chat, and social media. Ensure consistency in service quality across all channels.
Regularly seek feedback from customers about their interactions/ experiences with your service. This feedback is vital to identifying areas for improvement and making necessary adjustments.
Have a straightforward process for handling customer complaints. When possible, apologize sincerely, investigate the issue, and offer a solution that exceeds their expectations.
Recognize and reward employees who are outstanding at customer service. This will motivate them to maintain high standards and also create a productive work culture centered on customer satisfaction.
Customer Service Statistics FAQs
What are the most important customer service statistics to monitor in 2024?
In 2024, key customer service statistics cover customer expectations, trends in AI and technology, poor customer experiences, brand loyalty, and the impact of customer service representatives on customer experience.
Why is customer service so important?
Satisfied customers will continue purchasing with you, and good customer service will set your business apart from your competitors.
Customer service isn’t just about listening to your customers and valuing their input; it also improves your business performance and public perception.
Let’s understand how customer service is essential to your brand:
Retain loyal customers:
Good customer service is the linchpin of customer retention. Satisfied customers will return if they’re happy with the product or service. Retaining existing customers is more cost-effective (and even boosts revenue) than acquiring new ones.
Loyalty breeds commitment to your brand, reducing competition. Loyal customers consistently choose your business, driving repeat purchases. Rewards programs, discounts, and stellar service cultivate loyalty.
Generate organic referrals:
Word-of-mouth referrals are powerful endorsements. Exceptional customer service increases the likelihood of customers recommending your brand to their networks.
Finding referrals that convert into customers is incredible. However, note that bad referrals can create a negative reputation, ultimately driving away future customers in the long run.
Boost sales:
Efficient customer service will enhance sales by promptly addressing issues and making customers feel valued.
Nowadays, businesses should implement a practical customer service approach to boost sales. Try to make your customers feel special and appreciated by doing small things like quickly handling their queries/concerns.
Provide excellent customer service to incentivize repeat buyers and attract new customers. In the long run, this will help your brand to expand its reach and boost sales.
Increase up-sells of products/services:
With efficient customer service in place, companies can facilitate up-selling that will benefit your business and the customer. Satisfied customers are inclined to explore additional offerings or higher-priced options.
For instance, if you’re running a contact center for daily consumer goods and solving customer queries, you can train your agents to sell customers products with warranties.
Since customers trust the brand and use the product/service, they will consider purchasing the additional service offered. Hence, it creates a long-term relationship with the consumer.
Gain a competitive edge:
Efficient customer service sets your business apart from competitors offering similar products. Brands that prioritize customer support build enduring relationships, gaining a competitive advantage.
Continue to improve all aspects of customer service to stay ahead in the game.
Improve employee morale:
Customer satisfaction correlates with employee morale and happiness. When call center agents witness positive interactions, they alleviate stress and create a conducive work environment, benefiting employees and customers.
Building meaningful professional relationships creates confidence among both parties, while upset or dissatisfied customers can lead to employee stress and burnout.
How do customer service statistics impact business performance?
Customer service statistics provide data that enables your business to make informed decisions.
By analyzing trends and patterns in customer service statistics year over year, your company can pinpoint operational inefficiencies, allocate resources more effectively, and tailor services to meet customer needs.
Customer service statistics also serve as a feedback mechanism, offering insights into customer preferences and behaviors. Armed with this data, you can strategize improvements, enhance customer experiences, and ultimately, drive revenue growth.
Systematically tracking these statistics helps in setting realistic performance benchmarks and measuring the impact of any changes or improvements made.
Month over month gains in Issue Resolution, FCR and NPS; Month over month reductions in Handle times, ACW and Hold
👥 Winning additional client headcount
30% improvement in sales conversion
💪 Retaining talented people
8-point reduction in turnover
💰 Improving financial performance
10% increase in utilization
Summary
The future of success in your contact center is contingent on how you impact performance in ways that are both immediate and sustainable. And it doesn’t matter whether your agents are on-site, at-home, full-time, part-time, or temporary – you must deliver on performance.
Coaching is one of the most significant tools we can use to deliver on the engagement and performance of our people – but we must develop our processes, our people and leadership skills, and our technology tools, in order to overthrow the pervasive challenges to achieving greater coaching effectiveness and supercharging contact center performance!
Unlock the potential of your employees and skyrocket your ROI with cutting-edge coaching.
With over half a decade of research experience and a passion for storytelling, Mrigya is an expert at transforming trend data into engaging content. Her past experience in consulting for retail and automotive brands has helped her develop a deep understanding of customer experience, and she brings those learnings and unique perspectives into her content.
Mrigya has also worked with multiple CX and AI companies to develop well researched and engaging articles, ebooks, and white-papers. When not writing, Mrigya creates travel and lifestyle content for her Instagram page, which has more than 25,000 followers.