Customer Service Stats Every Small Business Should Know

Running a small business is challenging in many ways, which often makes it difficult to prioritize customer service. However, regardless of your industry, good customer service is essential. Today it goes by many names – customer support, relations, and even care – so it’s important to remember that true customer service includes every aspect of a person’s experience with your brand. Your approach should always be proactive rather than just reactive when things go wrong.

The cost of bad customer service

There are more methods for customer service than ever before – we’ll explore some of them below – yet somehow suffering still abounds. According to Forbes, companies lose approximately $75 billion a year due to poor customer service. Some sources say the losses are even higher. This is because one bad experience will have an exponential effect – ranging from negative reviews to lost future sales. There’s no question that bad customer service can be costly.

• 60% of consumers stop doing business with a brand after one bad service experience
• It can cost 5 to 25 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one
• It takes 12 positive experiences to make up for one bad one
• Consumers tell twice as many people about poor experiences than positive ones
• 89% of consumers purchase from a brand’s competitor following a poor experience

The good news is that the expectations of your customers are not unreasonable and the rewards for good customer service are great.

What defines good customer service?

According to multiple reports and surveys, good customer service is present when:

The benefits of good customer service

Good customer service can both attract new customers – including through positive word-of-mouth – and ensure loyalty. People will also pay more for products and services if a business provides good customer service.

• 96% of consumers say customer service is important in their choice of loyalty to a brand
• 93% of consumers are likely to make repeat purchases with brands that offer excellent customer service
• 83% of consumers feel more loyal to brands that respond and resolve their complaints
• 72% of consumers will share a positive experience with six or more people
• 68% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for products and services from a brand known for good customer service
• Even after a mistake, 80% of consumers will do business with a brand again if they considered the customer service “very good”

Options for customer service

Once upon a time, “customer service” meant going to a room in a store and making a complaint. Though people may still like to get help in person, opportunities for customer support have expanded and can be accessed across multiple channels:

• In person
• Telephone
• Email
• Chat
• Social media
• Text
• Knowledge base
• Online forums

Caring about your customers means giving them options and allowing them to decide what channel works best for them. In addition, the information and experience of your brand – which includes customer service – should be consistent no matter where they go.

Further, keep in mind that proactive customer service creates marketing opportunities. Listening to consumers can help identify issues and gaps in information, which can be addressed through thoughtful blog and social media content as well as instructional videos.

So much of modern marketing and customer support is done online, so it’s more important than ever for your business to have secure and reliable WiFi. You need more than the wireless router from your ISP. Meraki Go’s Router Firewall Plus delivers enterprise-grade cyber security with client VPN and 500+ Mbps of firewall throughput for fast network connectivity.

We hope this helps you stay centered on your customers and make sure they have the best possible experience with your business. On that note, our next blog will look at ways you can get to know your customers even better.

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