According to new research from Cavell, almost half of consumers (44 percent) believe that customer service has gotten worse over the past three years.
Cavell's Voice of the Consumer Report 2024 illustrates several other eye-catching trends, including that one-third of customer service interactions were considered unsatisfactory in the last year and that over one-third of consumers want AI and automation to reduce wait times.
Of those respondents who said customer service had gotten worse were a combination of those who reported feeling "much worse" (16 percent) and those who indicated feeling "worse" (28 percent). When analysing the age demographics of the respondents, Cavell discovered that individuals from older generations were more inclined to perceive a decline in customer service compared to three years prior.
Cavell's Report assessed the finding:
It is most likely that consumers are now contacting businesses looking to resolve increasingly complex issues across increasingly complex products and services. This complexity makes acceptable resolution more difficult for customer service providers to achieve. Therefore, consumers feel that they are seeing an overall deterioration."
Cavell expanded, suggesting that catering to a broader range of communication channels may have affected customer service providers and increased issue complexity. Historically, providers dealt with in-person, mail, and voice channels exclusively. Consumers expect them to handle issues across multiple channels, including social media. This transition may have posed challenges for providers, contributing to the decline in consumer perception.
Cavell's Voice of the Consumer Report surveyed over 1000 UK adults and followed all guidelines for impartiality and anonymous responses to preserve a diverse and fair sample.
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Other Key Findings
One alarming statistic from Cavell's Report is that almost half of the respondents said they had ignored an issue with a product or a service because they wanted to avoid a customer service interaction, illustrating a breakdown in trust between customers and customer service providers.
Cavell proposes potential explanations for this figure, such as companies intentionally complicating customer service pathways and introducing deliberate friction, which could deter customers from contacting them. However, it cautions that the severity of these issues remains uncertain since the survey did not specify their seriousness. Some respondents might disregard minor issues, deeming them not worth the effort to resolve.