AI automated contact centre company Replicant has released the results of a new survey into customer service.
Based on an online survey of 1,000 US adults who have interacted with customer service within the past six months, the study found that 91% of consumers had reported they have experienced poor customer service in the last six months.
In contact centres, 56% reported the most common form of poor customer service as being long wait times, with 70% of respondents saying it was now harder to reach a real person that it was at the beginning of the pandemic.
Other key findings included the fact that:
- 32% report the average time they spend waiting on hold has doubled compared to before the pandemic
- 70% of consumers are irritated or angry with a hold time of more than 30 minutes
- 76% of consumers saying a poor customer service experience negatively impacts their perception of a brand
"This data shows that customers are looking for better service, notice when it's poor, and voluntarily switch brands as a result," said Gadi Shamia, CEO and co-founder of Replicant.
"Spikes in call volume and challenges in staffing call centres worsened during the pandemic and are now the new normal, so companies must think of a new path forward.
Replicant offers an automated contact centre platform utilising intent detection and natural language processing technologies to more quickly resolve customer enquiries.