A report from Sugar CRM has found that 73% of customers fall in love with a brand because of friendly customer service reps and 80% of people will pay more for a better experience.
The whitepaper, called Customer Service Essentials for CX Success, also revealed seven in 10 customers will spend more money to do business with a company that delivers great service.
The report also revealed how customer service plays a central role in decisions to stay loyal to a brand for 96% of customers. It added that the segment of customers who report the highest levels of customer service satisfaction is willing to spend 140% more than those who report the lowest.
The report reads: “As organisations recover from this old way of thinking, a whole new approach is becoming not only necessary, but vital to survival. Customer experience (CX) is now the lifeblood of organizational success, and it’s bringing customer service to the frontlines of battle.
“More than 80% of companies say they will soon be competing mostly, or completely, on the basis of customer experience within two years.2 Companies that fail to follow suit by taking care of existing customers face significant risks and profit losses: research shows that investing in new customers is five to 25 times more expensive than improving customer service to retain existing ones.”
The whitepaper also gives top tips for ways technology can boost CX. Based on SugarCRM’s experience with more than 2 million frontline employees in 120 countries, there are several must-have essentials that every business needs to survive and thrive in today’s environment: