According to a new report conducted by Harris Interactive, a continuing trend of increased customer expectations combined with the power of social media to amplify consumer voices means it is more critical than ever to ensure a good customer experience.  The report shows:

• 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company due to a bad customer experience, up 27% from 4 years ago
• Even in a down economy, customer experience remains the top priority; 60% of consumers will always or often pay more for a better experience, up from 58% in 2008

With consumers expecting a better experience, when they don’t get one, they are aggressively making it known!

• In 2006, respondents reacted to bad customer experiences by swearing (29%) or shouting (21%) which have fallen to 20% and 14% respectively. Nowadays, consumers are taking their anger and acting on it via word of mouth and social channels
• 82% of consumers that had a bad experience told others about it, up 22% since 2006
• Many consumers that had a bad customer experience and told others about it shared their experience online by posting a negative customer review on the company’s website (23%), Facebook (7%), or a blog (6%)

On the flip side, when a customer has a good experience, 53% of customers will recommend a company to someone else.

These stats go to show that guaranteeing a good customer experience is more important than ever.  Call center operators can be expected to deliver these good customer experiences by addressing customer concerns in a timely, professional and helpful way.  Ensuring agent quality through a comprehensive recruiting, screening and training process will go a long way to guaranteeing a high quality customer service experience.

Related articles that may be of interest

• Five Thousand Companies Adopt Zendesk as the New Approach to Customer Service (eon.businesswire.com)
• Customer Service: Get & Keep Clients (womensblog.score.org)
• Customer Experience: Do You Really Know Your Audience? (myventurepad.com)