Why Customer Service is Important: 16 Data-Backed Facts to Know

When your business is on a low budget, there are probably several functions that are high-priority when allocating funds. Of course, your product team could use some financial assistance, and marketing — especially advertising — could always use a little padding. However, it might seem like a waste to invest money in your customer service team. After all, how can it really improve?

Contrary to popular belief, your customer service team should be just as important — if not more important than — as your other teams. After all, it's the direct connection between your customers and your business. Still not convinced? Read the following list to understand how essential客户服务is to improve your business and relationships with customers.

投资客户服务有助于激活您flywheelbecause loyal customers will help you acquire new customers, free of charge, by convincing prospects to interact with your brand. And, their positive testimonials will be more effective than any of your current marketing efforts — and cheaper, too.

Aside from that, let's look at some data-backed reasons why you should invest in your customer service team.

1. Customer retention is cheaper than customer acquisition.

An increase in customer retention仅5％的利润增加了25％。这是因为回头客更有可能在您的品牌上花费更多 -300% more, to be exact — which then results in your business having to spend less on operating costs.

According to ourresearch team,customer acquisition cost (CAC)— how much it costs to acquire a new customer — is more for a company that doesn't invest a small percentage of its budget in customer service. Ultimately, investing in customer service can decrease your churn rate, which decreases the amount you must spend on acquiring new customers and decreases the overall CAC.

2. Customer service represents your brand image, mission, and values.

You may have an idea of what your brand represents. However, your customers can't get into your head and they'll make assumptions based on your social media presence, advertisements, content, and other external marketing.

但是，您的客户服务团队是您对这种看法有更多控制权的地方。这些人直接与您的客户交谈，他们有责任在与当前或潜在的买家互动时代表您的品牌。实际上，96% of customerssay customer service is important in their choice of loyalty to a brand.

Without your customer service team, you have no means of direct communication. Due to this, your customer service team is essential in relaying to customers what you want your brand image to be. They can help influence customers and convince them of your strengths over competitors.

3.快乐的客户服务员工将创建快乐的客户。

No employee is going to enjoy coming into work if they feel under-appreciated compared to employees on other teams. The same goes for your customer service team. After all,69％的员工说他们在赞赏时会更加努力。

It's important to note that 55% of employees who strongly disagree about being happy with their jobs will still work especially hard for customers.

但是，他们reasoningbehind serving customers is less about wanting to provide quality service. Instead, it's about maintaining their professionalism and integrity, not wanting to get fired before quitting, being empathetic to customers, but getting recognition from them in the end.

Therefore, if you want your customers to do their best work, they should feel respected and appreciated. Only then will they find intrinsic motivation for doing a good job and serving their customers the right way, which will lead to your customers also feeling more respected and appreciated.

4. Happy customers will refer others.

而且，当您的客户更快乐时，他们更有可能将善良传播给朋友，家人和同事。实际上，72%of customers will share a positive experience with six or more people. Think about it: if you have a stunning experience with a brand, you're probably going to rave about it to your friends over dinner later that night. It's natural; you want your close ones to commit to a brand that you trust.

It's a chain reaction. If you have a happier customer service team, they'll work harder to satisfy and exceed the expectations of your customers. Then, those customers will be extremely happy with your brand and refer others to it. Your customers can be your best — and cheapest — form of word-of-mouth advertising, as long as you give them a reason to do so.

5.良好的客户服务鼓励客户保持忠诚。

As said before, it's a lot cheaper to retain an old customer than to acquire a new one. In this sense, the higher a customer's lifetime value — the total revenue a company can expect a single customer to generate over the course of their relationship with that company — the higher the profit for your company.

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In comparison to, possibly, hundreds of competitors with similar products and services, your company has to do more than relish in the exciting features of your products. By providing stellar customer service, you can differentiate your company to your customers. Loyalty is rooted in trust, and customers can trust real-life humans more than the ideas and values of a brand. So, by interacting with your customer service team, those customers can build, hopefully, life-long relationships with your business.

6. Customers are willing to pay more to companies that offer better customer service.

67％of customerswould pay more to get a better customer service experience. Clearly, customer service matters so much to customers that they would literally pay more to interact with a brand that does it well.

These are statistics that can't be ignored. In an era where companies are learning to prioritize customer service, any company that doesn't do so will crash and burn.

客户甚至受到一次经验的影响；一种积极的经历可能是他们坚持品牌的决定因素，而一个负面的因素可以使他们派往竞争对手。

7. Customer service employees can offer important insights about customer experiences.

It doesn't matter how you perceive your brand. What matters is how your customer perceives it.

例如,如果您为一个运动穿的com工作pany, you might associate your brand with fitness, health and wellness, and people who play sports. However, your customers may purchase from you because they associate your brand with leisure, comfort, and attractiveness. So, you should align your marketing with those values as well.

Your customer service team can answer a lot of these probing questions for you. Rather than having to spend time and money on constantly surveying customers, you can have your customer service employees simply ask these questions while interacting with customers. Their response can give you a lot of insights into improving your products, marketing, goals, and employee training.

And, the more you improve the customer experience, the harder your employees will work. Research shows that companies that invest in customer experience also see employee engagement rates increase by an average of20%.

8.客户服务增长了客户寿命价值。

If you're running a business,customer lifetime value（CLV）是一个非常重要的指标。它代表了您可以从一个客户帐户中获得的总收入。增长此价值意味着您的客户购物更频繁和/或在您的业务上花费更多的钱。

投资于你的客户服务提供是一个例外ellent way to improve customer lifetime value. If customers have a great experience with your service and support teams, they'll be more likely to shop again at your stores. Or, at the very least, they'll share their positive experience with others, which builds rapport with your customer base.

This makes new customers more trustworthy of your business and allows you to向上销售和交叉销售additional products with less friction. New users will trust that your sales team is recommending products that truly fit their needs which will create a smoother buying experience for both the customer and your employees.

9.积极主动的客户服务创造了营销机会。

If you're looking for a cost-effective way to invest in your business, you should consider adoptingproactive customer service. Rather than waiting for customers to report issues, this approach reaches out to them before they even know they exist. That way, customers know you're constantly working to remove roadblocks from their user experience.

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But, proactive customer service isn't just used forcustomer delight. It's also an effective marketing tool for introducing and promoting new products and services.

例如，如果您创建了一个解决产品常见问题的新功能，则客户服务团队可以将其转介给您的客户。他们可以使用你的CRMorticketing systemto look up customers who have had this problem in the past, reach out to them via the service ticket, and introduce the new feature as well as its benefits. And, this can sometimes be more effective than a sales pitch because customers feel like the service rep truly understands their issue after troubleshooting their problem.

10. Customers expect high-quality service.

People don't just expect your business to have a customer service team; they expect your customer service team to be world-class and ready to help at a moment's notice.

实际上，according to new data gathered after the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half of those surveyed (58%) said their客户服务expectations are highertoday than they were a year ago.

But, customers don't just want high-quality customer service, they're demanding it.66％of customers said they would switch brands if they felt they were being "treated like a number, not an individual." Customers have more options now than ever before, and now that they've realized it, they're not afraid to take their business elsewhere if they're unsatisfied with their experience. It's now on brands to meet customer expectations if they want to attract and retain loyal customers.

11. Businesses need omni-channel solutions.

Before COVID-19, businesses were gradually exploring new, digital ways to engage and support customers. But, once the pandemic hit, this timeline accelerated significantly and it was no longer a commodity for businesses to communicate with customers via social media, live chat, or video calls.

While we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic, these communication channels will be here to stay for the foreseeable future. Customers not only enjoy using these channels but, over time, they’ll come to expect them as a standard in the customer service industry. That’s why businesses need to invest in omni-channel solutions so they can link these new mediums together and create a seamless customer experience.

下图解释了omni-channel交货periences work.

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与其让每个频道独立运行，不如将频道链接在一起，因此可以在它们之间自由共享消息和信息。这样，客户就不必摆脱自己的工作来获得您的业务帮助。每当他们需要帮助时，他们都可以在自己选择的任何渠道上伸出援手，并立即得到可靠的响应。

12. Excellent customer service is a competitive advantage.

No matter what industry you're in, you want your business to stand out. After all, nobody strives to be the "second-best" at something. You want to be better than every other company you're competing with and you want your customers to know it, too. That's the key to keeping customers loyal and getting them to continuously interact with your brand.

Customer service can be an excellent differentiator for your company. In fact,60%of customers stop doing business with a brand after one poor service experience. And,67％如果客户在第一次互动过程中解决了这种问题，则可以预防这种流失。这意味着，如果您提供出色的客户服务，您将不仅保留客户，而且还会获得竞争对手。

不可否认的是，训练有素，积极的客户服务团队可以使您的公司成为最佳版本。bob全站app他们与客户直接沟通的能力可以彻底改变您的公司并发展您的公司bob全站app客户群.

13. Positive customer service makes people more likely to do business with you.

消费者在做出购买决策时考虑客户服务。实际上，90% of Americans使用客户服务作为决定是否与公司开展业务的因素。bob全站app这意味着您的客户服务声誉将影响大多数潜在客户。

此外，客户服务不会以您的前线代表开始和结束。客户服务潜在客户在销售过程中的经验也将影响他们的购买决策。提供积极的客户服务应该是任何面向客户角色的目标。

14.出色的客户服务将保护在道路上遇到错误的客户。

Like we've mentioned, when customers have a poor customer experience, they're quick to share about it and leave the company. However, if your company provides excellent customer service overall,78% of consumerswill do business with a company again after a mistake.

另外，只有one in five consumerswill forgive a bad experience at a company whose overall customer service they rate as “very poor,” while nearly80% will forgive a bad experienceif they rate the service team as “very good.”

15. Customer service can lead to more revenue.

At the end of the day, you probably make your budgeting decisions based on what brings in the most revenue. It might surprise you to learn that customer service can bring in revenue and impact the bottom line. Businesses can grow收入在4％至8％之间above their market when they prioritize better customer service experiences.

Additionally,89％的公司with "significantly above average" customer experiences perform better financially than their competitors. A positive customer experience has a direct impact on your revenue and growth.

16.个性化的客户服务可以提高您的在线转换率。

Similar to the point above, better customer service can also improve your conversion rate, not just your revenue.

实际上，youronline conversion rate can improve by roughly 8%when you include personalized consumer experiences. A higher conversion rate should lead to more sales and then more revenue. At the end of the day, customer service keeps your flywheel moving, just like marketing and sales.

没有客户服务，保留客户和成功将是不可能的。实际上，飞轮可能会完全停止旋转。借助出色的客户服务，您将吸引新客户，防止客户流失，并建立品牌声誉和形象。另外，数据继续支持这样一个事实，即出色的客户服务是一种期望，而不是“好”。

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.