"The customer is always right" is a famous business slogan. The underlying truth behind this statement is recognizing that customers are the lifeblood for any business. Understanding the importance of good customer service is essential for a healthy business in acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, and developing loyalty and referrals for future growth.
Customer service is the term used to describe what happens at the point when a customer comes into contact with a business. This means customer service is something that takes place throughout a customer’s relationship with the business. The significance of good customer service can also be seen in financial terms—it costs at least five times as much to win a new customer as it does to keep a current one. Hence, repeat customers are very crucial for the profitability of a business.
With so much at stake, it becomes imperative for any business to take up the cause of customer experience very seriously. And many have already taken steps toward improving customer service. In spite of all the effort in the right direction, you will be surprised to know that there has been a decline in the CX metrics across industries and verticals this year when compared to the last five years. Are companies at fault? With so much time and energy being spent on improving customer service, how can businesses falter? The answer seems to lie in the fact that customers have become more demanding and CX is unable to keep up with customer expectations.
Customer sentiment for Customer Service Drives Customer Sentiment for the Brand
To understand the effects of customer service on a business, we analyzed thousands of tweets about various industries for Q1, 2015. Through this analysis, we tried to understand what customers are saying about these industries.
From the above graph, it is clear that service and customer perception of a business are correlated. Following are our other observations:
- The higher the customer service sentiment, the higher the overall sentiment. In other words, the better the service the more positive the customer’s perception.
- The telecom industry seems to deviate from others, but this could also be due to the usage of the term “service” to refer to network quality in the telecom industry
- Banks and other financial institutions have yet to implement customer experience programs. If they already have, they might need to relook as things don’t seem to be improving in this industry for customers.
From the observations above, it is clear that customer service is a critical factor that could make or break your business.
Proportion of Customer Service Discussions in Overall Buzz
If you find above findings interesting, here is another revelation: if the buzz around service has such a deep impact on the overall perception, how much do you think these service buzzes are part of the overall brand buzz? The answer definitely took us by surprise.
Service mentions formed a very small part of the overall discussions, yet they have had a deep impact on these industries. With less than 2.5% mentions around services across industries, its impact simply cannot be ignored.
It is clear that good customer service is vital. Satisfied customers return to the business and ensure that healthy profits are made. They also help to build a good reputation. Customer centricity is a cultural phenomenon and not a technological one. Listening to your customers is paramount to improving customer experience. Customer interactions form one of the prime pillars of any CX program. Customer expectations are increasing. Things won’t be easy going forward, but we must remember that if customers receive good service 'this time, next time, every time,' then they are more likely to return.
Please don’t forget to share this buzz with other CX and analytics professionals.
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