Thanks to the pandemic and rising inflation, customer behavior seems more erratic than ever. Customers are not great at saying what they want, and understanding the motivations behind their purchases is difficult. Add that to the fact that customer feedback is layered with challenges—it’s often inconsistent, unreliable, and manipulated—and it’s easy to understand why figuring out what customers want is a tall order. But it’s a foregone conclusion that they all want better customer experiences.
Customers say CX has steadily gotten worse in the last few years. In a November 2021 survey conducted by global market research company Big Village (formerly Engine) on behalf of Broadridge, 65% of consumers in the US and Canada thought most businesses needed to improve their CX, compared with the 35% who felt the same in 2019.
Per a January 2022 Independent Directors Counsel (IDC) White Paper commissioned by Emplifi, only 11% of customers would rate their CX as excellent, leaving companies a lot of room to improve.
And companies aren’t getting second or third chances at the same rates they used to. Hykens’ ACA Study found that 86% of customers would consider switching after a bad customer service experience, while 83% would be willing to switch if they felt the experience would improve with a competitor.