In the pre-internet age, when there was no such thing as Social Media, one bad customer service rep, though not ideal, was a manageable situation in a call center. However, in a post-internet era, a single customer experience can create real and lasting damage to a company’s brand. A staggering $338.5 billion is lost each year because of poor customer experience. Why? Consider this:
- 86% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company because of a poor customer experience.
- 89% started doing business with a direct competitor following a bad customer experience.
- 51% said they would only try to reach out to customer support one time before moving on.
- One dissatisfied customer will tell anywhere between 9 and 15 people about their bad experience.
- 24% of customers shared poor experiences on social media.
- Only 4% report the details of their bad experience to the company itself.
While customer experience is certainly about more than just the rep on the other end of the phone or the email conversation, CSRs are a big contributor to “experience.” One bad apple can truly spoil the whole bunch.
Bad CSRs Damage Loyalty
According to a report by Bain and Company, a competitor is 75 percent more likely to steal a sale if the problem is related to service, rather than price or the product itself. That means that a competitor with higher prices and low-quality products can steal your customers if they are dissatisfied with the way they were treated by your rep.
Bad CSRs Eat Away At Profit
According to Bain, a 10 percent increase in customer retention levels results in a 30 percent increase in the value of the company. Customer attrition has the opposite impact, and when customers are lost to bad service, you will feel the pinch. While “normal” attrition rates can be anywhere from 10 percent to 30 percent, poor customer experience offered by a bad rep falls outside of the “normal” reasons why customers attrite, and should not be considered simply a cost of doing business.
Bad CSRs Lead to Bad PR
According to the Global Customer Service Barometer, consumers are 2 times more likely to share their bad customer service experiences than they are to talk about positive experiences. And where is the most convenient place to share negative experiences? Social media. People have a built-in audience of people ready to listen, and possibly compare notes and commiserate. It’s even easier to share details if the poor experience was recorded on a company live chat or email thread. Local news outlets and even places like Gawker and Yahoo are always on the lookout for a great “bad service” stories to share with their readers, and one poor interaction can go viral in a matter of hours.
There are also other sites like Google and Yelp where customers can post detailed reviews of their experiences, and those reviews have a real impact on search results. Someone completely unknown to the angry customers can instantly connect to their story just by searching for your business online.
While a strong customer experience program and exceptional training are essential for building strong service team, great service really begins and ends with your CSRs. If you are looking for talented CSRs for your customer call center, the expert recruiters at Contemporary Staffing Solutions are ready to help. We specialize in connecting call centers with fully-vetted, highly-skilled and engaged talent. Contact CSS today fill your customer service center with the best talent in the market.