Providing a good experience and good service is a priority for businesses, but how well are they actually doing? Eptica conducted a study breaking it down.

What constitutes good customer service?

Competency and responsiveness

Source: Epitca Multichannel Consumer Experience Survey, 2015

75% of customers believe it takes too long to reach a live person.
77% of consumers won’t wait more than 6 hours for an email response.
85% of consumers expect an answer within 6 hours from Facebook.
88% of consumers expect an answer within 6 hours from Twitter.

In reality, the average response times are much worse.

Answering your customers’ questions

SOURCE: EPITCA MULTICHANNEL CONSUMER EXPERIENCE SURVEY, 2015

50% of customer service agents fail to answer customer questions.

Eptica ranked the categories that answer customer questions successfully. At best, only 68% of questions are answered successfully.

Consistency across channels

Inconsistency frustrates consumers because it wastes their time. Plus, it costs retailers more money.

84% of companies offer customer service via email, Twitter, Facebook and chat.
Only 51% of companies provided answers across the four digital channels, and only 12% of companies offered a consistent experience across the four channels.

The effects of bad service...

Bad customer service costs the US $84 billion per year, and the world $338.5 billion.
78% of customers ended a business relationship due to bad service.
61% of customers went to a competitor due to bad service.