Businesses in Australia, New Zealand and India suffer combined revenue losses of as much as $5.6 billion each year due to poor customer service over the web, in the contact or via mobile devices.
A survey conducted by Greenfield Online reveals that consumers tend to abandon transactions or end relationships when companies do not meet their expectations.
Some of respondents’ “key annoyances” include automated responses, difficulty in navigating websites, self-service programs that don’t allow them to reach human agents, working with agents who are not empowered to make decisions, and having to repeat information – such as name and account number – every time their call is forwarded to another department.
While many disgruntled consumers often turn to a competitor, as many as 30% of them opt to just not spend any money at all, potentially undermining not only individual businesses but also local economies.