Customer Service

Consumers spend more with brands boasting great online service

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March 2, 2021

A good majority of online consumers, 83%, will spend more money with brands that deliver great customer service, yet a third of customers overall, 28%, report customer service expectations are not being met.

Those are two top findings from Gladly's fifth annual Customer Expectations Report.

When it comes to consumers' complaints about customer service, the two top are having to explain an issue repeatedly and having to have a ticket number in order to solve an issue, according to a press release on the findings. Nearly half of those polled, 45%, won't shop with a brand after two negative experiences.

"The past year has profoundly changed the way consumers shop, with e-commerce jumping a century ahead of where it was just 12 months ago due to pandemic-driven store closures and the first all-online holiday season," Joseph Ansanelli, Gladly CEO, said in the release. "In the past year, 45% of consumers have contacted a company's customer service department at least twice and another 35% have reached out three to five times. This is where brand loyalty is being created — or destroyed. Online retailers must make personalized, cross-channel service the norm, not the exception."

When it comes to chatbots, consumers have mixed feelings: 53% found chatbots most helpful when they don't want to talk to or wait for a real person or just need a simple question answered as quickly as possible; chatbots are most frustrating for customers when they present an obstacle to speaking with a human representative (43%) or when they make consumers feel like a number versus a valued customer (52%).