Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

Many businesses don't know about their awful service

Business decision makers disconnected from customers

Research firm Savanta surveyed 12,500 global customers, businesses executives, and customer-facing employees for a one-of-a-kind, three-dimensional perspective on the state of customer service today.

The research identified key customer service frustrations and revealed that many businesses don't know their customers well enough to provide the level of service their customers want. It also found that many organizations aren't fully committed to providing the level of service they aspire to and run the risk of losing customers to competitors as a result. The good news? Customers, employees, and business leaders all agree on what matters most, so a clear roadmap exists. Key findings of the study include:

Business decision makers are out of touch: Four times the percentage business leaders (40%) as customers (10%) rate the current standard of customer service as 'excellent,' while only 23% of customer-facing staff rate their organization's service the same way. Similarly, an overwhelming 89% of decision makers and 73% of employees feel their organization provides an overall positive level of customer service, but only 54% of customers feel the same way. In addition, 71% of business leaders think they provide better customer service than their competitors - a number that is mathematically impossible to achieve.

Are businesses really committed to providing good customer service? While 81% of business decision makers consider customer service as either their main or key competitive differentiator, 33% of customer-facing employees say they face no consequences for providing bad customer service. Meanwhile, 48% of customer-facing employees say they face barriers to providing good service.

Poor service is driving customers mad: 88% of customer-facing employees say that customer service is a priority within their business, but the customers tell a different story. Only 11% of consumers say contacting customer service is an enjoyable experience. Of those who are dissatisfied, 63% would rather clean the toilet than contact a customer service team. Only 10% say their typical customer service experience is 'excellent.'

Customers feel like organizations don't know them well enough: Despite 87% of business decision makers believing they know their customers well, the vast majority of consumers feel differently. Just 23% of consumers say businesses understand them as a person and their customer service preferences 'extremely well,' while 63% think organizations should make getting to know them better their top priority.

Poor customer service can cost businesses customers: Seventy-seven percent of customers agree the standard of customer service they receive is a major determining factor in their brand loyalty. In addition, 89% say receiving poor customer service from a business damages their impression of the brand. Significantly, 75% also say they have previously stopped doing business with an organization because of poor customer service. Forty-four percent report that if they receive a negative customer service experience, they immediately stop the purchase and move to another vendor. Despite this, only 35% of business decision makers say they lose customers 'all the time' or 'fairly regularly' as a result of providing poor customer service.

Customers know what they want: Consumers highlighted specific areas of frustration within customer service - providing businesses with a clear roadmap for improvement. Their top three frustrations include taking too long to receive service (82%), having to repeat themselves when switching between channels or agents (76%), and not knowing the status of the query (64%). When asked what made for a positive customer service experience, 59% agree that a quick resolution of their issue or question mattered most, followed by a need for knowledgeable service agents (48%) and a fast response (47%).

"Good customer service can be the difference between success and failure. This study tells us that organizations still have a long way to go before they are able to fully meet the expectations of their customers," said Tom Libretto, chief marketing officer, Pegasystems. "The good news is that there is overall agreement on what matters most. Solutions are available to help businesses understand and proactively address customer issues, while also arming customer-facing staff with the tools they need to provide more contextual, relevant, and knowledgeable service. Customers win, employees win, and positive business outcomes are delivered as a result."

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

With The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook at your side, you'll have instant access to a true goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, research and market data, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid, profitable marketing strategy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)