In the U.S., 81% of customers that switched say companies could have done
something to prevent them switching. (Accenture)
It's time for companies to evaluate and start providing omnichannel customer experience, otherwise, unsatisfied customers become frustrated and switch to competitors.
Some $1.3 trillion is up for grabs in the U.S. consumer economy due to poor customer service and negative customer experiences, according to an Accenture study that measures the so-called "switching economy."
Accenture's 2013 Global Consumer Pulse Survey reveals that 85 percent of customers surveyed are frustrated with companies that make it hard to do business with them, that 91 percent of customers are frustrated with low rates of first call resolution, and 58 percent are frustrated with inconsistent experiences from channel-to-channel.
Other statistics are just as damning: 89 percent of those surveyed report frustration at having to repeat their issue to multiple customer service representatives.
These frustrations with customer experience are causing consumers to switch providers, whether those providers be a retailer, cable television company, bank, internet service provider or a wireless phone carrier.
All-in-all, the resultant "switching economy" - the dollars at stake for companies that lose customers - adds up to $1.4 trillion in the United States and Canada ($1.3 trillion in the U.S. alone) and $5.9 trillion globally.
And the vast majority - 81 percent - of those surveyed said that their provider could have done something differently to keep them as a customer.
According to the report, "despite having more data and insights into consumer desires and preferences, companies in the U.S. have failed to meaningfully improve customer satisfaction or reverse rising switching rates among their customers."
That means it's time for U.S. companies to try something different with their technology, and their data. Moving contact center infrastructure to the cloud is a given, as is multichannel support.
Normalizing and standardizing data across all customer experience channels - something that ServicePattern, our next generation cloud contact center solution, provides.
As Accenture's report notes, creating a seamless, unified support requires an omnichannel customer experience that integrates information and allows customers to flow across channels as they choose.
You can access the full report here.