Call Center Industry Statistics Related to Customer Satisfaction/Loyalty < Go Back

Any information related to customers' satisfaction with customer service efforts, including their preferences and complaints: Customer service statistics, complaints, service level metrics, preferences for different contact channels/technology.

A recent customer service study by Coldwell Banker revealed a strong correlation between the quality of a company's customer service and its long-term success. According to the study's findings, a typical consumer switched businesses they dealt with twice in the past three years due to "bad service." When asked to define the differences between great and bad, consumers said the top characteristics of companies with "great service" were:
Resolving questions and problems (66 percent) Knowledge of the product or service (49 percent) Being easy to reach (35 percent) Understanding requirements (35 percent)

Coldwell Banker, 1-23-05 In a comprehensive national survey on customer service conducted by the NRF Foundation (an arm of the National Retail Federation), online shoppers were almost three times more likely to be "extremely satisfied" with their customer service experience than were traditional retail shoppers. The survey revealed that only 16% of traditional shoppers were extremely satisfied (with an additional 51% being "very satisfied"), while 44% of online consumers were extremely satisfied (with an additional 45% being "very satisfied). NRF Foundation, 12-6-04 See Also: Internet/E-Support An increasing number of Americans report being extremely upset with how a "serious" complaint of theirs was handled by customer service, according to a survey by the Customer Care Alliance. Specific findings include:
73% of customers that had a product or service problem experienced what the CCA termed "customer rage," a five percentage-point increase from the group's 2003 report. Only 16% of the respondents said they felt completely satisfied or received more than they asked for. More than half of the complainants felt that they received nothing from the companies that caused their problems. More than half of the respondents decided never to do business with the company again, or threatened to talk with management. A quarter yelled or raised their voice, while 6% cursed or used profanity.

Customer Care Alliance, 11-14-04 According to a consumer survey, customers ?C regardless of industry, geography, or product/service -- want the service they receive to be?? Seamless ?C the company is able to manage behind-the-scenes service factors so that they remain invisible to the customer. Trustworthy ?C the company provides what is promised, dependably and with quality. Attentive ?C the company provides caring, personalized attention to customers, recognizing both their human and business needs. Resourceful ?C the company efficiently provides flexible and creative solutions. AchieveGlobal, 9-1-2004 When respondents to a study conducted by management consulting firm Accenture were asked about the influence of customer service and reward programs on their choice of hotel, two thirds (67%) said that the quality of customer service was more important than reward programs. Accenture, 7-14-2004 In a study conducted by consulting firm Creative Strategies, 93% of customers surveyed indicated that satisfaction with any form of service is a key factor to maintaining healthy brand/customer relationships. Creative Strategies, 7-5-2004 A study by Portland Research Group found that the average consumer must call a company 2.3 times before having their issues resolved, and that future purchase intent drops from 76% to 55% with the second contact. destinationCRM.com, 4-12-2004 The average caller is transferred 1.5 times before speaking with the appropriate rep for assistance, according to Portland Research Group. No significant impact is made on customer satisfaction or loyalty when a person is transferred once during a call, but when transferred a second time there is a large drop in loyalty ?C and future purchase intent drops from 64% to 48%. destinationCRM.com, 4-12-2004 A survey conducted by consulting and systems integration firm BearingPoint, Inc. revealed the following findings regarding CRM initiatives in financial institutions:
Only 22 percent of the financial services executives surveyed believe that their customers would actively promote their company to family and friends, despite the billions of dollars spent on CRM. 92 percent of respondents acknowledge that there is a significant opportunity to enhance customer loyalty by improving the quality of their customers' experience. 50 percent of respondents invest less than a million dollars annually in developing the customer experience.

BearingPoint, Inc. (cited in Call Center Management Review, 4-1-2004 ) Global consulting firm Strativity Group, Inc. conducted a year-long study of attitudes toward customer loyalty and customer experience management among customer service executives and marketing executives. Findings include:
Only 32% claimed that their compensation is tied to quality of service. Only 37% agreed that they have the tools to service and resolve customer problems. Only 36% agreed that their company invests in people more than in technology (38% in the US and 10% in Europe ). Only 36% of European respondents agreed their company deserves the customer's loyalty vs. 54% of the American respondents

Strativity Group, Inc., 2-23-2004 ICMI's Multichannel Call Center Study Final Report found median starting salaries of $12 an hour for both phone-only agents and e-contact-only agents (email and text chat), with multichannel agents (handling both phone and e-contacts) starting at $13 an hour. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, July 2002, www.ccmreview.com) Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI), 7-1-2002 See Also: Internet/E-Support Speech recognition capability in interactive voice response (IVR) units was found by Purdue University to shorten banking calls by 35% compared to using touchtone interaction. Calls using speech recognition had a unit cost of $0.45 versus nearly $4 for calls handled by agents. Asia Pacific Call Centre News, 5-1-2002 See Also: TeleManagement Search's 2002 compensation statistics include the following average annual management salaries for inbound consumer call centers:
Director, $94,200 Manager, $65,300 Supervisor, $30,300 Scheduling/Forecasting Manager, $60,500

(Cited in Call Center Management Review, May 2002, ) TeleManagement Search, 5-1-2002 See Also: The global cost of implementing personalization technology will reach $2.1 billion in 2006. Datamonitor, 9-7-2001 International Customer Service Association (ICSA) reports CSR salaries average $31,818 in 2001, up from $28,876 in 1999. Technical support representatives' pay increased to $39,700 from $34,850 two years ago, and customer service managers' compensation rose to $69,010 from $59,207. However, bonuses for all levels fell as much as one-half or more over the same period. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, September 2001, ) ICSA, 9-1-2001 Outsourcing basic customer service support functions from the U. S. to foreign contact centers can save up to 30% compared to inhouse costs. Jupiter Media Metrix, 7-31-2001 U.S. financial service call centers studied by e-Satisfy/TARP had a median cost per agent handled phone call of $0.67 per minute, with a range from $0.40 to $1.02. In general, lower costs were correlated with lower customer satisfaction. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, June 2001, ) e-Satisfy/TARP, 6-1-2001 U.S. financial service call centers studied by e-Satisfy/TARP that had the highest customer satisfaction also had a median of 180 hours of initial training per service agent, seven hours of ongoing training per year, median agent-to-supervisor ratio of 11:1, and median square footage per agent of 28 square feet. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, June 2001, ) e-Satisfy/TARP, 6-1-2001 Zona Research reports nearly half of consumer attempts to make an online purchase are abandoned, a loss of $25 billion per year in potential global revenue. Most of the loss ($21 billion) was attributed to delays in web page loading, and Internet infrastructure errors were blamed for the rest. Zona Research, 5-3-2001 Forrester Research estimates that large corporations will each spend about $75 million on CRM over the next three years, although some may spend as little as $60 million while others pay as much as $130 million. Forrester Research, 4-24-2001 An incentive plan which pays an average of 3% provides a net return of 134%, according to a study conducted for the American Compensation Association. Higher- paying plans tended to provide higher returns for the company. The top-quartile firms in the study had a net return of 378%. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, April 2001, ) Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI), 4-1-2001 According to TeleManagement Search (TMS), average salaries for inbound call center supervisors are about $30,000, while managers earn, on average, in the low $60,000 range. Call center directors in consumer operations earn an average of $92,700 and those in business-to-business operations earn $83,100. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, February 2001, ) TeleManagement Search, 2-1-2001 According to a survey by supportindustry.com, only 27% of organizations have a fully-integrated phone, web and e-mail system for responding to customer inquiries. More than 50% have not saved on their support organization costs after implementing e-service applications. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, January 2001, ) supportindustry.com, 1-1-2001 According to The Association of Support Professionals, average salaries for CSRs were $27,000 in 1999 and $26,130 in 1998 in software support organizations. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, January 2001, ) The Association of Support Professionals, 1-1-2001 Dataquest, Inc. reports that the average amount companies spend on CRM initiatives is greater than $1 million, and will be twice as high by the end of 2001. Dataquest estimates the global market for CRM grew 28% in 2000, to $19.9 billion. GartnerGroup, 12-20-2000 According to supportindustry .com and Help Desk 2000, the average cost per call for 75% of the support organizations they surveyed is $25 or less. The analysts expect this cost to fall to $18 per call within three years as a result of e-support technologies. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, November 2000, ) supportindustry.com, 11-1-2000 Dr. Jon Anton reports in the Purdue Research Foundation's benchmarking study that the average salary of call center supervisors is $36,163, while the average for managers is $56,156, and the average cost per new agent hired is $6,279. Purdue Research Foundation Benchmark Performance Report, 10-6-2000 Among the call centers participating in Purdue's benchmarking study, annual costs are allocated, on average, as follows: 58.13% salary & benefits; 4.96% recruiting, screening, training; 9.49% telecommunications network provider; 5.48% computer hardware; 3.97% computer software; 4.45% telecommunications equipment; 4.55% real estate; and 1.9% outsourced calls. Purdue Research Foundation Benchmark Performance Report, 10-6-2000 The average planned budget increase for 2001 among participants in the Purdue Research Foundation's call center benchmarking study is 18%. Purdue Research Foundation Benchmark Performance Report, 10/6/2000 Research on regional differences in annual operating costs for call centers by The Boyd Company showed that the Washington, D.C. - Virginia area is the most expensive in the U.S., while Sioux Falls, South Dakota was the least costly area studied. The Boyd Company, 10-1-2000 Compared to average call centers, leading call centers spend twice as much of the annual budget on inititial training, and almost one-third more in ongoing training, according to a study by Hackett Benchmarking & Research. CSRs at first-quartile centers receive formal feedback nearly twice as often throughout the year, and are 1.5 times more likely to receive informal feedback at least once a week. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, October 2000, ) Hackett Benchmarking & Research, 10-1-2000 According to Customer Interface's annual survey, the majority of agents earn less than $50,000, and 25% - 33% earn less than $25,000. Customer Interface, 10-1-2000 According to a study by Hackett Benchmarking & Research, leading call centers significantly out-perform others not only on customer service measures, but in cost per contact. Agents at leading centers are far more productive, handling 2.5 calls to every one call by an FTE at an average company. Cost per contact in first- quartile call centers averaged $4.73, compared to $14.73 at average centers. Leading centers' wage costs are 14% less than those at average centers, and 80% of the staff are hourly in the top centers, vs. 59% at average centers. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, October 2000, ) Hackett Benchmarking & Research, 10-1-2000 According to Customer Interface's annual survey,32% of call center managers receive $10,000 to $50,000 above their base pay from bonuses or commissions, while another 21% receive $5,000 - $9,999, and 28% receive less than $5,000. Customer Interface, 10-1-2000 According to Customer Interface's annual survey,more than 36% of call center managers earn between $50,000 - $75,000, while another 28% earn between $25,000 - $50,000. 20% earn from $75,000 - $100,000, and 15% earn more than $100,000. Customer Interface, 10-1-2000 Datamonitor, Inc. found that companies often do not know the effect on their return on investment (ROI) from their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) programs. Of 500 companies surveyed, only 15% reported a positive effect, while 15% said ROI remained the same, 5% said it decreased ROI, and fully 65% could not quantify the impact. Datamonitor, Inc., 9-16-2000 Integration of business-to-business and business-to-consumer infrastructures by the end of 2002 could yield a 25-50% advantage over competitors who manage them separately. GartnerGroup, 5-22-2000 A Datamonitor, Inc. survey reports that while nearly half of organizations still view their call centers as cost centers, nearly a third (32%) expect their call centers to generate profits, while one-quarter look for call centers to generate revenue. Datamonitor, Inc., 4-13-2000 Datamonitor, Inc. calculates that U.S. companies lost $1.6 billion in sales in 1999 because of poor customer service provided on web sites. Datamonitor, Inc., 4-3-2000

TARP's research has found that more then 40% of customers who send an electronic contact to a company will also contact the company through another channel (e.g., telephone). (Cited in Call Center Management Review, July 2002, ) TARP, 7-1-2002 See Also: A study of government customer service sponsored by Kana, a CRM solutions provider, found that 55% of citizens would prefer to interact with government agencies using Web-based tools (including email, online self-service and chat), but 78% still consider the phone the most effective way to receive an answer in a timely manner. Kana, 6-24-2002 See Also: A study of financial service customers sponsored by Kana, a CRM solutions provider, found that 47% would prefer to communicate with the organization via Web self-service, and 35% already do so (second only to the phone as the most popular communication channel). Kana, 6-17-2002 See Also: Speech recognition capability in interactive voice response (IVR) units was found by Purdue University to shorten banking calls by 35% compared to using touchtone interaction. Calls using speech recognition had a unit cost of $0.45 versus nearly $4 for calls handled by agents. Asia Pacific Call Centre News, 5-1-2002 See Also: Nuance Communications, a provider of speech recognition technology, surveyed consumers about speech recognition technology and found 83% were at least somewhat satisfied, and 60% preferred using speech technology over talking with an agent. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, March 2002, ) Nuance, 3-1-2002 ICM Research studied financial services organizations and found only 33% responded to an email inquiry, and all but one of the responses received were not specific to the inquiry sent. Customer Contact World, 3-1-2002 See Also: Jupiter Media Metrix projects the number of customer service contacts via the Internet will reach 4.7 billion in 2006, up from 870 million in 2001. As a percentage of all customer contacts, online inquiries were 2% in 2001 and would be almost 10% in 2006. Asia Pacific Call Centre News, 2-27-2002 See Also: , A survey sponsored by Mobius, a provider of customer service application solutions, reports that 34% of consumers cited poor customer service as the reason they cancelled an account. Mobius, cited by eMarketer, 2-1-2002 Jupiter Media Metrix found that 30% of retail Web sites surveyed at the end of 2001 resolved customer inquiries within 6 hours, 18% took from 6 to 24 hours, 18% took 1 - 3 days, and 33% either took more than 3 days or failed to respond. New York Times, 1-3-2002 See Also: According to a survey sponsored by eGain Communications, a provider of online interaction management software, 58% of companies that offer customer self-service options -- searchable knowledge bases, FAQs, etc. -- do not make it easy for customers to locate these tools online. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, January 2002, ) eGain Communications, 1-1-2002 See Also: Hepworth & Co. report that on average it takes about 3 calls for customers to resolve problems. However, companies with high customer satisfaction ratings averaged 2.1 contacts while companies with low customer satisfaction ratings averaged 3.4 contacts. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, October 2001, ) Hepworth & Co., 10-1-2001 See Also: 63% of web sites automatically notify consumers when their online orders have been processed, according to Consumers International. 95.5% of all business-to- consumer web sites list telephone contact numbers, up from only 74% in 1999. Consumers International, cited by eMarketer, 9-24-2001 Online customer service transactions will number 67 million in 2005, compared to 33 million in 2001, predicts Jupiter Media Metrix. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, August 2001, ) Jupiter Media Metrix, 6-26-2001 Statistical Research reports 67% of Internet users in the United States will leave a web site if asked to provide personal information, but 21% say they have provided phony data to protect their privacy, instead. eMarketer, 6-10-2001 U.S. financial service call centers studied by e-Satisfy/TARP that had the highest customer satisfaction also had a median of 180 hours of initial training per service agent, seven hours of ongoing training per year, median agent-to-supervisor ratio of 11:1, and median square footage per agent of 28 square feet. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, June 2001, ) e-Satisfy/TARP, 6-1-2001 Jupiter Media Metrix reports that only 38% of U.S. companies resolve email inquiries within six hours, and 33% are taking three days or longer to do so, or are not responding at all. The percentage of companies not responding at all (24%) increased from 19% in the prior quarter. On a positive note, over half of all inquiries are responded to within 24 hours. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, June 2001, ) Jupiter Media Metrix, 6-1-2001 U.S. financial service call centers studied by e-Satisfy/TARP had a median cost per agent handled phone call of $0.67 per minute, with a range from $0.40 to $1.02. In general, lower costs were correlated with lower customer satisfaction. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, June 2001, ) e-Satisfy/TARP, 6-1-2001 Cutter Consortium, an Information Technology consulting firm, reports that 40% of companies surveyed are "Satisfied" (36%) or "Extremely Satisfied" (4%) with their CRM efforts. Another 37% were "Mildly Satisfied," meaning that over three-quarters were not disappointed with their CRM results. The other choices respondents had were "Mildly Disappointed" (17%), "Disappointed" (5%) and "Extremely Disappointed" (1%). Cutter Consortium, 5-24-2001 Business-to-Business (B2B) companies respond to email inquiries within six hours only 41% of the time, and half of those replies provide inaccurate information. Easy-to-use search capability for customer self- service is provided on only 2% of B2B web sites. Jupiter Media Metrix, 5-16-2001 According to eMarketer's CRM Report, only about one out of ten interactions a company has with a customer is a transaction, with the balance consisting of various forms of communication. eMarketer, 5-8-2001 Zona Research reports nearly half of consumer attempts to make an online purchase are abandoned, a loss of $25 billion per year in potential global revenue. Most of the loss ($21 billion) was attributed to delays in web page loading, and Internet infrastructure errors were blamed for the rest. Zona Research, 5-3-2001 Jupiter Media Metrix reports that 38% of companies respond to e-mail within 6 hours and one-third take 3 days or more or do not answer at all. Top performing industries were retail (53% within 6 hours) and financial services (46% within 6 hours). Jupiter Media Metrix, 5-1-2001 Research by Information Resources found that 69% of U.S. manufacturers' web sites provide toll-free numbers (while 63% of consumers desired this) and 81% provide e-mail addresses (desired by 61% of consumers). Information Resources, 4-23-2001 Jupiter Media Metrix reports that 70% of 1,900 American shoppers polled would respond to dissatisfaction with an online experience by spending less at a retailer's brick-and-mortar store. New York Times, 3-25-2001 University of Michigan Business School's quarterly index of customer satisfaction decreased in the fourth quarter of 2000 to a score of 72.6 (out of a possible score of 100) from 72.9 in the third quarter. Wall Street Journal, 2-20-2001 According to research by e-services consulting firm Extraprise, 77% of retail web sites surveyed do not have a link to the company's returns policy from the home page, and 53% do not provide a phone number on the returns page for shoppers' returns-related inquiries. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, January 2001, ) Extraprise, 1-1-2001 Jupiter Research reports that only 29% of online retailers respond to e-mail within six hours, even though more than half of consumers expect such prompt service. Almost half of the consumers who do not receive a response to the first e-mail message they send will call companies on the phone, thus erasing cost savings retailers may have hoped for by offering e-mail customer service. Over 60% of online holiday shoppers were dissatisfied with the customer service they received. Jupiter Research, 12-19-2000 According to a survey by SWR Della Volpe for eSupportNow, 93.7 % of online shoppers consider Customer Service important in choosing a web site, making it the single most important factor among those surveyed. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, November 2000, ) SWR Della Swope, 11-1-2000 Although 93% of companies in the business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplace gather customer data, only one-third convert customer opinions into customer-led policies, according to a benchmarking survey commissioned by Swallow Information Systems. While 89% use the Internet as a prime way of contacting customers, most have no procedure in place for resolving online complaints and inquiries. And just over 25% have no dedicated customer service policy. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, October 2000, ) SOCAP, 10-1-2000 A Gartner Group study found weak customer service to be the rule on top consumer retail web sites. None were rated either Excellent or Good. Only 23% earned Average marks, while 73% were described as Fair and 4% were rated Poor. The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) performance on these sites was also lacking. Retailers offered to call the customer on only 6% of the sites, only 24% offer instant messaging, and only 28% automatically confirm that they have received e-mail from customers. GartnerGroup, 8-8-2000 A La Trobe University study found that callers rank the following highest as causing feelings of frustration and irritation (1) lack of service personnel, (2) waiting on the phone, (3) uncaring communication, (4) getting the runaround, (5) phone system too complex, and (6) receiving unreliable information and service. (Cited in Call Center Management Review, August 2000, ) Asia Pacific Call Centre News, 8-1-2000 GartnerGroup found that customers still consider salespeople to be the best way to interact with companies, but using the internet came in second, ranking higher than the telephone. This offers cost saving opportunities to enterprises which establish self- service information capabilities for customers to use on the web, instead of calling on the phone. GartnerGroup, 6-20-2000 Generation Y, teenagers and young adults between 18 and 23 years old, prefer online shopping, but actually order over the phone almost as much as older consumers. The younger customers return significantly more of their orders, however. Over 33% of Generation Y web shoppers are satisfied with their online shopping experience, as are a similar percentage of Generation X (ages 24 - 55) web internet consumers. GartnerGroup, 5-9-2000 Datamonitor, Inc. calculates that U.S. companies lost $1.6 billion in sales in 1999 because of poor customer service provided on web sites.