How Often Do Consumers Go Back After They Switch Companies?

About 7 in 10 say "never". But there's a bright spot: about 8 in 10 say that experiencing good live customer care probably would have changed their mind.

Recently, we were scrolling through Accenture's summary of its report titled, "Digital Disconnect in Customer Engagement: Companies need to rebalance digital and traditional investments to drive growth".

The report makes a strong case for continuing to invest in live agents, even as all-digital customer service interactions grow in proportion. Customer satisfaction, the report argues, depends in part on human interaction.

Among the findings that support this point:

83% of US consumers prefer dealing with human beings over digital channels
52% of consumers have switched providers in the past year due to poor customer service
In the U.S., the estimated cost of customers switching due to poor service is $1.6 trillion

The report is based on Accenture's 11th annual Accenture Global Consumer Pulse Survey. It measured "the experiences of 24,489 customers in 33 countries and across 11 industries to assess consumer attitudes toward marketing, sales and customer service practices," says Accenture.

One finding, in particular, stood out to us:

Having switched, 68 percent of consumers will not go back.

You may have seen stats like this before. Alot of ink has been spilled by outsourced customer service companies, exhorting enterprise executives to invest in customer experience. There are magazines, associations, conferences, and books devoted to every nuance of the topic.

Still, the finding made us pause because it so clearly quantifies the risk associated with mediocre customer service and the return associated with high quality customer service.

Indeed, Accenture found that,

"Eighty percent of 'switchers' feel the company could have done something to retain them—83 percent said better live/in-person customer service would have impacted their decision."

Remember Neal's surprising experience with Geico customer service last summer? We'll put links to that and some other related posts in the section below.

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