We live in the age of the customer, and it's time for brands to start embracing it. It’s time to become customer-centric and provide your customers with an unforgettable experience every single time.
The rise of eCommerce and social shopping has embedded consumerism into our character and lifestyle, so much so that our expectations for great customer experiences are at an all-time high. By purchasing a product or service, customers want to feel cared for in return, and brands that offer this positive CX will inevitably thrive.
More customers are prioritizing experiences above all else when choosing between brands. As a result, closing the customer experience gap — the difference between what customers expect from their experiences and how well a brand believes they are meeting these expectations – only becomes more critical. After all, studies continually show that delivering top-notch marketing, commerce, and care experiences at all touchpoints while always putting customers’ needs first can significantly impact your bottom line.
A lot of time, resources, and management buy-in are needed to design, implement, and manage successful CX initiatives. However, ample research and customer experience (CX) statistics emphasize that the end result is worth the effort.
Customer experience is driving business
It’s no secret that exceptional CX is critical to a brand’s immediate and long-term success. As these customer experience statistics show, the impact can’t be understated.
77% of brands believe CX is a key competitive differentiator (IDC, via a white paper sponsored by Emplifi)
The global CX Management market reached USD 8.79 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow 18.1% every year from 2022 to 2030 (Grand View Research)
Companies face immense pressure to deliver excellent CX
86% of consumers would leave a brand after as few as two poor experiences (Emplifi)
49% of consumers have left a brand in the past year due to poor customer experience (Emplifi)
US businesses lose $35.3B annually in customer churn caused by avoidable CX issues, such as fair treatment (CallMiner)
83% of executives feel unimproved CX presents them with considerable revenue and market share risks (Forbes / Arm Treasure Data)
Positive experiences make loyal customers
74% of consumers are at least somewhat likely to buy based on experiences alone (Forbes / Arm Treasure Data)
Consumers place high importance on “previous good CX with the brand” and “speed of availability/delivery” as their top two criteria when considering a new purchase (Emplifi)
Key takeaway: The importance of CX only continues to grow. To meet customers’ ever-growing expectations, brands must focus on identifying and addressing critical pain points for customers across the entire customer journey.
Great CX leads to happy customers and impacts the bottom line
The connection between quality CX, happy customers, and a healthy bottom line is undeniable.
Customers want great experiences and will pay to get them
61% of consumers will pay at least 5% more if they know they’ll get a good customer experience (Emplifi)
56% of consumers feel that the quality of the customer service they receive has a higher impact on how positively they view a brand than any other criteria (Emplifi)
CX helps build more fruitful customer relationships
66% of consumers say they will share personal data about themselves if they think it will elevate their customer experience (Redpoint and Harris)
CX drives over two-thirds of customer loyalty, which represents more than brand and price combined (Gartner, via CMSWire)
Customers seek personalized experiences
85% of brands believe they offer personalized customer experience, but only 60% of consumers agree (Twillio)
60% of consumers report that they will become repeat buyers after a personalized purchasing experience (Twillio)
88% of online shoppers are more likely to continue shopping on a retailer website that offers a personalized experience, including 96% of Gen Z and 97% of Millennials (Elastic)
59% of online shoppers believe that it’s easier to find more interesting products on personalized online retail stores (Invesp)
Livestream purchases, where retailers connect directly with online shoppers via video for personalized purchasing experiences, increased by an average of 76 percentage points worldwide from before to during the coronavirus pandemic (Statista)
Key takeaway: Brands that offer a good customer experience are more likely to see their revenue grow faster than those who don’t prioritize CX. Understanding customers’ needs, expectations, and perceptions — as well as how their preferences are evolving — is key to learning how your brand can best deliver the CX they desire.
With CX, there's little room for error
With information and options more readily available than ever, customers expect easy, quick, and frictionless experiences. Otherwise, they will take their business elsewhere.
52% of US consumers sometimes or always walk away from purchases due to a bad customer experience (Emplifi)
Over 60% of consumers don’t feel like they get excellent customer service on social media when making a purchase (Emplifi)
Customers expect answers, fast
Customers are 2.4 times more likely to stick with a brand when their problems are solved quickly (Forrester)
52% of consumers expect a response from a brand within one hour. However, 39% report waiting more than two hours for a reply (Emplifi)
Consistency is key to great CX
65% of respondents would become long-term customers of a brand if they can provide positive experiences throughout the customer journey (PwC)
Less than 1 in 4 brands have the necessary technology to engage with consumers consistently (Twillio)
Marketers using three or more channels in a campaign earned a 494% higher order rate than those using a single-channel campaign (Omnisend)
Social media plays an ever-growing role across the customer journey
Social media is the #1 channel U.S. consumers prefer to use to engage with brands, especially among Gen Z consumers, surpassing other channels like email, website chat, telephone, or visiting a physical store (Emplifi)
68% of US consumers currently use, or would like to use, social media to engage with brands to ask questions before making a purchase, while 59% of consumers expect to do so to get post-purchase customer support (Emplifi)
Key takeaway: Every experience counts. Customers always seek faster, more convenient experiences across their journeys, and want brands to deliver on those expectations consistently. Considering that people spend a considerable amount of their customer journey on a brand's social channels, it's important to have a social media strategy to better serve your customers exactly where they are.
Customers are more mobile and self-sufficient than ever
Customers want access to the information they need right now, wherever they are, and many prefer to be given the tools to find it themselves.
Don’t overlook the mobile shopping experience
59% of all worldwide website traffic is on mobile devices (Statista)
Mobile eCommerce sales are projected to exceed $430 billion in 2022 and $710 billion in 2025 (eMarketer Insider Intelligence, via Tidio)
Customers want to help themselves when possible
75% of consumers find it important for brands to offer them a fully self-service customer care option to answer their questions (Emplifi)
77% of customers say they view brands more positively if they provide self-service options for customers looking for support (Vanilla Forums)
20-40% of live volume could easily be handled with existing self-service tools, according to customer service leaders (Gartner)
Key takeaway: When it comes to CX, brands must adjust to their customers, not the other way around. Determine how you can best adapt your CX design to cater to customer preferences and patterns.
Superior customer care reinforces excellent CX
Delivering consistently positive customer experiences post-purchase is essential to customer retention, and turning first-time buyers into loyal customers. Today, CX leaders must leverage a robust mix of self-serve tools and knowledgeable agents to help deliver these experiences to their customer base.
AI and emerging technologies play an increasingly prominent role
In 2021, 56% of all brands had reported AI adoption in at least one function, up from 50% in 2020 (McKinsey & Company)
Worldwide AI software revenue was forecasted to total $62.5B in 2022, an increase of 21.3% from 2021 (Gartner)
Enterprises continue to demonstrate a strong interest in AI, with 48% of CIOs responding that they had already deployed or planned to deploy AI and machine learning technologies within the next 12 months (Gartner)
Customers expect knowledgeable agents
46% of consumers will abandon a brand if employees are not knowledgeable (PwC)
31% of US consumers say that “not responding to my messages quickly” is the most likely factor to make them feel negatively about a brand, followed by customer service not being available 24/7 (26%) (Emplifi)
49% of US consumers rate receiving excellent social media customer service as being very important when making a purchase (Emplifi)
Organize your teams to ensure CX is given top priority
25% of organizations expected that, by 2023, they would integrate marketing, sales, and customer experience (CX) into a single function (Gartner)
95% of leading organizations cite CX job roles as important to achieving business growth—the highest of any job role (Econsultancy)
Key takeaway: Technology and CX go hand-in-hand, and is an opportunity for brands to streamline the entire customer journey by connecting all communication channels. Brands can use this to their advantage in order to deliver an exceptional customer experience that is quick and consistent. To further strengthen CX, empower and train departments beyond your support team or service center to share customer care.
What lessons can we learn from these customer experience statistics?
Based on the customer experience statistics above, it’s evident that the impact of CX reverberates to your bottom line in many ways.
In order to fill the CX gap, customers must be at the heart of every decision. To hone in on this strategy, your teams must be equipped with the tools and timely insights needed to help them deliver experiences that best meet customer needs and expectations.
The right customer experience platform should help brands better understand customers as they navigate their journeys. It can also empower teams to improve their marketing, commerce, and care experiences across different channels and enable the brand to stand out from the crowd as a CX leader.
Book a demo today to see how Emplifi can help.
