Since 2011, Interaction Metrics has been benchmarking the national quality of customer service. We call this our Quality of Customer Interaction (QCI™) Score. As of June 21, 2013, the score is 52 out of 100; in other words, customer service gets a failing grade. Read about our methodology here.
Other indices point to a similarly bleak state of customer service proving that customer service needs improvement. For example, the best companies in the world only reach a 60 Net Promoter Score®. And the current average ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) score, which takes all aspects of satisfaction into account, hovers around 75.
Of course, as customers, we encounter nonsense answers, outrageous wait times, and off-putting interactions on a regular basis. So, why is customer service still so bad—when millions of companies say they care about improving customer service? Our research indicates that one reason customer service underperforms is that companies use way too many satisfaction surveys that fail to measure what’s really going on. We touch on this and other mistakes here.
Thought experiment: The fact is, there are over 100 million customer service interactions each day. If customers were more delighted with each of these interactions, would this increase consumer demand? Probably. Would this cause customers to spend more? Quite possibly. And if spending increased, would this uplift our national economy? Definitely.
So, executives and business leaders, let’s improve customer service! Let’s make it right.
