Coveo Report: Bad Self-Service is Worse Than No Self-Service

2023 Customer Service Relevance Report shows the ghosting trend continues to swell as 60% of Gen Z respondents say they rarely or never complain about a negative digital customer service experience

Coveo , a leader in AI platforms that transform digital experiences with intelligent search, recommendations, 1:1 personalization, and merchandising,  released its 2023 Customer Service Relevance Report which found that in an uncertain economy, organizations are under pressure to retain and expand their customers. Ghosting has become more prevalent, and people will now leave your brand after only two or three negative experiences.

Across the demographics surveyed, customers expect their service and support experience to deliver the most relevant information throughout their engagement with a brand so they can make the most of a product or service. Although 87% of Gen Z respondents said they’ll give brands more chances than other demographics, 60% of them said they’ll abandon a brand without notice once those chances are gone.

“While offering great customer service should be table stakes, many companies still miss the mark (and spend too much money) on doing everything except the fundamentals.” said Patrick Martin, GM of Service at Coveo. “Our report shows that customers want answers — is your company equipped to supply them? Because customer expectations are constantly evolving, you need to build an experience layer that works across all channels. That experience layer must sit on a flexible foundational platform that includes search and machine learning that allows you to meet your customers – wherever they are. There’s an opportunity to deliver the proactive experience your customers seek, and save money doing it.”

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Customer Service Relevance Report 2023 key findings include:

Great products alone aren’t enough to keep customers:

• Fifty-nine percent of Gen Z and 49% of Millennials say they will give a brand a third chance before abandoning it. Generation X (40%) and Baby Boomers (32%) are not quite so generous. It’s notable that the digitally native generation has more patience for a poor online experience — but that doesn’t mean that Gen Z will offer brands endless chances when it comes to service.

Rather than complaining, customers will ghost you:

• 55% of respondents (up from 46% in 2022) say they rarely or never complain about a negative digital customer service experience. 60% of Gen Z respondents say they rarely or never complain to a company when they have a negative digital customer service experience

No self-service is better than poor self-service

• 50% say they would prefer no self-service option if it’s going to be a bad experience
• A majority (50%) say they want to be able to see the actual answer within the search results, not just links
• They want more intelligent chatbots (46%)
• They want advanced filtering that lets you narrow the search to your exact need (44%)
• They want to be able to search for help within the product you’re using (43%)
• They want to get recommendations for content that has been helpful to others with a similar problem (33%)

Why customers will abandon a brand:

• “It’s too hard to talk to an actual person” (overall 53%; Gen Z: 49%)
• Getting conflicting information from customer service representatives (overall 46%; Gen Z: 43%)
• Not being able to find the information on their own (overall 43%; Gen Z: 40%)

Industries with the worst customer service:

1. Retail (36%)
2. Utilities/service providers (33%)
3. Health insurance (29%)
4. Technology providers (27%)

As part of Coveo’s 2023 Customer Service Relevance Report, Arlington Research was commissioned to undertake an online study of 4,000 adults across the U.S. and UK aged 18+ who use a computer as part of their work in companies with 250+ employees. Responses were captured between January 12-25, 2023.

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