Customer Experience Statistics You Need To Know About For 2020

In order to build a stronger and more genuine connection with customers, brands need to nail down a great customer experience strategy.

Simply put, customer experience, or CX, is the sum total of all the interactions in all touchpoints between a customer and a brand, including discovery, initiation, purchase, service, and advocacy. It’s the impression you leave with your customers, resulting in how they think of your brand, across every part of the customer journey.

In a modern market, consumers have endless options. Low prices and smart advertising aren’t enough to win their hearts. It takes a personalized, customer-centric approach to build brand loyalty. That’s why customer experience is the next frontier for companies hoping to maintain a competitive edge. Great customer experience is a major competitive advantage that drives new sales and it’s predicted to overtake price and product as the primary brand differentiator for B2B sales this year.

So, it’s easy to see why it’s important for so many companies to focus on CX. This is a tremendous opportunity to disrupt a competitor or gain market share, thus everyone wants to own it!

Here are some CX stats that you need to know about.

1. The race to own customer experience is on!

Brands are recognizing the importance of delivering an experience that makes them stand apart from the competition and build genuine connections with their customers. This is a tremendous opportunity to disrupt a competitor or gain market share. The competitive advantage is huge, and customer experience is the perfect tool to help you stand out from your competitors.

Just make sure that you cater to each and everyone in the moment of now. Customers need to be treated as an individual — not like a commodity. That’s why you need to avoid overlooking personalized opportunities.

• More than two-thirds of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience — a number that has risen steadily since 2010 when it was 36%.
• If you want your customers to have a good experience, you have to put your money where your mouth is. 62% of companies will now invest to meet the changing needs of customers.
• According to PWC, 80% of consumers believe speed, convenience, and knowledgeable help are the most important factors to positive customer experience.
• According to PWC, 65% of customers find a positive customer experience with a brand to be more influential than great advertising.
• 73% of all people point to customer experience as an important factor in their purchasing decisions. (PWC)
• According to McKinsey, satisfied customers are more likely to upgrade or add services and are less likely to cancel.

2. Omnichannel customer experience: An evolving, non-negotiable expectation!

Companies interact with their customers across multiple channels. Omnichannel delivery provides consumers with a consistent experience from touchpoint to touchpoint. If a customer started their interaction with your brand on social media, this experience would continue as the customer moves onto your mobile app and website. Some customers do accept different service levels from different channels, but many also expect a consistent experience.

• In PWC’s 2020 report, they found that the number of companies investing in the omnichannel experience has jumped from 20% to more than 80%.
• Adding to this, Adobe has found that companies with the strongest omnichannel customer engagement strategies enjoy a 10% year-on-year growth, a 10% increase in average order value and a 25% increase in close rates.
• According to Genesys, 83% of consumers say an omnichannel experience, such as moving from web chat to a live conversation, is desirable.

3. Mobile-first: An organization-wide approach

Today, customer journeys don’t begin in a brick-and-mortar store or customer-facing office — 90% of all purchase decisions begin online. That’s why many brands adopt a mobile-first approach which means prioritizing mobile-based customer delivery for every aspect of the business, including website design, outreach programs, product design/services, and customer support. When it comes to providing a positive experience across different channels, mobile is expected to soar.

Just as customer experience requires alignment across the organization for best delivery, a mobile-first approach requires the same alignment across all channels and departments.

• According to Statista, by 2021, there will be about 7 billion mobile users worldwide.
• According to AppAnnie, app store consumer spending is projected to increase by 92 percent to $157 billion worldwide by 2022.
• According to AppAnnie, the yearly mobile app downloads are estimated to reach 258 billion. A 45% increase from the 178 billion downloads in 2017.
• 84% of companies who claim to be customer-centric are now focusing on the mobile customer experience.
• According to Statista, global mobile app revenue is projected to generate $582 billion U.S. dollars through paid downloads and in-app advertising in 2020.
• According to Stat Counter, 52% of all traffic online now comes from mobile, with desktop usage on a trending decline.
• The average mobile user checks their smartphone 63 times a day.
• Mobile apps account for 57 percent of all digital media usage. App usage (90% of the time) dominates browsers in mobile usage.
• 57% of customers won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile. And if a website isn’t mobile-friendly, 50% of customers will stop visiting it, even if they like the business.
• According to Genesys, 90% of millennials prefer smartphones for customer service/support interactions.

4. Customer frustration will lead to churn.

Customer expectations are at an all-time high and it’s a difficult task for brands to meet and exceed them. Your customers want to do things their way and expect brands to give them what they want, how they want it, and when they want it.

Churn is closely tied to customer satisfaction, and for obvious reasons. Unhappy customers are more likely to leave, and when they do, they take a piece of your business with them. The somewhat good news is that only 1 in 26 unhappy customers actually complain when they’ve had a bad experience with a brand.

But do they matter more than the people that have had a bad experience that has not complained?

Probably not.

Having one bad experience can be enough for consumers to leave a much-loved brand. It’s the silent majority that we should be afraid of losing.

Customer churn is expensive. You want to avoid it.

It does not only mean the loss of revenue. It also includes the expensive cost of trying to acquire new customers to replace those lost.

As you assess your current state, ask your customers for feedback and be ready to act, evaluate your current IT solutions to see if they are capable of meeting current expectations, and consider bringing in an expert to help you with the process.

• In their “future of CX” report, PwC found that about 1 in 3 customers will leave a brand they have high expectations of after just one bad experience, while 92% would completely abandon a brand after two or three negative interactions.
• Many groups — 79% of high-income households, 45% of women, 51% of B2B companies, 54% of Generation X — avoid a company for over 2 years after a bad customer experience
• In a survey by New Voice Media, 42% of respondents have left a business due to poor customer service.
• 37% of consumers want suppliers to apologize when the service is not satisfactory. (CallMiner)
• 48% of all consumers have left a business’ website and made a purchase elsewhere because the experience was poorly curated. (Accenture)
• 78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction because of a bad service interaction. (American Express)
• 85% of consumers churn because of poor service that could have been prevented. (Kolsky)
• Acquiring new customers can cost up to 5x more than keeping existing customers
• A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect on profits as cutting costs by 10%
• On average, companies lose approx. 10% of its customer base each year (also known as customer churn)

Conclusion

The race to own customer experience is on! Brands are recognizing the importance of delivering an experience that makes them stand apart from the competition and build genuine connections with them. CX provides a massive opportunity to create loyal customers.

Since everyone wants to own it, there’s a lot of noise being created and more difficult to stand out from the crowd. While CX is key, we’re reaching functional parity.

For important drivers of satisfaction, you need to delight your customers, rather than just meeting their expectations. Because it’s only the unique and most exclusive customer experiences that are remembered today. You need to see what the brand believes in, then check if it delivers it in its CX.

If not, find yourself the right partner that works with you from idea to realization. If you want to conquer market shares by offering the best customer experiences you need a partner that puts the user in the center of their design process and that uses a solution-based approach to solving problems that involve continuous experimentation, prototyping and trying out new concepts and ideas.

Breath life into your idea by developing the concept with BBH Stockholm.

Written by Alexander Niléhn and Gül Heper