Talking to Customer Support Is So Awful People Would Rather Shave Their Heads

In a survey, 62% of respondents reported ending their relationship with a company or canceling a service thanks to phone-based customer service.

By Chandra Steele

You pick up your phone countless times a day. But what does it take to get you to pick it up and call customer service? A lot, it turns out.

Twilio asked OnePoll to conduct a survey of 2,000 Americans to find out what they would rather do instead of dealing with customer support on the phone. It found that respondents would rather do their taxes (30%), go to the dentist (28%), go to the DMV (25%), shave their heads (24%), and even spend a night in jail (22%) instead.

Although humans have evolved to hate talking on the phone, there’s more at work here. A bad customer support experience led 62% of survey respondents to end their relationship with a company or cancel a service. They reported spending an inordinate amount of time on hold—on average, over an hour—and even then, the issue is only resolved 46% of the time.

Those who’ve bailed on attempts at calling customer service have had the additional frustrating experiences of missing deadlines for canceling contracts (46%), passing the return window for products (44%), and losing on an item or service (41%).

Survey respondents said these experiences could be made better if people could solve their issues without speaking on the phone to a live person (52%) and had multiple ways to contact support to get their issue resolved (51%).

Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.