We know the importance of customer service. Today’s customers are spoiled. They don’t only consider the product but the customer experience as well.

“If a customer likes you—and continues to like —they will continue to do business with you. If they don’t, they won’t.” - Paul Greenberg

This statement from Paul Greenberg shows just how important customer service is. Let’s have a look at some stats highlighting the importance of customer service.

1. According to Walker, customer experience will be given more importance to than the price of a product by 2020.
2. According to Gartner (News - Alert), 89% or business compete on the basis of overall customer experience and not product price, which to many buyers is already secondary.
3. According to Accenture (News - Alert), companies have to face a loss of over $1.6 trillion due to customers shifting to competitors due to a poor experience.
4. According to McKinsey, about 70% of customer behavior depends on the overall customer experience and how a company treats them.
5. According to Bain & Company, businesses can improve their market share by about 8% just by improving their customer service.
6. According to ThinkJar, about 55% will pay more if it means getting an overall better customer experience. This is also why prime brands are able to charge more despite there not being a major difference between product quality. They charge for the overall customer experience and brand name.
7. According to Glance, about 70% of customers are more likely to return to a business if their issues are resolved by the customer care department.
8. According to American Express (News - Alert), about 90% of customers judge a company based on customer service and not on the quality of a product. This also means that a poor customer experience can negatively impact their opinion of a business even if they’re happy with product quality.
9. According to RightNow, about 73% of buyers remain loyal to a company only due to the customer service that they provide.
10. According to NewVoiceMedia (News - Alert), about 44% of buyers will move to another company if the first interaction is not good.

This is even more important because it is cheaper to retain customers than it is to acquire new customers. This is why businesses need to pick up the pace and improve the quality of services they have to offer.

Technology appears to be making things easier. In fact, according to Forrester (News - Alert), the next generation of buyers are so used to technology that they prefer businesses that integrate well with tech.

This helps buyers get a personalized experience with instant gratification. This is why retailers now appear to be turning to artificial intelligence.

According to a new study by BPR, titled, “2018 Customer Experience Unified Commerce Survey, AI seems to be catching on in the retail sector. More than half the retailers, 55% to be exact, plan on leveraging AI within the next three years in order to improve customer service.

It should also be mentioned that about 7% of retailers have already turned to AI and seem to be enjoying the benefits the technology has to offer. They offer features such as chatbots and digital assistants. However, they agree that the system needs improvements.

A large percentage of retailers, about 31%, plan on using augmented reality, whereas about 21% intend to use virtual reality.

“Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality will continue to change the shopping experience and the customer journey,” states the report. “While retailers recognize the need for unified commerce to support a seamless, personalized customer experience, true unified commerce is still aspirational for many retailers.”

According to the report, about 1% of retailers operate in an omnichannel environment with only 5% accepting having reached a unified commerce model.

The study consisted of 500 retailers and shows the condition of technology in the sector. All kinds of sellers appear to be making use of tech to provide a better customer service to their clients.

It doesn’t matter what you sell, linear actuators, cars, medicines, clothes, or houses, you need to provide customers with a good overall experience.

It’s important for businesses to be technologically advanced, especially since, according to SalesForce, about 70% of buyers agree that a lack of technology can make them turn to a competitor.