Customer experience stats you need to know about in 2020

In 2020, customer experience is at the forefront of many consumer purchase decisions. Not to be confused with customer service, the customer experience covers all touchpoints from initial marketing and outreach methods, all the way through to the purchase, retention and customer loyalty stages.

Unfortunately, many companies are late-adopters when it comes to improving the customer experience for their clients, but there are a wide-range of business benefits to doing so, such as conversion-rate improvement, reduced marketing costs, and the likelihood of achieving favourable customer reviews.

Below, we explore 12 of the key customer experience (CX) stats that you need to know and bear in mind when building your customer acquisition and retention strategies in 2020.

1. Customers are willing to pay up to 13% more for luxury and indulgence services

First out the gate, PWC found that customers are willing to pay a price premium of more than 10% for more luxury and indulgent services. This marks an interesting trend in CX where brand perception and customer experience is now a significant customer buying factor, equal to price. This means that you should try not to compete by lowering your prices (and your perceived value), and that customer experiences should be considered when selling and delivering your goods and services.

2. Customer experience was marked as the single most exciting opportunity for B2B businesses in 2020

Adobe and Econsultancy’s annual Digital Trends report asked thousands of B2B businesses this question, and CX beat video, AI and automation to the punch as the single most exciting opportunity this year.

3. Companies earning $1 billion annually can expect an increase of $700 million within 3 years of investing into CX

In 2018, the Temkin Group published its findings to show that big businesses can expect an average increase of $700 million after investing in CX. An additional 70% of revenue in three years is a considerable figure for businesses of all sizes, and the ROI of investing into CX is evident.

4. 57% of customers won’t recommend a business with a poor mobile experience…

Sweor found that first impressions, particularly on mobile, really do count. Its data showed that more than half of customers won’t recommend your business based on a poor mobile experience (regardless of content, product offering or pricing). This is a huge consideration for businesses, and shows the way in which CX affects multiple touchpoints that aren’t necessarily all service-based.

5. …and 50% of customers will stop visiting it entirely, even if they like the business

Sweor went on to find that half of customers simply won’t visit the website again, even if they’re familiar with your brand, or they like your business. This shows a considerable shift away from reputation and brand loyalty, and shows how delivering a brilliant customer experience needs to be a priority across all of the interactions between you and your customers.

6. Two-thirds of customers prefer self-service customer support

Research by Zendesk showed that 67% of customers prefer self-service over speaking to a company representative, with 91% going on to say that they’d use a knowledge base if it met their needs. So while self-service is the preferred method of customer support, there is still a lack of trust that searching online or using knowledge bases will meet their requirements.

By creating a clear and comprehensive forum, knowledge area or FAQ, you can reduce human support contacts considerably, while catering to the preferences of your audience.

7. Millennials prefer live chat customer service options

In the same vein, Comm100 reported that millennials (those born between 1980-2000) chose live chat as their preferred option for customer support for its speed and convenience.

8. Leading CX organisations are nine times more likely to use integrated data from multiple sources

In 2019, Pointillist found that global CX leaders are 900% more likely to use data from multiple sources, analyse customer interactions on all channels and engage customers optimally across all channels. This means no significant differences in customer services between social, live chat, email or phone – which is the crucial end goal for any customer experience strategy.

9. 88% of companies now prioritise customer experience in their contact centres

As part of its global contact centre survey, Deloitte found that almost 90% of companies prioritise customer experience as part of their customer service planning.

10. More than two-thirds of companies now compete based on CX

Gartner’s Customer Experience Survey asked global CX leaders for their insights on customer experience. One significant trend that they found that we’re now seeing across the board is that more than 67% of companies compete based on customer experience, rather than price. This is up from 36% in 2010, and widely expected to grow further in the coming years.

11. More than 70% of consumers consider their customer experience with brands

A PWC study found that consumers, when thinking about customer experience, prioritise speed, convenience, helpful employees and friendly service. Often, companies that get it right tend to prioritise technologies that are fast and that provide these benefits, over adopting new technology or being the first to be ‘cutting edge’.

12. Almost two-thirds of US consumers value their own experiences over great advertising

PWC went on to find that in the US market, 65% of consumers value their own positive experiences with a brand over great advertising. Again, this highlights the shift in focus from marketing and creating viral campaigns to truly deliver an exceptional and consistent customer experience.

By prioritising your customer experience in 2020, not only will you benefit from an increase in customer satisfaction, but also other benefits to your business, including reduced ‘human’ customer contacts. So, in 2020, make sure to prioritise your customer experience instead of competing in a race to the bottom on price.