Simply put, customer experience (CX) is how customers perceive all the interactions they have with a company at any given point in the buyer’s journey. Whether it’s a phone call to the contact centre or something as simple as a conversation with a chatbot, every engagement impacts the relationship between a business and its customers.
In a day and age where 52% of customers will switch to a competitor if they have a single negative impression, it’s imperative that businesses prioritise providing exceptional customer experiences. Staying on top of the latest data, trends and statistics can help CX teams identify what they already excel at and where they can improve.
Importance of customer experience statistics
Customer experience looks a lot different today than it did just three years ago. Paying attention to CX stats and trends allows leaders and teams to gain deeper insights into changing customer motivations, impressions and needs – helping them make the right decisions to provide the best support and ultimately get a return on investment.
Take Mailchimp, a top marketing platform. Everything they build, they build with the customer in mind. Their entire business – from customer support to billing – uses customer data and trends to know which features and functionality customers need most. Using what they learn, they build better products that help more customers.
“If you’re not constantly listening and constantly ready for change, you’re going to miss the opportunity,” said Ben Chestnut, Mailchimp CEO and Co-founder.
Here are 35 insightful customer experience statistics to consider this year.
Investment in CX is critical to bottom-line growth
Standout customer service can change anyone’s mind – even your most upset customers. Investing in CX is imperative to retaining customers and driving growth. See for yourself.
- Of companies that focus on CX, there’s an 80% increase in revenue. (Zippia)
- Customer-centric brands report profits that are 60% higher than those that fail to focus on CX. (CX Index)
- 80% of leaders plan to increase customer service budgets over the next year. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
90% of businesses, regardless of the vertical they’re operating in, have stated that they’ve made CX their primary focus. (CX Index)
- 41% of customer-obsessed companies achieved at least 10% revenue growth in their last financial year, compared to just 10% of less mature companies. (Forrester)
- Organisations that demonstrate how customer satisfaction is associated with growth, margin and profitability are more likely to report customer experience success and are 29% more likely to secure more CX budgets. (Gartner)
- 80% of organisations expect to compete mainly based on CX. (Gartner)
- 73% of customers now say CX is the number one thing they consider when deciding whether to purchase from a company. (PwC)
Customer expectations are on the rise
Customers expect a lot from the companies they do business with. In a world where customers can easily switch to a competitor, companies that fail to take action to meet these new expectations face losing opportunities. - 49% of customers who left a brand to which they’d been loyal in the past 12 months say it’s due to poor CX. (Emplifi)
60% of consumers have purchased something from one brand over another based on the service they expect to receive. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
- Customers are 2.4 times more likely to stick with a brand when their problems are solved quickly. (Forrester)
- 72% of customers want immediate service. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
- 64% of customers will spend more if a business resolves their issues where they already are.
(Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
70% of customers expect anyone they interact with to have full context. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
- 48% of consumers expect specialised treatment for being a good customer. (Accenture)
The promise of AI has yet to be fully realised
Companies are shifting their focus to providing the best possible customer experience and automating interactions at a steady pace. The use of AI and automation in customer service is quickly becoming standard, but there are still many advances that have yet to be realised. - 80% of executives have reported demonstrable improvements in customer satisfaction, delivery of service and overall contact centre performance as a result of implementing conversational AI. (MIT Technology Review)
- Globally, the conversational AI market is expected to grow 22% between 2020 and 2025, with the market reaching nearly $14 billion by 2025. (Deloitte)
- 57% of business leaders feel that conversational chatbots deliver a large ROI on minimal investment. (Accenture)
- 54% of support teams use some form of chatbot, VCA or other conversational AI platform for customer-facing applications. And by 2027, chatbots will become the primary customer service channel for roughly a quarter of organisations. (Gartner)
- Nowadays, 77% of businesses are using or exploring AI. (IBM)
- AI can increase business productivity by 40%. (Techjury)
72% of business leaders agree that expanding the use of AI/bots across the customer experience over the next 12 months is very or somewhat important. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
- 72% of executives believe that AI will be the most significant business advantage of the future. (PwC)
- 68% of business leaders already have plans to increase their investments in AI.
(Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
Removing data silos creates a better experience for customers and agents alike
Integrating systems is imperative to seeing the full picture. By building a single, detailed view of customer data, teams can more easily contribute to the bottom line. - More than 19 in every 20 CX leaders have invested or plan to invest in data integration, data integrity or data enrichment technologies. (CX Today)
72% of leaders believe that merging teams and responsibilities around the customer experience will increase operational efficiencies. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
74% of agents say that having access to more tools and data will give them more opportunities to personalise interactions. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
- 54% of organisations stated that their biggest barrier to leveraging data was fragmented or siloed data. (Treasure Data)
Personalisation drives loyalty
By connecting and leveraging untapped service data, businesses can achieve deeper personalisation, thus moving their organisation closer toward a better customer experience. Here are a few stats to prove it. - 88% of online shoppers are more likely to continue shopping on a retailer website that offers a personalised experience, including 96% of gen Z and 97% of millennials. (Elastic)
- 59% of consumers believe businesses should use the data they collect about them to personalise their experiences. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
- 60% of consumers report that they will become repeat buyers after a personalised purchasing experience. (Twilio)
- 66% of consumers say they will share personal data about themselves if they think it will elevate their customer experience. (Redpoint and Harris)
62% of consumers agree that personalised recommendations are better than general ones. (Zendesk CX Trends Report 2023)
- 86% of B2B customers expect companies to be well-informed about their personal information during service interactions. (Gartner)
- Companies that grow faster drive 40% more of their revenue from personalisation than their slower-growing counterparts. (McKinsey & Company)
The year of customer experience-led growth
The evidence is clear that now is the time to make investing in CX a priority. How businesses choose to invest in their CX now, in the midst of economic uncertainty, is what sets the course for the future of their reputation with customers and, ultimately, their success.
Interested in learning more about CX trends that could help you make important decisions about where to invest? Read our full report.
