It’s clear that poor customer service is bad for business, but the financial implications might surprise you. A 2024 study revealed that globally, businesses lose approximately $3.7 trillion in sales each year due to negative customer experiences. Customer satisfaction has reached its lowest since 2010, highlighting an urgent need for improvement.
In this article, we’ll explore what this means for businesses and how you can improve by outsourcing support to teams with the right expertise.
The High Cost of Customer Churn
Modern customers have more choices than ever, which is why people often switch to competitors after just one poor experience. In fact, 96% of customers say they would switch after receiving substandard service.
Low customer retention caused by poor customer service results in several key issues for businesses:
- Revenue Loss: Immediate losses from missed sales.
- Brand Damage: Long-term negative impacts on reputation and trust.
- Increased Costs: Higher spending on acquiring new customers due to increased churn.
The Operational Impact of Poor Customer Service
Poor customer service doesn’t just affect sales—it impacts operational efficiency as well. Employees often spend a significant portion of their time resolving customer issues, detracting from other responsibilities.
The constant handling of complaints can also lead to high employee turnover, increasing recruitment and training costs while lowering overall morale, creating a vicious cycle of declining service.
How to Cost-Effectively Improve Customer Service
Getting customer service right can prevent customer churn and even increase revenue. A survey revealed that 58% of people are willing to spend more for better service, even in a tough economic climate. But how can you solve the problem of poor customer service without breaking the bank?
- Provide Prompt Support: Good customer service revolves around empathy and quick problem-solving. A well-handled issue can turn a negative experience into a positive one, even generating customer loyalty.
- For example, at the Ritz-Carlton, every employee has the authority to fix customer issues on the spot, leading to high satisfaction and returning guests.
- Personalise Your Support: Your support team should have easy access to previous customer interactions to personalise responses and resolve issues faster.
- At Arringo, we integrate with your CRM systems, enabling our multi-lingual agents to provide personalised, thoughtful solutions by using real-time customer data.
- Create a Customer Feedback Loop: Implementing feedback systems, like post-service surveys or star-rating tools, helps you understand customer needs and improve service delivery.
- Ensure your service quality is up to standard before opening public feedback channels like social media, as negative reviews can harm your brand’s reputation.
Balancing AI and Human Interaction for Optimal Customer Service
In the quest to improve customer service, the role of artificial intelligence (AI) has sparked significant debate. On one hand, AI offers incredible efficiency by providing quick, accurate responses and automating repetitive tasks. Studies suggest that AI can streamline operations, reduce costs, and help resolve customer issues in a timely manner. However, there’s a counterpoint: the lack of human interaction can sometimes lead to a reduction in sales, as customers often prefer a personal touch, especially when dealing with more complex or emotionally charged issues.
The key to mastering customer service in the modern era is finding a balance between AI-driven support and human intervention. AI is excellent for handling high-volume, straightforward queries, but human agents are crucial for providing empathy, problem-solving, and personalised support. By leveraging AI for efficiency while ensuring human agents are available for high-touch interactions, businesses can maintain strong customer relationships and drive growth—all while keeping operational costs low.
Arringo’s customer service solutions integrate both AI and human expertise, enabling us to offer the best of both worlds—quick, cost-effective service when you need it, paired with personalised, empathetic support when it matters most.
Scaling Up with Smart Solutions
As your business grows, the volume of customer queries increases, and managing this growth efficiently is critical.
Arringo’s scalable support solutions offer over 200 multi-lingual agents trained to handle surges in customer support demand, providing 24/7 service when needed. We also offer tech experts who can automate parts of your customer service workflows, such as CRM integrations, to ensure seamless operations.
Strategic Recovery and Improvement with Arringo and ArriTech
Improving customer service isn’t about patching things up—it requires a strategic overhaul. Here’s how Arringo and ArriTech can help:
- Empower Your Staff: Arringo provides training and resources to ensure your team has the skills needed for empathetic, effective problem-solving.
- Leverage Technology: ArriTech offers advanced CRM systems that enhance interaction tracking, allowing every customer query to be addressed efficiently and personally.
- Feedback and Continuous Improvement: With feedback loops and data analysis, our solutions help you refine your service strategies continuously.
Poor customer service can have devastating effects on your business, but with the right strategies and partners, recovery is within reach. Contact Arringo and ArriTech today to see how our solutions can transform your customer service from a liability into a strong asset.
Book a free consultation to find out how the Arringo Group can help improve your customer service and support.
Explore latest news
Going the Extra Mile – How Source of Wealth Checks Can Protect You
As governments around the world begin to clamp down more aggressively on global money laundering activities, as well as closing off channels used to fund international terrorism, regulatory compliance is of vital importance.
The onus to ensure that every check and procedure is completed is on individual financial institutions, e-payment service providers, online gaming sites, and other types of enterprise where some form of financial transaction occurs during the course of their day to day operations. KYC (Know Your Customer) and client onboarding processes are just two examples of the steps necessary to ensure compliance.
However, in order for businesses and financial institutions to be seen to be going the extra mile, there are two additional checks that can be undertaken. These are known as Source of Wealth (SOW) and Source of Funds (SOF) checks and, while the two are often mistakenly confused as one and the same, they are in fact separate checks, each with its own definition.
Source of Wealth checks specifically deal with how a client under scrutiny, actually acquired their funds to begin with. For example, did they acquire their wealth through an inheritance of sorts? Through investments or the sale of real estate? SOW checks can play a vital role when it comes to going the extra mile to ensure that your client and their funds are from a legitimate source, thereby reducing the risk of indirect money laundering complicity.
Source of Funds checks specifically deal with where a client’s funds are drawn from. For example, does the client have a bank account held in the United Kingdom (or other countries)?
The Risks of Not Completing Your KYC Procedures Properly
The advent of the internet has helped to create the world’s first truly global market place, where businesses and clients, literally from opposite ends of the earth, are able to connect and do business together, in the blink of an eye.
However, with great technology comes great responsibility. In an effort to clamp down on fraud and international crime, governments around the world have put a range of stringent checks and balances in place. These include international Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations, Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and others. A key component of these regulations is known as KYC or Know Your Customer.
ArriTech Launches QGen Online 2.0 - A Break-Through for Risk Compliance
Compliance as a process is a topic often in the shadow of major news. However, identity checks are a critical part of doing business securely and reducing risk. For most businesses, when considering compliance, top of mind are painful implementations, time-consuming submissions, and costly administrative tasks.
