A recent survey shows Americans are more unhappy with the customer service they’re getting than ever. The poor guy above has been on hold for 24 months (we assume — it’s a stock photo).
Who are they? The thousands of Americans voicing their discontent with customer service. You can find them on basically any Yelp page out there.
Plenty of industries have been upended by the pandemic, and it turns out that customer service and hospitality at large have declined in the eyes of many Americans.
74% of Americans say they’ve had a product or service problem in the past year, according to the 10th edition of the National Customer Rage Survey, which tracks satisfaction and incivility. The incidence of problems has more than doubled since 1976.
And on the other side, consumers are described as increasingly vocal about it—literally. The survey found 43% of customers yelled or raised their voice to express displeasure about their most serious problem, up from 35% in 2015.
If you’ve spent any time on the rage-inducing side of customer freakout TikTok, you’ve probably seen enough to know things feel… off.
The survey is conducted by Customer Care Measurement and Consultancy, in collaboration with the Center for Services Leadership/W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.
What’s the big deal? Well, there’s a lot of unhappy people out there.
There are a number of reasons why customer service may feel worse, like a shortage in workers in some industries, the proliferation of tech as a part of the process, and a lack of incentive for companies without competition. (Have you ever tried to contact your internet provider about anything?)
Amas Tenumah wrote a book on the subject of customer service, and he cites increased customer expectations not being met as the biggest part of the problem.
“Today, we live in a society where the expectations are rising by the brands. Just think about the commercials. They promise you the world … and then the objective reality hits. And you try to reach customer service. And you are met with a bot. You are met with wait times… that’s really where the chasm is. This gap between expectations and objective reality just continues to get wider and wider.”
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