UK Brands and businesses continue to shed loyalty and income due to poor customer service. Over half (53%) of UK businesses report losing millions in revenue due to poor customer experience, according to new research from AND Digital.
The findings from the Know Me or Lose Me report, which polled 250 business leaders across businesses between £200 million and £2 billion revenue, revealed that 67% believe that without significant improvements to customer experience, their organisation will lose millions of customers within the next year, calling for the urgent need for CEOs to prioritise customer experience to protect their customer base.
With customer expectations evolving, businesses are increasingly seeing data and technology as the key to enhancing experiences with 71% of respondents agreeing that data is the single biggest factor in delivering a good customer service experience.
However, the ability to leverage data effectively depends on having the right technical infrastructure as 62 per cent of business leaders say that without the right tech stack, along with financial pressures, their organisation will struggle to retain customers.
Budget is key to better customer service, if available
Some 57% of respondents agree they are expected to improve customer experience without an increased budget, with a further 69 per cent saying the future of the business landscape will be dominated by organisations with the biggest tech budgets.
Despite economic challenges, businesses are adjusting their financial priorities to focus on customer experience and retention. 71 per cent state that their customer experience budget has increased over the past year, reflecting a growing recognition of the need to invest in long-term customer relationships which is essential for sustainable growth.
“Its clear that poor customer experience is directly impacting revenue and retention. Business leaders understand that data is the single biggest factor in delivering good customer experience, and most get that without the right tech stack, they will struggle.” commented Paramjit Uppal, founder of AND Digital. “Its reassuring that despite the financial pressure, leaders are reallocating technology budgets from customer acquisition to retention and loyalty, and many have prioritised and increased their customer experience investments in the past year.”
Fixing the problem is always more than any one simple solution. Many companies with poor CX and customer service need to retrain staff, reconsider their software and approach to the customer.