Here’s why customer service is worse than ever and so is consumers’ rage

“Now when they’re complaining and they’re not happy about what they get, they’re no longer more likely to come back,” he said.

The number of households experiencing consumer difficulties has increased dramatically, the survey found. The 2020 customer problem rate was 66% — up 10 percentage points over 2017, at 56%, and more than twice as high as the 1976 results, at 32%.

Other findings include:

• The most common area for problems was technology (internet, email, software, hardware, tech support), listed by 19% of respondents, followed by cable/satellite TV, 18%; automobile, 12%; cell phone, 6%; and airline, 5%.

• Airlines drew the highest percentage of complainants with rage, at 77%.

• $494 billion is at risk to businesses as a result of their most serious customer problems.

• Customers make an average of about three contacts to resolve a problem, with about 10% of respondents making six or more attempts at satisfaction.

More than half of respondents — 58% — felt like their complaining led to nothing. About 35% wanted their money back, but only 14% got that.

Complainants were happiest when they got their money back plus something else, like an apology — 60% of that group was satisfied. Only 43% of the group that only got their money back was satisfied.

The result for companies is bad word of mouth, with dissatisfied customers telling an average of seven people about their experience.

The internet has caught up with the telephone as the primary channel for complaining — with 43% for internet versus 42% for telephone. In 2017, the telephone was the primary way to complain, 70% compared to 12% for the internet.

When consumers vent on social media, it’s most likely to be on Facebook and Twitter, both at 28%, followed by Google Reviews, Instagram and YouTube.

Of customers who complained on social media, 49% never hear from the company.

Social media has amplified the complaint scenario, Hollmann said.

“We used to say that when people complained, they talked to 5 to 12 times the number of people as those giving a compliment,” he said.

“Now it’s hundreds. We say that 865 is the average number of friends, followers or contacts across social media, so with minimal effort, 865 people see something negative.”

Depending on the platform, the impact is different.

“It’s more personal in a Tweet, but it’s more fleeting because people are flooded with tweets,” he said.

“A Yelp review will sit there for years and will be a factor in the total score.”

The survey showed that 48% of respondents report checking social media reviews before buying a service or product.

Hollmann said that companies need to rethink their customer-complaint strategy. Every year, the Center for Services Leadership runs a weeklong Strategic Service Institute for companies, addressing different challenges. Typically, the session on “service recovery” is rated as least helpful because managers believe they already have systems for dealing with complaints.

“That’s been a very false sense of security when you look at the customer rage study over time,” he said.

“We haven’t really made progress as far as customer perceptions are concerned, and that’s the difference between an action orientation of ‘We’re doing things,’ and externally, the outcome, which is the customer perception.

“You actually have to follow up on what you find.”

Dealing with customer complaints takes resources.

“Most of the things that customers want actually are free, or at least cheap for the company,” he said.

“They want to be treated with dignity. An apology — that’s free,” he said. “They want an explanation of why the problem occurred, or at least a recognition. All of those things are an extra 10 seconds on the phone but companies aren’t doing it.”