Top Contact Center Statistics You Should Know in 2023 (and What they Mean to your Business)

In 2023, measurements and analytics inform every business decision from staffing, to process, to execution. Call center KPIs give us an idea of contact center demand and help to inform our customer experience strategy; but we rarely pay attention to stats. Let’s look at some key statistical findings and the KPIs they help drive:  

Customer satisfaction rates increase with personalized experiences: Customers want to feel valued and appreciated, and personalized experiences can help achieve this. A study by Accenture found 83% of consumers prefer dealing with a company that delivers a personalized experience. Even when they’re not happy, offering a personalized and human touch can go a long way in ensuring customer satisfaction. Using customer satisfaction (CSAT) as a marker, we can better understand how well the contact center performed. If the contact center is meeting customer expectations, CSAT should also correlate with increased sales and conversions. 

Customer service is always key factor in purchase decisions: Customers expect good customer service, and they are willing to pay for it. In fact, according to a survey by PwC, 42% of customers are willing to pay more for better customer service. Poor customer service can damage a business' reputation and lead to customer churn. Customers often stop doing business with a company due to poor customer service. On the other hand, businesses that provide excellent customer service can increase customer loyalty and improve brand reputation. Net Promoter Score (NPS) captures loyalty and the customer experience in a different way. No one would tell their friends to spend money on a product or service they didn’t like. NPS is a great forecast tool for revenue and significant indicator of business growth.  

Response time is critical – customers expect a prompt response from businesses. Consider a recent HubSpot study found  90% of customers expect an immediate response when reaching out to customer service. Delayed response times can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction among customers, which can impact the business negatively. Understanding and strategizing around peak call volume and peak hour traffic can go a long way to set your agents and business up for success. The ability to service the maximum number of clients during peak times allows individual call agents to handle the spike in calls and stay out of the weeds so that they can focus on resolution. 

Mobile customer service is now the baseline. Most clients use their mobile devices to contact customer service. According to website development firm Outerbox, 79% of customers have used their mobile devices to contact customer service in the last six months. Because mobile usage is now the norm, it's imperative for businesses to ensure that their customer service channels are optimized for mobile devices. Knowing how much tech downtime your team is experiencing is a vital metric and potentially one of the easiest fixes to facilitate. Time lost due to technology issues is likely your most valuable yet underappreciated KPIs. A simple audit of tech downtime can lead to process improvements and overall customer satisfaction increase and remove pain points for your agents.

Customers quickly turn to social media for business interactions. McKinsey found that 67% of customers consistently use social media for customer service. While this trend highlights the importance of businesses having a social media presence and being responsive to customer queries and complaints, it demonstrates the necessity of multichannel support. Customers expect businesses to provide seamless support across multiple channels. Using customer retention rates, we can compare businesses with strong social and digital strategy compared to those businesses with weak multichannel presence and support. 

Artificial intelligence is transforming customer service: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can handle simple customer queries and free up agents to handle more complex issues. HubSpot reported that 40% of shoppers don't care if they are served by a bot or a human agent as long as they get the customer support services they need. However, it’s worth noting an American Express study found 23% of consumers still prefer face-to-face interaction when the issue's complexity increases, such as with payment disputes or complaints. After call work (ACW) measures post-call work and can highlight opportunities for robotic process automation (RPA) and AI-backed process improvements. Done thoughtfully, these improvements can ensure the agent is spending as much time as possible handling customer calls instead of tending to post-call tasks.  

Agent engagement is critical: Happy agents lead to happy customers. According to a study by Gallup, businesses with engaged employees have 10% higher customer satisfaction rates and 18% higher sales than businesses with disengaged employees. Customer effort score (CES) highlights the importance of investing in agent training, providing a supportive work environment, as well as the agent’s application of knowledge and their understanding of their role  

Understanding and utilizing statistical data gathered across the industry can help you understand the customer experience and predict trends in order to optimize forecasting and further the development of your employees. Utilizing statistics as a driver, it’s possible to maximize KPIs while adhering to business objectives and maintaining customer expectations.