Kustomer Releases New Report On The Growing Need For Efficiency In Customer Service Across Wide Range Of Industries

NEW YORK, June 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Kustomer, the omnichannel SaaS platform reimagining enterprise customer service to deliver standout experiences, today announced new data on the state of the customer service industry which underscores the need for greater efficiency, particularly in today's rapidly shifting business environment. The survey of over 120 customer service professionals, across a variety of industries, found that 92% of organizations say more efficiency is needed, and 51% reported that there is a greater need for efficiency than a year ago.

"When business is booming and a wealth of resources are available, efficiency may not be the number one priority for a customer service organization, but as the pandemic continues to challenge brands and customer expectations continue to shift, the power of an efficient and effective customer service organization cannot be underestimated," said Brad Birnbaum, Co-Founder and CEO of Kustomer. "As businesses have no choice but to do more with less, having the technology tools in place that can minimize the impact of decreased resources and make agents' jobs easier will play an increasingly important role in delivering a stellar customer experience while ensuring profitability."

Key Survey Findings
Kustomer surveyed customer service professionals across twenty industries including healthcare, food, beverage and grocery, and finance and insurance industries to better understand the current customer service environment, what tools and strategies businesses are currently using to achieve efficiency, and how technology can play a more central role in turning customer service organizations into profit centers. Key findings include:

• Limited staff, budget and executive buy-in pose significant efficiency challenges: Sixty-three percent of respondents reported having limited staff, while 44% reported being on a strict budget. Fifty-six percent of agents said that budget prevented their organizations from implementing efficiency tools, while 34% pointed to the absence of executive buy-in.
• Agents perceive immediacy and accuracy of responses to be key customer priorities: Ninety-one percent of respondents said their customers simply cannot stand long wait times, while 79% said their customers won't tolerate having to repeat information.
• Type and volume of inquiries are the biggest obstacles to delivering efficient support: Thirty-eight percent of respondents point to challenging inquiries as the main reason for inability to provide efficient support, followed by 29% of respondents that say too many inquiries are problematic.
• Adoption of the right tools is necessary to stay efficient and effective: While 57% reported that they are not using any of the typical tools and strategies to deliver efficient support, organizations are considering adopting a variety of tools, including intelligent routing, knowledge base deflection, auto responses and chatbots.

"Now that we have a greater understanding of the efficiency pressures and challenges facing today's customer service organizations, the adoption of intelligent tools that can handle low level tasks and free up agents' time to handle challenging inquiries becomes even more essential," added Birnbaum. "By combining tools like AI-powered technology, sentiment analysis, intelligent routing and chatbots, the Kustomer platform provides agents what they need to deliver highly efficient service, build long-lasting customer relationships, boost brand loyalty and make valuable contributions to the company's bottom line."

Survey Methodology
The results presented in this report are from a survey conducted online within the United States by Qualtrics on behalf of Kustomer between May 28th and June 2nd, 2020. A total of 121 responses were recorded, of adults 18+ who reside within the United States and are employed full time in a customer service role. Respondents worked at organizations with an annual revenue of at least $10M in one of the following industries: Consumer Products / Packaged Goods, Education, Financial Services, Food / Beverage / Grocery, Government / Environmental, Healthcare, Hospitality, Insurance, Media / Advertising, Retail, and Technology / Software. Kustomer developed the survey in conjunction with the Qualtrics Expert Method team and data was scrubbed twice during the course of the research to ensure accurate responses. No personal information was gathered from respondents during the course of the survey.

Our "Special Report: The Efficiency Mandate in Customer Service" can be accessed here.

About Kustomer
Kustomer is the omnichannel SaaS CRM platform reimagining enterprise customer service to deliver standout experiences. Built with intelligent automation, Kustomer scales to meet the needs of any contact center and business by unifying data from multiple sources and enabling companies to deliver effortless, consistent and personalized service and support through a single timeline view. Today, Kustomer is the core platform of some of the leading customer service brands like Ring, Glovo, Glossier and Sweetgreen. Headquartered in NYC, Kustomer was founded in 2015 by serial entrepreneurs Brad Birnbaum and Jeremy Suriel, has raised over $174M in venture funding, and is backed by leading VCs including: Coatue, Tiger Global Management, Battery Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Cisco Investments, Canaan Partners, Boldstart Ventures and Social Leverage.

Media Contact:
Cari Sommer
Raise Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE Kustomer