The survey of 1,000 American adults age 25 and older reveals their attitudes and behaviors towards customer service. In addition to their attitudes towards social media customer service, the survey reveals that: Consumers expect responses via social media within an hour. Perhaps the reason people don’t prefer social media customer service is the wait time. Less than a quarter of respondents said they expected to wait an hour or more for a response to a social media customer service inquiry. A quarter of all respondents said that they do not use social media channels at all for customer service. 72.6% of consumers threaten to cancel service as a means of conflict resolution. These consumers share many common traits, including the likelihood of sharing negative customer service experiences with friends and avoiding products that have bad customer service reviews. Customers who threaten to cancel service are extremely likely to follow through on that threat. At the same time, the 26.4% of consumers who haven’t threatened to cancel service display more passive traits. They accept longer hold times on customer service calls and prefer email to phone-based customer service. You can find the complete whitepaper with full results here: http://m2talk.com/blog/studies/consumer-behaviors-towards-multi-channel-customer-service/

1. Published: January, 15 2014
Consumer Behaviors Towards Multi-Channel Customer Service

2. 1: What is your preferred contact method for customer service?
Live
Chat
Email Social
media
Phone In
person
Other
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: Live Chat 21.3%
(213)
A2: Email 32.5%
(325)
A3: Social media 2.0% (20)
A4: Phone 33.5%
(335)
A5: In person 10.4%
(104)
A6: Other 0.3% (3)

3. 2: How likely are you to try email or live chat support before calling a customer service line?
Not at all
likely
Not likely Neutral Likely Very likely
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: Not at all likely 4.2% (42)
A2: Not likely 9.1% (91)
A3: Neutral 17.6%
(176)
A4: Likely 31.9%
(319)
A5: Very likely 37.2%
(372)

4. 3: How long are you willing to wait on hold for customer service?
1-3
minutes
4-5
minutes
5-10
minutes
10-30
minutes
30+
minutes
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: 1-3 minutes 21.1%
(211)
A2: 4-5 minutes 34.2%
(342)
A3: 5-10 minutes 32.3%
(323)
A4: 10-30 minutes 10.1%
(101)
A5: 30+ minutes 2.3% (23)

5. 4: How likely are you to feel positive about a customer service rep with a good attitude, even if the issue isn't
resolved?
Not at all
likely
Not likely Neutral Likely Very likely
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: Not at all likely 2.6% (26)
A2: Not likely 7.6% (76)
A3: Neutral 24.2%
(242)
A4: Likely 46.7%
(467)
A5: Very likely 18.9%
(189)

6. 5: When using social media for customer support during regular business hours, when do you expect the
company to respond?
0
50
100
150
200
250
300 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: Within 5 minutes 16.9%
(169)
A2: Within 30 minutes 19.8%
(198)
A3: Within an hour 17.0%
(170)
A4: Within 2 hours 12.6%
(126)
A5: Within 6 hours 4.9% (49)
A6: Within 7 hours or more 3.9% (39)
A7: I do not use social
media to obtain customer
service
24.9%
(249)

7. 6: When researching reviews before buying, how likely are you to avoid a quality product because of poor
customer service?
Not at all
likely
Not likely Neutral Likely Very likely
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: Not at all likely 1.5% (15)
A2: Not likely 7.9% (79)
A3: Neutral 26.0%
(260)
A4: Likely 42.8%
(428)
A5: Very likely 21.8%
(218)

8. 7: How likely are you to share a positive customer service experience with others?
Not at all
likely
Not likely Neutral Likely Very likely
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: Not at all likely 0.5% (5)
A2: Not likely 5.0% (50)
A3: Neutral 11.1%
(111)
A4: Likely 42.1%
(421)
A5: Very likely 41.3%
(413)

9. 8: How likely are you to share a negative customer service experience with others?
Not at all
likely
Not likely Neutral Likely Very likely
0
100
200
300
400
500
600 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: Not at all likely 1.1% (11)
A2: Not likely 5.0% (50)
A3: Neutral 9.3% (93)
A4: Likely 34.2%
(342)
A5: Very likely 50.4%
(504)

10. 9: Have you ever threatened to cancel service or buy a competitor's product in order to resolve a customer
service issue?
Yes No
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: Yes 72.6%
(726)
A2: No 27.4%
(274)

11. 10: Have you ever actually canceled service or bought a competitor's product because of poor customer service?
Yes No
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800 Answer
Resp.
(1000)
A1: Yes 75.0%
(750)
A2: No 25.0%
(250)

12. Customer Service Trends
SURVEY
DATE:
November
24,
2014
Target
Market:
Country:
United
States
Language:
English
Gender:
Males
and
Females
Age
Range:
25
-­‐
65+
years
old
Ethnicity/Race:
Any
Income:
Any
EducaBon:
Any
Employment:
Any
Career:
Any
RelaBonship:
Any
Parental
status:
Any
LocaBon:
Any
More:
ABSTRACT:
hHp://m2talk.com/blog/studies/consumer-­‐behaviors-­‐towards-­‐
mulB-­‐channel-­‐customer-­‐service/
FULL
WHITEPAPER:
hHp://m2talk.com/wp-­‐content/uploads/2015/01/Consumer-­‐
Behaviors-­‐Towards-­‐MulB-­‐Channel-­‐Customer-­‐Service-­‐
Whitepaper.pdf