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A Labor Shortage, Higher Expectations and Shorter Fuses Are Creating the Perfect Storm as Consumers and Customer Service Agents Lash Out

San Mateo, Calif - Consumers are increasingly fed up with customer service and aren’t afraid to voice their frustrations with agents, according to a new report from Netomi, a leading AI-first customer service platform. After surveying more than 1,200 consumers for its 2022 State of Customer Service Report, Netomi found many consumers have reached a breaking point during their interactions with customer support teams, as 33% of respondents reported having screamed or sworn at a customer service agent. Unfortunately, this data point does not bode well for a labor force which is currently operating with 25% fewer agents and where employee attrition hovers around 45%. However, this behavior is not isolated to the consumer side as 73% of survey respondents reported having experienced a customer service agent being rude to them.

“While most companies have come to recognize the significant role that customer care and customer experience play in building brand loyalty, there are still many who are struggling to meet their customers' expectations,” said Puneet Mehta, founder and CEO of Netomi. “Unfortunately, the pandemic has done little to ease consumers’ frustrations, and agents – who are already short-staffed and bearing the brunt of this anger – are understandably losing their patience as well. It truly is a perfect storm that can, unfortunately, have lasting consequences for a company.”

Another main source of resentment for customers is wait times. When asked to rank the most frustrating parts of customer service, 43% of survey respondents stated long wait times as the top reason. Unfortunately, this pain point is only getting worse in the wake of the labor shortage and ballooning ticket volumes. In fact, 57% of consumers said they have waited longer than an hour and shockingly, 26% have waited longer than two hours to speak with an agent. 

Additional key findings from the report include:

• Hang ups are common: 3 in 5 people have hung up on an agent at least once out of frustration and more than 1 in 10 have done it multiple times
• The now culture: 39% of consumers report having less patience now than they did prior to the pandemic
• Patience is wearing thin: 30% of customers will wait a maximum of only 2 minutes for an agent on chat
• Support is very inefficient: 25% have had to contact a company 3 or more times to resolve a single issue
• The airing of grievances: 53% of consumers have publicly shamed a company for providing poor customer service
• Companies are ghosting customers: 62% of consumers have been ghosted by company’s customer service call-back options
• Stop the small talk: 73% of consumers ascribe no value to agents engaging in small talk when fixing their issue

In addition to sharing which types of support interactions were the most frustrating for consumers, respondents were also quick to comment on the source of those interactions. When asked which industries they dreaded interacting with for customer service issues, more than half of respondents (53%) reported that telecommunications companies were the worst offenders. Wireless companies took the lead with 27%, and cable companies came in at a close second at 26%. Health insurance is the third worst category at 16%, followed by airlines with 11%.

To download a full copy of the report, visit https://www.netomi.com/resources/state-of-customer-service

Methodology

In January 2022, Netomi conducted an online survey of more than 1,200 consumers in the United States who were 18+ years old. The gender distribution was split, with 52.46% of respondents female and 47.54% male. Netomi used a reputable third-party survey company to target and secure the answers.

About Netomi

Backed by the world’s leading VCs, Netomi is a provider of AI-first customer experience designed for the Relationship Economy. Netomi's AI-powered virtual agents automatically resolve 80% of routine customer service inquiries, decreasing resolution time, increasing customer satisfaction and support quality, while reducing costs. The patented, no-code platform works across messaging, chat, email and voice, and understands 100+ languages. Netomi is based in San Mateo and has offices in New York, Toronto and India. For more information, visit https://netomi.com.