Customer satisfaction is on the rebound, after more than a year of decline, according to a new benchmark report from Zendesk.
Research indicated that in the second quarter of 2013, the average customer satisfaction in Benchmark reached 81 percent, a 3 percentage point jump from the quarter before and a 1 percentage point increase from a year earlier.
The rebound coincided with a couple of larger trends, the authors of the report said. Industries with historically low customer satisfaction, in particular financial services, saw some of the highest gains in percentage terms. Meanwhile, consumers generally have been reporting greater confidence in the economy.
A key approach to improving efficiency is giving customers the tools to help themselves. The report examined how well companies are encouraging customer self-service through online forums, communities, and social media. Customer self-service, while not new, is growing in popularity. As many as 67 percent of consumers prefer helping themselves to speaking with a customer service agent, other studies have found. An overwhelming 91 percent in those studies also said they would use. a company’s knowledge base if it was available and tailored to meet their needs.
For more information, see: http://cdn.zendesk.com/resources/whitepapers/Zendesk_Benchmark_2013Q2.pdf