100+ Customer Service Statistics to Memorize in 2023 (just kidding, but you can read them)

DSAT (Customer dissatisfaction score) is tracked by 43% of teams.

• 16% of teams consider DSAT to be their most important KPI.

IQS (Internal quality score) is tracked by 36% of customer service teams.

• The IQS benchmark for 2023 is 88%.
• 14% of teams consider IQS to be their most important KPI.

NPS (Net promoter score) is tracked by 28% of teams.

• The NPS benchmark for 2023 is +47.
• The average NPS response rate is 13%.
• 11% of customer service teams consider NPS to be their most important KPI.

FCR (First contact resolution rate) is tracked by 30% of teams.

• The FCR benchmark for 2023 is 70%.
• 11% of customer service teams consider FCR to be their most important KPI.

AHT (Average handle time) is tracked by 25% of teams.

The AHT benchmark for 2023 is

• 10 minutes for chat
• 12 minutes 39 seconds for email
• 6 minutes 33 seconds for phone

Customer service statistics on the support tech stack 

Your tech stack serves as both your team’s workplace and weaponry. It’s the place where your agents, managers, QA specialists, etc all spend their working hours, and it’s also the collection of tools they rely on to provide excellent customer service.

But there’s a balance. Too many tools, and you’ll overburden your team, too few and they are ill-equipped – both lead to poor customer service.

Current frustrations with support technologies*

*taken from Intercom’s Customer Service Trends Report 2023

• 31% of support leaders report ‘limited reporting capabilities’ with their current tech stack.
• Half of them also face issues with tool integrations not working seamlessly.
• 76& of support leaders believe their current tech stack holds them back from achieving goals.
• 54% of support teams still lack the tools they need to personalize their support at scale.

This year, many support leaders will look to update the technologies they use 

• 73% of support leaders say they’ll need to make their tech stacks work harder in 2023.
• 73% will prioritize tech stack interoperability.
• 45% want to prioritize better value for money.
• 52% of support leaders are investing in tech that helps agents with workload.

Statistics for customer service quality

Quantitative data, like metrics, only tell part of the story. To truly understand how to turn every interaction into a positive customer service experience, teams also need qualitative data.

Essential for every support team in 2023 is an airtight quality assurance program. 90% of teams conduct conversation reviews (support QA).

Our survey found that 86% of organizations agree that conversation reviews improve the quality of customer service. And 82% of teams have hired a support quality specialist to help manage the process.

Customer service statistics that show the benefits of a QA program: 

• 76% of organizations agree that conversation reviews help improve CSAT.
• 74% of support teams agree that conversation reviews help onboard new agents.
• 77% of teams agree that conversation reviews are useful for team members’ professional growth.
• 48% of teams use reviews to track IQS. 
• 44% of teams use QA results in 1:1 feedback meetings.
• 42% of teams use QA to measure the performance of BPOs.

How can you choose which conversations to review? 

• 37% of teams review conversations containing certain keywords or topics. 
• 35% of teams review conversations with poor performance. 

32% of teams use AI to help them select the most useful conversations to review. For example, Klaus’ Spotlight feature automatically picks out the more lengthy, complex conversations – as these are proven to contain the highest potential for learning.

When you want to monitor customer service, the inclination is to want to know everything. But you don’t want to – and don’t have time to – review everything. So when it comes to reviewing, sampling is everything. With Klaus, you have an automatic evaluation of the more uncreative themes, with the critical sampling done for you repeatedly, automatically, and effortlessly.

Mervi Sepp Rei PhD

Data Lead, Klaus

Inspiration for categories to put on your scorecard

The average number of categories is 14 (although the median is a far more reasonable 8!). 

Many teams use a binary rating scale (47%) to rate categories on a QA scorecard, although rating scales can be far more granular. 

The biggest challenges for support teams

It is one thing to understand customer expectations and measure quality. But some teams find that external problems prove to be the heaviest burden. 

Hubspot’s State of Service found that over 50% of support leaders cite lack of time as their greatest challenge. For customer service representatives, the most reported challenge was dealing with upset customers: 50% of agents struggle to manage difficult conversations with such customers. 

These findings are corroborated by Stylo’s study into the State of Customer Emotions: 

• Customers are over 255% more frustrated than in pre-pandemic times.
• Customers exhibit 310% more urgency than in pre-pandemic times.
• 67% of customer service reps felt customer tempers increased significantly in recent years.

Klaus’ 2023 survey broke down the most significant pain points by team size. Small teams (<50 agents) struggle most with increasing customer service agent productivity. Larger teams (>50 agents) struggle most with maintaining quality support while scaling.

Avoiding poor customer service starts with tackling these challenges

Despite a bleak economic outlook, customer support teams feel more poised than ever to tackle the challenges that lie ahead. They’re leveraging a clear set of tactics to do more with less while still meeting and exceeding customer expectations. What’s so energizing now is the emerging technology – the recent breakthroughs in neural network technology, AI, and machine learning – which are making these motions even easier to execute.

Declan Ivory

VP of Customer Support, Intercom

Customer service statistics for AI & automation 

Most support teams are combating these challenges by investing more in artificial intelligence and automation. Automation aims to improve team efficiency, while AI aims to enhance how a team works. 

Zendesk purports that the number 1 change businesses need to make in 2023 is investing in better automation – and our survey found that:

• 70% of organizations plan to invest in automation this year.
• Mid-size support teams (51-500 agents) are the most focused on improving their AI capabilities. 

However, over a quarter of support teams struggle to reduce support volume when using bots or automation.  

Although larger companies currently have the technological advantage, it is clear that mid-sized companies are closing the gap: 72% are investing in automation this year. Artificial intelligence is increasingly abundant and accessible, so smaller companies will likely catch up. The democratization of these technologies means we all have access to technology that, not long ago, was only available to the upper echelons of corporations and governments.

Martin Kõiva

CEO, Klaus

As chatbot use increases, however, customer opinion remains mixed. The jury’s out as to whether bots can truly provide a positive customer service experience.

Opinions on AI and Chatbots

Zendesk reports that: 

• 77% of people agree that AI or bots are helpful for simple issues.
• 71% think they get faster replies with AI/bots.

• And 65% of customer service leaders believe the AI/bots they use are becoming more natural and human-like. 

Automation is an excellent strategy for cutting costs. For example, David’s Bridal found that – since rolling out a bot – their contact center operating costs reduced by more than 30%.

On the other hand, Hubspot found that 60% are frequently disappointed with chatbot customer service experience. 

Deloitte’s look at the State of AI shows that 94% of business leaders surveyed agree that artificial intelligence is critical to success over the next five years. However, 70% of companies are not making investments in human/machine collaboration, and 79% are not properly educating workers to apply and use AI effectively.

Proactive customer service stats

Proactive support is an approach in which businesses identify and address customer issues before they become problems. If help is hard to find, it makes for a poor customer service experience.

Klaus’ survey found that 77% of smaller teams (<50 agents) plan to invest more in proactive support this year.

How do companies support customers proactively?

1. FAQs
   Intercom found that proactively answering customer questions with FAQs is a top priority for 42% of support teams.
2. Help Centers or Knowledge Bases
   Hubspot found that nearly 50% of teams enable their service teams with a knowledge base.
3. Social media
   Cocoroco survey concluded that 90% of consumers use social media messaging to communicate with brands. When 40% of the population currently uses social media, this is a quick, easy way to tell customers that, for example, systems are down or updates will be made at a certain time.

Support trends

Customer support teams still struggle to make their value resonate company-wide – with Hubspot reporting that 40% of customer service leaders say their company sees support as an expense, not a driver for growth. But that does leave a majority who feel otherwise. 

And companies that are looking to support-led growth are going to gain ground in the long run. 

Investing in customer retention is a lot easier than the uphill battle of recovering from churn. 

Customer service today

Zendesk’s trends report finds: 

• 81% of leaders see customer service experience and support as growing priorities over the next year.
• More than three-quarters of business leaders know that good customer service can make a company more resilient during economic downturns. 
• 80% of leaders plan to increase their customer service budgets over the next year.
• Over 75% of companies seek to combine service data with sales, marketing, and product data for a holistically customer-centric business model.

However, the intention is not all it takes. Their customer service statistics also show: 

• The majority (53%) of companies are not ensuring that their customer service agents have access to the data that makes revenue generation easier. 
• 34% of business leaders do not have the opportunity to share customer insights across teams.

Support teams’ priorities in 2023

To grow the significance of customer service as a revenue driver, teams must seek ways to strategically meet their goals. Budgets being, for most, tighter than in previous years, prioritizing is crucial. 

Gartner’s  2023 Top Priorities for Customer Service & Support Leaders shines a light on this. 

By improving operations, companies can reduce costs, increase productivity, and enhance customer satisfaction. The following customer service stats break down the priorities of different teams: 

• One-third say customer data & analytics 
• One-third say knowledge management & insight
• 35% say digital channel effectiveness
• 37% a third say self-service adoption & containment
• Over 40% say multichannel, omnichannel & dynamic channel

Optimizing costs remains a high priority for nearly half of the respondents. Businesses must look for ways to grow while keeping their expenses under control.

What these customer service statistics tell us about 2023

We could pontificate at length about the short-term economic outlook and its effect on customer behavior. But the truth is, while customers’ purse strings are tighter and expectations of support even higher than before, service teams have the potential to succeed. 

This comes down to:

1. Measuring and understanding a company’s customer service – and using tools and training to improve with precision. This means analyzing customer feedback & QA reviews to give actionable feedback to agents.
2. Leveraging technology in the form of an updated tech stack. AI and automation will continue flourishing to help customer service agents focus on complex queries and reduce repetitive ones.
3. Companies understanding the potential of great customer service as a revenue driver. Giving voice to customers by sharing their support data among teams, using it to shape future plans for true customer-centricity.