Customer service isn't as good as it used to be, and many shoppers are seeking revenge.
That's the takeaway from the latest National Customer Rage Survey, according to the Wall Street Journal. The survey found that 74% of customers reported running into a problem with a product or service within the last year. In 2020, that figure was 63%, and in 1976, it was just 32%.
As consumers' gripes about everything from airline delays to hair care products have grown, so have the portion of customers willing to do something about it. The survey found that 9% of those surveyed did something to get revenge against a company they felt had wronged them. In 2020, just 3% of customers said the same.
The percentage of customers who sought revenge still was lower than in the recent past, the Journal reported. Between 2003 and 2017, an average of 17% of consumers said they did something to get even with a company after facing a problem.
Posting on social media was a common tactic for those seeking revenge.
"Most people now are using a computer, they're using some form of social media at this point, there's a democratization of complaining," Scott Broetzmann, president and chief executive of Customer Care Measurement & Consulting, told the Journal. Customer Care works with Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business to conduct the study, which surveys 1,000 US consumers.
Many companies have also moved their customer service options online and use automated systems instead of traditional call centers staffed by real people. While the companies believe it is more efficient and cheaper, customers find those options lacking in empathy, Broetzmann told the Journal.
US consumers have become more unhappy with many companies over the last five years, according to the American Consumer Satisfaction Index, or ACSI. The Index measures how satisfied customers are with about 400 companies in a variety of sectors.
Starting in 2018, the Index started a dive from 77 that year to 73.1 in 2022. It marked the largest decline in the Index's nearly three-decade history.
Inflation and a three-year-long pandemic are factors in that decline, Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI and a professor emeritus of business administration at the University of Michigan, said in a press release for the Index's latest quarterly results.
But many businesses also lack the tools to measure their customers' satisfaction. At the same time, they are contending with employee turnover and not being able to hire enough people.
"It is difficult to generate high customer satisfaction under these circumstances," Fornell said.
