Nearly a third of Brits will never spend again with businesses which provided bad customer service during lockdown, according to new research from Infobip.

The research from the global cloud communications platform polled 2,000 British consumers to see how businesses fared in serving customers during the lockdown ordered by the UK Government. The majority of UK consumers (79%) reported experiencing bad customer service over this time.

Given each customer would have previously spent an average of £341 per year with said companies, those businesses providing poor experiences could be set to lose a total of £2.5bn per year* in future sales.

The biggest frustrations included waiting to speak with customer services (35%), limited ways and times to contact a company (31%) and repeating details to a customer service agent (20%).

Those businesses that get customer service right will reap the rewards – especially when more than half (54%) of UK consumers said they will purchase from businesses again if the service was positive.

Supermarkets get it right

UK supermarkets succeeded in keeping the nation happy during the hardest of times, with nearly two-thirds (63%) of shoppers satisfied with their lockdown supermarket shop. Tesco, Asda and M&S all make the top five brands identified by customers as delivering the best service. Supermarkets quickly adapted to the changing needs of the customer during unprecedented times, with many rolling out online services and offering additional support through mobile apps.

They didn’t disappoint with their digital offering either – half of British shoppers were happy with the online alternative to in-store provided by supermarkets. Banks and financial services also fared well keeping more than half (55%) of their customers happy, notably by the customer service they received.

Nikhil Shoorji, Managing Director Europe at Infobip, said: “If a business doesn’t deliver good customer service, this impacts the bottom line: consumers will vote with their feet. We know that if a business doesn’t get it right, customers will not shy away from dropping that brand in search of one that does.

“As we adapt to a “new normal”, UK businesses must invest time and resources into understanding and anticipating their customers’ needs – whether these are online or in real life.”

* This figure has been extrapolated by multiplying the average spend (£341) with a brand, by the amount of people who have vowed never to shop with a brand again due to bad customer experience. This equates to businesses potentially losing £2,567,761,344.30 in total.

The research, conducted by Opinium, was conducted between 07/07/20 – 10/07/20 and polled 2,000 UK adults in a nationally representative sample.

About Infobip

Infobip is a global cloud communications platform that enables businesses to build connected customer experiences across all stages of the customer journey at scale, with easy and contextualized interactions over customers’ preferred channels.

Accessed through a single platform, Infobip’s omnichannel engagement, identity, user authentication security and contact centre solutions help clients and partners overcome the complexity of consumer communications, grow their business and increase loyalty – all in a fast, secure and reliable way.

With over a decade of industry experience, Infobip has expanded to include 60+ offices on six continents offering natively built technology with the capacity to reach over seven billion mobile devices and ‘things’ in 190+ countries connected directly to over 600 telecom networks. The company serves and partners with leading mobile operators, messaging apps, banks, social networks, tech companies, and aggregators.

Visit https://www.infobip.com/