Survey Says 76% Of Consumers Would Stop Doing Business after Just One Bad Experience

According to Invoca’s Buyer Experience Benchmark report, 76% of consumers say they would stop doing business with a company after just one bad experience.

Consumers are setting the expectation for what’s acceptable from brands and give clues on how to maintain loyalty:

  • Customer experience is the priority, both on the phone and in-person:
    • When respondents ranked the possible reasons why they would stop doing business with a company, a bad phone experience was second only to high prices. A bad experience includes: rude agents (59%), long hold times (58%) and too many transfers (58%) as the top 3.
    • 63% of consumers also say that they will pay more for a product or service to get better customer service. 37% will also do more research to find the best customer experience.
  • Consumers are basing shopping decisions on price:
    • 72% say inflation has affected their purchasing decisions and timeline, and 58% are slightly less likely or much less likely to make a purchase at all due to inflation.
    • 67% of consumers will do more research than they did last year to find the best prices, and 36% of consumers ranked high prices as the #1 reason they’ll stop doing business with a company.
  • Consumers are warming up to chatbots:
    • 20% now prefer to interact with a chatbot (compared to 13% in 2021). Of the consumers who say they like chatbots, 32% were Gen Z / Millennial, 21% were Gen X, and 5% were Baby Boomer.
  • Customers are more patient on the phone:
    • 68% of consumers called at some point in their buying journey in 2022 (healthcare customers are most likely to call at 76%).
    • In 2022, 32% of consumers prefer to call when they need help with a high-stakes purchase (compared to 24% in 2021).
    • Furthermore, most consumers rank the phone as their preferred channel when they need help with a high-stakes purchase across all industries – and they’re becoming more tolerant: consumers trust the automated call back option. In 2022, 40% said they would choose the callback option instead of waiting on hold, compared to just 5% in 2021.

Invoca surveyed 500 consumers who have completed a high-stakes purchase in the last year. Invoca defines a “high-stakes purchase” as one that you take time to weigh options, research, and/or put more thought into before making a decision, due to complexity and/or cost of the item or service.

You can access Invoca’s Buyer Experience Benchmark report here.