Customer service is worse than ever (2024)

If it feels like customer service is getting worse, that’s because it is. According to a new report from the consulting firm Forrester, customer experience quality is at an “all-time low after declining for an unprecedented third year in a row.”

The report surveyed more than 98,000 U.S. customers across 223 brands and 13 industries and found that 39% of brands showed a significant decline in their customer experience. Forrester said the average company scored a mere 69.3 out of 100 on its index, down from the peak of 72.0 in 2021.

The index scores companies across three dimensions — effectiveness, ease, and emotion — and looks at a broad range of factors, like how well a brand’s chatbot functions.

“U.S. consumers are having, on average, the worst experiences in a decade,” Rick Parrish, VP and research director at Forrester, said in a statement announcing the results. “Brands want to create better experiences, and they realize that putting the customer at the center of their business is the way to do it. However, organizations struggle with the scale of change that this requires.”

Parrish said Forrester’s research “finds that firms that are customer-obsessed grow revenue, profit, and customer loyalty faster than their competitors.”

The survey also found that customer experience scores are declining in every sector except one: airlines, where there has been some modest growth.

Forrester also identified a few “elite” brands that landed in the top 5% of its index, including Chewy.com, Edward Jones, Etsy, H-E-B, Lincoln, and Navy Federal Credit Union.

Pete Jacques, a principal analyst at Forrester, told the Wall Street Journal that some of consumers’ dissatisfaction comes from junk fees and shrinkflation.

“Somebody is paying more, but then they’re not seeing the benefit of paying more,” he said. “They’re not getting a better experience that they think should accompany that higher price.”