The State of Customer

Service in 2019
Research Report
Table of Contents
Introductory Remarks

Chapter 1: How do customer service teams relate to other departments?

Chapter 2: How do customer service teams measure success?

Chapter 3: How have customers changed in the customer service space?

Chapter 4: What are the biggest challenges customer service professionals face
today?

Chapter 5: What software and tools are most effective for customer service teams?

Chapter 6: How do customer service teams learn and grow?

Concluding Thoughts
Introductory Remarks

Welcome to HubSpot’s State of Customer Service in 2019 research report. This report
represents an effort to help us better understand the service industry but also uncover
trends, analyze results, and share the findings with the greater business community.

We plan to produce this report every year, and we want to hear what you find interesting
and want to see more of. If you’d like to let us know what you think, feel free to fill out the
survey in the email you received upon downloading this report.

To conduct the report, we connected with people who currently work in the customer
service space. Our in-house market research team surveyed over 1,000 customer service
agents and leaders in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia. We asked these folks about
the software and tools they use, how their customers have changed, what their teams look
like, and much more.

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Our findings are wide-ranging, but a few themes jumped out. For instance, we know
that businesses who put the customer first win, and we know it’s popular today for B2B
marketers to use “customer first” messaging. But we were shocked to discover how many
companies don’t take any action to live up to this motto (only 58% of companies ask
customers for feedback). It’s hard to put the customer first if you aren’t listening to them.

The results also clearly articulated trends we’ve seen in our own customer base.
Overwhelmingly, respondents agreed that their customers are smarter, have higher
expectations, and are way more likely to share their experiences, good or bad. Still, most
companies aren’t equipped to connect with and listen to their customers. They simply
haven’t adapted to this new, empowered consumer.

Customer service professionals agree: customers have changed. They are

more likely to share about their experiences, have higher expectations, and
are more informed than ever in the buying process.

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At HubSpot, we believe strongly that companies with a customer-first mindset won’t just
grow bigger, they’ll grow better. A sale doesn’t mark the end of your customer’s journey,
but the start of a new relationship between a real person and your brand, team, and
product or service. When your customers inevitably reach out to you with a question
or concern about your service or product, their service experience will define that
relationship. And the companies that deliver an exceptional customer experience will win.

We hope this report can help you learn about the modern customer, identify gaps in your
tech stack and team, and adapt and grow for a better future. We encourage you to use this
research in your own content and would love to hear your questions and feedback.

Thanks for reading,

Michael Redbord
GM of Service Hub, HubSpot

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 Chapter 1

How do customer
service teams
relate to other
departments?
How do customer service teams
relate to other departments?
While most people recognize the importance of marketing and sales to a company’s
success, many forget the huge impact that customer success teams have on growth.
Marketing, sales, and service departments often have different business goals in mind, so
we asked survey respondents to indicate which departments their customer service teams
reported into.

While customer support generally focuses on immediate, reactive customer questions

and issues, customer success is usually focused on working proactively with customers to
hear their feedback and help them get more value from the product or service. Together,
customer support and customer success teams comprise a customer service department,
serving both short-term and long-term needs.

Only 54% of customer service

organizations report into a
customer success department.

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Given the ties between one-off and ongoing support, we were curious to see how many
service teams reported into a customer success department.

We were surprised to find that only 54% of customer service organizations reported into a
customer success department.

Which department does your customer service organization report into?

54% of customer service teams report into customer success. 22% report into
sales, 16% report into other departments, and 9% report into marketing.

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When we analyzed these results by company size, we saw that a higher percentage
of support teams reported into customer success organizations at enterprise-sized
companies (61%) as compared with medium-sized businesses (54%) and small businesses
(44%).

We defined small businesses as having 1-50 employees, medium-sized businesses

as having 51-1000 employees, and enterprise-sized businesses as having over 1,000
employees.

Which department does your customer service organization report into?

When we broke down responses by company size, we found that enterprise

companies (1000+ employees) were more likely to have their customer service
organization report into a customer success department than SMBs.

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The larger the company, the more likely customer support teams were to report into
a larger customer success department. The support teams at small and medium-sized
businesses (SMBs) often reported into sales, marketing, and “other” departments. 22% of
support teams reported into sales, and 9% of support teams reported into marketing.

How does organizational structure impact employees’

perceptions of customers?
Since a department’s business priorities can substantially impact the goals of the teams
beneath it, it’s important to consider where customer support teams fit in the larger
organization. Our survey found that the department into which service teams reported was
related to representatives’ perceptions of customers.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? “Review sites,

social media posts, or word-of-mouth drives leads for my business.”

Responses are broken down by the departments into which each customer
service team reports. Customer service professionals who report into a marketing
department agree at the highest rate that review sites, social media, and/or
word-of-mouth drive leads for their business.

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For instance, 81% of customer service professionals who reported into a marketing
department agreed that review sites, social media posts, and/or word-of-mouth drove
leads for their business. As compared with their counterparts who reported into sales and
customer success (78% and 68% agreed, respectively), customer service professionals
within marketing departments more readily agree on the impact of the social proof that
those channels provide.

What does social proof have to do with customer service? Customers are more likely
than ever before to share about their customer support experiences. It’s important
for customer service professionals to recognize the downstream impact that a remarkably
positive or negative customer interaction can have.

Customer service is key to retaining and delighting your customer base. Exceptional
customer service allows companies to resolve customer issues, increase cross-sell and
up-sell opportunities, and nurture a loyal customer base. Loyal customers refer new
customers, serve as case studies and testimonials, and write positive public-facing
reviews. They’re essential to your company’s word-of-mouth marketing.

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 Chapter 2

How do customer
service teams
measure success?
How do customer service teams
measure success?

To ensure representatives are delivering a high-quality customer experience, it’s important

to evaluate customer service teams on a specific set of metrics. The most revealing and
important metrics will accurately reveal the quality of a customer’s journey with your brand
or company.

Since customer service teams focus on improving customer experiences, it was no surprise
that customer satisfaction was the leading metric by which customer service teams were
evaluated. 74% of customer service teams were measured by customer satisfaction, with
little variation across companies of different sizes.

On which metric(s) is your team measured?

74% of customer service teams are evaluated on customer satisfaction.

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Employees of companies of all sizes agreed that customer satisfaction was a top priority
for customer service teams, so we were surprised to hear that only 58% of companies
surveyed customers to get feedback.

Which of the following statements applies to your business? (Select all

that apply.)

58% of companies survey customers to get feedback. However, only 17% of

companies formalize the process of collecting feedback with NPS surveys.

Without surveying regularly or utilizing hard metrics like NPS, it’s difficult to track customer
satisfaction. Anecdotal, one-off feedback provides a poor foundation for understanding
customer experience across the board. Companies that don’t have systems in place to
collect reliable data run the risk of making poor business decisions that compromise the
customer experience.

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 It’s not enough to simply say you’re customer-
focused — you have to put that into practice in every
aspect of your business. Start by listening to your
customers.

How can you be truly customer-focused if you don’t

ask for feedback? It doesn’t have to be difficult or
Shep Hyken, drawn out. Sometimes just a single question (such
Customer Service & as a basic NPS scale) is enough to understand the
Experience Expert customer journey and whether or not you need to
make changes.

If companies are not seeking feedback from their customers, the data begs this question:
How can companies know how satisfied their customers are without soliciting their
feedback?

Net Promoter Score® (NPS) measures how likely customers are to recommend your brand
to a friend. It measures customer loyalty and overall brand perception as opposed to
opinions on single interactions.

Our survey found that only 17% of companies use NPS®. For the remaining 83% of
companies, there’s a significant opportunity to institute a more formalized means of
measuring customer satisfaction.

How can companies know how

satisfied their customers are
without soliciting their feedback?

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We looked at attitudes toward customer feedback in companies of different sizes as
well. We found that enterprise companies track customer NPS, have customer advocacy
programs, and collect feedback via surveys at higher rates than SMBs. And while these
systems and processes are more common at enterprise-level companies, SMBs can benefit
from the customer insights that come out of these types of programs, too.

Which of the following statements applies to your business? (Select all

that apply.)

Enterprise companies track customer NPS, have customer advocacy programs,

and collect feedback via surveys at higher rates than SMBs.

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 At HubSpot, customer service and success belong to the same department to ensure
that our company is truly set up to put the customer first. Our customer success team
helps customers grow by delivering ongoing, consultative services focused on long-term
growth. The customer service team handles general troubleshooting for any questions or
issues that arise while using our products. Both customer success and support have one
end goal in mind: setting up customers for success by removing their roadblocks and
prioritizing their growth.

The moment teams specialize into functions -- for

instance, support and success -- you start to carve
up an abstract concept like “customer experience”
into more discrete chunks. How should CS
teams function? What does a job well done look
like? Metrics like NPS help lend structure to the
ambiguity.

Now, should you use NPS specifically? That’s a

stylistic decision in many ways. I’d say you should
Michael Redbord, get customer feedback, you should do it on a
GM Service Hub, recurring basis, and you should maximize your
HubSpot response rate. The key is to know which customer
outcomes you care about and then structure your
incentives, metrics, and organization around them.
The metrics you are measured on should match
your team’s priorities.

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 Chapter 3

How have customers

changed in the
customer service
space?
 How have customers changed in
the customer service space?

Customers directly engage with a representative of your company on a regular basis

via service interactions. Customer service therefore plays a major role in the customer’s
perception of your brand. An individual customer service representative can significantly
impact how a customer feels about your brand and what they’ll say to friends and family —
as well as online — about you. You don’t want to make a poor impression or no impression
at all, your success depends on making an excellent impression.

In our survey, we confirmed that customers have a bigger, stronger voice than ever. 89%
of customer service professionals agreed that customers are more likely to share positive
or negative experiences now than in the past. 88% agreed that customers have higher
expectations than in the past, and 76% agreed that customers are smarter and more
informed now than they were previously.

The omni-channel lives we lead today beg us to

share our experiences — both positive and negative
— with the world. We check out a hair stylist’s
Instagram account before booking an appointment.
We scroll through reviews on Yelp before making a
reservation. For higher-risk purchasing decisions, we
seek out others who have made that same purchase
to learn from their experiences.
Jen Spencer,
VP of Sales & For the 30% of companies that don’t think word-of-
Marketing at mouth is driving leads for their business, I imagine
Smartbug Media they just don’t have the systems in place to actually
track the impact that customer marketing already
has on their business.

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Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

Customers have a louder, more powerful voice than ever. They share their
experiences more often, have higher expectations, and are more informed now
than in the past.

While the weight of social opinions can be daunting, successful companies today will
seize the opportunity to adapt and lean into their customers’ willingness to share their
experiences.

No customer support department can provide perfect interactions 100% of the time.
However, companies can still aim to empathize with customers and respond to customer
opinions and needs consistently. Aligning with customers and listening closely can turn
their negative experiences with your brand into positive ones.

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Since customers are more informed now than in the past, their perception of brand
messaging has also shifted. In a separate survey, HubSpot asked survey respondents what
they feel when a business says they “solve for the customer” or “put the customer first.”

Only 12% said they fully believed companies when they made claims about putting the
customer’s needs before their own.

What do you think when a business says it “solves for the customer” or
“puts the customer first”?

Enterprise companies track customer NPS, have customer advocacy programs,

and collect feedback via surveys at higher rates than SMBs.

Customers don’t often believe your messaging about being a customer-centric and
customer-first business. That’s why it’s increasingly important to be in touch with your
customers and take real action that demonstrates your commitment to delivering the
exceptional customer experience your messaging promises.

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In another survey HubSpot ran, 87% of survey respondents considered reviews or
recommendations by friends and family to be more trustworthy than marketing or sales
content.

Compared to ten years ago, which of the following do you consider to

be the most trustworthy source of information?

Recommendations from friends and family are seen as far more trustworthy than
a company’s marketing and sales efforts.

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We also asked respondents what types of information they search for when they’re in need
of a new product, tool, or service. We learned that a majority of people look for product-
specific information, reviews and forms of social proof, and discounts and deals.

When you have a need for a new product, tool, or service, do you look
for any of the following types of information online?

Many consumers are conducting online research, seeking reviews and social
proof from buyers like them.

Product details and pricing are usually available on a company’s website; however, fewer
companies are publishing case studies and testimonials and investing in their reputations
across review sites. In today’s competitive landscape, customers examples and case
studies strongly influence buying decisions.

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 According to the survey results, customers are seeking out reviews (44% of respondents
who are looking for information do so) more often than they’re seeking out case studies
(33%). While both offer social proof, case studies are company-created, whereas customer
reviews come directly from consumers of the product or service.

4 of every 5 buyers use online review sites to

support their buying decisions. Ultimately, people
trust people like them more than they trust
businesses.

Millions of active buyers on G2.com have told us

loud and clear: when it comes to buying software,
Ryan Bonnici company case studies, white papers, and blogs are
CMO of G2.com secondary to verified information from peers and
colleagues.

Since happy customers are essential to building out substantial social proof via case
studies and reviews, service and marketing teams should work together to identify
customers who may be willing to post their positive experiences publicly.

Customers seek out reviews

(44% of respondents looking for
information) more often than case
studies (33%).

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 Chapter 4

What are the biggest

challenges customer
service professionals
face today?
What common challenges do
customer service professionals face?

Every role has its own set of challenges. Marketers want more leads, and salespeople want
to close more deals. But what do service agents want?

Customer service agents want happier customers. The customer service role aims to make
customers happier by answering their questions and resolving any technical issues that
arise. But what happens when customer service interactions turn sour? Nearly 50% of
customer service professionals said that dealing with upset customers was their biggest
challenge.

What are your biggest challenges as a service agent or leader of

services?

Customer service professionals say their biggest challenges are dealing with
upset customers, not having enough time in the day, and managing organization
and follow up.

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Neither the customer nor the customer support representative wants to have an
unpleasant conversation. Still, businesses can learn from what upset customers have to say.

Customer support reps are in a unique position because they receive real-time feedback
from customers. Although critical feedback can be difficult to hear, it provides helpful
insight into ways you can improve your product or service.

Critical feedback provides helpful

insight into ways you can improve
your product or service.

Additionally, because they’re interacting with customers directly every single day,
customer service professionals can provide valuable feedback to upper management by
reporting on the nature of the cases they’re taking. At HubSpot, we know firsthand that
better reporting can directly impact a business’s bottom line.

Our customer support team did an internal analysis of previous customer support cases
and found that 41% of cases were “solved with a documented solution.” This meant
HubSpot had spent an estimated $7M helping customers find answers that were readily
available in our knowledge base of help articles. By categorizing cases and reporting
the pattern to upper management, our customer service department justified a larger
investment in customer self-service resources.

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By introducing a new ticketing system and knowledge base at MMLJ, Inc. (MMLJ), Director
of Marketing Michael Mashlan resolved common customer pain points before customers
called in.

“Whenever somebody calls in, our tech support creates a ticket so we can track
issues. If we see a lot of people having the same problem, that’s a red flag to us --
maybe we need to make an article about that,” explains Mashlan. MMLJ invested
in customer self-service and created articles based on previous customer inquiries. As
a result, their customer support team gained hours back to help customers with more
difficult support cases.

In a world where call times with customers can be unpredictable, the introduction of
customer service automation and tools is crucial. Customer service software provides
a major opportunity to give representatives hours back in their day, organize customer
interactions more effectively, and prioritize customer questions.

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 Chapter 5

What software
and tools are most
effective for customer
service teams?
What software and tools are most
effective for customer service
teams?

Considering the efficiency gains that can come from using customer support technology,
we were surprised to learn how many teams have missed out on opportunities to
automate their processes.

In this section of the report, we’ll cover customer service software and tools usage statistics
and whether or not the teams that are using these tools find them useful.

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Help Desk

A help desk is a technology system that allows teams to manage and organize customer
questions and issues. A traditional help desk system includes a support ticketing service
for logging new service requests, serving as a collection box for customer inquiries, issues,
and requests.

A majority of companies reported not using a help desk, with 53.4% of companies
saying they didn’t have a help desk system. However, 85.36% of those that were
using one said it made them more productive.

Support agents work out of a help desk to manage the entire process of assisting
customers, from opening a new ticket to closing it when the issue is resolved. These
solutions allow companies to deliver personalized solutions to customers quickly.

If service teams grow without an organizational foundation in place, agents can become
overwhelmed easily, compromising your business’s ability to deliver answers in a timely
fashion. As such, it’s important to build systems that scale and allow for consistently
seamless customer experiences from the start.

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Tickets

Tickets, another feature of a traditional help desk, also have low adoption rates among
customer service teams. Customer service agents use tickets to organize and log
requests from customers or users. A support ticket generally captures the entire customer
interaction, as well as any other context relevant to the support inquiry.

Respondents reported that tickets helped their teams stay organized and responsive.
While only 28% of companies reported using tickets in their customer service
department, an overwhelming 90% of professionals who did use tickets agreed that
tickets helped them manage questions and stay organized.

90% of professionals who did use

tickets agreed that tickets helped
them manage questions and stay
organized.

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Shared Email Alias

A shared email alias for support teams is usually a support@ or info@ email address into
which customers send inquiries.

Only 40.3% of customer service professionals said their company used a shared
email alias for customer support. However, 90% of teams using a shared email alias
for customer support said email was an effective channel for customer service.

When used correctly, a shared support email alias centralizes all customer communications
in one place, creating a streamlined approach to issue triage that reduces the chance that
customer inquiries will slip through the cracks. Agents can easily find out who has replied

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to a given inquiry and look back at previous conversations to judge the urgency of certain
requests.

A disorganized approach to email support can cause confusion within your team, and
ultimately, it can result in longer wait times for your customers, creating a poor experience.
With the right shared inbox tools, though, your team can collaborate efficiently, which will
eventually reduce customer frustration.

CRM

We were also shocked to see that only 28.7% of customer service teams were using
customer relationship management (CRM) software to manage customer data. A CRM
drastically improves the customer’s experience because it centralizes and organizes
important customer data that agents can use while helping customers in real time.

A CRM puts the customer’s information at your support team’s disposal, allowing reps
to personalize interactions with customers. For example, they can pull up a customer’s

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contact record, determine immediately if they’ve had recent interactions with your support
team, and then leverage relevant historical information to provide the right next steps. If
the rep is able to see that the customer has recently had poor support experiences, he
or she might choose to alert a manager ahead of time. If the customer consistently raves
about your support team and gives high NPS scores, you can start tracking their customer
loyalty and label them as an advocate for future efforts.

Live Chat

Live chat is increasingly popular among customers as a means for asking questions due
to its convenience and efficiency. Customers don’t have to drop everything and put what
they’re doing on hold to call a busy phone line. Instead, they can open a new browser tab,
start a live chat with a support agent, and get their issues resolved immediately.

Quick answers can turn a customer’s negative experience with your product or service into
a positive turning point for their brand perception. Giving the customer a quick resolution
and saving time in their day are two simple ways to delight customers seeking support.

Of the companies that had

invested in live chat, 93% found
it to be a successful channel for
helping customers.

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Since live chat is highly convenient from the customer perspective, we were surprised to
see that 76% of companies weren’t using it. Yet of the companies that have invested
in live chat, 93% found it to be a successful channel for helping customers.

There’s also no denying that live chat is a cost-effective support channel for companies.
Since resolution times for support cases resolved via chat are shorter, agents are able to
take on more cases with live chat. This saves a significant amount of money, especially
during busy seasons, for companies who have high support demand. This research shows
that live chat is a big opportunity for many companies.

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Self-Service Solutions

When we have a technical issue or a quick question, it’s often faster, easier, and even
preferred if we can help ourselves. Self-service solutions give your customers what they
need to solve their own problems, creating a better customer experience and saving you
and your customer time.

Self-service solutions, such as knowledge base or FAQ pages, are helpful for both
businesses and customers. Your customers can search Google for their answers, find the
information on your website, or read help articles your support team has published. You’ve
proactively provided help by building out your knowledge articles.

Forrester reports that 70% of customers prefer to use a company’s website to get
answers to their questions rather than use phone or email to contact the customer
service department. Still, 56.3% of companies don’t use a knowledge base to help their
customers.

You indicated your company uses a knowledge base for customers. How
many service tickets does your knowledge base deflect from your staff
(i.e. how many customers self-serve rather than contacting the services
team)? Please estimate the % of total tickets deflected.

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Our research showed that 48% of companies using a knowledge base do not track
how many tickets are deflected as a result of the self-service options they provide.
This statistic has the potential to reveal how effective your self-service options are in favor
of direct support channels. This metric can determine whether the quality of your self-
service options need improvement. For instance, if your knowledge base articles are
lengthy and complicated, then you may want to adopt a simple video tutorial format for
your customers and users.

Ultimately, self-service solutions can be an incredibly cost-efficient investment for your

business, saving your customer service representatives time and allowing them to tackle
tougher questions in a more timely manner.

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 Chapter 6

How do customer
service teams learn
and grow?
How do customer service teams
learn and grow?

The customer support role is both technical and soft skills-based. In support roles, there
are opportunities to improve communication skills and grow in one’s technical product
knowledge. We asked customer service professionals how they learn about new service
strategies.

How do you learn about new service strategies?

The two leading ways in which customer service professionals learn new
strategies are a) attending conferences and b) leaning into peer relationships.

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Most customer service professionals are learning about new service strategies by
attending conferences (45%) and leaning into peer relationships (43%). Companies
can capitalize on the knowledge sharing at conferences by instituting a program where
top customer service agents can apply to attend customer service conferences. Sending
customer service employees to conferences can boost company morale and provide
networking opportunities.

Here is a list of the top customer success, support, experience & service conferences in the
world.

Considering the importance of peer relationships and formal mentors in customer service
skill development, senior management should consider formalizing peer mentoring
programs within customer service departments. Most customer service teams have agents

41
with a wide range of tenure and technical knowledge. Employees can also host workshops
to guide their colleagues through a deep-dive into their specialty or hold peer office
hours for service representatives who are seeking advice. With ongoing peer learning,
management can effectively foster community and trust within support teams while
promoting career advancement.

We asked what role people in customer service departments wanted in five years. 30%
of customer service professionals said they wanted a more senior role in a service
organization, while only 15% said they wanted a role outside of a service organization.

What job do you want in 5 years?

Around 1 in every 3 customer service professionals wants a more senior role in a

service organization.

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By asking the same of your customer service team, you can help them improve in their
current role and set them up for success.

Customer service professionals are firm believers in their company’s dedication to

customer service. 71% of customer service professionals disagree with the idea that their
company views customer service as an expense, not an opportunity to grow. 78% agree
their company puts as much effort into customer service as they do with marketing and
sales.

Do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

Customer service professionals tend to believe their companies value the

customer service team and the impact that customer service has on the business.

Most people can agree that businesses must offer support in some way to go on as a
viable business. However, these statistics reflect that brands today understand that offering
a delightful customer experience is not just a nice-to-have, but a necessity for company
growth. Businesses are actively investing in customer service as a way to grow new
business, not merely to mitigate losses.

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Concluding
Thoughts
Concluding Thoughts

We hope that you’ve found the data within this report insightful and helpful in
understanding trends in the customer service industry. The quality and efficiency of
customer service are true differentiators in today’s competitive business environment.

Companies that invest in customer service for the sake of improving customer experience
will create a superior experience for their customers. Delighted customers become
evangelists of your brand. And since word-of-mouth is increasingly important to attracting
new customers, creating a flawless experience for your existing customers has become
essential to your future success.

It’s not easy to provide a seamless, enjoyable customer experience at every touchpoint.
Customers have higher expectations than ever when it comes to customer service. Not
only do you need to provide the right answers, you need to produce those answers
quickly and with all of the surrounding context on each customer. However, with the right
systems and processes in place, support teams can perform more efficiently and deliver
better results.

Happier customers are the direct result of exceptional customer service and an amazing
customer experience. Continue to focus on your customers, prioritize their questions and
concerns, and action their feedback. Delivering an exceptional customer experience is
every company’s greatest challenge and strength.

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