Customer Service Content Statistics Reveal Top 5 User Preferences

What do customers want from customer service and support content? How do they find and use the content, and where do they think businesses could do better?

To find out, we turned to research data and customer feedback. We gathered the most actionable statistics on customer service content types, sources, and consumption preferences to inform your customer service content strategy. 

Here are the five things customers prefer when searching for and using service and support content.

Customers Prioritize Self-Service Options

Self-service is no longer a desirable option. It’s now the norm for customers. 

Customers prefer to help themselves rather than contact service representatives. 63% of customers will almost always search your online resources first to answer a question. 78% of customers say they expect to find some form of self-service option on your website. 

Data on customer service content also reveals that they prefer self-service as a help center, such as a knowledge base or an FAQ hub. 

A whopping 91% of customers say they would use a knowledge base for self-service support if it was available. When there is one, 82% of customers say they do use the knowledge base.

Does that mean you can throw together a few articles or FAQs and call it a day?

Not if you ask customers. 

Unless you do it well, it’s better not to do it at all. For 77% of customers, poor self-service support is worse than no self-service at all because it wastes time. 

Over half of customers who accessed web self-service portals found them difficult to use. In addition, 40% of customers still needed to call a company representative after using a self-service option.

This is a clear sign that self-serve attempts fail too often.

Takeaway:

Sufficient and helpful self-service options are mandatory for great customer service. Most users will explore your website resources first and only contact customer service representatives as a last resort. 

This puts your content in a critical spot. If you strategically plan and create content for service and support purposes, you can meet customer expectations and greatly enhance their perception of your company.

However, make sure to structure and design your content properly. Otherwise, well-intended help might turn into a negative experience for the customer if they can’t find what they need. 

Content Must Be Mobile-Friendly

If your support content isn’t as accessible and usable on mobile as it is on desktop, you’re already behind in your support efforts.

At least 63% of U.S. adults use their mobile devices several times a month to get customer support. However, as many as 90% of customers report having a bad experience when seeking customer support on mobile devices.

How important is the mobile experience to users when interacting with companies via mobile phones? 

So much so that 63% of Gen Z would pay more for a good mobile experience.

So, what are the top three things ruining the mobile experience?

The most common customer complaints revolve around navigation, site search, and load times. 

53% of mobile users leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Another common complaint for 63% of customers is the search functionality. The search button is either difficult to locate, or the search yields too many results to be useful. 

Navigation can pose a problem, too. 

The Nielsen Norman Group researched the impact of “hamburger” or hidden navigation menus on the user experience. 

Although it looks like a more convenient, space-saving method for mobile navigation, it turns out that’s not always the case. NNG found that 21% of users (across mobile and desktop) reported having more difficulties completing a task using such hidden navigation.

Takeaway:

Customers access your content from various devices and on multiple channels. But just because mobile is the dominant choice, don’t make it the only choice. Instead, deeply research your user’s path to create laser-focused content and eliminate the noise.

The NNG research shows it’s not just enough to follow general UX “best practices” without understanding your user’s path first. You need to know how users find and interact with your content and design accordingly.

Educational Content Leads to Conversions

Long before they’re ready to engage with your business, customers educate themselves on various facets of your products or industry. That means you can use educational content to provide service even before the initial contact. 

Here are some customer service statistics that reveal the power of educational content.

Customers are 131% more likely to buy from a brand immediately after they consume early-stage, educational content. If they had to choose between four brands, 83.6% of customers would still pick the brand that educated them. 

And it’s not just an impulse-buying thing either. A week after reading the educational content, 48% of consumers were still more likely to buy from that brand.

Plenty of good educational content is also crucial for the onboarding stage. Based on their onboarding experience, 63% of customers will decide whether to buy from you.

Sadly, onboarding is a slippery slope for many businesses. 

Poor onboarding is one of the top three causes of churn in SaaS. 23% of users churn because of poor onboarding. Simply put, those businesses failed to teach users how to get maximum value from their purchases.

On the flip side, 86% of clients would stay loyal to a company with onboarding content that welcomes and sufficiently educates them on the product.

Educating users can be as simple as creating helpful blog posts. That’s a great opportunity for SaaS companies in emerging markets. However, only 24% of SaaS companies use their blogs as educational tools.

Aside from that, for 69% of people, onboarding would be much better if it included more videos. We’ll explore some more video-specific customer service stats in the next section.

Takeaway: 

You can provide service to people long before they become customers if you create educational content around a problem your product solves.

Once they become customers, equip your users with content that helps them squeeze more value out of your product. 

Educational content builds trust, improves the conversion rate, and boosts customer satisfaction at all stages of the customer journey.  

Educated users will have fewer reasons to contact a company and will derive more value from the product or service. Translated, that means less pressure on your service teams and a great experience for the user.

Customers Favor Video Content

Now that we’ve covered customer education and onboarding, here are some stats on the importance of video content for excellent customer service and support.

For 65% of users, video is the favorite way to learn about using a product or service.

Broken down, 91% of customers watch videos to learn about how to use a physical product. 74% of customers prefer video content to learn how to use an app or software better.

97% of customers agree that video content is a very effective tool to welcome and educate new users. And as we mentioned before, 69% of customers feel onboarding would be much better if it included more videos.

Overall, 40.3% of Internet users worldwide have seen at least one educational video (how-to or tutorial) in the past week. 

Clearly, there’s no competition for video content to provide help or more value to users. 

Customer experience teams are seeing the benefits, too. In fact, 74% of customer success pros report satisfactory results from video, and nearly 80% agree that video messages have increased their response rates.

Vidyard, who surveyed the customer service pros mentioned above, also found this to reflect in their own company. 80% of Vidyard customers watch their videos to learn how to use the platform or solve an issue.

Service and support teams are turning to personalized videos to solve customer issues or answer questions. Such personalized videos have proven to reduce call center call volume by over 70%.

So let’s talk a bit more about personalization in content and why it will be an even bigger service and support advantage going forward.

Takeaway:

For most customers, the easiest and fastest way to learn is by watching a video. Just think about how often you search for a tutorial on YouTube.

Video formats excel at all aspects of customer service and support. They’re an incredibly versatile format you can use on any and all channels you promote your business on.

Not only is video the preferred format for users, but customer service agents are increasingly turning to video to solve customer issues, which improves response time, quality, and utility. 

Customer Don’t Mind More Content Personalization

Technology, automation, and AI are making interactions feel less human. Customers rarely get an opportunity to feel like valued customers. It’s no wonder, then, that 66% of customers feel that businesses generally treat them like numbers.

However, technology also creates numerous opportunities to personalize the interactions you have. And as it stands, 90% of customers still find personalization appealing and appreciate proactive communication.

What’s more, a lack of personalization is becoming a deal-breaker. 71% of consumers expect companies to personalize interactions. And 76% get frustrated when it doesn’t happen.

We get it; data breaches and regulations have made companies cautious about utilizing customer data. However, customers are more open to data sharing if it means a better experience. 

64% of customers believe that companies are getting better at using personal information to deliver personalized experiences. 57% of customers trust that companies use their personalized information in the most secure way possible.

So, now that you have your customer’s permission, what’s the area where you can personalize your content the most?

49.5% of businesses primarily personalize customer support. Gladly also found that businesses find personalized support even more important than personalized marketing. It’s not surprising, since we already know that it’s much easier and cheaper to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one.

Personalizing content can be as simple as addressing users with their first names in all interactions. In fact, 54% of customers would expect you to do so when they’re purchasing from you for the first time. 

As simple as it sounds to use a customer’s name, it’s not a standard practice. 

Only 68% of eCommerce companies and 49% of telcos greet a person by their first name in customer service emails. As for global travel and hospitality brands, 28% of companies did not respond to a customer by their first name in email responses or on social media. 

Although 92% of marketers report using content personalization in some way, only 72% of customers would say companies are doing personalization well, which still leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Takeaway:

Customers expect to receive personalized and proactive support, which is also an excellent opportunity to improve engagement and satisfaction scores.

For support and service purposes, the easiest content personalization methods are personalized emails, in-app content and push notifications, or personalized solutions via chatbots or live chat.

Personal data sharing is becoming less of a blocker for both customers and vendors alike. Already, customers have fewer concerns about your business handling their data as long as you’re using the data to provide valuable and customized content.

Use Data on Customer Service Content to Tailor Your Strategy

What do these customer service content statistics tell you about a typical user?

When faced with a problem or question, they’ll grab their phones, find a video online, and try to learn how to fix a problem before ever reaching out to your business.

For the customer, it’s that simple. So your best bet is to go with the flow and create your content so it fits these customer preferences.

For modern consumers, there’s little difference between mediocre and bad customer service. Unless you’re proactively investing in the customer experience, your users won’t hesitate to switch to a competitor as soon as possible.

Armed with that knowledge, you can now start adapting your strategy to align with this profile and create an exceptional customer experience.