According to a new survey by Insightly/Zogby Research, consumers would rather have a tooth pulled, learn a TikTok dance with their kid, and wait in line at the DMV than resolve an issue with a company’s customer service department. Why? Because companies are over-confident in their customer relationships and are more interested in talking than listening. 

When asked, “What you rather do than resolve an issue with a company’s customer service department?” here is what they said:

What would you rather do than resolve an issue with a company’s customer service department?

While these numbers are funny, there is something very not funny about them. They reveal a level of frustration with companies’ customer service that is a real problem. When diving deeper into the data, we see why. Companies are over-confident in their customer relationships and are more interested in talking than listening. 

Think that only applies to your clients and not to you? I’m sure that the companies these survey respondents are doing business with would say the same thing: “Oh, that only applies to the other guy.”

What causes customers the most frustration? “Being ignored” and “being bounced around to multiple departments” before getting [the issue] resolved,” with 30% of consumers citing these reasons. Another 27% say “length of time to get [the issue] resolved.”

How often does a company’s support team resolve their issues to their satisfaction? The majority of customers said “sometimes” or “never” (56%), with only 39% saying “most of the time” or “always.” Five percent said, “Who knows?” Companies did not fare any better when customers were asked the more general question, “Who often does a company’s customer support team meet or exceed your expectations?” More than half (58%) said “some of the time” or “never.”

Companies get these dismal grades despite of the fact that nearly three-quarters (73%) think they are “very aware” of their customers’ level of happiness with them. Which leads to the question: If they are “very aware,” what are they doing to fix it? The answer must be “not much,” because only 44% of customers think companies are “somewhat aware” of their feelings, with 36% saying they were unaware or totally oblivious. That’s 80% of consumers thinking that the companies they do business with are mostly or totally checked out.

Here’s the rub. When customers were asked about the factors contributing to their happiness with a company, they were most likely to say, “be aware of my interactions with the company and resulting positive/negative feedback” and “identify common issues and resolve them.” Companies, on the other hand, saw things differently. The number one thing they see as contributing to customer happiness? “Provide better informed and relevant customer conversations” (29%), with “identify unhappy customers early on to resolve their issues proactively” (14%) and “ability to analyze customer feedback for sentiment” (15%) much farther down on the list. “Respond to customer inquiries and tickets faster” (5%) was not high on the radar either.

In other words, companies are more interested in talking than listening.

When was the last time you did a survey of your customers to see how you’re doing? What they are happy with and what they are not? Areas you can improve? How about your customers’ customers? Are your customers surveying their customers to get their feedback? In this industry, we’re all about proactive marketing and sales communications. But maybe there needs to be a greater effort on proactive listening, as well.