Talking to Customer Support Is So Awful People Would Rather Shave Their Heads

pcmag.com:

You pick up your phone countless times a day. But what does it take to get you to pick it up and call customer service? A lot, it turns out. 

Twilio asked OnePoll to conduct a survey of 2,000 Americans(Opens in a new window) to find out what they would rather do instead of dealing with customer support on the phone. It found that respondents would rather do their taxes (30%), go to the dentist (28%), go to the DMV (25%), shave their heads (24%), and even spend a night in jail (22%) instead.

Although humans have evolved to hate talking on the phone, there’s more at work here. A bad customer support experience led 62% of survey respondents to end their relationship with a company or cancel a service. They reported spending an inordinate amount of time on hold—on average, over an hour, and even then the issue is only resolved 46% of the time. 

Those who’ve bailed on attempts at calling customer service have had the additional frustrating experiences of missing deadlines for canceling contracts (46%), passing the return window for products (44%), and losing on an item or service (41%).

Survey respondents said these experiences could be made better if people could solve their issues without speaking on the phone to a live person (52%) and had multiple ways to contact support to get their issue resolved (51%).

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