3 out of 4 Americans experienced a product or service problem in the last 12 months

Expert explains America's customer service problems

FOX5NY's Teresa Priolo reports more people are complaining, more customers are looking to settle the score, and more companies are losing out.

Stop me if you have heard this one before: In the battle of frustrated customer versus customer service rep, who will cave first? These days, it’s probably the customer.

It does not take much to remember a bad customer service experience. The outcome is often too few answers, no resolution, and a lot of anger. That last point has been scientifically proven.

"What's really changed is the percentage of Americans that say, ‘I had a problem with a product or service.’ In 1976, about one third, 32% of Americans reported in a similar survey. That was the basis for this one, that they experienced a product or service problem in the last 12 months. Today, that number is 74%," explained Scott Broetzmann, president and CEO of Customer Care Measurement and Consulting.

Broetzmann runs the annual National Customer Rage Survey, which, as the name suggests, measures displeasure.

It is typically associated with big-ticket issues that can alter your household's lifestyle. For example, your car, dishwasher, or cable TV.

The survey found more people are complaining, more customers are looking to settle the score, and more companies are losing out, as a result.

"One of the things the study highlights is that it's costing business about $88 billion in lost revenue associated with ineffective problem handling," Broetzmann continued.

Perhaps the industry would benefit from the use of artificial intelligence or ChatGPT. Or maybe, that will create more problems.