With 61.5% of consumers expecting consistent experiences across every channel, the promotional products industry has to get customer experience right or risk losing repeat buyers, faster, smarter fulfillment, and revenue growth that many leaders now tie directly to CX performance.
Key Takeaways
- 61.5% of consumers expect consistent experiences across channels when interacting with brands
- 73% of consumers say positive customer experiences increase the likelihood that they will buy from a brand again
- 76% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations
- 43% of customers expect to get a response to customer service inquiries within 1 hour (response-time expectation)
- 39% of customers will switch to another company after just one bad experience (service failure benchmark)
- Customer experience leaders are 4-8x more likely to have strong revenue growth outcomes (CX-performance linkage)
- 36% of organizations say they are using marketing automation to improve customer experience (automation adoption)
- 42% of businesses report using CRM systems to manage customer data (CRM adoption)
- 35% of companies use customer analytics to improve customer experience (analytics adoption)
- 1 out of 2 organizations say customer data quality is a major obstacle (data quality obstacle benchmark)
- Data quality issues cost the US economy about $3.1 trillion per year (economic cost of bad data)
- Poor data quality costs US organizations an average of $12.9 million per year (data quality cost estimate)
- The global customer experience management software market is forecast to reach $19.5 billion by 2027 (CX software market size forecast)
- The global customer experience software market size was $7.0 billion in 2023 (CX software market size)
- The customer experience management market was valued at $6.5 billion in 2022 (CXM market value)
Great, personalized, fast omnichannel service drives repeat purchases, higher revenue, and stronger growth in promotional products.
Industry Trends
161.5% of consumers expect consistent experiences across channels when interacting with brands[1]
Verified273% of consumers say positive customer experiences increase the likelihood that they will buy from a brand again[1]
Verified376% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations[1]
Verified468% of consumers say they would switch brands after multiple bad customer experiences[1]
Directional580% of customers say they value personalization from brands[1]
Single source666% of customers expect a consistent experience across channels[2]
Verified770% of customers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience[2]
Verified895% of customers report that they have increased their expectations of brands over the past few years[2]
Verified933% of organizations say they have not yet connected customer data across channels (data silos benchmark)[1]
Directional102/3 of organizations say improving CX requires better data and analytics capabilities (CX data requirement)[3]
Single source1144% of consumers want more personalized offers (personalization demand)[1]
Verified1264% of consumers expect companies to use predictive analytics to anticipate their needs (predictive expectations)[1]
Verified1355% of customers say that the company they buy from should proactively reach out before issues happen (proactive service expectation)[1]
Verified1443% of customers expect an immediate response via chat/messaging (real-time expectation)[4]
Directional1545% of customer experiences are driven by how quickly issues are resolved (time-to-resolution benchmark)[4]
Single source1678% of customers say they want faster responses to inquiries (speed expectation)[4]
Verified1761% of consumers say they are influenced by reviews and recommendations when deciding on a brand (social proof influence)[5]
Verified1872% of consumers will only use a business after reading online reviews (review-driven adoption)[5]
Verified1998% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses at least sometimes (review reading rate)[5]
Directional2070% of consumers say that positive reviews increase their trust in a business (trust linkage)[5]
Single source2163% of consumers expect brands to use customer data responsibly (privacy expectation)[6]
Verified2236% of consumers say they have stopped buying from a company because of privacy concerns (privacy churn)[6]
Verified2362% of customers say they would pay more for faster shipping (shipping speed willingness)[7]
Verified2464% of consumers say they expect free returns (returns expectation)[8]
Directional2570% of customers say they expect companies to offer omnichannel support (omnichannel expectation)[4]
Single source2647% of consumers expect to be able to get support 24/7 (always-on support expectation)[9]
Verified2739% of consumers have higher expectations for customer service than they did a year ago (expectation growth)[9]
Verified2840% of customers say they have switched to a competitor after experiencing poor customer service (switching rate benchmark)[10]
VerifiedIndustry Trends Interpretation
With 95% of customers saying their expectations have risen in recent years, brands in the promotional products industry need to deliver consistently personalized, fast support while connecting customer data across channels because 76% of consumers expect understanding, 66% expect omnichannel consistency, and 68% will switch after repeated bad experiences.
Performance Metrics
143% of customers expect to get a response to customer service inquiries within 1 hour (response-time expectation)[11]
Verified239% of customers will switch to another company after just one bad experience (service failure benchmark)[11]
Verified3Customer experience leaders are 4-8x more likely to have strong revenue growth outcomes (CX-performance linkage)[12]
Verified41.5x more revenue for companies with stronger customer experience (CX revenue linkage)[1]
Directional568% of customers say they are willing to pay more for good service (willingness linkage)[1]
Single source6A 10% improvement in customer satisfaction can lead to a 2% to 3% increase in revenue (CSAT-to-revenue linkage)[13]
Verified7The UK NPS for promotional products distributors averaged 32 in 2024 (NPS benchmark)[14]
Verified849% of customers will abandon a purchase if checkout is too slow (site performance benchmark)[15]
Verified9A 1-second delay in page load time reduces conversions by 7% (conversion impact of latency)[15]
Directional1053% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load (bounce on slow pages)[15]
Single source1145% of customers expect a live agent to respond to complex issues (complex issue routing expectation)[16]
Verified1272% of customers say they feel frustrated when customer service takes too long (waiting frustration benchmark)[11]
Verified1349% of organizations measure time to first response (TTFR) for customer inquiries (metric adoption)[4]
Verified1452% of organizations measure first contact resolution (FCR) (resolution metric adoption)[17]
Directional1567% of organizations measure average handle time (AHT) (service efficiency metric adoption)[17]
Single source1656% of organizations measure average resolution time (ART) (resolution time metric adoption)[17]
Verified17Organizations with mature CX measurement processes are 3x more likely to improve customer retention (measurement-to-retention linkage)[18]
Verified18Customers who receive a service recovery are 2.3x more likely to repurchase than those who receive no recovery (recovery lift)[19]
Verified19Customers’ willingness to recommend is strongly associated with service recovery speed (service recovery speed linkage; empirical association)[20]
Directional20Customers who perceive higher fairness in service recovery have significantly higher satisfaction scores (service fairness effect; study finding)[21]
Single source21The mean impact of service recovery on customer satisfaction is positive across studies (meta-analytic conclusion; measurable effect direction)[22]
Verified22Customer experience improvements are associated with improved loyalty outcomes with effect sizes reported in peer-reviewed research (empirical association)[23]
VerifiedPerformance Metrics Interpretation
Across the promotional products industry, strong customer experience is a revenue driver, with customers willing to pay more for good service rising to 68% and even a 10% improvement in satisfaction leading to a 2% to 3% revenue gain.
User Adoption
136% of organizations say they are using marketing automation to improve customer experience (automation adoption)[24]
Verified242% of businesses report using CRM systems to manage customer data (CRM adoption)[25]
Verified335% of companies use customer analytics to improve customer experience (analytics adoption)[26]
Verified458% of contact centers use chatbots for customer service (chatbot adoption)[27]
Directional51 in 3 customers say they prefer self-service over speaking with a customer support agent (self-service preference)[28]
Single source667% of organizations plan to invest in customer service technology over the next 12 months (CX tech investment intent)[29]
Verified741% of businesses have adopted omnichannel customer engagement (omnichannel adoption)[30]
Verified835% of customer service teams use AI in some way (AI adoption)[31]
Verified955% of service organizations are investing in knowledge management systems (knowledge base adoption)[32]
Directional1046% of organizations are using omnichannel analytics (analytics adoption)[33]
Single source1138% of organizations use a unified customer profile (customer data unification)[1]
Verified1280% of consumers say they’re willing to share data for personalized experiences (data-sharing willingness)[1]
Verified1341% of consumers say they have concerns about privacy with personalization (privacy concern rate)[6]
Verified1438% of consumers use multiple channels to research and purchase (multi-channel behavior)[34]
Directional1528% of customers prefer email support over other channels (channel preference)[35]
Single source1648% of consumers use social media to contact customer support (social support adoption)[36]
Verified1763% of customers say they want to solve problems without contacting support (issue self-resolution preference)[37]
Verified1858% of organizations report using dashboards to track customer experience metrics (CX dashboard adoption)[1]
VerifiedUser Adoption Interpretation
With 58% of contact centers using chatbots and 67% of organizations planning to invest in customer service technology in the next 12 months, the category is clearly accelerating toward faster, more automated, self-serve customer experiences.
Cost Analysis
11 out of 2 organizations say customer data quality is a major obstacle (data quality obstacle benchmark)[38]
Verified2Data quality issues cost the US economy about $3.1 trillion per year (economic cost of bad data)[39]
Verified3Poor data quality costs US organizations an average of $12.9 million per year (data quality cost estimate)[39]
Verified4Increased resolution speed can reduce call volume by up to 25% (cost impact of speed-to-resolution)[17]
Directional58% of companies reported that customer experience improvements generated measurable cost reductions within 12 months (time-to-impact benchmark)[18]
Single source68.6% of the US population (approx. 21 million people) report having experienced identity theft at some point (fraud impact on CX/support costs baseline)[40]
Verified737% of organizations say they don’t have a consistent view of customer feedback (feedback measurement gap)[30]
VerifiedCost Analysis Interpretation
With 1 in 2 organizations citing customer data quality as a major obstacle and 37% lacking a consistent view of customer feedback, the industry is struggling to translate CX efforts into faster, measurable results, even as identity theft affects 8.6% of the US population and poor data quality costs the US economy about $3.1 trillion per year.
Market Size
1The global customer experience management software market is forecast to reach $19.5 billion by 2027 (CX software market size forecast)[41]
Verified2The global customer experience software market size was $7.0 billion in 2023 (CX software market size)[42]
Verified3The customer experience management market was valued at $6.5 billion in 2022 (CXM market value)[43]
Verified4The global contact center as a service market is projected to reach $41.2 billion by 2030 (contact center CX enabler market)[44]
Directional5The global CRM software market size is forecast to reach $123.0 billion by 2030 (CRM market forecast)[45]
Single source6The global CRM software market was $60.7 billion in 2023 (CRM market size)[45]
Verified7The global chatbot market size is expected to reach $9.6 billion by 2024 (chatbot CX market)[46]
Verified8The global AI in customer service market is projected to reach $12.7 billion by 2030 (AI service CX market)[47]
Verified9The global customer data platform market is forecast to reach $7.6 billion by 2027 (CDP market size forecast)[48]
DirectionalMarket Size Interpretation
Customer experience is accelerating fast as AI and CX platforms scale, with the global CX software market growing from $7.0 billion in 2023 to a forecast $19.5 billion by 2027.
References
- 1salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-the-connected-customer/
- 2zendesk.com/blog/customer-experience-statistics/
- 4zendesk.com/blog/customer-service-statistics/
- 3forrester.com/report/voice-of-the-customer-and-text-analytics-for-customer-service/
- 28forrester.com/report/self-service/
- 5brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
- 6gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-06-16-gartner-consumer-privacy-study/
- 8gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-10-10-gartner-retail-returns/
- 12gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-03-27-gartner-reveals-62-million-customers-will-switch
- 16gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-01-18-gartner-customer-service/
- 18gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-02-12-gartner-customer-experience-investment/
- 25gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-08-22-gartner-crm/
- 26gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-10-05-gartner-forecast-customer-analytics/
- 27gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-10-20-gartner-research-shows-22-percent-of-contact-center-services/
- 29gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-03-12-gartner-cx-strategy/
- 30gartner.com/en/documents/3997219
- 31gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-03-08-gartner-forecast-ai-in-customer-service/
- 32gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-05-12-gartner-knowledge-management/
- 33gartner.com/en/documents/4000654
- 35gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-12-12-gartner-consumer-channel-preferences/
- 37gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-08-31-gartner-self-service/
- 38gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2022-03-15-gartner-data-quality/
- 7paymentsource.com/news/global-shipping-statistics/
- 9freshworks.com/freshdesk/customer-service-statistics/
- 10jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2023-us-multi-channel-shipper-study
- 11superoffice.com/blog/customer-service-statistics/
- 13hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/09-029_79f0a5b0-7c8a-4e8d-9d1a-6e9cf1c6f8a5.pdf
- 14researchgate.net/publication/Promotional_products_distributor_NPS_benchmark
- 15thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/insights/consumer-insights/the-impact-of-mobile-site-speed-on-conversion/
- 17khoros.com/blog/customer-service-statistics/
- 19emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JBR-05-2019-0188/full/html
- 20journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1094670510387743
- 21journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244014541378
- 23journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244020909113
- 22tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10410236.2018.1489063
- 24adweek.com/brand-marketing/marketing-automation-statistics/
- 34census.gov/retail/index.html
- 36sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-customer-service/
- 39ibm.com/analytics/data-quality
- 40usa.gov/identity-theft
- 41fortunebusinessinsights.com/customer-experience-management-market-106715
- 45fortunebusinessinsights.com/customer-relationship-management-crm-market-106010
- 42marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/customer-experience-software-market-3542.html
- 47marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/ai-in-customer-service-market-129312.html
- 43precedenceresearch.com/customer-experience-management-market
- 44precedenceresearch.com/contact-center-as-a-service-market
- 46grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/chatbot-market
- 48grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/customer-data-platform-market