Customer Satisfaction Rebounds Globally

ZENDESK BENCHMARK: CUSTOMER SATISFACTION REBOUNDS GLOBALLY
Best and Worst Countries, Industries for Customer Service Identified;
New Zealand Beats Aussies For Customer Satisfaction

August 8, 2013 – Customer satisfaction is on the rise globally after more than a year in decline, according to the quarterly Zendesk Benchmark report released today. For the second quarter of 2013, the average customer satisfaction rating reached 81 percent – a jump of 3 percentage points from the prior quarter—its highest level since the first quarter of 2012.

The rebound comes as industries with historically poor ratings, including financial and insurance services, saw recent gains and as global consumer confidence has improved in a similar trend.

“Companies in most industries throughout the world are seeing gains in customer satisfaction right when consumers are ready to spend more,” said Sam Boonin, research lead for the Zendesk Benchmark and vice president of products at Zendesk.

The report is produced by Zendesk, a global provider of software for better customer service, and tracks customer satisfaction and service trends each quarter based on actual interactions between 16,000 participating companies and their customers. Download the full Zendesk Benchmark report for Q2 2013 at: www.zendesk.com/resources/customer-service-benchmark

New Zealand leads the world for customer satisfaction
Customers in New Zealand are the most satisfied with the service they receive, coming in at 92 percent, with Canada and Australia not far behind with 91 percent and 89 percent respectively.

“We’re thrilled that New Zealand and Australia rank at the top again for customer satisfaction,” said Michael Hansen, Vice President and Asia Pacific Managing Director, Zendesk. “Together, companies in Australia and New Zealand use Zendesk to handle over 19,000 customer queries every day. The high satisfaction speaks to the strides companies are making to serve their customers anywhere, anytime.”

Customer Satisfaction by Country

Best Countries:
• New Zealand: 92% (-1 percentage point change from Q1)
• Canada: 91% (+4 percentage points)
• Australia: 89% (+4 percentage points)
•
Worst Countries:
• United Arab Emirates: 58% (+5 percentage point change from Q1)
• South Africa: 60% (+16 percentage points)
• Turkey: 68% (+3 percentage points)

Customer Satisfaction by Industry

Best Industries:
• Education: 95% (no change from Q1)
• IT Services & Consultancy: 95% (-1 percentage point)
• Real Estate: 94% (no change)
•
Worst Industries:
• Social Media: 64% (+2 percentage point change from Q1)
• Media & Telecommunications: 73% (no change)
• Entertainment & Gaming: 76% (+4 percentage points)
•

Customers Seek Self Service and Mobile
This quarter’s Zendesk Benchmark report also examined trends in customer self-service and introduced a new metric, the Self-Service Score. Globally, for every four people helping themselves in forums and communities, one is submitting a request—a Self-Service Score of 4.1. The score represents the number of customers using self-service tools such as online forums and communities for every customer submitting a request for support. The higher the score, the more effectively self-service tools serve customers.

Customers also are increasingly turning to mobile to help themselves. Over the past year, the percentage of customers accessing self-service content from their mobile devices has grown 50 percent. It reached 26 percent for the second quarter of 2013, compared to 17 percent in the same period a year earlier, according to the Zendesk Benchmark.

Mobile self-service usage is drastically higher in some industries, such as media (84%) and social media (57%). Industries with the some of the lowest customer preference for mobile include finance and insurance services (11%), education (10%) and software (10%).

About the Zendesk Benchmark
The Zendesk Benchmark is based on actual customer service and support interactions between 16,000 participating companies and their customers across 125 countries. Introduced in March 2012, it allows companies to compare their customer service performance against industry peers. Its measures key metrics around customer support efficiency, customer self-service behavior, and levels of customer engagement. Customer satisfaction is based on the percentage of positive responses to the question of whether or not a customer was satisfied with a customer service interaction. For a country to be included in the quarterly report, it must have a minimum of 10,000 responses during the quarter.

About Zendesk
Zendesk builds cloud software for better customer service, bringing companies and their customers closer together. With Zendesk, companies engage directly and openly with customers, building more meaningful customer relationships that last a lifetime. More than 30,000 companies, such as Gilt Groupe, Disney and Box, use Zendesk to provide service to more than 200 million people worldwide. Founded in 2007 and based in San Francisco, Zendesk has offices in seven countries and funding from Charles River Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Goldman Sachs, GGV Capital, Index Ventures, Matrix Partners and Redpoint Ventures. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.

ENDS

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