In New Independent Research Study 81% of Brands Say Customers Expect Faster Customer Service Resolutions Than Just 2 Years Ago

SAN FRANCISCO, March 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Results from a new Forrester Consulting Market Opportunity Snapshot commissioned by Simplr® illustrate rising consumer expectations, with 81% of brands confirming that customers expect faster resolutions than just two years ago. These same brands, however, are having difficulty meeting the challenge, with less than a third (30%) saying their customer service strategies are very effective at responding to customers in a timely fashion. As a result, brands are paying a price: 39% say not meeting those customer expectations results in lost revenue opportunities.

Additional findings from the brands surveyed:

• 41% do not have enough talented customer service staff
• 40% cannot effectively automate key customer service use cases
• 28% believe the automation they use to interact with their customers is very effective and accurate

"This Forrester study brings into sharp focus just how hard it is for brands to meet the expectations of today's NOW Customers, who are always online and always seeking in-the-moment customer service," said Eng Tan, CEO and founder of Simplr, a human-first, machine-enabled customer experience solution. "Traditional contact centers haven't innovated their technology and staffing models, leaving brands in the unfortunate position of providing outmoded, outmatched customer experience. We designed Simplr's CX solution to bridge that innovation gap in customer service delivery and are gratified to see in the Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact™ Study that the brands we serve are seeing strong ROI."

Forrester's Total Economic Impact Study
This commissioned case study, which modeled the business benefits of partnering with Simplr based customer interviews, found that brands partnering with Simplr saw a 178% total return on investment in less than three months. Increasing customer support to 24 hours a day, decreasing response times, and providing insightful and effective responses to customer inquiries via Simplr customer support specialists and Simplr's proprietary AI propelled additional conversions:

• 44% improvement in conversion rates*
• 2X increase in repeat purchase rates

One Simplr customer interviewed for the report said in reference to their customer resolutions: "We went from 64 hours to down below 0.1 or 0.2 hours for two of our brands, which is incredible. ... In periods of higher volume, we would probably need to triple the size of our team or more to be able to get that 0.1."

Improved productivity of customer support managers
Simplr customers in the Forrester study estimated that they would need to increase their customer support teams between 50-100% to match the expanded hours that Simplr provides and to manage the volume of inquiries Simplr's customer service specialists receive as they eliminate persistent backlogs. The composite organization* saw a 178% total return on investment over three years, with the Payback Period coming in at under three months.

Since companies can activate Simplr support with minimal notice, the time customer support managers spend forecasting, recruiting, and other staffing activities for internal teams decreased. This benefit totals $247,317 for the composite organization. Other findings:

• $9M in average cost savings of additional CX resources that would be needed to replicate Simplr
• 10-20% increase in average CSAT

Additional benefits
Among the unquantifiable benefits that Simplr provides the brands it works with:

• Improved customer experience, with none of the common pitfalls of relying on outsourced customer support, such as the dilution of brand messaging.
• Comparable or improved customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) for Simplr specialists. Response times decreased and loyalty increased.
• Improved employee morale: with Simplr specialists alleviating backlogs, brand teams have been freed up to take on more challenging assignments.
• Cost savings with Simplr's cost-per-resolution model.
• Minimal effort required from brand personnel to assist with Simplr integration and ongoing management.

About the Forrester Market Opportunity Snapshot
This Opportunity Snapshot was commissioned by Simplr. To create this profile, Forrester Consulting supplemented this research with custom survey questions asked of customer service and CX decision-makers at global enterprises. The custom survey began and was completed in January 2021.

About the Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact Study
The Forrester TEI framework and methodology has been employed in studies with thousands of leading companies over more than a decade. The Forrester TEI is a rigorous and commonly used cost / benefit analysis framework accepted by IT leaders globally.

*At the composite organization in Forrester's three-year analysis, internal agents convert 11.1% of inquiries into sales while Simplr Specialists convert 16.0%, for an incremental conversion rate of 4.9%, representing a 44% increase. Forrester modeled this benefit based on the experience of an apparel company. Forrester interviewed four customers with experience using Simplr, aggregated their experiences, and combined the results into a single composite organization. The companies represented footwear, apparel, and quick-service restaurants.

About Simplr
Simplr offers companies a human-first, machine-enabled customer experience solution that meets the demands of the NOW Customer across all digital channels. Offering a combination of a uniquely talented, flexible, and scalable staffing pool, AI-based technology, and actionable intelligence, Simplr allows companies to immediately expand their customer service capacity and engage customers with speed, empathy, and precision. With Simplr's NOW CX solution, premium brands are eradicating customer neglect, turning browsers into buyers, and turning customers into fans. Simplr is funded by Asurion, which continues to support its growth.

SOURCE Simplr