The Cost of Poor CX and How to Turn it Around
22nd June 2025
Poor customer experience can significantly impact an organisation’s bottom line. To survive and thrive, businesses need the support of a loyal customer base, which requires delivering excellent customer experience (CX).
Why customer experience (CX) matters
CX is more important than ever, with 32% of customers worldwide reporting they would stop doing business with a brand after just one bad experience Link to Experience is everything. Get it right). That number increases to just under 50% after several negative experiences. This has made CX the fastest-growing priority area for customer care leaders, yet many struggle with how to best meet consumers’ growing demands with reduced budgets. To meet increasing expectations, organisations need to improve CX by delivering fast, personalised experiences that reflect individuals’ unique needs.
Reducing customer service agent turnover
High agent turnover rates can undermine efforts to deliver excellent CX. Employee burnout and the challenges associated with maintaining high morale are significant contributors to turnover. Addressing these issues involves providing agents with the necessary tools, resources and support to handle customer enquiries efficiently and reduce stress.
Preventing burnout requires creating a supportive work environment where agents feel valued and empowered. This includes offering flexible schedules, recognising achievements and ensuring workloads are manageable. Burnout can lead to decreased productivity, higher turnover rates and ultimately, poorer customer service. Learn about empowering agents with AI.
How AI is transforming contact centres
AI is revolutionising contact centres by automating routine tasks, providing predictive analytics, and offering real-time insights. These technologies enable agents to focus on more complex customer enquiries, improving efficiency and customer satisfaction. AI-driven solutions can also help identify patterns and trends, allowing organisations to proactively address customer needs. AI improves contact centres by enhancing efficiency, reducing response times and providing more personalised customer interactions. It supports agents in delivering faster, more accurate solutions to customer enquiries, ultimately leading to better CX.
Understanding and exceeding customer expectations
Customers today expect seamless, personalised experiences across all channels. Understanding and exceeding customer expectations is crucial for building loyalty and maintaining a competitive edge. Managing customer expectations involves clearly communicating what customers can expect and delivering on those promises consistently. To meet and exceed customer expectations, organisations must first understand what their customers need and want.
This can be achieved through customer feedback, data analysis and market research. By identifying these needs, businesses can tailor their services to better meet customer demands. Exceeding customer expectations involves going above and beyond in delivering CX. This can be achieved through personalised interactions, timely responses and proactive problem-solving. Customers who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to remain loyal and advocate for the brand.
Optimising contact centre operations
Optimising contact centre operations involves streamlining processes, leveraging technology and continuously improving workflows. This ensures that agents have the tools and information they need to provide exceptional CX. Efficient workflows are crucial for resolving customer enquiries quickly and effectively. By integrating systems and reducing data silos, organisations can ensure that agents have access to all relevant information, improving response times and customer satisfaction. CX needs to be transformed through an ongoing process of digitalisation that improves systems and processes, provides employees with tools and resources to help customers, and considers customer feedback.
A platform equipped with advanced customer engagement technology, including omnichannel automation, can empower organisations to deliver the outcomes necessary for a modern, competitive CX strategy. This includes reducing data silos, which are a significant challenge for customer experience leaders. Data silos prevent agents from having all the information they need to resolve a customer enquiry, leading to frustration for both customers and employees.
Leveraging low-code workflow development tools
Using low-code workflow development tools, disparate systems can be brought together. This enables the free movement of data needed for agents to resolve customer issues rapidly and satisfactorily — delivering a personalised CX experience that leaves customers feeling valued and increases their loyalty. Omnichannel queue management can triage incoming enquiries through any contact channel (voice, chat, chatbot, SMS, email, website form, or social channels) and match agents with the most appropriate cases. This paves the way for faster and smoother end-to-end customer journeys.
Leveraging low-code workflow development tools
Advanced omnichannel capabilities are what allowed Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council to use web-assisted interactions for 78% of enquiries in order to still deliver a positive experience to 99% of customers despite a 300% surge in activity during the pandemic-induced lockdowns.
Similarly, Cairn Housing Group, was able to leverage an omnichannel contact centre solution to meet the growing needs of its tenants. It wanted to empower tenants to log enquiries or requests quickly, as well as develop the capabilities to deliver rapid resolution times. However, it had to overcome disconnected back-office systems and lack of self-service solutions. Its omnichannel solution allowed the organisation to deliver seamless services across all channels, increase efficiency and secure returns on its investment. In just four months, its low-code developed portal enabled Cairn Housing to make 16 services available to tenants at any time and led to the completion of nearly 6,000 cases.
Transforming CX at scale
Transforming customer experience goes beyond simply bettering individual touchpoints. It requires transformation at scale, so various channels interact and share information with each other. Combining advanced technologies unleashes intelligent automation capabilities, allowing these solutions to work together to join up and automate workflows at scale across the customer journey.
Transforming CX at scale
The cost of poor CX can be significant – loss of customers, reputation damage, and increases in customer service costs among them. Conversely, prioritising CX can lead to increased customer retention, revenue growth, and positive word-of-mouth marketing. CX should be a key priority for businesses and organisations looking to not only succeed in today’s competitive market but also remain viable in the long-term. As technology continues to advance and new generations enter the market, customers’ expectations will only grow. Both customers and employees are increasingly vocal about their needs and wants. Digitalisation of the customer journey will play an integral role in satisfying these demands — securing the long-term viability of organisations in the public and private sectors.