76% of customers say they don’t return to a company because their time was wasted.
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A bad CX loses more than a customer. It ruins a company’s reputation. Those unhappy customers talk. They tell friends and colleagues and may even go social and share their experiences publicly for the world to see. While we may not want to lose even a single customer, that customer can influence many others to never do business with us again.
In my annual 2026 customer service and CX research, I asked more than 2,000 U.S. consumers about their likes and dislikes. For this article, we’re going to focus on the dislikes. This is what drives customers away and can have a long-lasting impact on your brand’s reputation. Before I get into those dislikes, consider what the reactions are from customers who have a bad experience:
Furthermore, many of the problems that cause a company to lose customers are within its control. If you want to lose customers, these are three behaviors that will almost guarantee it:
Customers interpret rudeness and apathy as, “They don’t care about me.” There are three reasons for a negative reputation tied to poor customer treatment by employees, all within the company’s control. The first reason is hiring the wrong people. The second is not properly training employees. And third, and probably the root of the problem, is the company’s culture. Companies with a customer-focused culture hire right, onboard and train employees well, and empower them to make decisions that positively impact the company’s reputation and the customer’s experience. Without that culture, even the best training won’t stick.
Customers interpret wasting time as, “They don’t respect me.” If you can’t respect a customer’s time, don’t be surprised when they don’t respect you and choose to do business elsewhere. Three out of four customers (76%) said they don’t return to a company because their time was wasted. In the contact center/customer support world, wasting a customer’s time comes from long hold times, multiple transfers, having them repeat their story and slow responses to emails or messages.
Customers interpret friction as, “They are hard to do business with.” Friction is anything that slows the customer down or makes them work harder than they should. Customers prefer to spend money with companies that are easy to do business with. There are reasons Amazon is almost always named as the top brand customers enjoy most. It’s because it is super easy and convenient. Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, had a goal of eliminating the need for customer service. Of course, no company is perfect, but striving for the lofty goal of never needing to call for customer service is ultimately, in a very positive way, felt by the customer. Amazon has found ways to eliminate friction in retail. The word Amazonation describes the effect and standard the company has created, setting a high bar for customer service and CX that forces other companies to up their service game. That’s why when customers experience friction, they look for a company that’s easier to do business with.
Bad experiences don’t just cost you one customer. They cost you the customers that customer talks to. The good news is that everything covered in these three reasons is within your control. Hire right, train right and design an experience that respects your customer’s time and makes doing business with you easy. Do that, and instead of losing customers, you’ll create the experience that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back.”
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