Poor customer service is pushing nearly a third of consumers to abandon brands

Brands across Asia Pacific are at risk of losing customers over poor service, with nearly one-third of consumers saying they have stopped doing business with a company in the past year because of a bad customer experience, according to Genesys' latest "The state of customer experience" report.

The report found that 82% of consumers believe a company is only as good as its customer service, reinforcing the growing role of customer experience (CX) in shaping brand reputation and loyalty.

While customer expectations continue to rise, businesses are struggling to keep pace. Just 11% of consumers said the service they consistently receive is excellent, while almost half (49%) described their experiences as mixed.

Don't miss: Nearly 80% of consumers willing to pay more for brands they trust 

Consumers also have limited patience for repeated failures. More than half (53%) said they would switch from a favourite brand after two to five poor interactions, while 47% would leave a company they purchase from occasionally after the same number of negative experiences.

Poor service can also damage brand reputation. Nearly one-third of consumers said they had warned others against a company following a negative interaction, while 30% had stopped buying from a company altogether.

In contrast, positive service can drive advocacy. 41% of consumers recommended a company after a good experience in the past year, while 46% of those who posted about a service interaction on social media did so because it was positive.

Speed and resolution remain consumers’ biggest priorities. 49% ranked resolving an issue during the first interaction as one of the most valuable parts of customer service, followed by fast responses at 48%.

However, the report identified a disconnect between consumers and customer experience (CX) leaders. Only 20% of CX leaders ranked first-contact resolution as a top priority, placing it ninth among the attributes they value.

Waiting times were another major frustration. While 86% of consumers expect to reach an agent within one to 10 minutes, 29% said they had waited at least 30 minutes, including 8% who waited more than an hour.

Despite the rise of chatbots and self-service tools, more than half of consumers said they prefer to deal with a human agent whenever possible. 37% had been unable to reach an agent at all during the past year, while one-third could not move directly from a chatbot to a person.

Consumers also expect service to carry seamlessly across channels. Almost all respondents said it was important to switch channels without repeating information, yet only 16% of CX leaders said their organisation had fully integrated technology and data across customer touchpoints.

Personalisation was another driver of loyalty, with about three-quarters of consumers saying they were more likely to recommend and purchase more often from brands that consistently provide personalised service.

Furthermore, artificial intelligence is expected to play a growing role in improving CX. 64% of consumers believe AI will improve the quality and speed of customer service over the next two to three years, while 62% expect it to enable more personalised interactions. However, transparency remains critical, with 88% saying they have a right to know when they are interacting with a bot.

CX leaders expect to allocate around one-third of their CX budgets to AI-powered technology over the next year. Globally, they also expect CX budgets to rise by 15%.

However, the report noted that AI adoption could be limited by fragmented technology systems, with only around one-third of organisations having fully moved their CX platforms to the cloud.

The findings suggest that while brands are increasing investment in AI and customer service technology, loyalty will continue to depend on delivering the basics: fast resolutions, seamless interactions and access to a human when automation falls short.

"Across APAC, consumers are increasingly confident in AI's ability to improve customer experiences. But they also expect organizations to remember context, connect every interaction and resolve issues with minimal effort," said Albert Nel, senior vice president and regional sales leader for Genesys Asia Pacific.

He added, "As agentic AI becomes part of everyday customer engagement, organizations need to use it to reduce customer effort –not just automate interactions. The businesses that succeed will be those that connect AI, people and customer context to deliver faster resolutions and more seamless experiences."

The findings echo earlier research highlighting the commercial risks of poor customer experiences. A study by Ogilvy found that 93% of consumers across Asia Pacific quietly disengage from brands they no longer trust rather than publicly voicing their dissatisfaction.

Based on responses from 7,176 consumers across seven APAC markets, the research found only one in 10 respondents would post about a negative brand experience on social media, suggesting brands that rely heavily on social listening and online sentiment may be overlooking consumers who simply stop purchasing or switch to competitors.

Related articles:  
Showing up in AI answers isn't enough if audiences don't believe them  
APAC trust gap hits record high as income disparity doubles 
Singapore consumers trust peers over brands on Xiaohongshu