No matter what kind of business you’re in, usually being in a business means relying on customers actually being willing to pay for whatever it is you are selling or doing.

A big part of that particular effort is providing at least some level of customer service. In 2014, Gartner research found that 64% of people find customer experience more important than price when they’re choosing to make a purchase. And beyond even that, after one negative experience, somewhere between, 51% and 64% of customers will never do business with that company again, depending on the research you look at.

It makes sense, after all – if you’re going to be spending money, then you want to be sure that you might actually be able to get service in making those decisions. But what is it you consider “good” service?

Forrester Research tells us that, quote:

The majority (66%) of adults feel that valuing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good online customer experience.

Meanwhile, Harris Interactive reports that 75% of customers believe it takes too long to reach a live person when they call in, most people preferring to wait 2 minutes or less when they call in. And when you do go in, call in, chat in, or otherwise contact a company? After actually responding, which a surprising number of organizations won’t do if you don’t reach out to them in one of their preferred methods?

American Express’s 2017 Customer Experience Report says, quote:

68% of customers said that a pleasant representative was key to their recent positive service experiences, and 62% said that a representative’s knowledge or resourcefulness was key.