ServiceNow’s new research highlights the gap between the potential of AI and how service is being delivered.
The CX Shift: Customer Expectations in the AI Era report found that poor customer service in the UK costs every consumer the equivalent of 9.7 hours a year spent dealing with issues such as long wait times, repeating information or navigating slow systems.
Nearly half of consumers in the UK (41%) rate current customer service as average, poor or terrible. Meanwhile, 53% of UK customers say they would switch to a competitor after a single poor or slow experience.
Shakira Talbot, Group Vice President, CRM EMEA at ServiceNow said,
“The root cause isn’t a lack of AI investment – it’s that most CRM systems were built to record interactions, not resolve them. That’s the shift we’re driving: CRM as a system of action, not a system of record. Customers want to feel heard and resolved, not just routed. But that can’t happen when AI and human agents operate in different systems with different views of the customer. The organisations getting this right are the ones connecting their entire operation – front office to back office – on a single platform. That’s when CRM stops being a digital filing cabinet and starts being a revenue engine”.
The research shows that when organisations connect service environments, they can free frontline teams to focus on empathy, clarity, and trust.
Download the full report here.
