Blog

May 2025

Increasing Sales Through Better Customer Service

“We Are Satisfied with Our Turnover”

If you are satisfied with your turnover and your sales, then this article is not for you. If you are not, you are kindly invited to continue reading.

When companies introduce indicators to monitor store traffic, visitor counters, and additional sales tracking, it often becomes apparent that they are losing sales due to errors and shortcomings in sales and advisory processes, resulting in a poorer customer experience (CX). In recent times, this has been particularly influenced by staff turnover and by reinforcing sales teams with less experienced or younger employees.

In practice, and this is where visitor counters are especially useful, it is often shown that the store turnover you are satisfied with is more a result of a high-traffic location, while the utilization rate or conversion rate is lower than in stores with fewer visitors. In lower-traffic stores, staff generally dedicate more attention to each customer. However, this is not a rule. By conducting mystery shopping, you gain deeper insight into how to increase sales performance at the level of individual stores or sales teams.

Improve “Poor” Customer Service — It Pays Off

Despite the fact that everything today largely revolves around the use of AI, let me first add that I personally sometimes wish robots would work instead of me — probably you do too? However, regardless of the remarkable progress of AI, human interaction remains crucial for successful sales. According to the latest customer experience (CX) research, this is now even more important than before.

As specialists in mystery shopping, we have a unique and in-depth insight into how vital it is to recognize customer emotions, buyer sentiment, and empathetic sales communication, as well as how important human interaction is in the overall customer experience (CX). Especially from the customer’s perspective — how little it takes to create either a poor impression or genuine delight with the shopping experience. We also see approaches to creating a positive sense of difference from the customer’s point of view, so that interactions involving upselling, advice, and recommendations of additional products or services are perceived as a positive shopping experience — as service — leading customers to decide to purchase additional products or services. In many businesses, upselling is the key to a rapid increase in sales.

For successful sales, it is also essential to listen to customers who in 2025, in the age of artificial intelligence and automation, desire real human connections, contact, empathy, and personalized support more than ever before.

The Importance of Human Interaction in CX

The longer introduction was intended to help us gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and the importance of emotions and personal interactions in sales. Service is not just the customer support department or a toll-free number customers call when they have a complaint. Service is the holistic experience of purchasing, support, and consulting throughout all stages of the sales process — through personal interaction with customers and also during repeat purchases.

It represents the level of service delivery and the perception of an excellent customer experience (CX) from the customer’s perspective in their interactions with your company or brand.

With so many choices available, customers no longer tolerate poor service, impersonal interactions, or unresponsive support. Customers want better service — they expect a better customer experience.

Recent Customer Experience (CX) Research Is Unforgiving — but It Also Reveals Key Opportunities for Growth and Increased Sales

Recent analyses are quite unforgiving when viewed through the lens of opportunity losses caused by declining revenue, loss of market share, higher operational costs, and missed growth opportunities. Let’s take a look at some data from the latest analyses, summarized from ICERTIAS – International Certification Association GmbH:

  1. Loss of customer loyalty.
    Loyalty is fragile in 2025. Customers will not tolerate poor service, impersonal interactions, or unresponsive support. As many as 59% of consumers will abandon your brand after just one bad experience, with an additional 17% leaving after two. (Source: Desk365, Qualtrics, The Petrova Experience)
  2. Decline in revenue and market share.
    Your brand, your company, and your business cannot afford to lose customers due to poor experiences in 2025. Research shows that 86% of customers are willing to pay more for better service, while 73% of consumers will switch brands after just one poor interaction. (Source: FluentSupport, Euromonitor, Forbes)
  3. Damage to brand or company reputation.
    Your brand’s and company’s reputation is built on customer experience. In 2025, a single negative review can reach thousands or even millions of potential customers within hours. Consumers — especially Millennials and Generation Z — are quick to call out poor service, fake empathy, and impersonal interactions. (Source: Forbes, Vogue Business, Qualtrics)
  4. Higher operational costs.
    Neglecting customer satisfaction, support, and empathy will significantly increase your company’s operating costs. Poor service leads to more complaints, more refund requests, more returned products, and higher customer support costs. Research shows that acquiring a new customer is five times more expensive than retaining an existing one. If your company fails to retain satisfied customers, it will have to invest enormous resources in acquiring new ones just to remain competitive. Investing in a high-quality customer experience (CX) today can save your company substantial financial losses in the future. (Source: The Petrova Experience, CRM Buyer, Insight Quality)
  5. Missed growth opportunities.
    Your competitors are already investing in superior customer experience — are you? Research shows that companies that prioritize customer experience outperform competitors by up to 80%. Consumers are willing to pay up to 16% more for excellent service, and brands that invest in customer support, human interaction, and seamless service processes secure stronger market positions and long-term growth. (Source: Qualtrics, FluentSupport, Forbes)

The Importance of Empathetic Sales and Human Interaction in Delivering an Customer Experience (CX)

What comes next? The key is to identify and define the critical touchpoints where investment in an excellent customer experience (CX) truly matters. Of course, we can also support you in this process.

We often quickly fall into our own perspective and internal challenges; however, for successful sales, it is essential to consider the perspective and sentiment of potential customers — their situation, emotions, needs, desires, and goals.

Although artificial intelligence improves efficiency and reduces costs, human interaction remains indispensable for building long-term customer relationships, developing business partnerships, personal selling of services and products, handling complex complaints, and creating customer loyalty and trust.

Are you ready for the next step?

Natalia Ugren

Invite us for a (virtual) coffee or consultation.

Kind regards,
Natalia Ugren, Managing Director
Skrivnostni nakup d.o.o.

Write to [email protected]
or call me at +386 41 537 118 to schedule a consultation.