Customer Experience
on Their Terms

Think about the most recent time you contacted a company for customer service. Was your issue ultimately resolved?

Single response · n=577 · source p. 2

47% say their most recent issue was resolved in the first interaction; another 31% needed more than one interaction.

Which of the following, if any, made that experience more difficult? Select up to three.

Select up to three · n=577 · source p. 4

Long waits (51%), transfers (49%), and repeated information (47%) are the most selected sources of friction.

What would have made the biggest improvement to that experience? Select one.

Single response · n=577 · source p. 6

Faster help leads at 37%, followed by complete resolution without another interaction at 23% and reaching the right person at 17%.

Thinking about customer service more generally, which of the following would most improve your experiences with companies today? Select up to two.

Select up to two · n=558 · source p. 8

71% select easy access to a knowledgeable person as an improvement they want; 32% also select automation that fully resolves simple requests.

If you moved a customer-service conversation from one channel or device to another, for example from chat on a laptop to a phone call, which would you prefer?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 10

67% prefer automatic continuation after identity verification, while 24% prefer continuity with a prompt or an explicit request.

If a company could continue a customer-service conversation on any of the following, which would you be willing to use? Select all that apply.

Select all that apply · n=558 · source p. 12

Consumers are willing to continue service across familiar channels, led by a computer browser (59%), phone calls (48%), and SMS (44%).

In which of the following situations would you most want a company to proactively contact you before you had to contact them? Select up to three.

Select up to three · n=558 · source p. 14

78% want proactive contact about possible fraud, compared with 3% who select outreach about something the company thinks they may want to buy.

Which of the following would make proactive customer service from a company feel less acceptable to you? Select all that apply.

Select all that apply · n=558 · source p. 16

Frequent contact (64%), unexpected use of information (58%), and action without permission (52%) can make proactive service less acceptable.

Suppose a company's AI assistant detects that you were charged twice for the same purchase and could correct the duplicate charge. Which approach would you prefer?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 18

The largest group, 37%, wants AI to prepare the correction and ask for approval; 16% prefers action within previously set rules.

If a company's AI could retain information between customer-service interactions, which approach would you prefer?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 20

40% prefer relevant information to be remembered automatically, while others favor permission, information-level choices, or memory limited to an unresolved issue.

For each type of information below, how comfortable would you be allowing a company's AI to retain it for future customer-service interactions?

Single response per information type · n=558 · source p. 22

56% are comfortable with communication preferences being retained automatically, compared with 28% for payment or financial information and 28% for health-related information.

Which of the following actions, if any, would you personally be comfortable authorizing an AI assistant to complete without asking you for another approval at the time of the action? Select all that apply.

Select all that apply · n=558 · source p. 24

Refunds (41%) and profile updates (40%) lead the actions consumers would be comfortable pre-authorizing; purchases under a set spending limit receive 8%.

If an AI assistant acts on your behalf, which control model would you prefer?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 26

33% prefer approving each action, 20% prefer rules or limits, and fewer than 1% prefer letting AI decide independently.

Which of the following actions would you most want to approve each time, immediately before an AI assistant completes them?

Select up to three · n=558 · source p. 28

Financial actions lead the approval priorities: purchases at 59%, recurring charges or price increases at 49%, and payment changes at 44%.

How would the ability to reverse or undo an AI action affect what you would allow it to do?

Select the answer that best describes your approach · n=558 · source p. 30

The largest group, 37%, would allow independent AI action only when it could easily be reversed.

What is the most advanced role you would currently be comfortable allowing AI to play when you deal with companies?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 32

Answers and assistance are the most common comfort limits; only 2% select representation as the most advanced AI role they would currently allow.

After an AI takes an action on your behalf, how much information would you generally want the company to provide about what happened?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 34

The leading preference is completion confirmation at 28%, but customers vary widely in the amount of detail they want after AI acts.

At a minimum, when should a company tell you that AI is being used in customer service?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 36

64% want disclosure whenever AI is involved in serving them, extending the expectation beyond direct chatbot interactions.

If an AI can take actions on your behalf, which safeguards would most increase your confidence?

Select up to three · n=558 · source p. 38

Control over permitted actions leads at 59%, followed by approval of important actions at 52% and financial or other limits at 38%.

Imagine a company's AI made an incorrect change to your account, but the mistake could be fully corrected and caused no financial harm. Which response from the company would do the most to restore your confidence?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 40

Quick correction is the leading confidence-restoring response at 37%, while 14% say even this fully correctable mistake would permanently reduce trust.

If you had tried several times to resolve an issue with an AI assistant and the issue was still not resolved, what would you most want to happen next?

Select one · n=558 · source p. 42

After repeated AI failure, 64% want automatic connection to a person with context carried over, and another 18% want to be offered a human connection.

If an AI assistant connects you to a customer-service representative, which information would be most important for the representative to know already?

Select up to two · n=558 · source p. 44

The handoff priorities are information already provided at 60% and the reason for contacting the company at 51%.

Imagine your personal AI assistant could contact a company's AI on your behalf, using only account information you had authorized and taking only actions you had approved in advance. How comfortable or uncomfortable would you be with that?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 46

Under the question's authorized, pre-approved conditions, 40% are comfortable with personal AI representation and 42% are uncomfortable.

Which of the following would you be most likely to ask a personal AI assistant to handle with a company for you?

Select up to two · n=558 · source p. 48

Status checks lead potential delegation at 48%, followed by waiting on hold or navigating service systems at 39%.

Imagine two companies offer similar products, prices, and overall customer-service quality. One uses AI extensively to automate customer service, while the other relies more heavily on traditional self-service tools and human representatives. Which would you prefer?

Single response · n=558 · source p. 50

Preferences are divided: 26% strongly prefer extensive AI use and 29% strongly prefer less AI when products, prices, and overall service quality are similar.

Thinking about everything covered in this survey, which of the following would most improve customer service for you?

Select up to two · n=558 · source p. 52

72% prioritize knowledgeable human help, 33% prioritize information continuity, and 28% prioritize AI that resolves routine requests quickly.