40+ Statistics to Build Your Fluid Topics Business Case

Technical documentation is an essential business tool

• B2B buyers read, on average, 13 pieces of content before making a purchasing decision. (Source: Focus Vision)
• 67% of B2B buyers find that the most useful types of content to aid purchase decision-making were those that addressed product specifications and functionality. (Source: Focus Vision)
• 74% of B2B buyers review user documentation as part of their purchase cycle. (Source: Forrester)
• 90% of field service engineers need documentation for error/ diagnosis/troubleshooting and 62% for researching spare parts information. (Source: Kothes)

And so are Generative AI Applications

• 89% of enterprises believe Generative AI technology will be a disruptive technology for enterprises to create strategic market differentiation (Source: Research & Markets)
• By 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously through agentic AI, up from 0% in 2024. (Source: Gartner)
• Support agents who used AI could handle 13.8% more customer inquiries per hour, business professionals who used AI could write 59% more business documents per hour, and programmers who used AI could code 126% more projects per week. (Source: NN Group)
• 73% of executives believe Generative AI will increase workforce productivity. (Source: KPMG)
• 70% of customers see a clear gap forming between those that use AI well and those that don’t. (Source: Zendesk)
• Early adopters of Generative AI applications throughout the user experience are 128% more likely to report high ROI. (Source: Zendesk)

Customers have high expectations

• 66% of C-Level Executives say that customers expect a unified, consistent content experience across channels during brand interactions. (Source: Forrester)
• 59% of customers believe that companies need to provide excellent digital experiences to keep them. (Source: Salesforce)
• 80% of customers say the experience a company provides is just as important as its products or services. (Source: Salesforce)
• 74% of customers would switch to a competing brand or company if they found out they provided a better customer experience. (Source: Hyken.com)

They want self-service options

• 73% of consumers say they prefer self-service. (Source: SOTI)
• 77% of customers say that they view organizations more positively if they offer self-service options for customers looking for support. (Source: Vanilla forum)
• 70% of customers are using self-service channels at some point in their resolution journey. (Source Gartner)
• 90% of consumers expect a brand to offer a self-service support portal. (Source: Microsoft)

Customers want you to be wherever they are

• 82% of customers use knowledge bases. (Source: Salesforce)
• 84% of customers use customer portals. (Source: Salesforce)
• 54% of customers want their content delivered through a web portal. (Source: Data Conversion Laboratory)
• 48% of customers want their content delivered through In-Product Help. (Source: Data Conversion Laboratory)
• 40% of consumers say they’ve used three or more channels to communicate with customer service reps. (Source: Airkit)

They also want personalized content experiences

• 76% of customers expect personalization. (Source: McKinsey)
• Companies that master personalization can increase their growth rates by 6% to 10%. (Source: BCG)
• 66% of C-Executives said customers want to have contextually relevant personalized content but 45% said they struggle to deliver on this customer expectation. (Source: Adobe)
• 89% of customers want to be able to provide feedback but only 7% of companies almost always request feedback from customers. (Source: Microsoft)

But content professionals are facing pains and obstacles

• 51% of content decision-makers feel like maintaining the speed of publishing/content updates is a real challenge. (Source: Adobe/Forrester)
• 55% of content decision-makers say it’s challenging to integrate their content creation and management tools as they are from different vendors. (Source: Adobe/Forrester)
• 53% of content professionals say they work in content silos. (Source: Stefan Gentz – Adobe Technical Communication)
• 40% of U.S. companies report that the main challenge they face in optimizing the customer journey for better customer experience is a lack of interdepartmental collaboration. (Source: Statista)
• 65% of content experts say their customers cannot contribute to content. (Source: Data Conversion Laboratory)
• 30% of content experts say their content is not designed or optimized for mobile devices. (Source: Data Conversion Laboratory)

The impact on your customers and on your own team

• 28% of consumers say their most frustrating problem is information that is simple but hard to find. (Source: Drift)
• Research suggests that approximately 35-50% of the information available within an enterprise is not centrally indexed. (Source: International Data Corporation)
• 50% of time is spent by professionals searching for information. (Source: Gartner)
• 54% of U.S. office professionals report wasting time searching for much-needed files in cluttered online filing systems. (Source: Wakefield Research)
• 80% of field service engineers spend between 30 minutes and 2 hours a day looking for information to do their service job. (Source: Kothes)
• Almost 60% of field service engineers have trouble knowing where to look. (Source: Kothes)
• Service leaders report that as much as 40% of today’s live volume could be resolved in self-service channels, but only 9% do fully solve their issue exclusively with self-service. (Source: Gartner)
• Siloed contact center agents spend 15% of each day trying to navigate communication hurdles to get information to serve customers. (Source: The ROI of Uniting Unified Communications and Contact Center)
• 89.5% of service technicians help themselves by making their own notes. (Source: Kothes)

It’s all about creating the optimal content experience for everyone

• 67% of decision-makers say it is important for their company to deliver a great post-sale customer experience. (Source: Forrester)
• Companies offering service experiences through digital channels had more loyal customers and could increase their customer satisfaction by 15–20%. (Source: McKinsey Digital)
• 9 out of 10 consumers want an omnichannel experience with seamless service between communication methods. (Source: CX Today)
• 40% of consumers cited “multiple options for communicating” as the most important feature of a company’s customer service department. (Source: Business Wire)
• By 2025, proactive customer engagement interactions will outnumber reactive customer engagement interactions. (Source: Gartner)
• 81% of consumers believe AI has become part of modern customer service, up 11 points from Zendesk’s 2024 CX Trends survey. (Source: Zendesk)

Customers have higher expectations than ever before, and customer experience has taken over price and product as a key brand differentiator. However, this user demand isn’t translating into results as 37% of people worldwide still feel that many companies are prioritizing higher profits over better customer experience. Therefore, companies must go beyond producing good and exhaustive documentation to provide the level of service users require to ensure their satisfaction with the experience. The Fluid Topics Content Delivery Platform can help you deliver intelligent, personalized, and consistent content experiences to your customers and stakeholders.

With Fluid Topics, address the needs of all your customer-facing services such as Customer Support, Field Service, Marketing, or even Sales, and drive your business’ digital transformation.

Don’t hesitate to contact us to learn how Fluid Topics can enhance your product content experience and make your customers happy.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2023. It has been completely edited and updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.