60% of customers will actively seek an alternative provider after just three outages, according to new research commissioned by Xurrent, the service management platform.
For enterprise IT organizations and managed service providers, that number should be uncomfortable. The margin for error in repeat disruptions has narrowed, and the research suggests that something has shifted in how customers experience downtime.
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In this article, we'll explore how expectations for IT service management are rising, and how Xurrent is looking to address this head-on with upgrades to its integration offerings.
TL;DR
- New Xurrent-commissioned research finds 60% of customers will look for an alternative provider after three outages, with Gen Z showing the lowest tolerance of all age groups.
- Xurrent CEO Brian Wenngatz argues repeat outages are a root-cause problem, not a ticket-speed problem, and that fixing symptoms while ignoring the underlying cause accelerates customer churn.
- Xurrent is addressing this on two fronts: a new partnership with implementation specialist RennerBrown, and the launch of Xurrent iPaaS, a built-in integration layer designed to let AI agents act on problems, not just flag them.
- Buyers should scrutinize both the implementation-partner model and any "no extra cost" integration claims before taking vendor framing at face value.
Why Are Customers Losing Patience With Repeat Outages?
Customers no longer treat a second or third outage as a one-off technical glitch. Xurrent's 2026 research found that repeat disruptions trigger a "here we go again" response that compounds over time, making customers meaningfully more likely to consider switching providers.
The data points to a shift from technical impatience to something closer to emotional fatigue. It is not simply that outages are annoying, it is that repetition erodes trust in a way that a single incident does not. Once that trust is gone, customers stop giving the benefit of the doubt and start actively comparing alternatives.
Brian Wenngatz, CEO of Xurrent, highlights:
"The era of celebrating fast ticket fixes while systems keep breaking is officially over. Customers don't care if you closed a support ticket in record time when the exact same system crashes again next week. Treating symptoms while ignoring the root cause is a fast track to lost revenue."
That distinction, symptom versus root cause, is the thread that runs through everything else in this piece. A fast ticket resolution looks good on an internal dashboard. It means very little to a customer watching the same failure happen for a third time.
What is ITSM?
IT Service Management, the practices and tools organizations use to design, deliver, and support IT services, including incident response, change management, and service requests.
Why Does Gen Z Have the Least Patience for Outages?
Gen Z respondents expect immediate, automated communication during an outage at a far higher rate than the general population, and they lose trust faster than any other generation when that communication does not arrive.
According to the research, 65% of Gen Z respondents want immediate, automated responses during an outage, compared to 48% of the general population. A quarter of Gen Z respondents said they lose trust fastest when a company fails to provide updates during a disruption, compared to just 18% of Baby Boomers.
Across all age groups, 30% of respondents reported receiving zero useful information during their last service disruption, and 34% said they had to go hunting for updates themselves.
How Is Xurrent Addressing the Adoption Side of This Problem?
Xurrent's new partnership with implementation specialist RennerBrown is built on the premise that a platform alone cannot fix root-cause problems if it is poorly configured or badly adopted, and that lasting fixes require the right people and processes, not just the right technology.
Under this partnership, RennerBrown's engineers get hands-on with each customer's actual day-to-day processes, configure Xurrent's platform to match how that specific team really works, rather than a generic setup, and stick around well after the system goes live to make sure it keeps working as intended.
Bob Turek, President and Co-Founder at RennerBrown, explains the value:
"A great platform is just the starting point. What makes the difference is how it's set up and run."
Key Takeaways: The RennerBrown Partnership
- RennerBrown provides ITSM consultation, implementation, stabilization, and continuous improvement expertise on top of the Xurrent platform.
- The partnership is framed around configuration and adoption quality, not just platform capability.
- Xurrent's 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant recognition for ITSM Platforms is the one independently verifiable credential referenced in the announcement.
Good implementation only goes so far if the underlying systems still can't talk to each other. That is the second half of Xurrent's answer.
How Does Xurrent's New iPaaS Solve the Integration Problem?
Xurrent has just launched its iPaaS tool, a built-in integration platform now included in every subscription at no additional cost. It's a new capability that lets customers connect Xurrent to other enterprise systems and automate workflows immediately, without relying on third-party tools or custom development.
