Call Centers Can Do Better: Study

September 30, 2015

New research just released by some contact center industry leaders confirm what many have suspected: there are gaps between what contact center customers want and what is actually delivered. But the good news is that, with a little thought, those goals are within reach.

That’s the gist of the report jointly released by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI) and cloud contact center leader inContact. The study — “Smarter Service for the Connected Consumer: Delivering Customer Experience Excellence in the Contact Center” — delivers both insights and supportive data to help improve operations and move contact centers past the status quo.

According to a joint statement by ICMI and inContact, “The report reveals important findings, providing a glimpse into what today’s contact center professionals stress as important, unimportant and what changes they find necessary.” These items were categorized into four key sections, critical to understanding the foundation for excellent customer management, and are worth a look:

Customer Service is the New Marketing: “It’s important to have sound, reliable and desired products that are competitively priced but, products can be rapidly commoditized,” the report notes. Customer service finds itself in the spotlight as the competitive differentiator and epicenter of the organization.

Contact Centers are a Critical Touchpoint: Contact center leaders recognize that their centers play an integral role throughout the customer’s journey, but less than a quarter of contact center leaders believe that their organization provides a consistent customer experience across that journey.

Data Steers the Contact Center: “Metrics should be a measurement of success that indicates how close a contact center is to achieving its goals,” the report indicates. Many contact centers make a detrimental mistake by focusing so intently on their metrics that they forget to consider whether they are actually measuring success.

Perceptions Can Be Jarring: Some surprising numbers turned up in the survey. To wit:

• 80 percent of consumers believe companies put more effort into selling than they do providing excellent customer service;
• 86 percent of consumers are very likely to switch companies if they experience bad customer service;
• 69 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for a product or service with a good customer service reputation. Surprisingly, 35 percent of contact center leaders disagreed with that observation.

There are even more insightful findings. To see the information or to download the full report, click HERE.