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Financial services, cable & satellite TV, and
telecommunications firms at most economic risk from poor customer
service
San Francisco, November 17, 2009 – According to a new international
survey of consumers the cost of poor customer service in 16 major
industrialized economies causes businesses to lose a total of USD $338.5
billion per year when customers defect and abandon their purchases as a direct
result of poor customer experiences. The hardest hit industries across all
countries surveyed are financial services, cable and satellite TV providers,
and a variety of telecommunications companies. The average value of each lost
relationship across all countries surveyed is $243 per year. Losses were
defined as transaction taken to a competitor (63% of the total) and
transactions abandoned entirely (37% of the total).
The survey asked consumers their priorities and the changes most needed to
improve the quality of their customer service experiences in:
•
Australia
Brazil
Canada China
• Czech Republic
France
Germany India
•
Italy
Mexico Netherlands
New Zealand
•
Poland
Russia
U.K.
U.S.
While many larger economies saw greater impact, the losses were not always
proportionate to the size of the economy. For example, Brazil and Mexico
represented two of the top four countries impacted.
In the past year financial services firms saw more than $44 billion in lost
revenue. And cable and satellite TV providers alone suffered more than $37
billion of losses. Wireless carriers and Internet service providers each had
$36 billion in lost revenue. Landline carriers also lost $33 billion.
Best and Worst Rated Industries
Some industries that were hard hit, like financial services, also had some good
news. Financial services companies were viewed more positively than
negatively, while other industries, such as telecommunications, were not as
fortunate: negative sentiment outweighed positive sentiment by a two-to-one
ratio. Consumers were asked to select the industries that did the best and
worst job of customer service. The consumer’s choice for best customer
satisfaction with industry is shown in blue, and worst industry is shown in
red. The most positive ratings are for consumer products, travel/hospitality,
and financial services. The most heavily negative ratings are for
telecommunications and government.
Survey Sample
A total of 8,880 consumers, at least 500 from each country, were selected from
all age and income groups and surveyed for the report titled “The Cost of Poor
Customer Service: The Economic Impact of the Customer Experience and
Engagement.” Consumers were asked about the frequency of their
interactions with businesses via the web, through contact centers and with
their mobile devices. They were also asked to identify the impact of
those interactions on their purchasing decisions.
Reasons Consumers Leave
Consumers across all countries cited key reasons that they leave. Assisted
service is well developed, with the overwhelming majority of consumers saying
their most satisfying experience occurred because of a capable and competent
customer service representative. But self-service that is not intelligently
integrated with assisted service is a key area of concern. Consumers feel the
most significant root causes of poor service are:
• Being trapped in automated
self-service
• Being forced to wait too
long for service
• Repeating themselves
• Representatives that lack
the skills to answer their inquiry
Some interesting differences occur regionally. For example, in many
European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, France, the UK, and the
Czech Republic, a significant portion of consumers said one of their greatest
sources of frustration was being unable to reach customer service without
paying a charge for the call: 29% of consumers in Germany said so; in the
Netherlands 25% mentioned this; nearly 10% of Chinese consumers also cited this
as a source of frustration.
This survey represents the first large-scale attempt to place an economic
value on the lost revenue from customer service across all channels when
businesses do not measure up to consumer expectations. The 28-question
survey of consumers was conducted by Greenfield Online. The survey was
sponsored by  Genesys Telecommunications
Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE:
ALU), in collaboration with industry analysts at Datamonitor/Ovum. The survey group
represented virtually every age and income bracket of consumers in the
U.K. Datamonitor/Ovum reviewed the consumer survey data in conjunction
with its proprietary contact centre models to produce the results.
"With the rise of social media and increased consumer awareness the cost of
customer frustration continues to grow,” said Daniel Hong, Lead Analyst of
Customer Interaction at Ovum. “We're advising enterprise businesses to
develop cohesive strategies that straddle all channels of customer
communication. The difference between delivering exceptional customer
service and merely providing acceptable service is pronounced.
Differentiating on service, especially in service-centric industries such
as finance and telecommunications, is how enterprises can retain customers in
today's challenging business climate.
Common Wish Lists
There were some broad areas of agreement among consumers from many regions.
Three common threads emerged among all countries. First, consumers are
demanding better integration between self-service and assisted service,
including voice self-service and eServices. The most requested improvements in
all countries were to be able to start in voice self-service or the Web and get
live assistance from an agent, and to start in e-mail and have better
integration with agent-assisted service. In other words, “Don’t ask me
twice.”
Most Requested improvements
When asked what they would most like to see companies deploy to improve
service, 40% chose human service, but more than half of consumers chose at
least one new communication channel among their top choices. In other words,
“Treat my interactions as a conversation.” Over 18% selected as their first
choice better integration of communication channels, 16% chose enriched content
such as video, and 16% chose web assistants or avatars.
Greatest Sources of Customer Satisfaction
Consumers were also asked to identify the factors that make the biggest
difference in improving satisfaction levels. According to the data,
consumer satisfaction increases when companies meet four key needs:
• Competency
• Convenience
• Proactive engagement
• Personalization
Proactive outreach emerged as an area in which consumers want greater
engagement. More than 86 per cent of consumers defined proactive
engagement as a “strong benefit” or would “welcome proactive assistance” when
stuck on the Web or in some form of self-service.
For a complete copy of “The Cost of Poor Customer Service: The Economic
Impact of the Customer Experience and Engagement” survey, please send a
request to: press@genesyslab.com
About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
Genesys is the leading provider of software to manage customer interactions
over the phone, Web and mobile devices. The Genesys software suite
connects customers with the right resources – self-service, assisted-service
and proactive outreach – to fulfill customer requests, optimize customer care
goals and efficiently use resources. Genesys software directs more than
100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government
agencies in 80 countries. These companies and agencies can leverage their
entire organization, from the contact center to the back office, to dynamically
engage with their customers. As a result, Genesys stops customer
frustration, drives efficiency and accelerates business innovation. For more
information, go to www.genesyslab.com.
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