Consumers identify telecoms and TV providers as sectors with worst performing contact centres.
New survey identifies BT as worst performing company overall as banking institutions come out on top.
According to research undertaken by ICM* in association with CC, an independent convergence integrator, specialising in voice, data and contact centres, the telecoms and TV provider sectors offer the worst customer service, with three companies (BT, Sky and Virgin Media) included in the top five worst performers. Of these, BT was rated by far the worst receiving over 61 per cent more nominations than Virgin Media. Common complaints about the BT service included the language difficulties with offshore operators, long waiting times and being transferred from one department to another with problems remaining unresolved.
The survey of 1000 consumers (18+) was undertaken in order to gain a better understanding of how the general public perceived contact centre performance. The survey sought to give a full picture of end-user experience and asked respondents to identify the level of service they had received from a range of companies from different sectors (including financial/banking, cinemas, mobile phone and utility companies).
Power companies and banking institutions also generally performed poorly with British Gas found to be the worst of the power companies being placed third in the top five worst overall performers. Specific complaints included "endless waiting times," an "inability to solve my problem," and claims that operators were "very rude." Of the banking sector, Lloyds TSB received almost 20 per cent more nominations than any other bank and was placed fifth in the top five worst overall performing contact centres. Disturbingly, one respondent was dismayed as they felt operators were giving "misleading information."
With no outstanding performer identified in the survey, companies from all sectors perhaps need to take a look at the type of service they are providing their customers. Interestingly, some of the companies identified as poor performers were also highlighted as excelling in this area, with the banking and telecoms sectors generally coming out on top, Halifax, Natwest, O2 and Orange were all identified as offering a good service. Lloyds TSB was also pulled out as a positive performer and this after its inclusion as the worst performing bank. This type of inconsistency seems to be one that affects a great deal of companies offering call centre services, affecting both onshore and offshore companies - something that will certainly need addressing.
While there were many accounts of positive experiences using contact centres it is interesting to note that when asked which companies gave the best service, "none", was the seventh highest answer.
Gene Reynolds, consultant at CC, argues that contact centres can improve their performance and their consistency if they utilise technology more effectively.
"The survey has brought up some really interesting results. We can clearly see that certain companies are inconsistent performers as they received a similar number of nominations for both the positive and negative experience categories. This inconsistency can be just as damaging to a reputation as bad performance so it is important to get things right. From these figures it is obvious that staff training on all aspects of call centre work, including phone manner, problem solving and utilisation of the technology in front of them is crucial."
Reynolds continues; "Companies need to ensure that they have the right solutions in place and that they are being used effectively. However, before organisations start investing heavily it is important to recognise that technology is not always an answer in itself, many of the complaints recorded by this survey were related to ineffective implementation of solutions impacting on operational performance. Businesses need to act now in order to prevent further erosion of the customer experience and eventual customer defection."
* ICM Research 2007