Here's what all those billions of dollars spent on CRM have bought you: A recently-released study by Accenture (News - Alert) find that -- brace yourself -- companies "are not keeping pace with consumers' rising expectations for service, especially in emerging economies."

The report, "Customer Satisfaction in the Multi-Polar World: Accenture 2007 Global Customer Service Satisfaction Survey Report," the third in a series of annual studies designed to examine consumer attitudes toward customer service, expanded the scope of past reports to include not just the United States and the United Kingdom, but Australia, Brazil, Canada, China and France as well.

Which immediately raises the question, "Is customer satisfaction really falling, or does including France for the first time just give a truer indication of how bad it's always been?"

More than 41 percent of all respondents reported that the overall quality of service they receive is "poor/terrible" to "fair." The most severe evaluation of quality was rendered by French consumers, with 60 percent of them saying that the service they receive tends to be "poor/terrible" to "fair." Although satisfaction with service was highest in the United States, only 7 percent of U.S. respondents rated it "excellent," and 28 percent said it was "poor/terrible" to "fair."

More than one-half -- 52 percent -- of the more than 3,500 consumer respondents surveyed this year across five continents reported that their expectations for better service have increased over the past five years. This is encouraging, as is the fact that one-third (33 percent) said they have higher service expectations today than they did just last year.

Expectations increased the most among consumers in emerging economies. In Brazil, 48 percent of respondents said that their expectations had increased since last year, and "more than nine out of 10 consumers in China, 93 percent, said their expectations for better service had increased over the past five years, and 75 percent said their expectations are higher than they were a year ago," Accenture officials said.

In a nicely dry statement, the report found that "increases in customer service expectations continue to outpace efforts made by companies to improve service." Globally, nearly one-half -- 47 percent -- of survey respondents said their expectations were met only "sometimes," "rarely" or "never." The highest level of dissatisfaction was found among Brazilian consumers, with two-thirds of those respondents reporting that their expectations are met only "sometimes," "rarely" or "never."

Woody Driggs, managing director of Accenture's Customer Relationship Management practice globally, said consumers in developed and emerging economies alike "have shown their willingness to stop shopping at companies that can't meet their service expectations.”

The study found that customer churn resulting from poor service remained prevalent across industries. Retailers, banks and Internet service providers were the industries most frequently identified by consumers as those where poor service had led them to take business elsewhere -- selected by 21 percent, 21 percent and 20 percent of all respondents, respectively.

So what to do? The Accenture report recommends that organizations "incorporate the customer's perspective, values and actions into their business and operations strategy, and into their capability development and execution." For instance, officials say, "43 percent of consumers surveyed identified the ability to resolve an issue with a single call rather than speaking with multiple service representatives as one of the most important aspects of a satisfying customer service experience. By contrast, only 22 percent identified the speed of the response."

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David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

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