Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Research by numerous companies investigating the contact center industry has time and again revealed that customer service is a key to customer loyalty. If a customer feels he is not treated properly by a representative of the company, that situation could be enough of a slip-up to make the consumer switch to another company.


The only differentiation comes with exactly how likely the customer is to leave. The same research findings have revealed a vast difference in the likelihood of a customer repeating business with a company based on one experience. So, the question may be posed to executive level decision makers: Is the percentage enough to redirect resources to ramp up customer service efforts?

Some executives may feel that one percent of the customer base is even too many to risk with a bad customer service experience, while others may have a higher comfort level. What’s more, this percentage does not take into account the number of people who may be told about the bad experience and, therefore, may be influenced to do business elsewhere.

For those operating in the broadband industry, recent research indicates there really is no room for questioning whether customer service is important or not. This research, conducted by Newspoll for CRM company RightNow Technologies, found that some 46 percent of Australians with broadband Internet would leave their current ISP due to poor customer service.

According to the Newspoll survey, 21 percent of customers had already left a previous broadband provider based on a poor customer service experience. This percentage is too high to scoff at and providers should seriously investigate their own service deliverables so as not to be one of the companies delivering such poor service.

RightNow Technologies’ Alison Higgins-Miller stated, “Internet service providers take note: The report suggests that one in seven of your consumers are just one bad customer service experience away from changing providers.”

The survey also discovered that older customers were the most concerned about service. In fact, 57 percent of respondents aged 50-64 said that they would switch providers as a result of bad customer service.

Men also appeared to be more likely than women to switch broadband providers as a result of poor customer service experience. Out of those men surveyed, 26 percent were more likely to switch, as compared to 16 percent of women.

No matter what demographic the customer falls into, the company must have a standard customer service policy throughout the contact center that appeals to the customer with the highest demands in service deliverables. If he or she is satisfied, the remaining customer base is a given.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.