Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

November 19, 2008

Survey: Singapore Consumers Happier with Contact Center Experiences

By Susan J. Campbell

Satisfaction with a company’s contact center is an important factor for consumers as they view this interaction as representative of the company’s position toward them as a customer.
 
A satisfactory experience leaves the customer with the impression that the company cares about his or her business and wants to ensure their happiness. The opposite is perceived to be true when the experience is less than satisfactory.
 
According to the “2008 Avaya Contact Center Consumer Index,” conducted by callcentres.net, consumers in Singapore have experienced a massive jump in their overall satisfaction with their last call to a contact center. In this survey, 41 percent of respondents were found to be “satisfied” to “extremely satisfied” with their last call to a contact center, versus 29 percent in 2007.

Another 18 percent of respondents prefer using e-mail as their communications method when contacting a company, versus 10 percent in 2007. Internet use has also jumped as 13 percent prefer using this method in 2008 versus 10 percent in 2007. This jump in preference could very well be linked to a satisfactory experience with these channels, indicating that Singapore contact centers are making the necessary investments.
 
Surprisingly, the survey found a gender gap in consumer preferences. Women in Singapore tended to show a higher affinity for using non-interactive tools such as e-mail or touch phone to get their queries resolved. By comparison, women favored these methods by 60 percent, whereas men only chose such avenues 40 percent of the time.

On the flip side, men showed a strong liking for speaking to a customer service representative as they preferred this method 60 percent of the time, versus 40 percent for women. In addition, men also prefer to do business with companies that operate an around-the-clock contact center.

Customer Loyalty was also examined in this survey and in its Index, there was a reported mean increase of nine percentage points from current customer loyalty to future loyalty, if given the ideal contact center experience.

Overall, this research indicated that a positive experience from the contact center interaction has a direct correlation to the loyalty index and an increased propensity for customers recommending services and products from the company to others, a likelihood of additional purchases and using the contact center again for their next interaction.

“Customer retention is currently a key focus for companies and this is only going to get more critical during this period of economic slowdown,” said Eugene Chng, Regional Managing Director of Avaya (News - Alert) ASEAN. “The current survey reveals that emotions and behavior continue to be key drivers in the overall value that consumers perceive from contact centers and already our solutions are taking that into consideration.”
 
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.

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

Edited by Michael Dinan


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