Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Cultural differences have long been a topic of contention concerning outsourced and offshore call center operations. As companies continue to try and bridge the cultural gap in its efforts to improve the customer experience, frustrations among consumers seems to remain.

 

A recent survey conducted by GMI and commission by Wicom Communications found that cultural differences impact end-user attitudes towards and experiences with call centers in the UK and Germany. The survey was conducted in February of 2007 and included 1000 end-users in both Germany and the UK.

 

The UK and Germany both have very similar call center contact patterns as roughly a quarter of respondents in both countries were contacting their call centers at least once a week, if not a few times a week on average.

 

Telephony service providers in Germany are contacted by a large portion of survey respondents, or 82 percent, on a regular basis. Just over half of end users in the UK, or 54 percent, contacted their mobile or fixed line operators with their query. The more frequent contact in the UK was end-users dialing the customer service number of their banks. Approximately 74 percent of respondents in the UK stated that they called their bank at least once, while only 37 percent of respondents reported the same activity in Germany.

 

The survey also inquired into the motives or reasons behind the calls and answers across both counties were consistent. Roughly 73 percent of respondents in both countries contacted a helpline typically for general inquiries.

 

"It may be a cliché; however the results reflect some of the cultural differences between the two countries. On average Germans tend to grab the phone more often to complain while Brits are more hesitant", commented Stephan Bahr, Sales Director of Wicom Communications for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, in a Wednesday statement.

 

The results of the survey revealed that only 36 percent of British respondents said they called a call center to raise a compliant. Nearly half of all respondents in Germany frequently called to complain.

 

The amount of time spent on a call in either holding queues or just in transfers to get to the correct agent was also examined. Just over 23 percent of German respondents indicated that on average their calls were transferred three or more times before they were able to speak to the relevant agent. This occurrence was nearly 38 percent in the UK.

 

German and British consumers are often waiting longer than 10 minutes until they reach a relevant agent. At 48 percent and 75 percent respectively, this would seem like excessive wait times. However, only 20 percent of British respondents and 37 percent of German respondents found waiting times to be the most annoying or worst trait of the call centers. Interestingly, British respondents highlighted annoying agent accents as one of the most annoying aspects.

 

When asked about their attitude towards the quality of service across various industry sectors, both countries showed similar attitudes. Top marks by both were given to banks and travel agents, while telecommunications, IT companies and public sector organizations seemed to offer the lower quality service.

           

This survey also indicated that bad service could easily cost the organization a customer. British end-users appeared to be very strict when it came to giving companies second chances. Nearly 54 percent of respondents indicated that they had switched providers due to having received bad call center service. German respondents appeared to show slightly more patience, although 40 percent had also left a provider as a result of bad customer service quality.

 

Companies operating or serving customers in the UK and Germany should take note of such a survey as it can point to several factors that may need to be examined in order to reduce customer churn and ensure a better revenue picture for the future. The customer experience with the call center has a great impact on their decision to buy or select another provider. As such, companies need to focus on their call center operations and ensure they are designed with the customer in mind. 

 

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