Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

December 12, 2008

Study: North American Communications Companies Score Low in Online Customer Service

By Anita Bora


An international benchmarking report by the eGain Communications Group reportedly found that there is room for improvement in e-mail customer service and Web self-services from communications providers in North America and the United Kingdom.
 
North America was placed a little better than the United Kingdom in e-mail response quality, speed of response and Web self-service.
 
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, eGain provides multichannel customer service and knowledge management software on-premise or on-demand, and its report encompassed businesses which provide services in cable, internet, phone and wireless phone.
 
The key findings from North America include: 20 percent of the companies simply ignored customer e-mails and 45 percent failed to respond within 24 hours, a reasonable turnaround expectation for e-mail customer service today. Additionally, 45 percent of the responses were “poor” or “below average” in quality and 55 percent scored “above average” or “exceptional” in Web self-service.
 
By way of comparison, the study revealed that the United Kingdom trailed North America significantly in both e-mail customer service and Web self-service and 73 percent of the United Kingdom sample simply ignored customer e-mails, compared to only 20 percent in North America. Only 19 percent of United Kingdom companies received an “above average” or “exceptional” rating in e-mail quality. North America fared better with 55 percent. Only 15 percent of the United Kingdom sample responded to e-mails within 24 hours compared to 55 percent in North America.

The dilemma is apparently a mounting one, as service providers of all types – cable companies, telecom companies, satellite companies, and mobile carriers – have an increased the number of services that they offer, resulting in increasingly complex and disparate customer service needs. However, they also want to trim service and support costs by encouraging customers to use Web self-service tools.
 
Providers should optimize the service and support experience for their customers or risk losing subscribers to the competition, according to Sally M. Cohen and Chris Townsend, analysts at Forrester Research, in the research report “The State of Service Provider Customer Service,” dated March 31, 2008.
 
“It is crucial that service providers invest in robust customer service management solutions that will not only help cut costs but also improve online customer service and unify the customer service experience across all contact center channels,” said Ashu Roy, Chairman and CEO of eGain.
 
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.

Anita B (News - Alert). is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anita's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Michael Dinan


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