Contact Center Solutions Industry News

TMCNet: Retail sector ranks first in customer service in multi-industry “mystery shopping” customer experience research from eGain

[March 10, 2010]

Retail sector ranks first in customer service in multi-industry “mystery shopping” customer experience research from eGain

Retail is also the only sector to improve in multichannel customer experience among industries included in 2009 and 2010 research, nearly doubling its score Mountain View, Calif. (March 10, 2010) - eGain Communications (News - Alert) Corporation (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), the leading provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software for on-site and on-demand deployment, today announced that the North American retail sector ranked first overall in customer service in eGain’s latest research. Overall performance for the sector increased significantly from a score of 1.8 (“below average”) out of 4.0 in 2009 to 2.3 (“above average”) in 2010, highest among all sectors evaluated. Cross-channel customer experience, while still slightly “below average,” was still the highest among all sectors included in the research.

eGain’s 2010 State of Customer Service Study evaluated multiple aspects of web self-service and contact center customer service of 175 leading enterprises in the U.S. and Canada. These companies are equally distributed across eight sectors: financial services, retail, communications, consumer goods manufacturing, insurance, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. Retail companies evaluated in the study include both click-and-mortar and pure-play e-tailers.

Analysts used a “mystery shopping” approach. Customer service performance was measured along multiple dimensions: choice of communication channels, email response, web self-service, cross-channel consistency, single-channel (phone) cross-agent consistency, and phone customer service*. Scores in these metrics were then abstracted to an overall Service Quotient (SQ) on a scale of 0.0 to 4.0, for each of the companies that were assessed, as well as for each industry sector and the overall market.

The numeric scores map to the following ratings: ? Poor (<1.0) ? Below average (>=1.0 and <2.0) ? Above average (>=2.0 and <3.0) ? Exceptional (3.0 to 4.0) 2009-2010 Performance Comparison ? Overall performance of the sector improved from a score of 1.8 (“below average”) in 2009 to 2.3 (“above average”) in 2010.

? Email customer service improved from 2.5 to 3.0 (both “above average”).

? Web self-service improved from 1.9 (“below average”) to 2.4 (“above average”).

? Cross-channel customer experience improved significantly from 0.9 (“poor”) to 1.9 (slightly “below average”).

? Cross-agent (phone) consistency dropped slightly from an average of score of 2.0 to 1.9 (slightly “below average”).

"Retail sector performance was a bright spot in this year’s “mystery shopping” customer service research,” said Anand Subramaniam, VP of Marketing for eGain. “However, channel silos still remain across knowledge, policy, and process. Retailers that break down these silos through a Customer Interaction Hub (CIH) strategy will be better positioned to grow revenues, improve margins, and lead their markets.” Details of findings can be obtained by sending an email request to info@egain.com.

* Telephone customer service included criteria such as the number of transfers and hold time.

About eGain eGain (OTC BB: EGAN.OB) is the leading provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software for on-site or on-demand deployment. For over a decade, hundreds of the world's largest companies have relied on eGain to transform their traditional call centers, help desks, and web customer service operations into multichannel customer interaction hubs (CIHs). Based on the Power of One™, the concept of one unified platform for multichannel customer interaction and knowledge management, eGain solutions improve customer experience, optimize service processes end to end, increase sales, and enhance contact center performance.

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, eGain has operating presence in North America, EMEA and APAC. To learn more about us, visit www.eGain.com or call our offices: +1-800-821-4358 (US), +44-(0)-1753-464646 (EMEA), or +91-(0)-20-6608-9200 (APAC). Also, follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/egain) and Facebook (News - Alert) (http://facebook.com/egain).

eGain, the eGain logo, and all other eGain product names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of eGain Communications Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names and products mentioned in this release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies.

eGain media contact: Jamie Abayan Phone (News - Alert): 650-230-7532 Email: pr@egain.com

As a community-building service, TMCnet allows user submitted content which is not always proofed by TMCnet editors. If you feel this entry is of inferior quality or wish to report it for some reason, please forward the URL to "webedit [AT] tmcnet [DOT] com" with your comments.


[ Back To Contact Center Solutions Homepage's Homepage ]


Related Contact Center Solutions Articles
[ View all Contact Center Solutions Articles ]

Socialize with us

FREE Contact Center Solutions eNewsletter

Click here to receive your targeted Contact Center Solutions Community eNewsletter.[Subscribe Now]

Industry News

Featured Resources

Contact Center Solutions Glossary of Terms

Press Releases

About the Contact Center Solutions Community

    Welcome to the Contact Center Solutions Community The Contact Center Solutions Global Online Community, Sponsored by Interactive Intelligence, is designed to serve as the industry's premier resource for information and research on Contact Center Solutions technology and deployment strategies.