It is important in the contact center industry to remember that serving the customer has to be the priority. The challenge for the contact center is to effectively determine just how well the customer is being served.

One method for effective measurement of the contact center’s performance is to listen to the customers and how they really feel they are being treated when interacting with agents.

Avaya (News - Alert) provides a valuable service with the production of its Contact Center Consumer Index. This month, the company revealed the results of its China Contact Center Consumer Index, conducted by research company callcentres.net. Presented in Beijing, China, the results of this study reveal valuable information about consumer perceptions in China.

Among the results of this study, key responses included those of 36 percent of 316 Chinese consumers that indicated that they would prefer to use Internet and e-mail channels instead of calling the contact center. Such results provide great insight into the potential for self-service channels in the contact center.

On the flip side, 56 percent stated that they liked interacting with contact centers. This result supports the widespread acceptance that consumers still prefer to talk with a live agent when calling the contact center.

What is important here, however is that it must be explored as to why this live channel is preferred and what changes could be made to self-service options to make them more appealing to the consumer base.

Another 22 percent of consumers revealed they thought that interacting with contact centers was always problematic. It would be interesting to explore how many of this 22 percent fell into the previously mentioned categories.

The good news for China is that these attitudes overall towards contact centers are more positive than any other country in the region, excluding Indian consumers who also rated positive attitudes to their country’s contact centers.

This research also identified gaps in Chinese expectations and service received from a call center. These gaps include wait time on hold, the company really having the customer’s best interests at heart, providing the correct information, easy and accurate identification of the customer’s details and having the query resolved on the first call.

Avaya’s Consumer Index provides valuable information for contact centers operating in China, as well as those that serve Chinese customers. These results are also worth examination to determine what services should be offered and how best to design those services to truly meet the needs and wants of the consumer.