Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Interactive Intelligence Releases Findings of Global Customer Service Experience Survey

A few weeks ago, I wrote a story about the research on customer service experiences done by Interactive Intelligence, from both the IT professional and customer perspective,  that was first revealed at its Interactions 13 event. I observed that it was to say the least enlightening. I also promised that when the full report was made available, I would provide all of you the link. 

The good news is that a report containing the complete survey results can be downloaded here: http://www.inin.com/resources/Documents/Customer-Service-Experience-Research-Study.pdf.

Just as a recap, the survey, which was administered by independent research firm, Actionable Research, was designed to answer two key questions:

1. What do consumers want in a great service experience?
2. What do IT professionals and customer care leaders want from the technology behind that great customer experience?

In announcing the availability of the full report, Interactive Intelligence Chief Marketing Officer, Joe Staples stated, "As a provider of business communications software for contact centers and enterprises, we wanted to help our customers maximize the value of our solutions by giving them insight into what makes a great service experience for their customers...The results of the survey accomplished this by revealing a number of interesting findings ranging from preferences about agent behavior, to those about the technology used in a customer service interaction."

While not wishing to deny you the pleasure of seeing all of the results and the wonderful visuals that are part of it, here is a summary of the key findings:

• A knowledgeable representative and a timely response are the most valuable components of a great service experience.
• Hotels, online retailers, and banks provide the best customer service experiences.
• A live agent remains the preferred interaction type, followed by e-mail, and then there is a significant drop to Web chat, etc.
• Historical information access is deemed the most valuable feature of an interaction.
• Not being able to understand the agent is rated as the most frustrating part of an interaction.
• Customers are more willing to use social media to praise a good service experience versus complaining about a poor experience.
• The ability to get a scheduled call-back was the most desired feature of mobile service applications.
• The most valuable technical service to offer customers is "an easy way to provide feedback."
• Comprehensive reporting and analytics are the top features desired by contact center professionals.

At the risk of being too repetitive, I believe the research sends two important messages to the industry. The first is that customers really do expect/demand to be treated with respect and will vote with their dollars if they are not. What this means is that if your organization is not committed in more than just words to providing compelling customer experiences when your customers need to interact because they have questions or problems to resolve, you do so at great peril. 

The second is that the research shows, despite all of the talk about creating great customer experiences, the industry still has a way to go to give the right people the best tools at the right time and place with the proper training to best meet today’s customers expectations. It indicated in fact that there should be a sense of urgency. As we continue through what I have called, “The Age of Acceleration,” where the only constants are change and its increase in speed, customers are getting more perfect information and have the capability to instantaneously spread bad as well as good experiences. It will be interesting to see how far and how fast contact centers can catch up with their customers in making sure interactions are not just satisfactory but exceed expectations. 

By all means, download the full report and spend some time reading  it.

Edited by Jamie Epstein