Bad Connections

What do customers want when they reach a call center?

Courteous American reps who can solve their problems. And there's little room for error, judging from a new study sponsored by customer service consultancy CFI Group.

Take the most critical element in customer satisfaction — issue resolution.

Of the consumers surveyed by CFI, 89% said they'll do business with a company that has properly handled a complaint. But the number drops to 68% when more than one call is required.

The stakes are high. Nearly a fifth of all callers are dissatisfied when they get off the phone, and half of those are likely to defect to a competitor, CFI reports.

To be fair, consumers are using Web sites more often, and those who use the phone tend to pose harder or more technical questions, according to the study. In addition, customers who went online before calling were more likely to report lower satisfaction scores.

The poll, which ranks several industries' service bureaus, shows consumers get frustrated when they have to make more than one contact. For example, 86% of those who complained to an insurance provider were satisfied when their gripe was handled right away. But that number fell to 62% when two or more channels were required.

Similarly, banks' ratings dropped from 80% to 65% on the second try, and to 47% on the third.

Another variable is call center location. The three industries with the highest overall service ratings — hotel, insurance and retail — have the lowest perceived number of offshore service centers, CFI found.

(Perceived? Yes. In the study, “offshore” was determined by the consumer's sense of where the call was being fielded and not necessarily the actual location.)

The good news is that most people who've called so far this year believed they'd reached call centers in the United States. The bad news is that more people than last year thought they'd connected with an offshore site, even when it might not have been so. This is especially true in the banking, cable and satellite TV, personal computer and retail fields.

Why is this bad? Because there's a significant drop in satisfaction when callers think they've reached an offshore center. People who feel that way are twice as likely to sever relations with a company — even if the issue is resolved.

Case in point: The banking industry. It showed the sharpest decline in satisfaction (see chart). Here's a hint why: The number of people who believe their bank's call center is located offshore doubled this year. The U.S. mortgage crisis didn't help much either, CFI notes.

There are several possible reasons for this dislike, including economic uncertainty and xenophobia. The report states the main problem is that “communication across international boundaries is difficult.”

Companies have worked wonders getting offshore employees to “speak in an understandable manner,” in the report's phrasing. But those reps still don't express themselves as clearly as their domestic counterparts, and this is troublesome when people are trying to resolve problems.

Then there's simple civility. Since 2001, the high-churn cable/satellite TV business has constantly been ranked near the bottom of all industries studied. Why? Its reps are evaluated as having the lowest level of courtesy, and among the poorest at issue resolution.

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Measuring Up?

Call center satisfaction ratings for the industries studied by CFI Group were all over the map. Facilities were evaluated on several criteria, among them issue resolution, representatives, and multichannel service environment. Hotel centers were added to the study this year. — RHL