As one of businesses’ main point of interaction with customers, contact centres have felt the shift in customer behaviour most rapidly since the onset of the pandemic. The sudden rise in demand and unprecedented work dynamic found contact centres scrambling to at least maintain the pre-pandemic level of customer service.
According to Awaken Intelligence’s survey, industries that have the best customer service are finance & banking (23%), consumer goods (20%), entertainment & hospitality (13%), and utilities (11%).
On the other hand, sectors that have the worst customer service are travel (14%), legal & government services (14%), consumer goods (11%), and finance & banking (10%).
What Makes Bad Customer Service?
Respondents cited several reasons that make them irritated when interacting with contact centres. The number one reason for bad customer service is not being able to speak to a real person, which is completely understandable, as human touch lies at the very foundation of customer experience. Average wait time for the call is the second reason that irritates customers, along with agents taking too long to resolve their query and not having the right prior knowledge and advice. Agents that use scripts or impersonal responses are also customers’ least favourite thing about contact centres.
Contact centres have started employing speech analytics to reduce long wait times and average call length, which have been a regular occurrence for decades. Respondents say that first call resolution is imperative to keeping the customer happy. On top of technical issues that contact centres have not dealt with, rude agents, terrible hold music and being cut off are the most annoying things people experience.
Not everyone runs to grab a phone when things go wrong. In fact, the majority of respondents prefer email as the method of contact with their providers, followed by phone, instant messaging and social media coming in last. Preferred methods of contact also differ by age groups, where 18-24-year-olds prefer instant messaging, 35-44-year-olds prefer email and 45+ still prefer a good old phone call.
That the customer service has plummeted since the start of the pandemic agrees 48% of respondents. Thirty-seven per cent says that it is the same as before the pandemic and only 17 per cent have experienced better customer service.
