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Survey: Traditional Voice Channels Remain Critical to Customer Satisfaction

Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Article

Survey: Traditional Voice Channels Remain Critical to Customer Satisfaction

 
November 12, 2015

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  By Tara Seals, Contributing Writer

The role of the traditional voice channel within the evolving customer service landscape is in flux, with digital interactions now accounting for more than 35 percent of all customer engagements. However, the call center will continue to play a key role: Nearly half (47 percent) of contact-center agents still find talking on the phone to be the most effective channel out there.


According to an index released today by Firstsource Solutions, 90 percent of Firstsource’s contact center agents disagree with the oft-repeated prediction that Web chat will overtake voice in two years’ time—even though 26 percent find it to be an effective customer-service channel. That’s because they believe that an option for customers to speak directly with an agent will always remain necessary.

That’s especially true when it comes to more complex interactions. The number of options that customers have to interact with their wireless carrier has naturally exploded in the digital age—whether it’s for a care issue, to buy or upgrade service, or to simply ask a question or provide a comment.

So, many operators have recently upgraded to an online self-service model to meet customer demand, expedite issue resolution and reduce costly calls to a call center. But the phone remains the primary conduit for more complex customer interactions, such as billing disputes, and as a result, the call center is evolving to become a higher-value piece of the customer engagement puzzle than it has ever been in the past.

“As technology innovates the customer experience by providing others service options like Web chat, most consumers will still at least want the option to speak with a representative via phone to talk through more complicated issues that can’t be resolved as easily online,” said Kathy Aman, senior vice president of US sales and CRM at Firstsource.

Image via Shutterstock

Firstsource also found that it’s common for customers to assume contact center agents don’t care about resolving customer issues. But despite the fact that many agents are not directly employed for the Fortune 500 companies they represent online and via phone, almost all (98 percent) of the agents indicated they feel a sense of duty to the end client to provide a positive customer experience.

One agent remarked that, without a doubt, their first priority is to make sure the customer is happy with the brand they are representing, noting that, “I feel more of a sense of duty to the customer. Without them our business would not exist.”

Similarly, agents said that they feel that longer call times actually lead to a better customer experience. Thirty-nine percent of agents try to close inquires in five-10 minutes, while 32 percent said 10-15 minutes is often needed in order to effectively solve issues and close the inquiry.

Another technology innovation that’s helped the customer experience in recent years is virtual queuing, an option that offers to call a customer back when a contact center agent is available rather than making the customer wait on hold. Eighty-one percent of agents polled said they do believe this leads to better customer satisfaction, but expressed concerns that sometimes customers miss the calls and have to start the process over again. Still, they believe it does create a better rapport with the customer at the start of the call.

The ability to work from home is changing up the call-center industry as well. Eighty-five percent of agents said that they believe remote working will increase in the coming years. That said, there are concerns with this: One agent in the survey noted, “My concern is that the experience would not be controlled and there would be serious inconsistencies for our customers.” This indicates that technologies like call recording and unified communications and collaboration management will become increasingly important for this market.

And finally, agents across the board named security as a top-of-mind concern in customer service—especially when it comes to remote working.

“While working from home is becoming a popular option for contact centers, there is a large concern among companies about security for internal files and classified information,” said Aman. “There’s news of high-profile data breaches almost every month. As a vendor of customer service, the security of our clients and their information is a top priority.”




Edited by Kyle Piscioniere
Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Homepage ››





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