[October 11, 2011]

SpeechCycle and Echo Research Study Reveals Customer Experience Trends for Service Provider Market

SpeechCycle, the leading provider of customer self-service solutions for service providers, today announced the results of a survey of more than 1,000 smartphone users across the United States that solidified the importance of customer service in today's competitive service provider market. The study also uncovered significant consumer interest in using self-service mobile applications for customer care. Conducted by Echo Research, the study revealed that customers are likely to make both positive and negative decisions about their relationships with service providers based on customer service alone.

In today's competitive service provider marketplace, consumers have more choices than ever when it comes to selecting a vendor for their mobile phone, Internet or cable/satellite services. With these providers becoming increasingly equal in terms of price point and technology, customer service has become the differentiator that often sets providers apart.

To this point, the SpeechCycle (News - Alert) sponsored study found that based on a positive customer experience, consumers are likely to become brand ambassadors for their service providers:

• Over two thirds (67 percent) of consumers would likely be willing to spend more money with their service provider if they consistently received exceptional customer service.
• Further, two thirds (65 percent) of respondents would be very likely to recommend their service provider to others if they received great customer service on a consistent basis.

In contrast, a negative customer experience can have a dramatic and detrimental impact for service providers:

• Three in five consumers (60 percent) stated it would take only two or three instances of poor customer service from a mobile phone, Internet or cable/satellite TV service provider before they would consider switching providers.
• Nearly one in five (18 percent) would consider switching providers immediately after an initial poor customer service experience.

For service providers looking to get ahead of the curve and find new ways to create unique and positive customer experiences, mobile smartphone applications are becoming the next frontier in customer service. Now is the time for service providers to utilize the unique capabilities of mobile applications and the ability to combne text, talk and touch features for ease of use and powerful self-service. Findings from the study support this trend, including:

• Consumers surveyed have downloaded an average of 10 apps in the past six months and the majority (69 percent) use their apps daily with over half (55 percent) saying they use them several times a day.
• Nine in 10 consumers (90 percent) have taken action - such as going online to search for solutions - to avoid calling customer service completely, especially amongst 18-34 year olds (95 percent).
• Half of smartphone users would prefer to use a mobile customer service application to try to resolve their customer service issue before calling into the contact center (50 percent) and 56 percent would be willing to use an app to avoid calling into the contact center altogether.
• Four out of five (79 percent) smartphone users would view their mobile, cable/satellite or Internet provider more positively if they offered a mobile customer service app.

"Many consumers prefer to use self-service channels with two thirds stating they have tried to resolve their issues themselves rather than call customer service. To retain and attract customers in today's competitive environment, service providers must find better ways to communicate and resolve customer service issues," said Scott Kolman (News - Alert), senior vice president of marketing at SpeechCycle. "With smartphones accounting for more than 40 percent of all mobile devices, mobile care applications present a real opportunity to help consumers address their customer service needs, anywhere, anytime. At SpeechCycle, we are dedicated to helping service providers deliver the mobile care applications that let them quickly and easily get the answers they need."

The results of the SpeechCycle and Echo Research study highlight the impact customer experience can have on differentiating service providers' brands as well as its role in retaining customers and growing revenue. The study also points to the growing consumer interest in mobile self-service applications for smartphones as a revolutionary customer service channel. To learn more, email [email protected].

The SpeechCycle and Echo Research study was conducted online among a sample of U.S. smartphone users. A total of 1,018 interviews were completed between September 2 and 7, 2011. Overall, the results have a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent level of confidence.

About SpeechCycle

SpeechCycle, a leader in customer self-service, delivers innovative solutions to the world's leading enterprises and communications service providers. SpeechCycle has processed over one-billion transactions on its award-winning cloud platform and is pioneering a new generation of mobile business-to-consumer applications that help companies meet the demands of today's always-connected consumer. For more information, please visit www.SpeechCycle.com. Follow SpeechCycle on Twitter (News - Alert) @SpeechCycle.

SpeechCycle is a trademark of SpeechCycle, Inc. All other company or product names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies with which they are identified.

About Echo

Echo Research (www.echoresearch.com) has a 22-year track record in communications research - media content analysis, stakeholder evaluation and reputation measurement. As part of the Ebiquity Group (www.ebiquity.com), Echo and Ebiquity are leaders in above- and below-line communications tracking and research, providing independent data-driven insights to the global media, CMO and CCO community to continuously improve clients' business performance.

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