Customers' Patience for COVID-Related Call Center Waits Is Wearing Thin

“Due to COVID-19, wait times may be long.”

Customers understood…16 months ago. If you’re still using this as an excuse for poor customer service today, however, customers have had it. This is according to a new study by the U.K. Institute of Customer Service. The UKCSI is based on a six-month online survey of over 10,000 consumers demographically representative of the population of the UK.

The survey found that 14.9 percent of customers reporting having problems this year, the highest number since 2009. The results of the study found that several vertical sectors experienced the worst drops in customer service, including transportation, local public services, councils and police services, and telecommunications.

One in four customers found that contact centers were still using COVID-19 as an excuse for poor customer service. While customers initially had sympathy for businesses struggling to keep up at the beginning of the pandemic, their patience has worn thin nearly a year and a half later. Many customers now believe that companies are simply using COVID as an excuse to offer lousy customer support.

“Saying ‘because of COVID’ is not a good phrase,” Jo Causon, the UKCSI’s chief executive, told the BBC. “Organizations must not hide behind this blanket statement.”

Some organizations have excelled in delivering customer service in a COVID-19 world. These success stories have turned to technologies that allow them to spread out the call rush, such as offering callbacks to customers during less busy times.

Other notable results of the survey included:

•         Despite the high level of complaints, satisfaction with complaints handling was also at its highest level.
•         For the first time, 50 percent of customer experiences recorded by the survey were digital.
•         For the first time since July 2017, more organizations have improved rather than declined in customer service. 

Edited by Luke Bellos