A survey of 250 UK customer care managers, conducted on behalf of Lithium Technologies, showed that four in five believe customers have become more demanding over the past three years.
“This data highlights the ineffectiveness of traditional call centers in meeting rising customer expectations, as well as the growing need for UK businesses to explore new ways to engage customers, particularly in the digital sphere,” said Katy Keim, Chief Marketing Officer of Lithium Technologies.
The customer care survey highlighted that while managers believe digital strategies are critical for meeting rising customer expectations, they are under-resourced to take the necessary steps to adapt.
When asked about the future, more than half of customer care managers said that customer service will evolve to focus more on using online channels to minimize response time to queries, while almost a third said customer service will be an entirely online process within five years.
Lack of financial resources is restraining digital transformation within many customer service departments.
Meanwhile, Lithium Technologies’ consumer survey showed that more than 15 million UK adults ranked being stuck on hold with a telephone operator as their top annoyance of 2015.
The study of 2,000 UK consumers, revealed on the start of National Customer Service Week, showed that almost one in three UK customer care managers believe their biggest weakness is reliance on old customer service techniques, including traditional call centres.
The survey figured out top three factors that drive customer call center annoyance are communication barriers caused by language differences, having to go through several options and security checks before talking to a real person and the call center representative sounding like they’re following a script and not offering personalized advice.
Arya MM
editor@infotechlead.com
