Patronising pre-recorded messages, long waiting times and rude operators are among the biggest bugbears of UK customers, research has revealed.
The survey by Natterbox found just four per cent of customers are patient enough to wait more than 30 minutes to have their query resolved over the phone. The majority of respondents (39 per cent) are only prepared to wait up to five minutes, with a further quarter (25 per cent) willing to hold for ten minutes.
In reality, 15 per cent of Brits said they have spent more than an hour on hold, with almost a half (42 per cent) reporting painful waits of more than 40 minutes.
Top five gripes about telephone customer service:
- Being on hold for too long – 80%
- Not being able to speak to an operator – 63%
- Having to repeat customer details – 59%
- Too many press one, press two options – 51%
- Pre-recorded messages on how valued you are – 48%
Other major gripes highlighted by the study include rude operators (38 per cent), being put through to the wrong department or person (31 per cent), having to call back (27 per cent) and annoying hold music (24 per cent).
Neil Hammerton
The survey also exposed internet providers as having the poorest call centres, with the majority of respondents (31 per cent) naming and shaming them as the worst for customer service. By contrast, banks were most likely to get it right, with the majority (34 percent) of customers saying they provide the best telephone experience.
Neil Hammerton, CEO at Natterbox, commented: “In today’s fast-paced and socially connected world, customers don’t have the time or patience to wait on hold to get an issue resolved. A number of minor irritants can build up to a major headache and this can have a devastating effect on customer loyalty and the brand over all. Unhappy customers can lead to unhappy staff, which could result in staff turnover and additional costs in rehiring and training.
Author: Jo Robinson
Published On: 18th Apr 2012 - Last modified: 4th May 2018
Read more about - Archived Content, Natterbox
Some interesting stats here, but not surprising really! We all rejoice when we get through to an operator straight-away or are only on hold for a minute or two and it really shouldn’t be like that. At Foehn, we deal with a lot of larger organisations or companies who manage inbound enquires through call centres, and the problem often seems to be the same reaching the right contact or consistency of information.
One of the top priorities for businesses should be enhancing their comms systems to improve call management strategies. Customers should have the choice of various channels to contact you, whether that’s on the phone, via email, social media etc, and each experience should be carefully monitored through self-care systems.
One of the options out there for businesses is the Asterisk toolkit, which enables call recording and monitoring, to help train staff and to listen into the calls to support the agent if there is an issue. Such systems will help weed out rude or badly performing operators. There’s also simple technology available that will reroute calls to other office sites to reach an available operator to reduce call waiting times and the dreaded on-hold music! A good comms system can also deliver customer-friendly queuing to reduce waiting times and early progression of calls to the right teams, and even ticket-based call backs can be arranged. This way even if you can’t respond the customer feels valued.