| Contact Center Optimization Remains Key Investment Priority
A survey of contact center professionals conducted by independent market analyst Datamonitor reveals contact center and contact center agent optimization are viewed as key investment priorities over the next 3 years. According to the report, “Contact Center Markets & Technology – Technology Evolution,” pressure on contact center managers to do more (services) with less (budget) is increasing the demand for optimization technologies. According to Datamonitor, as vendors look to develop multi-component solutions, effective integration and partnering will become a necessity and will take vendors a step closer towards performance management solutions. In turn, the complexity of deploying such solutions will create a bigger role for professional services.
Datamonitor’s report highlights the way contact centers are improving customer service through greater efficiency, using a range of optimization technologies. The report considers the role these technologies can play in delivering superior customer services from contact centers.
Competitive differentiation through better customer service is a key battleground for businesses around the world. Contact centers are trying to move away from day-to-day fire fighting and are looking to longer term improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of their customer interactions.
Workforce optimization technologies can help. These solutions form component parts of an inter-locking and inter-dependent solution chain for contact centers and related back office functions. Their aim is two-fold; to improve the efficiency of contact center operations, and to maximize the effectiveness of contact center agents working to serve customers.
Datamonitor’s research and analysis indicates that the market for workforce optimization market has entered its growth phase. Recent M&A activity -- for example, NICE System’s acquisition of IEX and Performix -- has further settled this contact center solution set an established player in the customer contact technology market.
Datamonitor sees a growing role for professional services firms in the optimization of customer service organizations. As optimization of an increasing array of resources becomes more common, professional services firms will have an important role to play in both planning and deploying these solutions. The fundamental importance of customer contact through contact centers means the time for optimization solution vendors and professional services firms to forge relationships is now.
http://www.datamonitor.com
Are Your Customers Dissatisfied? Try Checking Out Your Salespeople
The sales associate shifts her gaze off to the side just as the customer approaches. Suddenly she is intent on restocking merchandise or discussing when she will take her next break -- anything to avoid actual contact with a shopper. It's the type of behavior that galls customers and dominates the list of complaints cited in the second annual Retail Customer Dissatisfaction Study conducted by Wharton's Jay H. Baker Retail Initiative with the Verde Group, a Canadian consulting firm.
The study found that disinterested, ill-prepared and unwelcoming salespeople lead to more lost business and bad word-of-mouth than any other management challenge in retailing.
In a telephone survey of 1,000 shoppers who were asked about their most recent retail experience, 33% reported they had been unable to find a salesperson to help them. Many of these shoppers were so annoyed by this one problem that they said they would not return to the store. According to the Wharton analysis, sales associates who are missing in action cost American retailers six percent of their customers.
Add to that the 25% of consumers reporting they were ignored outright by sales associates -- no greeting, no smile, not even eye contact. This lack of engagement turned off three percent of customers to the point where they said they would permanently stay way from the store in which they encountered this behavior.
According to the Verde Group, survey respondents were not frustrated by sales associates who seemed overworked or outmanned by shoppers. It's the "conscious ignoring" that irritates them.
The surveyed consumers reported many other retail aggravations, including trouble finding a parking space (33%) and product stock-outs (22%) but shoppers are more forgiving of those problems than they are of bad sales help. Being ignored was the customer gripe most likely to be shared with others through word-of-mouth, according to the survey. Last year's Consumer Dissatisfaction Study showed that one in three dissatisfied customers tells others about a problem he or she encountered at a store, and those people go on to tell an average of four others. Half of all shoppers have chosen not to visit a particular store because of someone else's bad experiences.
The survey revealed differences in dissatisfaction by age, with older shoppers reporting fewer problems. The average number of problems experienced per consumer is highest among those 18 to 29 years old. Shoppers under 30 were more likely to be ignored by store staff or turned off by "phony" salespeople they perceive to be more interested in making a sale than actually helping the customer. They also complain more frequently than older shoppers about not finding items due to disorganized stores and employees' lack of product knowledge.
Respondents also reported varying degrees of dissatisfaction depending on the type of retail store they had visited. Stores specializing in a particular type of merchandise, such as electronics, home improvement or office supplies, so-called "category killers," account for the largest proportion of shopping trips and drew the most complaints and lowest shopper loyalty. These stores often carry vast numbers of products that can be relatively expensive and require more technical sales knowledge than other types of merchandise.
Mass merchandisers -- like Target -- generate the highest level of loyalty both in terms of repeat patronage and the likelihood of consumers recommending a store to others, although survey respondents did report some problems with a lack of staff at these stores as well. Department stores ranked second in customer loyalty although some consumers reported difficulty finding items because of cluttered stores.
Technology, however, may provide some solutions. Wharton suggests sales associates in large home improvement stores could be outfitted with hand-held devices listing products and the aisles where they could be found. When a customer pulls an associate aside to ask about an item, the employee could simply punch it up on the hand-held. Retailers could do more with signage to direct customers to merchandise, and category killers in particular could make better use of information kiosks to shift some of the educators' work onto consumers themselves.
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Widespread Customer Service Problems For Consumer Technology Companies
Many consumer technology companies are alienating customers with “average” customer service and risk losing three-quarters (73 percent) of them to competitors, according to new Accenture research.
The research, based on interviews with senior executives at large consumer-technology companies around the world and a survey of 1,200 technology consumers in North America, Europe and Asia, found wide-reaching disparities in perception of customer service between technology companies and their customers.
The research found that more than three-quarters (81 percent) of customers who rated their service satisfaction as “below average” said they will purchase from a different supplier the next time. Many companies perceive themselves to be providing much better service than their customers say they are receiving. Although three-quarters (75 percent) of executives said their companies’ provide “above average” customer care, more than half (58 percent) of consumers rated their satisfaction with customer service as average or below average.
When consumers rate their service satisfaction as merely “average,” the likelihood of their buying again from that same company falls by almost half from 51 percent to 27 percent. Moreover, because nearly half (48 percent) of consumers surveyed said they share their negative customer-service experiences with friends and family, technology companies risk losing many more customers than just those at the receiving end of poor customer service.
Accenture’s research also exposed several additional areas of poor customer service and consumer dissatisfaction. Among the findings:
- More than four in 10 customers surveyed (42 percent) said they had to access customer-service channels multiple times to resolve their problems.
- More than six in 10 customers surveyed (61 percent) said they believe that technology has not improved customer service.
- The vast majority of consumers — 78 percent — said the service they receive is “at or below” the level competitors offer.
- Companies are wasting millions of dollars on customer-service initiatives that customers don’t view as important, particularly self-service capabilities.
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