The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
Today's Press Releases
Tuesday - July 18, 2006 01:42 PM in
The results of our latest SectorPulse studies on cell phone companies and financial institutions (banks) hit the wires this morning. To summarize, both banks and wireless companies are institutions we love to hate and it shows in the performance ratings callers give. The reasons are really pretty simple. Banks have our money, and cell phones have transitioned from a novelty to an integral part of our lives. So when things go wrong with something critical to our daily functions, we expect the highest levels of service; but when it comes down to it, we aren't willing to pay for the quality we demand.
Cell phone companies have improved substantially in most of the satisfaction and performance categories we have tracked over the last 11 quarters, but they still struggle to get to satisfaction levels beyond what I'd characterize as the high side of average.
Banks have even a more difficult time. As they try and automate as many routine services as possible and do it well, overall satisfaction does indeed improve. But if the automation doesn't serve well and frustrates customers, by the time they do reach a live service representative, they are already discontented. And since the bank service rep. is now handling a greater percentage of more complex (and often problem) calls; customer satisfaction with service quality takes a hit. In fact, we have yet to see first call resolution scores among traditional brick and mortar banks come in any higher than the lower half of all the companies in our database. Only the electronic payment service PayPal, has managed to achieve single call completion service grades above a "C", and this current study is the first time that has happened.
Posted by Rick Rappe
Banks have even a more difficult time. As they try and automate as many routine services as possible and do it well, overall satisfaction does indeed improve. But if the automation doesn't serve well and frustrates customers, by the time they do reach a live service representative, they are already discontented. And since the bank service rep. is now handling a greater percentage of more complex (and often problem) calls; customer satisfaction with service quality takes a hit. In fact, we have yet to see first call resolution scores among traditional brick and mortar banks come in any higher than the lower half of all the companies in our database. Only the electronic payment service PayPal, has managed to achieve single call completion service grades above a "C", and this current study is the first time that has happened.
Posted by Rick Rappe
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