Telecom Industry's Efforts at Improving Customer Service Recognized by Employees, But Improvement Still Needed

Despite continually being rated as one of the poorest providers of customer service, telecom employees believe their companies are trying harder than others to please their customers.

Maritz recently conducted a poll of 1,006 full-time employees in the telecommunications industry. When compared to respondents in a similar poll taken of the workforce at large, telecommunication employees were significantly more likely to agree that their companies rewarded employees for providing excellent customer service, their companies set specific goals for improving customer service, and that they had sufficient authority to respond to customer concerns.

However, despite being an industry whose employees rate their companies as better than others, fewer than half (46 percent) agree or strongly agree that their telecommunications employers reward employees for providing excellent customer service. Just slightly more than half (54 percent) agree that their companies have effective formal employee incentive programs for improving customer service. One-out-of-three do not feel they have proper authority to respond promptly to customer problems and requests. Furthermore:

• Less than four in 10 (39 percent) of telecom employees surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that senior management at their company had frequent, direct interactions with customers.
• Only 55 percent of respondents say their company frequently seeks suggestions for improving customer satisfaction from employees who have regular contact with customers.
• Just over half (53 percent) say they consistently receive feedback on how their work benefits customers.
• Only half (50 percent) say their company's policies and procedures make it easy for them to satisfy customers.
• Only half (50 percent) say their company provides effective training to support excellent customer service.

According to employee engagement expert Rick Garlick, Ph.D., director of consulting and strategic implementation, Maritz Research, the employee responses indicate that telecom companies are talking about customer satisfaction, but they might not be connecting the dots between customer satisfaction and their employees' ability to impact the customer experience.

According to Garlick effective programs should be:

• Aligned with employees - reward and recognition efforts must convince employees to go through the pain of behavior change;
• Centralized - all parts of the organization that touch the customer need to work in tandem;
• Localized - targeted training and processes should meet the specific needs of each location; and
• Smarter - more complete customer and employee satisfaction insights are required to diagnose and enhance the customer experience.

More information can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com