Consumers' Love/Hate Relationship with Contact Centers

ForeSee released its February Contact Center Benchmark, which allows companies to determine how the contact center experience they provide compares to industry averages and customer expectations.

Nearly 11,000 customers expressed their opinions about contact centers to ForeSee in the month of February. ForeSee’s satisfaction benchmark for contact centers is at 70 on the company’s 100-point scale. This is an average score that contact centers can use as a yardstick against which to measure their own performance. Companies scoring significantly higher than 70 are outperforming the industry average. Companies scoring significantly below 70 have a lot of work to do, because their customers’ satisfaction has a direct impact on future actions, such as the likelihood to purchase from the company in the future.

Scores for individual companies included in the benchmark range from a low of 53 to a high of 86 – a fairly large range that has implications for the future of their customer relationships. Some companies are well-loved for the contact center experiences they provide, while others are strongly disliked. One clue to the disparity in satisfaction comes in the primary objective of the call center. When ForeSee isolated scores for service-focused call centers only, there was a benchmark of 67. This comes as no surprise since customers contacting a service-oriented center are likely calling with a problem and may already be frustrated.

As part of its benchmark research, ForeSee compared the likely future behaviors of highly-satisfied customers  with a satisfaction score of 80 or higher on ForeSee’s 100-point scale to those of less-satisfied customers (with satisfaction below 70). This comparison demonstrates the impact customer satisfaction with contact center experiences can have on a company’s future success. Based on likelihood scores, highly satisfied customers report being:

-- 174% more likely than less satisfied customers to make contact again, which means higher frequency of interaction, improved engagement, and increased share of mind and wallet.

-- 154% more likely to purchase next time, which means increased sales.

-- 238% more likely to recommend the company to a friend, family member or colleague, which means more business and increased loyalty.

More information on Contact Centers can be found at www.SupportIndustry.com