Call centres come under fire from customers

Call centres have come under heavy fire in a new study from RSVP Media Response which attacks the industry's methods of dealing with customers.

Some 99% of respondents said that they would rather speak to a British call centre operator rather than a foreign counterpart. Some 8 out of 10 people get annoyed by call centres who stick rigidly to scripts rather than accommodating their specific requess, while three-quarters (74%) loathe automated call centres than are manned by computers and voice-activated machines

A total of 42% claimed call centres rarely understood the reason for their call, another 41% claimed operators only occasionally identified the problem, and 15% said call centres never get to the bottom of why the customer called. Of all 1,300+ interviewees, only 2% said call centres always answered their problems and dealt with them appropriately.

When asked what had discouraged them most from buying a product or service from a telephone sales agent in the past, the list proved worrying reading:

• Unintelligible accents 83%
• Being kept on hold for an unacceptable amount of time 78%
• Lack of knowledge of the product being sold 71%
• Rude manner 64%
• Having to give out personal details 58%