Just one in five customers get through to a business the first time they call, according to new findings.
In a survey of over 2,000 adults in the UK conducted by Censuswide on behalf of 8x8, just 22% of people said that the last time they phoned a company the call was answered first time.
More than a third (35%) of those who couldn’t get through to anyone first time were new customers looking for information on products, trying to open an account or make a purchase. Clearly the implication is that brands could be missing out on a large number of inbound enquiries from potential customers.
However, event when customers do manage to get through to someone, businesses are still at greater risk of losing them to a competitor while they’re on the phone than they realise – with 12% revealing that they start searching for competitors online during a call. And this number rises to more than a quarter (26%) of young people aged 25-34, who seem to have a much lower tolerance of bad service.
The findings should be of most concern to utility companies, telecoms and government firms, as customers rated them worst for service on the phone. At the other end of the spectrum, property, travel and tourism and media companies were rated the best.
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Neil, Thanks for sharing, I sometimes wonder if it isn't a concious or at least sub concious attempt to move more of this online and would have though under 35s would go there first anyway. I recently had to change cars which involved cancelling the insurance and road tax. The process for cancelling road tax was seamless and simple, more than could be said for the complexity of cancelling the insurance. All government agencies aren't bad.
Thanks for sharing
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