Long customer service waiting times are jeopardising the utilities industry’s relationships with its customers, with new research revealing that unacceptable wait times have directly led more than one in 10 (14%) consumers to avoid contacting a utilities provider’s customer service department altogether.
FM Outsource’s new Make Every Conversation Count report found that short waiting times are the most important factor when it comes to customer service satisfaction. When asked what they believe are the three main components of a good customer service conversation, the vast majority of people said short waiting times (61%), and having their query dealt with quickly and effectively by an operator (60%).
Surprisingly, the specific channel through which these conversations are conducted was significantly less important to people than the quick resolution of their issue: 39% of people said they value having the option to speak to a trained customer service operator on the phone, 23% said they appreciate a wide range of channels, and 22% said they look for 24/7 availability.
However, it is clear that consumers are still keen to have a conversation with a human operator when they have a problem, regardless of channel. Fewer than one in 10 (9%) of respondents said they look for the ability to solve a problem themselves, and only 2% like to have the ability to solve queries via automated responses.
Similarly, when asked for the three main components of a bad customer service conversation, long waiting times (57%) and lack of satisfactory resolution to query (42%) were the two most popular responses, followed by not having the option to talk to a human (34%).
Things that would undoubtedly cause temporary frustration for the duration of the conversation, including unpleasant operator demeanour (23%), repeating information multiple times (18%), dealing with multiple agents in one interaction (15%), and a lack of personalisation (14%), were all cited much less frequently.
Martin Brown, CCO at FM Outsource, said: “Our research shows that, ultimately, consumers are simply looking for swift, effective resolution of their problem or query. When a business’s customer services function doesn’t deliver this, it can lead to customers avoiding contacting them again in the future.
“This should be very worrying for utilities providers; more dangerous than a complaining customer is a silent one. If customers do not air their complaints directly, this means the business does not have a chance to rectify the issue. The customer is then more likely to share a negative experience with family and friends, and possibly online too, which can have a very detrimental impact on customer attraction as well as retention.”
