Is your contact centre driving away your customers?

Research has shown that 74% of UK adults would change supplier based on a poor experience with the contact centre.

The Mitel survey of 2,000 UK adults also found that 46% of these consumers have already switched for this reason, and that the personal touch is critical to delivering a positive experience, closely followed by fast and effective service.

The most important factor for consumers when contacting a brand or company is being able to interact with a real person, not an automated service (54%), followed by getting a quick response (49%) and having a query resolved immediately (44%).

The full research presents a variety of insights into how consumers want to interact with brands in today’s multichannel world and why, and uncovers the pet hates that are driving dissatisfaction.

Email is by far the most popular channel at this time, used by 72%. Less established communication methods like live chat and social media are currently used by 10% of UK adults, although the signs are that these internet-based channels will grow in importance, with one in five adults under 35 already using Facebook or Twitter to contact brands.

The research also revealed the critical role of the telephone in the customer service communications mix and in driving customer satisfaction. It is currently used by 49% of consumers when they contact companies, but is the number one channel of choice for voicing frustration.