A recent study by Accenture revealed that new technologies are not helping to improve customer service. In the study whci included over 1,000 UK consumers, it revealed that almost two-thirds of the respondents said that new technology hasn't done much at all to improve customer service from companies.
What was interesting is that the study showed that the experiences of customers differed greatly in relationship to various technologies.
The most obvious dissatisfaction came from automated phone service, with barely 10% saying they were satisfied with self-service phone systems.
On the other hand, e-mail services scored fairly well with around 47% of partakers of the survey saying they were happy with the service. The highest level of satisfaction came from direct contact with a person with almost 60% being satisfied or very satisfied.
Neil Miller, Accenture’s UK head of customer relationship management, said “The trick is to understand the different expectations of different customer segments – their needs, wants, desires and preferred interaction methods – and try and tailor the technology to them.
“Businesses should ask how can we differentiate and make relevant to each customer the technology we offer them. Don’t jump to buy everything going, because you might not need to.”
I think there are other variables involved. One is that some businesses may simply be growing to fast and not have things in place to properly serve their growing customer base.
Secondly, a growing number of older consumers are going online and don't understand the numerous options available to them, and get frustrated with the experience.
Do you have any ideas of the reasons this has been such an ongoing problem?
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