Accenture 2008 Customer Satisfaction Survey

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Insights from the 2008 Accenture Customer Satisfaction Survey underscore the critical importance of delivering a customer-centric service experience in the current global economy. Based on the responses of 4,189 consumers surveyed in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, customer centricity appears more essential than ever to acquiring and retaining profitable customer relationships.

According to the fourth annual Accenture study of customer satisfaction, how well companies understood and met the distinct preferences and expectations of the customers they serve—from how long they’re willing to wait for service to the way they are treated by customer service representatives—continued exerting a powerful influence over their willingness to remain customers versus their propensity to leave.

In fact, consumers participating in the study ranked the quality of the customer experience ranked as the primary reason why they chose to leave providers during the past year—cited even more often than finding a better price somewhere else, despite the economic uncertainty faced by consumers in many of these markets.

These findings show that organizations must be deeply attuned to today’s consumers: who they are, how to reach them and what kind of experience they expect—particularly in times of economic uncertainty, when consumer needs are most likely to change.

Without these deep insights, organizations will be flying blind when it comes to deciding how to streamline the cost of service, reduce the cost of sales, target new sources of growth—in short, how to achieve and sustain high performance.

For more information about Accenture's customer satisfaction research, visit http://www.accenture.com/centricity.

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Accenture’s 2008 Customer Service Satisfaction Survey is the fourth in a series of annual studies examining the progress companies have made towards enhancing the quality of the service experience they give their customers. The research explores the extent to which today’s consumers are satisfied with customer service and evaluates the impact that customer service—whether satisfying or frustrating—may have on the bottom line.

While this year’s survey found increased customer turnover, it also points to an important opportunity in today’s challenging economy: companies that focus on delivering a customer-centric experience can set themselves apart from competitors, and create lasting relationships.

However, despite the key role played by the customer experience, most organizations still seem to have more to work to do on getting it right. In total, two-thirds (67 percent) of our survey respondents reported moving their business to other companies as a result of poor service in a variety of industry sectors, up from 59 percent of respondents in last year’s survey.

Underscoring the sharp increase in consumers switching business providers is an overall erosion of customer loyalty: half (50 percent) of respondents in this year’s survey reported that they switched providers in multiple industry sectors during the year due to poor customer experiences.

With the exception of Brazil and France, respondents in all countries sampled perceived service quality less favorably in 2008 compared to 2007. In 2008, 42 percent of our global respondents described the quality of customer service as terrible, poor or fair, compared to just 39 percent in 2007.

Respondents in the United States rated service quality the highest; respondents in China, Brazil and Germany rated it the lowest. In general, respondents in emerging markets were less positive about service quality than those in mature markets.

Many respondents—particularly those in Brazil and China—also said companies were falling short of their expectations. In fact, more than half globally reported their expectations were met never, rarely or only sometimes. Indeed, fewer consumers in 2008 than in 2007 reported their expectations were frequently or always met: 45 percent vs 53 percent, respectively.

Once again, the most positive responses came from English-speaking countries: the United States, India, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Yet even in the United States, the country with the most positive results, expectations were satisfied frequently for no more than 50 percent of respondents. Consumers in France and Germany were slightly below the global average, while consumers in China and Brazil delivered the lowest average ratings of all countries polled.

Tellingly, respondents who did not feel that their expectations were frequently met were also the most likely to have left a provider due to poor service—even when they rated overall service quality highly. Two of every three respondents globally—67 percent, up from 59 percent in 2007—reported leaving a provider in at least one industry sector at least once in the past year due to a poor customer service experience, and fully half reported that they switched providers in multiple industry sectors.

Globally, the number of consumers who left because of poor service was higher than the number of those who left because they found a lower price elsewhere (68 percent vs 53 percent). In emerging markets, the number of respondents who reported leaving a business because of poor service was highest: 86 percent of those surveyed in India, 90 percent in Brazil and 95 percent in China.

We also expect companies will face steeper challenges when it comes to satisfying expectations. Our research found consumer expectations for service have not only risen sharply during the past five years, but rose during just the past 12 months. While we see this trend in both mature and emerging markets, the expectations of consumers in emerging markets are rising at an amazing rate.

Nowhere has this phenomenon been more evident than in emerging markets, and in our latest survey it was even more pronounced: 84 percent of survey respondents in China, India and Brazil reported their expectations are higher now than they were five years ago. Sixty percent said their expectations are higher today than 12 months ago.

Clearly, consumers in different geographies and economic regions have particular needs and preferences that companies must understand in order to deliver differentiated experiences that resonate with specific customer segments. These differences are especially pronounced between consumers in mature economies and those in emerging economies—a factor that has strong implications for multinational companies that serve a highly diverse customer base. Without a tailored approach to service that recognizes the inherent differences across various geographic markets, global organizations run the risk of alienating the new consumers they wish to attract.

The results of our survey clearly illustrate not only the importance of the service experience to a company’s ability to grow and achieve high performance, but also the need for companies to reorient the consumer experience they deliver around what consumers expect and desire.

How do they do this? Through our experience working with clients across various industries, we have determined that customer-centric organizations excel in three key areas.

• Knowing the customer. They conduct customer segmentation and analysis that both reveals customer preferences and predicts customer behavior, and they translate this analysis into a complete view of the customer and segment-based blueprints for managing customer interaction.
  
  
• Reaching the customer. They develop strategies based on segment preferences and behaviors, addressing both direct and indirect channels as well as social networking channels that influence customer attitude and behavior. In addition to using channels to stimulate demand, they use channel interactions to set customer expectations and monitor how well expectations are met. Rather than focusing exclusively on meeting sales quotas or fixing customer problems, they give equally weight to strengthening relationships through their sales and service interactions.
  
  
• Delivering the customer experience. They deliver consistent experiences relevant to customer intentions and expectations, and they synchronize this experience seamlessly across marketing, sales and customer service channels. They create adaptable supply chain operations capable of responding readily to changing market conditions and customer opportunities. And they empower frontline employees, at every customer touch point, to recognize and meet the needs of customers.

Accenture believes that any company not working to tailor the customer experience to customer preferences—or any company that still serves customers the same way it did five years ago—is extremely vulnerable to competition. In our increasingly multi-polar world—where competition can come from virtually any geography—the ability to deliver a satisfying service experience remains a powerful and enduring source of competitive advantage.

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