The Customer Service Challenge: Creating the "Perfect" Customer Call

For most companies today, seizing growth opportunities hinges largely on becoming and remaining more customer-centric—to entice new customers into the fold and retain existing customers—while continuing to hold down operational costs and remain as efficient as possible.

Unfortunately, as companies strive to grow and achieve high performance, many organizations find it difficult to address both of these challenges simultaneously. In Accenture's second annual survey of more than 2,000 U.S. and U.K. consumers, many consumers continue to report that unsatisfying customer service has caused them to take business elsewhere.

In Accenture's view, the road to superior service begins with superior customer contact operations. We have seen firsthand, in our research and client work, how companies that adopt a new approach to customer contact—one that capitalizes on emerging best practices and robust technology tools—can build a customer contact center that creates the optimum service experience for each customer segment, while ensuring the cost of service does not become a liability. Organizations as diverse as a global automotive manufacturer, a retailer, a communications company, a non-profit association and even a metropolitan city government are developing the type of customer contact capabilities that can serve them well today and position them for high performance in the challenging years to come.

Accenture’s second annual survey of more than 2,000 U.S. and U.K. consumers clearly illustrates many of the challenges companies face in serving their customers. In the survey, participants expressed a distinct preference for a more personal—and personable—service experience, and disdained the increasing use of technology in service operations (especially tools aimed at removing humans from the service equation). Survey participants also told us what frustrates them the most when contacting a company for service, and indicated that they are not at all shy about switching providers because of a poor service experience.

One of the most significant findings of our survey is that the human touch still counts when it comes to customer service—in fact, it counts a lot. Respondents reported being most satisfied with in-person customer service at the place of business, and customer service over the phone via a live representative (Figure 1). Furthermore, the telephone is by far the preferred method of getting service, as 82 percent said that when they have a problem, they pick up the phone

Conversely, methods relying primarily on technology are not viewed as delivering a satisfying experience by a particularly large percentage of respondents—especially service delivered via live chat online and through automated telephone customer service.

However, simply being able to talk with a live agent—whether in person or over the phone—won't satisfy customers. Representatives must also have the information, knowledge and skills to solve all of customers' problems and answer any questions customers might have about the company's products or services. In fact, a majority of respondents said that the most important aspect of a satisfying customer experience is a representative who is able to meet all of a customer's needs without forwarding the customer to different representatives. Conversely, the aspect of customer service cited as frustrating by the largest percentage of respondents is being kept on hold too long.

Poor service is not just an annoyance for customers—far from it. It actually can have a significant impact on a company’s business by at best creating hard feelings among customers and at worst driving customers into the waiting arms of competitors. In fact, we’ve found that poor customer experience often is the “tipping point” that causes a customer to switch providers. More than half of all respondents said they have switched any type of provider in the past year.

But even if they don’t take the ultimate step of switching providers, most customers will not sit idly by and accept bad service. Forty-eight percent said they will ask to speak to a supervisor, and 16 percent will hang up and call back in the hope of getting a different representative more to their liking. Ten percent will tell others about their experience, 8 percent will simply hang up, and 7 percent will send a formal complaint. And in this networked age, companies are well-advised to keep in mind the growing trend among consumers to use the Internet to broadcast their negative service experiences.

Clearly, our survey has shown that companies could do a much better job of meeting customers’ service needs—at least in the eyes of customers themselves. Yet the challenge of cost-effectively providing superior customer service, while steep today, will only get more difficult in the coming years—and companies need to be prepared.

In our work with clients around the world, Accenture has found that customer expectations are crossing industry boundaries at an increasing rate—to a point at which the notion of different service standards for different industries is a thing of the past. In fact, service expectations now are high even for government services. Unfortunately, however, the odds often are stacked against satisfaction. Today, many organizations face dual threats from rapid commoditization and increased competition, which are eroding their traditional advantages and undermining customer relationships. And guess what? It’s only going to get more difficult in the future, especially given the emergence of two major trends.

The first of these trends is the growing complexity of products and service bundles. In an attempt to create an ever-more differentiated product experience, companies are infusing goods with increasingly sophisticated technology—whether it’s the new iPod, Xbox, refrigerator or even children’s stuffed animals. Ironically, however, this also results in an increased complexity of use which, in turn, will require customer contact to become simpler and more efficient—or else generate even more customer frustration and defection than we see today. Likewise, service bundles are becoming more complex as companies knit together more services and offer more customized contracts—again, to differentiate themselves. This action inevitably will drive customer expectations higher.

The second trend is a massive divergence in needs and expectations as customers become more fragmented. The general population, which searches for customer support through multiple channels, is segmenting into two distinct groups: those who want premium service and are willing to pay a premium for it (think Lexus owners), and the do-it-yourselfers at the other end of the spectrum, who cost very little to serve because they need very little support (think Home Depot shoppers). Both groups are growing—along with their expectations for support and a customer experience appropriate to their needs. For both groups, companies must determine how best to address their different characteristics because customers will no longer accept a one-size-fits-all service model.

As customers set the bar ever higher, companies must bridge the gap between customers’ expectations and companies’ ability to implement a satisfying and sustainable customer experience. Working with Accenture, a number of leading organizations have been able to do just that. These companies, in fact, have succeeded in addressing many of the customer service challenges that our survey respondents identified, and are positioning themselves for high performance in an era of intensifying customer service demands.

For starters, companies should conduct a fact-based diagnosis of the customer experience they deliver: how well they’re delivering on their brand promise, how well different customer channels are working together, how well their workforce is operating, and so forth. One could think of this diagnosis as akin to a check-up with a general practitioner, in which a person’s vital organs are evaluated for signs of trouble.

With the results of this diagnosis in hand, companies must evaluate and fine tune every aspect of customer contact—from the time a call is received until the time the call is completed—until they have literally designed the perfect customer call.

The next step is to create a game plan. Key here is developing the appropriate customer insight capabilities and creating a customer experience blueprint. By using insight into what customers need and want to create a single view of the customer, companies can design and implement the optimal customer experience along the entire spectrum of customer segments and value.

Finally, companies need to adopt the enabling technologies, tools and training that can improve representatives’ ability to quickly and completely answer customers’ questions, customize solutions to specific customers, and recognize and maximize cross- and up-selling opportunities.