It is difficult for an
organisation to be confident about which of the many elements that go towards a
great customer experience are actually the most important, and consequently
should receive the greatest investment and resource.
Over 200 UK businesses were
surveyed to see what they thought the most important CX factors were for
customers.
With 51% of
respondents ranking it in first place, first-contact
resolution was clearly seen as being the most important factor impacting
upon customer experience, and a further 36% placed it within the top three.
A short queue time or wait time for a
response was also seen as being important, being ranked in the top 3 by 43%
of respondents, with polite and friendly
employees being ranked in the top 3 by 52% of organisations surveyed. Having the issue handled by a single
employee was placed in the top 3 by 46% of businesses.
A survey of 1,000 UK consumers
was also carried out to identify any differences in opinion between
organisations and customers about the most important customer experience
factors, and whether the customer’s age makes any difference.
This consumer research has some
interesting findings when comparing consumer attitudes to businesses’ beliefs:
·
both businesses and consumers as a whole agree
that first contact resolution is the most important single factor impacting
upon customer experience when contacting a business
·
a short queue/wait time for response is also
seen as being an important part of the customer experience
·
having UK-based employees is seen as far more
important to customers than businesses believe
·
having long opening hours is important to
customers (especially from the younger generation), whereas businesses see this
as being amongst the least important customer experience factors.
When considering these findings
from the perspective of the various age ranges, the importance of first contact resolution is
considerably higher in the older age ranges, as is having UK-based employees. There is also a pattern that older age-groups
are less likely to be happy with being
passed between agents.
Younger customers place very
significant importance on longer opening
hours, with this factor being voted by 25-34 year-olds as being even more
important to them than first contact resolution.
Younger customers are also more
likely to value having a choice of ways
to communicate with the organisation, and further evidence for this age
group’s valuing of its time can be seen in relatively high importance being
placed upon short call/web chat duration.
When segmenting the consumer data by socio-economic group, ABC1 respondents are
those who are keenest to have first
contact resolution, a short wait
time and short call duration.
C2DE respondents are more likely
to state that having UK-based employees
is positive for their customer experience.
Both groups place the same
emphasis on polite and friendly
employees, and ABC1s are slightly more likely to state that being able to contact a business outside
normal working hours is important.
The findings seem to support the
need for an increase in enhanced self-service – perhaps through using AI - in
order to provide a good level of service 24/7, which is otherwise a very
expensive business for a contact centre. The option of using an offshore
operation outside normal UK working hours is unpopular with older customers,
although the younger generation are much less concerned.
But it is first-contact
resolution that is generally seen as being key to customer experience, and here
too, AI can assist agents by suggesting accurate answers that have previously
had positive outcomes for customers.
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