Gartner research has revealed that 92% of consumers form their image of a company based on their experience using a call centre.
A Forrester Research paper titled "Thirty one best practices for the service desk" concurs, and both research companies found that customers deserting a company because of a poor service experience were above 60% (Gartner at 63% and Forrester at 68%).
Paul Bornhutter, GM of product for Africa and Middle East, FrontRange Solutions, presented the Forrester paper last week.
Gartner found that when dissatisfied customers encountered a negative call centre agent, 86% chose to desert the offending company.
Bornhutter advised that in order to combat the problem, businesses should "hire the right people. Look at how they handle people and stressful situations."
A Forrester Research paper cited factors like poor access to the right person (41%), unaccommodating and rude employees as well as slow response time, as further reasons for deserting.
Should this trend continue, "75% of companies will continue to fail to fully meet customer expectations of customer support excellence through 2007," Gartner says.
Gartner also found that the percentage of support centres whose agents actively cross- and up-sell is less than 5%. Gartner`s prediction for 2007 is that 40% of all support centres will have a significant impact on enterprise revenue.
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