A new study from Accenture reveals that 66% of consumers changed brand loyalty in 2011 due to dissatisfaction with customer service, even as satisfaction with overall services provided increased.
The Accenture Global Consumer Survey polled 10,000 people in 27 countries on ten issues about service expectations, purchasing intentions, loyalty, satisfaction and switching.
From those responses, wireless phone, cable and gas/electric utilities providers experienced a 5% increase in consumer switching, and a 4% increase in the wireline phone and internet service sectors.
Less than 23% percent felt “very loyal” to providers, while 24% indicated no loyalty at all, and only 49% were influenced by at least one loyalty program on offer.
Satisfaction with providers’ customer service rose in 2011 over the year before in 10 areas: wait time for service (33% satisfied compared to 27%), the ability to resolve issues without speaking with an agent (38% compared to 33%) and speaking with just one customer service agent to resolve an issue (39% compared to 32%).
“While high-quality sales and service in areas such as product knowledge and efficient issue resolution remain a basic requirement, in order to achieve sustainable, profitable growth, companies must better understand what really keeps their customers engaged by examining a number of overlooked, but critical points of interaction in the customer relationship,” said Robert Wollan, global managing director, Accenture Customer Relationship Management.
The study highlights the following "Blind Spots":
- Organizations are failing to offer consumers opportunities to engage with them, including through digital channels.
“Companies that are not engaging with consumers digitally, as part of a multi-channel experience, are letting significant drivers of loyalty go untapped,” said Brian Whipple, global managing director, Accenture Interactive.
- Companies are overlooking signs that customers are itching to switch
“As companies use their overall retention rate as a measure of effectiveness, many remain blind to customers who have partially switched, leaving them unable to respond until it is too late,” said Wollan.
- Companies are failing to keep promises they make on the service experience
“As companies tackle these blind spots, building a solid foundation in data, analytics and research will help clarify the voice of the consumer, making the task of identifying and responding to rapid changes in consumer behavior easier.”
In the evergreen words of the venerable Peter Drucker, “Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it.”
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