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The cost of a poor customer experience and what it means for your contact centre

01

The top 3 important factors to customers when contacting an organisation are:

Important factors to customers: 1 - First-contact resolutions (FCR)

First-contact
resolutions (FCR)

Important factors to customers: 2 - Short queue / wait times for a response

Short queue / wait times
for a response

Important factors to customers: 3 - A UK-based contact centre

A UK-based
contact centre

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02

With this in mind, consider the average cost of a customer interaction:

Average cost of a customer interaction 1 - Phone £4.55

£4.55

Phone
Average cost of a customer interaction 2 - Email £4.10

£4.10

Email
Average cost of a customer interaction 3 - Web chat £2.56

£2.56

Web chat
Average cost of a customer interaction 4 - Social Media £2.37

£2.37

Social media

But what happens if a customer query requires multiple points of contact,
across multiple channels, to resolve?

03

The contact centre reality

Due to the pandemic, the contact centre has experienced considerable upheaval throughout 2020, with the vast majority of organisations having to maintain high-quality customer communications in spite of vast changes to working practices.

The contact centre reality - - 73% of contact centre advisors are working from home

73% of contact centre advisors
are working from home.

The contact centre reality - 2 - The three digital channels - email, web chat and social media - saw significant net increases in volumes
100%

Email, web chat and social media - saw significant net increases in volumes

The contact centre reality - 4 - Call abandonment rates increased from 5.4% to 6.5%
7%

Call abandonment rates increased
from 5.4% to 7%

The contact centre reality - 3 - average speed to answer: 82 seconds
100%

Average speed to answer:
82 seconds (100% up since last year)

But at the same time, contact centre advisors are experiencing their own challenges:

Contact centre advisors are experiencing their own challenges: Connectivity issues

Connectivity
issues

Contact centre advisors are experiencing their own challenges: Getting to grips with new technology

Getting to grips with new technology

Contact centre advisors are experiencing their own challenges: Supporting advisors from far away

Supporting advisors from far away

Contact centre advisors are experiencing their own challenges: Corporate security and compliance

Corporate security and compliance

04

What is the true cost of an unresolved query?

Email / web chat and social media interactions frequently require an alternate channel to resolve customer queries, causing costs to spiral out of control if FCR is not achievable

17% of respondents said that 50% or more emails require an alternate channel to resolve an issue
of respondents said that 50% or more emails require an alternate channel to resolve an issue.
12% of respondents said that 50% or more web chat require an alternate channel to resolve an issue

of respondents said that 50% or more web chat require an alternate channel to resolve an issue.

23% of respondents said that 50% or more social media communications require an alternate channel to achieve a resolution
of respondents said that 50% or more social media communications require an alternate channel to achieve a resolution.

Example

  • Customer A takes to social media to ask a question, then is asked to
  • phone in to speak to an advisor, who asks the customer to
  • send an email, along with a secondary email to resolve the issue.
Average cost of a customer interaction 4 - Social Media £2.37

£2.37

Social media
Average cost of a customer interaction 1 - Phone £4.55

+ £4.55

Phone
Average cost of a customer interaction 2 - Email £4.10

+ £8.20

Email

It could cost the organisation £15.12 to resolve just one issue.

05

How can you help your contact centre improve customer satisfaction?

Transforming the customer experience (CX) requires that organisations treat the employee experience (EX) with equal care.
Give advisors access to customer history when they contact an organisation, across all channel touch points
Give advisors access to customer history when they contact an organisation, across all channel touch points
Help advisors by giving them suggestions on how to solve a query with easy links to knowledge articles, or auto-suggest responses and actions
Help advisors by giving them suggestions on how to solve a query with easy links to knowledge articles, or auto-suggest responses and actions
Use your data wisely. How many repeat interactions are occurring? How many channels are being used?
Use your data wisely. How many repeat interactions are occurring? How many channels are being used?
Ensure you understand why customers are contacting you. Perform text and voice analytics to understand patterns and where things may be going wrong.
Ensure you understand why customers are contacting you. Perform text and voice analytics to understand patterns and where things may be going wrong.
Automate the simple interactions and reserve advisors for high-value communications.
Automate the simple interactions and reserve advisors for high-value communications.

 

Sources: https://www.callcentrehelper.com/contact-centre-homeworking-problems-overcome-them-156211.htm. 
Contact Babel: The UK Contact Centre Decision-Maker's Guide 2020-21
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