The cost of a poor customer experience and what it means for your contact centre
The top 3 important factors to customers when contacting an organisation are:
![Important factors to customers: 1 - First-contact resolutions (FCR)](/images/ccaas-infographic/important-factors-to-customers-1-first-contact-resolutions-fcr.png)
First-contact
resolutions (FCR)
![Important factors to customers: 2 - Short queue / wait times for a response](/images/ccaas-infographic/important-factors-to-customers-2-short-queue-wait-times-for-a-response.png)
Short queue / wait times
for a response
![Important factors to customers: 3 - A UK-based contact centre](/images/ccaas-infographic/important-factors-to-customers-3-a-uk-based-contact-centre.png)
A UK-based
contact centre
With this in mind, consider the average cost of a customer interaction:
![Average cost of a customer interaction 1 - Phone £4.55](/images/ccaas-infographic/average-cost-of-a-customer-interaction-1-phone-4-55.png)
£4.55
![Average cost of a customer interaction 2 - Email £4.10](/images/ccaas-infographic/average-cost-of-a-customer-interaction-1-email-4-10.png)
£4.10
![Average cost of a customer interaction 3 - Web chat £2.56](/images/ccaas-infographic/average-cost-of-a-customer-interaction-1-web-chat-2-56.png)
£2.56
![Average cost of a customer interaction 4 - Social Media £2.37](/images/ccaas-infographic/average-cost-of-a-customer-interaction-4-social-media-2-37.png)
£2.37
But what happens if a customer query requires multiple points of contact,
across multiple channels, to resolve?
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](/images/ccaas-infographic/the-contact-centre-reality-1-73-working-from-home.png)
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](/images/ccaas-infographic/the-contact-centre-reality-2-the-three-digital-channels-email-web-chat-and-social-media-saw-significant-net-increases-in-volumes_a.png)
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%](/images/ccaas-infographic/the-contact-centre-reality-4-call-abandonment-rates-increased-from-5-4-to-6-5_a.png)
Call abandonment rates increased
from 5.4% to 7%
![The contact centre reality - 3 - average speed to answer: 82 seconds](/images/ccaas-infographic/the-contact-centre-reality-2-average-speed-to-answer-82-seconds_a.png)
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](/images/ccaas-infographic/connectivity-issues.png)
Connectivity
issues
![Contact centre advisors are experiencing their own challenges: Getting to grips with new technology](/images/ccaas-infographic/getting-to-grips-with-new-technology.png)
Getting to grips with new technology
![Contact centre advisors are experiencing their own challenges: Supporting advisors from far away](/images/ccaas-infographic/supporting-advisors-from-far-away.png)
Supporting advisors from far away
![Contact centre advisors are experiencing their own challenges: Corporate security and compliance](/images/ccaas-infographic/corporate-security-and-compliance.png)
Corporate security and compliance
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](/images/ccaas-infographic/more-emails-required_a.png)
![12% of respondents said that 50% or more web chat require an alternate channel to resolve an issue](/images/ccaas-infographic/more-webchat-required.png)
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](/images/ccaas-infographic/more-social-media.png)
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](/images/ccaas-infographic/average-cost-of-a-customer-interaction-4-social-media-2-37.png)
£2.37
![Average cost of a customer interaction 1 - Phone £4.55](/images/ccaas-infographic/average-cost-of-a-customer-interaction-1-phone-4-55.png)
+ £4.55
![Average cost of a customer interaction 2 - Email £4.10](/images/ccaas-infographic/average-cost-of-a-customer-interaction-1-email-4-10.png)
+ £8.20
It could cost the organisation £15.12 to resolve just one issue.
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](/images/ccaas-infographic/improve-cx-1-customer-history.png)
![Help advisors by giving them suggestions on how to solve a query with easy links to knowledge articles, or auto-suggest responses and actions](/images/ccaas-infographic/improve-cx-2-faq_a.png)
![Use your data wisely. How many repeat interactions are occurring? How many channels are being used?](/images/ccaas-infographic/improve-cx-3-data.png)
![Ensure you understand why customers are contacting you. Perform text and voice analytics to understand patterns and where things may be going wrong.](/images/ccaas-infographic/improve-cx-4-understand-customer.png)
![Automate the simple interactions and reserve advisors for high-value communications.](/images/ccaas-infographic/improve-cx-5-automate.png)
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