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Beware your telephone manners

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17 February 2012
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Six in ten customers will ditch a company for bad telephone customer service, research has revealed.

A poll surveying 1,000 UK adults by Natterbox, a voice services company, found that 62% of UK customers had cancelled some kind of a service because of bad phone experiences.

22% of respondents had cancelled their services with Internet providers, 20% with mobile phone companies, 15% with telephone companies, 13% with energy suppliers and 10% with banks.

Telephone contact is still favoured by UK consumers despite growing popularity of social media customer service.

64% of respondents said they preferred to communicate with a company by phone, 28% would choose email and just 4% would use twitter to contact customer service departments.

“Almost everyone is on social networks these days but the telephone is still king when it comes to customer service,” said Neil Hammerton, CEO of Natterbox. “There’s nothing like being able to speak to another human being to get a problem resolved.”

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Julie Deverill
24 Feb 2012 13:39

I have been training on telephony hardware in contact centres, offices, retail outlets, hospitals, airports, hotels in fact nearly every type of business for many years. I train all types of users, from store room assistance to PAs, from office admin staff to front line switchboard operators. I have on many occasions over the years been asked if I could please teach some telephone etiquette during the training, this I do as a matter of course but it is clear when I am training just how few people actually do understand the difference between talking to their “Mates” and dealing with business contacts. I think this should be a part of the education young people get before they leave school in order that they are ready to communicate effectively when they reach the job market. Many would be more prepared for the challenges they will face in a business environment.

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Rick Kirkham
27 Feb 2012 16:14

Some interesting stats here. I'd like to know which part of the call we are specifically talking about. Is it the agents manner and tone, the journey that takes place pre agent or the agents ability to resolve the query? We have carried out some research that also indicates telephone is still the method most used to contact businesses and that people will go to comeptitors if the experience they receive is not in line with their expectations.

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