Benchmarking Study Finds Companies Offering Multiple Channels for Customer Care

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new study produced by SOCAP International, the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals, and COPC Inc. finds companies both using multiple channels through which they interact with customers and taking steps to amplify the Voice of the Customer (VOC) within their organizations. 

"In conducting this survey, we wanted to explore if and how America's brand name companies are achieving multichannel integration with respect to customer care and whether this process is changing over time," said SOCAP President and CEO Matthew D'Uva.  "From a voice of the customer perspective, we wanted to know more about how this data is managed and measured and whether it is having an impact on customer service operations.  The survey generated valuable insights on both topic areas."

Key among survey findings:

• Over half of the respondents use at least 6 channels, which were evenly distributed between real-time interactions and deferred transactions;
• Over 84% of respondents offer self-service options to their customer base, a 20 percent increase over 2011 survey results;
• Over half of the organizations indicate they are using multiple channels for self-service options. The most common option is interactive voice response;
• Almost 70 percent of organizations report that they have changed how they do business with their customers as a result of mobile technology. The biggest change, over 50%, report an increase in mobile phone apps and integrated websites;
• The ownership of multichannel integration is shared between Consumer Affairs (45%) and Marketing (42%) with Customer Care being the third most utilized support group;
• There has been little change from 2011 to 2013 in the integration of tools across channels. This suggests that as multichannel integration increased the need to integrate the data did not follow suit;
• Over 95% of respondent have at least a moderate interest in the VoC to make changes to improve products or services;
• 76% of organizations use "Post Sales" to interact with customers and approximately 70% of respondents use customer satisfaction in some capacity to measure the overall customer experience;
• Only about 17% of respondent indicate they are measuring and tracking any ROI on VoC initiatives.

"With the proliferation of customer service channels through social media, contact centers and other sources and the need to differentiate brands through improved customer experience, performance benchmarking information becomes more important than ever before," said COPC Chairman and Founder Cliff Moore.  "We are pleased to work with SOCAP in helping its members to achieve outstanding customer care."

The web-based survey, conducted between March-May 2013 is based on the responses of 46 companies representing six industries.  Consumer packaged goods companies constituted 52% of respondents.

The summary findings of the study are available at http://bit.ly/SOCAP-2013-Benchmarking.

About SOCAP International
Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia and formed in 1973, SOCAP is composed of over 2,000 best-in-class customer care executives and professionals from over 100 brand name companies throughout the U.S. and Canada.  SOCAP is a member-driven organization committed to promoting customer care and engagement as competitive advantages.  SOCAP members include vice presidents, directors, and managers of customer care and consumer affairs as well as hundreds of business partners, individuals representing the solution provider community.  SOCAP member benefits include education and training, peer-to-peer networking, relationship building, partnership programs, conferences and seminars, news and information, research, and more.

Visit SOCAP on the web at www.socap.org.

About COPC Inc.
Since 1996, COPC Inc. has provided consulting services and training to help companies improve revenue, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction in operations that support the customer experience. COPC Inc.'s main offering is performance improvement services for customer contact centers, including in-house and outsourced, as well as vendor management organizations. The foundation of all COPC Inc. work is the COPC® Family of Standards, a collection of the most prestigious and rigorous performance management systems for the customer contact industry. COPC Inc. is privately held with headquarters in Winter Park, Florida, U.S., and with operations in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, India and Japan.

Visit COPC Inc. on the web at www.copc.com.

For More Information,
Marjorie Bynum, VP, Education and Communications, +1-703-910-2473, [email protected]

SOURCE SOCAP International