Consumers' Love/Hate Relationship with Contact Centers

ANN ARBOR, Mich., March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ForeSee today released its February Contact Center Benchmark, which allows companies to determine how the contact center experience they provide compares to industry averages and customer expectations.

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Nearly 11,000 customers expressed their opinions about contact centers to ForeSee in the month of February. ForeSee's satisfaction benchmark for contact centers is at 70 on the company's 100-point scale. This is an average score that contact centers can use as a yardstick against which to measure their own performance. Companies scoring significantly higher than 70 are outperforming the industry average. Companies scoring significantly below 70 have a lot of work to do, because their customers' satisfaction has a direct impact on future actions, such as the likelihood to purchase from the company in the future.

Scores for individual companies included in the benchmark range from a low of 53 to a high of 86 – a fairly large range that has implications for the future of their customer relationships. Some companies are well-loved for the contact center experiences they provide, while others are strongly disliked. One clue to the disparity in satisfaction comes in the primary objective of the call center. When ForeSee isolated scores for service-focused call centers only, there was a benchmark of 67. This comes as no surprise since customers contacting a service-oriented center are likely calling with a problem and may already be frustrated.

ForeSee's predictive methodology has been used by leading companies in many industries for more than 10 years to measure customer satisfaction with web experiences. ForeSee has expanded its solution to a wide range of channels (stores, contact centers, mobile, social,) over the past few years in response to demand from customers who wanted to utilize ForeSee's technology across several touch points, including contact centers, in order to understand the impact that customer satisfaction has across the company as a whole.

"While measuring customer satisfaction with contact center experiences isn't a new trend by any means, we're happy to extend our methodology to this channel for companies who have been looking for a solid, technology-oriented customer experience solution," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee. "We work with hundreds of companies online who now understand how important it is to measure satisfaction at every touch point, contact centers included, throughout the company. The perceptions that a customer has about a contact center experience – good or bad – is crucial to overall brand loyalty and sales through other channels."

ForeSee's technology is the ultimate predictor of customers' future behaviors and is a powerful tool that pinpoints critical trouble spots for clients. Over time, it has been demonstrated again and again that companies that improve their customer satisfaction scores improve their sales, loyalty, and recommendations.

As part of its benchmark research, ForeSee compared the likely future behaviors of highly-satisfied customers with a satisfaction score of 80 or higher on ForeSee's 100-point scale to those of less-satisfied customers (with satisfaction below 70). This comparison demonstrates the impact customer satisfaction with contact center experiences can have on a company's future success. Based on likelihood scores, highly satisfied customers report being:

• 174% more likely than less satisfied customers to make contact again, which means higher frequency of interaction, improved engagement, and increased share of mind and wallet.
• 154% more likely to purchase next time, which means increased sales.
• 238% more likely to recommend the company to a friend, family member or colleague, which means more business and increased loyalty.

"Our research continues to show that a satisfied customer is the key to maintaining and growing sales and profitability regardless of channel," said Eric Head, senior director overseeing ForeSee's call center business. "Contact centers are no exception, and it's imperative, if companies want to continue to grow their bottom line, to measure and address customers' experiences with contact centers via phone as well as email and chat."

The ForeSee Contact Center benchmark includes customer satisfaction scores for both sales and services contact centers at companies like JEA, Bodybuilding.com, Nikon, House of Fraser, and Eddie Bauer.

About ForeSee

As a pioneer in customer experience analytics, ForeSee continuously measures satisfaction across customer touch points and delivers critical insights on where to prioritize improvements for maximum impact. Because ForeSee's superior technology and proven methodology connect the customer experience to the bottom line, executives and managers are able to drive future success by confidently optimizing the efforts that will achieve business and brand objectives. The result is better business for companies and a better experience for consumers. Visit us at www.foresee.com for customer experience solutions and original research.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Sarah Allen-Short, 734-327-3852
[email protected]

SOURCE ForeSee