By Tim Ferguson, 7 March 2008 16:36
NEWS
European businesses are failing to meet customer expectations due to ineffective use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology - and UK consumers are suffering the most.
More than half of consumers feel customer service operations are ineffective, according to research commissioned by Oracle.
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Brits are the most likely to criticise customer service with 40 per cent of respondents rating the service provided by call centres as ineffective.
Common complaints include long call queues, repeating queries to different people and receiving differing answers.
A similar proportion of consumers (39 per cent) said telecommunications companies are the worst offenders for poor service, while 37 per cent said financial service organisations are the best.
Call centre managers say better information and staff training are the best ways to improve customer service but more than half said they had no plans for online self-service portals despite customer demand.
Loic le Guisquet, senior VP for CRM at Oracle, said the tech exists to address these failings and companies should apply intelligence to data they hold in order to meet expectations.
Analyst house Gartner recently came out with seven ways in which businesses could improve customer service including acting on customer feedback and being more accessible to customers.
Other tips included personalising products and experiences and changing employee attitudes to address customer issues more effectively.
The Oracle research covered 1,500 consumers and 250 contact centre managers across Europe.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. A Miguel
The way to fix awful customer service is not to redirect people to a 'self-service portal' with a bunch of scripted questions mined from an (Oracle) database.
2. Charles Smith
CRM = Customer Rejection Methodology
Sadly many organisations introduce CRM systems when they already have difficulties in effective communications with their clients. They seem to see this as a cheap way of solving the problem.
Usually the communication breakdown is due to the organisational methods of the company. It may be that "Account Reps" fail to keep proper or complete records.
If a CRM system is suggested the first step should be to closely examine the efficiency of current management practices. Weaknesses here should be solved first.
Secondly the CRM system should be tailored to the business needs and not vice versa.
3. Roger Huffadine
Technology does not fix CRM problems - the ONLY way to give good customer service is to train & retain excellent customer service reps, give them excellent back office systems and empower them to see an enquiry through from start to finish.
I spent 30 years developing Call Centres, Call Centre Management Systems and Training for Call Centres, trust me the best call centres have the best trained staff - period -