By Will Sturgeon, 25 October 2002 15:00
NEWS The vast majority of UK call centre customers claim their experiences - such as being put on hold and forced to listen to repetitive muzak and being passed from pillar to post by automated answering services - have left them feeling angry. A staggering 90 per cent claim to have endured frustrating call centre experiences - with 60 per cent citing being put on hold as the most annoying aspect of contacting a call centre. Some companies, such as cable operator NTL have gained notoriety for keeping customers on hold for excessive lengths of time. (Click here: http://www.silicon.com/a48198 to read more about one customer's nightmare experience.) Mintel found it is not uncommon for customers to have to wait 15 minutes on hold before they can speak to somebody. Often such a wait causes the caller to just give up on the call. Callers aged between 25 and 34 are most likely to give up on a call, with 35 per cent saying they had given up waiting to get through and just hung up. Only a quarter of callers over 65 said they had given up on a call. Automated answering systems also raised customers' ire - with many complaining that the 'press '2' for all other enquiries' style system is woefully inadequate. The most common complaint was that such systems do not always offer the right or appropriate options. The perennial bug bear of hold music also featured heavily - with more than half of those surveyed saying it gets their backs up.
Comments
There is 1 comment. Join the discussion
1. Nick Reede
The state of UK call centre's has never been so bad. The customer service is often apalling. Details of conversations not recorded anywhere so invariably you have to repeat any queries or info. No one will put you through to a manager. Promises of callbacks are rarely kept. My top examples are Orange (dreadful). In addition the companies are driving you on to websites which invariably do not answer your query so you have to ring up anyway.