Let Me Out!

Today's customer non-service scenario comes from my local thrift store, which has installed metal gates at the exit door to be sure shoppers cannot take their carts out of the store.

Just trying to keep their costs down by not losing carts and having to pay someone to schlep out to the parking lot to round up the wayward metal, right?

Maybe so, but it presents a challenge to anyone purchasing more than a small bag of items, which many people do, especially when they have a half-price weekend sale. People purchase several large bags of clothing and toys and there's no way to carry them all by hand, so you have to leave someone to stand guard over the ones you can't carry while you go gt your car.

If you're shopping alone, you have to leave your bags right inside the store and make more than one trip to the car, or right outside and hope someone doesn't drive up to the cub and make off with your purchases.

I've tried going out the in door, but there's no handle on the inside (they thought of everything!) to pull the door open. And for elderly shoppers, it's even more of a hardship.

Poor Customer Service Costs Companies $83 Billion Annually

by Jack Loechner, Thursday, February 18, 2010, 8:15 AM

Genesys, with research firm Greenfield Online and Datamonitor/Ovum analysts, measuring the cost of poor customer service in the U.S., found that enterprises in the U.S. lose an estimated $83 billion each year due to defections and abandoned purchases as a direct result of a poor experience. Nearly two-thirds of consumers said they had ended a relationship due to customer service alone. The survey participants said that when they end a relationship, 61% of the time they take their business to a competitor. The $83 billion overall cost of poor customer service in the us came from: Business abandoned and lost to entire industry, $32.4 billion Customer churn and defections within industry, $50.6 billion Furthermore, the problem has become more complicated as customer interactions move beyond the contact center. According to numerous industry researchers, more than 90% of all transactions initiated over the Web are abandoned before any transaction is completed. And virtually no researchers have accurately measured the value of customer service across communication channels, says the report. Across 16 key economies (countries), the total loss for poor customer service  in US dollars is $338 billion annually or  the average value of each customer relationship lost to a competitor or abandoned of $243. In addition, 86.4% of consumers would welcome extended offers or help during self-service transactions. The biggest losers at the industry level are in cable & satellite TV, financial services, and consumer products. Nearly one quarter of consumers in the US said they abandoned a cable/satellite company in the past year, resulting in over $12 billion in lost revenue. And financial services companies suffered more than $10 billion of losses alone. Industries that were previously safe from competition, such as utilities in deregulated regions, are also feeling the pain, with $1.75 billion in lost revenue. In the U.S., 71% of consumers have ended a relationship due to a poor customer service experience, and the average U.S. customer surveyed had 11 interactions each year and ended 1.2 relationships. The average value of lost relationships in the U.S. is $289 per year. Younger consumers differ sharply from older consumers in their willingness to switch: Consumers aged 27-43 terminated relationships most frequently, at 1.52 times per year Consumers under age 26, at 1.43 times per year Ages 44-62 did so once per year Those over 63 years old did so 0.71 times per year Assisted service is well developed, with 78% of consumers saying their most satisfying experience occurred because of a capable and competent customer service representative. But self-service lags because it is not often intelligently integrated with assisted service. Consumers feel the most significant root causes of poor service are: Repeating themselves  Being trapped in automated self-service  Forced to wait too long for service  Representatives don't know my history and value  Cannot switch between communication channels easily 33% cite voice self-service  as the most challenging channel compared to only 1% who find it most satisfying. And 38% of consumers said it is critical to improve voice self-service to make it more intelligently integrated with human assisted service. Where they were trapped in an automated system, consumers spent, on average, more than 9.5 minutes trying to reach a human. When thinking of their most satisfying experience, consumers said competent service representatives played the largest role, while proactivity makes a significant difference. Consumers satisfaction is increased when four key needs are met: Competency Convenience Proactivity Personalization Consumers felt that companies had done much more to improve in the area of competency than any of the others.. The Most Significant Factors In Satisfying Customer Experiences (% of Respondents) Experience % of Respondents Wanting Competent customer service representatives 78% The communication channels were convenient 48% The company was proactive in reaching out to me 37% The transaction was personalized 38% Source: Genesys, October 2009 Consumers overwhelmingly said they would like more proactive outreach. More than 83% of consumers said they would find proactive engagement either a "strong benefit" or would "welcome proactive assistance" when they were stuck on the Web or in self-service. Consumer Views of Proactive Contact "No Thanks"   9.5% Strong plus   48.8% Welcome   41.7 In prioritizing improvements cross-channel conversations, consumers want companies to enable them to: Start in voice self-service and get assistance from an agent  Start on the Web and get voice assistance or chat from an agent  Receive an e-mail and then get assistance from a contact center  Schedule callbacks to avoid wait times  Add chat or instant messaging to Web interactions In conclusion, the report notes that poor customer service has a clear and immediate impact on a company, and the first step should be to understand and measure the direct business impact of customer service, and identify the gaps between the customer experience and expectations. (c) 2010 MediaPost Communications, 1140 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10001