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New Survey Reveals that Americans Number One Frustration with Contact Center Agents is Muddled English
TMCnet Contributing Editor
In looking at the current contact center environments and the behaviors exhibited by consumers either receiving calls from the contact center or placing the calls to a customer service representative, a new study has revealed additional insight as to why Americans are responding negatively to agents.
A new international contact center survey conducted for NetReflector, a provider of enterprise feedback solutions for major corporations, revealed that American consumers react more negatively to customer service agents with hard-to-understand accents than those who don’t understand the problem for which the consumer is calling.
The survey analyzed research that explored customer experiences of interacting with contact centers in nine countries around the world. When asked what frustrated them most about contact centers, 29 percent responded that bad accents were their top compliant while 18 percent reported their number one complaint as dealing with rude or condescending agents.
Being made to wait too long on the line was the opinion of close to 17 percent, while 15 percent felt that having to listen to an agent “upgrade” their services was the most frustrating aspect of contact center interactions.
Bob Hayes, Ph.D., an expert in customer satisfaction measurement and author of the book “Measuring Customer Satisfaction: Survey Design, Use and Statistical Analysis Methods” found the results less than surprising. He attributes the trend of support jobs moving to China and India as the source of consumers’ frustrations that revolve around the difficulty of understanding customer service representatives.
Hayes noted also that even if the level of customer service is exceptional, the extent to which poorly-understood accents trump quality of service speaks to English-speaking customers’ growing intolerance of non-native speech, more so than in other countries.
Consumers in non-English speaking markets rated other issues as being more problematic. French and German-speaking consumers responded that waiting on the phone is the prime problem while the leading frustration for the Chinese and Russian respondents was that contact center staff was condescending or rude.
A growing trend among companies throughout the US has been to find alternatives to counter American consumers’ increasingly antagonistic attitudes toward contact center agents. Some of these alternatives have included online chat, email and improve automated voice systems that quickly resolve problems.
Other companies have invested heavily in “foreign accent reduction therapy” in an attempt to neutralize accents to appeal to the English-speaking population. Coupled with this type of therapy, companies will also coach agents on American culture and even display large television screens tuned to news channels to provide agents with information local to the targeted consumer.
Many of these companies have made the investment in alternatives, training and coaching to not only help improve the consumer’s perspective of the company, but to also help to reduce abuse of the contact center agent. The abuse can be extensive and have a detrimental effect on the agent on the contact center.
Even with investments in alternatives to the phone interaction, the survey revealed that more than 75 percent of US respondents still prefer to contact customer service by phone over email, chat or mail. The reasons included personal contact, convenience and speed.
And, while all nine countries included in the survey favored phone contact, a surprising 27 percent of Russians favored the chat room as a way of asking for help; the global average – 5 percent.
In terms of customer service, across the globe, a good customer service experience was described as one in which the customer interacts with a knowledgeable service agent who can handle problems quickly and effectively. Less important are the interpersonal skills of the service agent as well as the length of time a customer is required to wait before becoming impatient.
Worth noting, however is that the study revealed that 86 percent of the respondents would likely or very likely switch to a competitor following a poor experience. Brazilian consumers are the most likely to switch to a competitor at 91 percent, compared to the UK at 84 percent, the US at 82 percent or Russia at 81 percent.
The results of this survey should be seriously considered by every organization that utilizes off-shore agents. It is possible that the American attitude can change over time as consumers are more used to the idea of dealing with an agent with an accent or the wounds from the loss of American jobs aren’t as fresh.
However, as contact center agents are often the main touchpoint for many companies, it is increasingly important that these agents are able to appeal to the consumer, regardless of their first language or where they reside. It may be more cost effective for these enterprises to change their strategic approach than to wait for the American attitude to change.
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Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.
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