Saturday, October 09, 2010

How to retain customers

A survey shows that customers are fed up with automated self service system. They spend a lot of time trying to reach a human being. They dislike the long waiting time. Why are companies still introducing such automated systems, which are costly and end up in lower productivity and lost business?  It is time for companies to change their system to achieve their productivity goal and retain their customers.

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2 comments:

Donn said...

I agree that it's horrible to be stuck at the end of the line with an automated self service system, but coming from an business-IT background I understand why a company might want to do that.

Assuming each call takes on average 10 minutes to resolve, each full-time staff tending to customers at the end of the line will only be able to serve 6 people an hour (and in this case, the second person would have to wait ten minutes, the third twenty, the fourth thirty and so on).

It's often not feasible to have enough staff on hand (especially given the unpredictability of when there'll be a sudden influx of calls) to ensure all callers are entertained in a timely manner.

Having an automated self service system provides the customer the possibility of solving their own problem, and/or at least buys the staff some time while they're tending to other customers. Those who stay on the line are those who most probably need the help, creating a sort of self-filtering system.

As a consumer who has had spent many an hour holding on the line just wishing and praying for a human at the end of the line I understand where you're coming from. But as a business person I certainly understand why there's a need for such an automated system.

October 11, 2010 9:59 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...

Dear Donn

Here is the correct approach that should be taken by a corporation in providing customer service:

a) identify the service than can be handled by self-service, e.g checking of account balance, reward points, etc.
b) identify the service that need to be handled by a human person.

Allow the customer by go to (b) straight way, without wasting a lot of time on automated messages.

A few corporations have adopted this sensible approach and their customer service has improved significantly, without loss of productivity.

But, sadly just a few. The other corporations continue to use the bad arrangement and cause frustration to their customers!

October 12, 2010 8:27 AM

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