Technology at Your Service?

Accenture interviewed 2009 consumers in the US and the UK

in May 2005. It found that only 5% of the respondents strongly agreed that

technology has helped improve the quality of service in the past five years.

Around 62% didn't think tech had helped at all!  The most used automated phone systems scored the least in

satisfaction levels by customers. Email and online chat fared better, while

human interfacing took the top slot. The study warns that there is a very real

danger of losing customers-nearly half of their survey respondents switched

providers because of shoddy services.

And yet, worldwide, companies are pumping money deploying

and upgrading technology to improve customer interaction. IDC expects the global

spend only on CRM applications to cross $11 bn by 2008. The reason is obvious.

According to Forrester Research, customer service calls handled by automated

systems cost an average of 20 cents per minute. Compare this to a whopping $7

per minute for a customer rep to help, and you know why Interactive Voice

Response (IVRs) abound.

So what is coming in the way of having smiling customers?

First is the fact that customers are finicky and demanding.

Increasing levels of competition make every service enhancement a hygiene factor

quickly. The time and cost saving associated with phone and net services have

become a given. How about getting new phone connections? There are no queues to

stand in, no palms to grease. One phone call, and a rep turns up at your

doorstep to fill the form and take the cheque. For credit cards-----you

don't even have to call, they make all the calls.

But that is where the problem seems to start. Sale and

service are two different beasts.

Take IVR, which has now become the standard tool for

first-level customer interaction. Phone numbers just do not work. If they work,

there is a tiring routine of keying in a string of numbers. Worse-some IVR

systems now start by telling you what you can buy even before they take you to

the service menu. And here I am trying to get some help on a transaction that I

think I did not do on my credit card! Then there is the credit card company

telling me I can take a loan to pay off that amount. Absurd.

Automated systems do not distinguish between an enquiry and

a complaint. They cannot tell the difference between a worried customer and an

irritated one-very often converting the former to the latter. Understandably,

it is a tough job to integrate tech infrastructures, supporting products and

software to handle the various channels of communication with the customer.

Clearly the need for human beings at the other end is a must in some situations.

And what happens after that? You have keyed in telephone

number, 2 , 4, 16 digit account number, 7, #

followed by 9 to get to a human being. You introduce yourself and in the

process get introduced to yourself. You are made to remember your address:

office or residence? your phone number: which one? your pet's name, and the

worst, your date of birth.

The voice then crisply solves your routine problems.

Account balance, last payment etc, etc. Anything non-routine and the voice

falters. What happened to the problem that I had intimated three days back?

Sorry, the computer has no information. Can I talk to someone else who would

know? Sorry, we are only the call center. Most voices are polite and helpful.

Few are effective.

The message is clear. There is a long way to go before

customers will not have to rush to a meditation center after every service

session.

The author is editor-in-chief of CyberMedia, the publisher

of Dataquest. He can be reached at shyamm@cybermedia.co.in