Customers Hang Up On Call Centres

Organisations that depend on telephone for their business are alienating thousands of customers every day, according to a recent survey from NOP World.

The new survey from NOP shows that the majority of people in the UK have hung up on organisations because the service is so bad and it is estimated that millions of potential orders are being lost every month.

The survey reveals that when dealing with companies and organisations by phone in the last six months over half (53%) of customers had hung up when greeted with an automated touch tone menu, while on at least one occasion two-thirds (64%) had given up trying because it took too long to get through. 77% of customers said that they had been put on hold for over a minute when calling, while almost half (48%) said that the person they spoke to couldn't help with their query.

It is not surprising, therefore, that satisfaction levels are so low. Less than four out of ten (38%) customers say they are satisfied with the service they receive over the phone and a similar number (37%) report that they have received bad service.

According to David Lee, director of NOP CallCheck, 'Several companies provide very good service but the problem lies in the explosive growth of call centres. Call centres have been set up to deal with huge volumes of calls and too much focus has been placed on the technology required rather than the needs of customers. We measure service delivery levels through our CallCheck monitor in 400 call centres every month and we see a similar pattern. For example, 15% of customers now have to wait two minutes or more to speak to an operator but hardly any of these get an apology when they get through even though in many cases the company has the technology to know how long the customer has been waiting.'

Further results are available by visiting www.nop.co.uk/mystery/callcheck.swf

NOP interviewed a nationally representative sample of 2017 adults, aged 15+, face-to-face in Great Britain between 4 and 9 October 2001. NOP CallCheck monitors service delivery levels against 30 criteria in 400 call centres every month.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.