CBC Rates the Customer Experience
On November 22nd, CBC released a study on their rating of the customer service in 40 of Canada's top companies.
The methodology was interesting, taking into account many of the attributes of what may frustrate a customer on a typical call. I believe they did a reasonably good job at rating the experience from the customer point of view.
The results were also interesting; perhaps mostly because we know most of the companies on the list. Many of us will make assessments based on our own experiences and how they compare the list the CBC released.
There is one area that leads me to want to ignore the findings of this survey. The size of the sample of the survey was too small. They called the businesses once during the day, once during the evening and once during the weekend. They based their entire satisfaction rating on 3 calls. Most of these businesses will receive millions of calls each year. The sample size is simply too small to make an accurate rating on the level of service provided by these organizations.
CBC's rating the ease of navigating the IVR (the touchtone or voice response that answers most calls these days) would be accurate, as this will not change significantly from one call to the next.
The most difficult part of operating a call centre is to provide the same level of service to every customer that calls in every time. It is impossible to achieve when a company reaches a certain size. In a small call centre with 4-10 people, this can be much easier. Everyone talks to each other, training is fast and efficient and most if not all are on the same page with what to say to Customers because they can talk to each other everyday.
When you have a call centre with thousands of people you face real challenges. Just like in any workplace, you have various levels of skill and professionalism. You have new people that have been at the organization for 6 weeks and those that have been at the organization for 10 years.
Your level of satisfaction with a company has everything to do with who you reach when you call. We all hope for a minimum of fast and excellent service and are satisfied when we receive it. Unfortunately this is not realistic in many cases. Even the highest rated call centres achieve satisfaction ratings in the 80% area. That means 20% of Customers are not completely satisfied at any given time.
A secret tip that more and more customers are realizing? If the organization offers a web "chat" function within their customer service offering, try to take advantage of it. In many cases the best and most seasoned representatives are on the other end of that chat window ready to wow you with fast and great service.
