Forrester's Bruce Temkin: Consumers Expect Poor Customer Service
I just published a research report called "Consumers Expect Poor Service Experiences." The research, which was based on surveying more than 4,200 U.S. consumers, looked at consumer expectations for getting an issue resolved in 10 different areas (apparel, bank account, hotel, auto insurance policy, TV service, credit card, wireless phone plan, Internet service, computer, and health insurance policy).
It turns out that consumers don't expect much from customer service. Here are some of the findings:
- In only one of the areas, apparel, did a majority of consumers (54%) expect to have an easy time getting their issue resolved.
- The lowest marks were in computers and health insurance policies, where only 30% of consumers expected customer service to be easy.
- In 6 of the 10 areas, Seniors were the most optimistic about these customer service interactions. But...
- ... in the 4 other industries, hotels plus three technology areas (wireless phone plans, computers, and Internet service), Seniors were the least optimistic about getting an issue fixed.
- Only 23% of Seniors thought it would be easy to get a computer issue resolved -- the lowest level we found.
- Not surprisingly, Gen Yers were the most optimistic about customer service in the three technology areas.
The bottom line: Companies need to surpass customer service expectations.
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About the Author: Bruce Temkin is a Vice President, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research where he serves Customer Experience professionals and writes the blog Customer Experience Matters. Reprinted with permission.
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