What Customers Expect from Agents

GREAT EXPECTATIONS Companies today aren't just paying attention to their customers' overall satisfaction levels. To better identify the roadblocks to excellent customer service, companies are closely examining exactly what about the experience is bothering customers, especially when it comes to customer-agent interaction. What Customers Expect from Agents Customers go into their customer service experience knowing what they want-and don't want-from their assigned representative. Despite a multitude of communication methods, customers have little faith in their service representatives and those managing them. 57% 51% 34% of customers think companies are clueless, and say they feel like they know more about the than the agent. of customers think companies are of customers think companies are impersonal, as agents will often get a customer's name wrong. forgetful, and there's no record of previous interactions with agents. company The top 5 problems customers have with WHAT THEY WANT their interactions with customer service When it comes to interacting with a customer service representatives: representative, customers want the agent to: 1 BEING TRANSFERRED BETWEEN AGENTS 2 GETTING NO RESPONSE TO AN EMAIL 3 DEALING WITH LONG HOLD TIMES 73% Be friendly 55% 36% 4 BEING UNABLE TO REACH A HUMAN AGENT Provide the Personalize information or the 5 TALKING TO AN UNINFORMED AGENT help they need experience With social customer service being primarily driven by younger demographics, the consumer public uses a variety of online channels for their customer service FAQS 68% 60% experiences. Call a company and speaking to an agent Refer to help or FAQS on a company's website 54% 37% 27% 27% Use an online forum or other customer community Send an email to Instant message/online chat with a live person Click to call customer service 25% 24% 20% 19% Screen share Talk to a virtual agent Send a mobile/SMS assistance message to the company for Contact a company through Twitter Being a Good Agent Ideally, customer service agents are able to respond within one working day, but that's not always feasible. The good news is once the customer is engaged, the best thing an agent can do is simply empathize with them. DO YOU RESPOND WITHIN ONE WORKING DAY TO DISSATISFIED CUSTOMERS? RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION 100% Yes FINANCE 24 92% Yes INSURANCE 67% Yes 33% No MEDICAL 50% Yes 50% No PUBLIC SECTOR 75% Yes 25% No MANUFACTURING 60% No 40% Don't Know ENTERTAINMENT & LEISURE 50% Yes 50% No THE MOST IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES OFA SUCCESSFUL AGENT #2 V #1 #4 U #5 Empathy with Reliability Ability to multitask Sales ability Complex technical or product knowledge customers #6 #7 #8 #9 Team player Ability to work under stress Good talker Ability to deal with repetitive tasks Agent Management With the shifting demands of customer service, enterprises are paying close attention to their analytics, scripts, and rewards. THE COST OF INDUCTION COURSE FOR AN AGENT, BY INDUSTRY ENTERTAINMENT & LEISURE PUBLIC SECTOR FINANCE INSURANCE $1,200 $2,500 $4,125 $11,125 RETAIL & MEDICAL MANUFACTURING DISTRIBUTION $2,000 $3,500 $4,667 Companies use customer-agent interaction monitoring and analytics to provide a better service experience. However, the only channel that seems to provide effective feedback to higher-ups is the phone. Very Very Don't Monitor Effective Effective Ineffective Neutral Ineffective or Use Analytics TELEPHONE 41% 45% 8% 3% 4% EMAIL O 21% 28% • 6% 15% WEB CHAT • 14% • 14% 21% 5% • 1% 45% SOCIAL MEDIA • 7% • 8% 27% 3% • 1% 54% STICKING TO THE SCRIPT Nearly half of all customer service agents are prepared to deal with customer issues with an on-hand script, especially on the phone. 46% 15% 12% 5% 22% S FOR OF CRIPTING NO ANS TO USE ALLA STOPPETS INEXE AGENTS MANAGEMENT 47% 50% In recent years, however, companies have better sought to reward good service and a positive customer experience, according to 47% 47% 43% ContactBabel's 2012 U.S. Contact REVENUE/SALES CALL Center Decision-Makers' Guide. These days, customer service CUSTOMER SATISFACTION PERFORMANCE STATISTICS RATING agents and managers are rewarded according to the following variables: 39% 35% 28% 27% 20% 21% CROSS-SELL/ UPSELL RATES FIRST-CALL NET PROMOTER RESOLUTION SCORE Customer service agents are still a mainstay of the customer service experience, and customers and companies will continue to have high expectations for their performance. Infosys SOURCES: CONTACTBABEL.COM ORACLE.COM Created by FORRESTER.COM LINKEDIN.COM COLUMN FIVE RIPTS FO %24 ON'T USE SCRIPT WOULD D USING