Customer service abandonment is on the rise, research shows, as patience for long wait times dwindles.Getty Images
How long will you wait on hold? The answer has likely changed over the past few years.
A recent Gartner survey found that nearly 40 per cent of Gen Z callers will give up on their customer service journeys if they can’t find the answers to their problems online. They won’t even bother trying to reach a contact centre.
For those who do call, nearly a third of them, across all age groups, will hang up if they have to wait on hold for too long.
Why? For one, technology is making people impatient, says Dr. Zhe Zhang, an assistant professor of marketing in the Ivey Business School at Western University in London, Ont. People are conditioned to expect answers right away, and that goes double for younger generations who have grown up with search engines and smart-home technologies. If they can turn the lights on without getting up from the couch, they’re not likely willing to wait on hold if there’s a problem with their delivery order.
Technology has also made us more independent, Dr. Zhang says. “(Customers) want to get things done efficiently, so why would they go through a more tedious process to get the same results?”
Most consumers will start by Googling to find a solution to their problem, and if they are unsuccessful, a certain percentage will try another method. The rest will give up – and that could mean bailing on a product or company altogether.
Companies need to meet their customers where they are. Dr. Zhang suggests embracing an omni-channel strategy. If younger customers are finding you through your social media channels, keep up-to-date information there. If others are reaching out through your website or call centres, have those areas staffed up. Most importantly, stay consistent.
“You do not want customers to get one answer from one channel and another answer from another channel,” Dr. Zhang says.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a potential solution. If you have a chatbot armed with answers to your most frequently asked questions, that can take care of a hefty percentage of customers coming to you with basic queries.
But how do you know if you are able to automate some functions? Kim Hedlin, a senior principal researcher at Gartner in Chicago, suggests companies start by analyzing the customer service journey, or what happens when a customer gets in touch with you.
“If your process is not standardized, if it’s not repetitive, no automation tool is going to help you out,” Ms. Hedlin says. “Start with, ‘how are we listening to our customers?’ And then what the next steps can be, and what are our avenues for sharing this information. There are a fair number of leaders who are collecting data, but not really listening to it.”
David Filwood, CEO of TeleSoft, a company that helps contact centres staff and improve their service, says AI is helpful – but recognize there are still limits.
“If a chatbot was able to give me my answer quickly and easily, great,” says Mr. Filwood, based in Nanaimo, BC. “But if it hasn’t given (a customer) their answer within five minutes, the customer darn well better have an immediate ability to speak to a trained live operator.”
If you have an FAQ section on your website, Mr. Filwood adds, it can resolve some of the easy queries. And if you have a chatbot or AI as the first interaction over the phone, that will take care of the next most difficult questions. Which means your human employees will be left dealing with only the most difficult problems, and therefore the most frustrated customers. In that case, the best thing a company can do, after investing in new technology, is to invest in its people.
“Pay them accordingly. Give them a workplace that is ergonomic and wellness oriented. Make sure they’re eating good food, getting plenty of sleep. Have stress reduction measures in place,” Mr. Filwood says.
A call-centre abandonment rate of between 5 per cent and 8 per cent is standard. With customers jumping off the line faster – or in certain cases, not even calling in the first place – it’s crucial to look at how accessible and understandable the information you’re providing customers is.
Maybe consider improving that hold music, too.