The Homa Files

Excerpted from: WHAT AMERICANS REALLY WANT by Dr. Frank I. Luntz

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According to Dr. Luntz’s surveys, 1/3 of Americans say that customer service is worse at major companies than it was five years ago … and people prefer taking out the trash to phoning a customer service call center.

There are two aspects of service that drive consumers crazy:

• First, getting a live voice on the phone.
• Second, actually getting help from that person

Telephone automated answering systems were created to organize and streamline consumer interactions, as well as to replace expensive personnel with cheap software and technology. But the cost in consumer irritation is often more than the savings.

It’s no wonder that road rage has given way to phone rage as the number one time-consuming annoyance.

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Companies that insist on automated phone systems to answer customer questions and complaints need to follow three procedures if they want to maintain customer credibility.

1. Three rings, max.

People expect the phone to be picked up just after the third ring. That’s the standard set by home answering machines and cell phone voice mail, so people are conditioned to it. Anything longer triggers an immediate negative emotional response and is almost guaranteed to make the call more unpleasant than it otherwise would have been.

2. Two people, max.

Even more irritating than waiting for the initial telephone pickup is being passed from one representative to another.

A company is allowed one transfer. If a generalist transfers you to a specialist, you’ll accept that to get the expert advice implied by the word “specialist.”  But if you’re transferred more than once, people lose confidence in the company and its ability to figure out what’s wrong and fix it.

3. Americans, please.

People are immediately suspicious when they hear a foreign accent. To them, it’s a sign that the help desk has been outsourced, and it immediately destroys customers’ confidence that the problem will be addressed and resolved.

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From: WHAT AMERICANS REALLY WANT. . . REALLY – The Truth About Our Hopes, Dreams, and Fears
by Dr. Frank I. Luntz

This entry was posted on January 8, 2010 at 7:59 am and is filed under Customer Satisfaction - Loyalty, Customer Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.