WHEN WE ’ VE COMPARED SATISFACTION WITH IMMEDIATE ANSWERS VERSUS CALLBACKS PROVIDING EXACTLY THE SAME ANSWER , WE ’ VE FOUND AT LEAST A 10 % DECLINE IN SATISFACTION AND LOYALTY .
INTERNAL SERVICE IMPACTS EXTERNAL SERVICE
Across all industries , our research and assessments of over 1,000 service systems including 45 of the Fortune 100 , find that one-third of all non-self-service issues consist of needing information or action on status , pricing , or a technical issue that the frontline cannot immediately handle .
This is especially true in B2B environments because almost every business has slightly different needs . The service staff often must go to sales , operations or manufacturing to get answers .
On the other hand , most consumers buying yogurt or even an automobile have generally the same expectations and a limited range of needs ( certainly consumers do vary by expertise , product involvement and whether they read the directions ).
More than a score of employee surveys in a half-dozen industries indicate two broad causes of employee support points of pain . They are poor internal communication / service and an inadequately maintained KMS and websites .
Poor internal communication and service include a range of issues – how many have you encountered in your organization – most likely most of these .
• Failure of support departments to respond to inquiries by email or phone in a timely ( e . g . immediately or within four hours ) manner .
• Failure to respond ever .
• Ineffective response guidance with no believable explanation for policies and processes and lack of empowerment and management support .
• Surprise changes in production schedule or short shipment without notice .
• Promises made to customers by Sales and Marketing that have little or no chance of being fulfilled .
Inadequate KMS includes :
• Out-of-date sales and inventory data , e . g ., minimum order quantities and pricing .
• No information on new policies and marketing offers .
• Lack of product information , e . g ., specifications , ingredients , dimensions , lead times , or availability .
• Lack of real time access to accurate operations and production information , often from ERP ( enterprise resource planning ) and logistics tracking systems .
When internal service encounters any of the above issues , two things always happen .
First , service staff cannot provide an answer to the customer and must beg off while they investigate . Several staff members have told me , “ I ’ m embarrassed that I can ’ t answer the question because , in a rational world , I would have access to that information !”
When we ’ ve compared satisfaction with immediate answers versus callbacks providing exactly the same answer , we ’ ve found at least a 10 % decline in satisfaction and loyalty . Further , in B2B , one callback often turns into telephone tag , consuming three times the resources of a closed on first contact call .
Secondly , service staff waste 10 to 30 minutes of their time tracking down the information needed : purely wasted time , often at a loaded labor rate of $ 20-80 per hour .
These impacts occur whether in consumer or B2B environments , especially for high involvement products and services . The 2023 National Rage Study found that consumers encountered rage most often in housing , financial services , travel , technology , and automobiles : all critical parts of their lives .
WHEN WE ’ VE COMPARED SATISFACTION WITH IMMEDIATE ANSWERS VERSUS CALLBACKS PROVIDING EXACTLY THE SAME ANSWER , WE ’ VE FOUND AT LEAST A 10 % DECLINE IN SATISFACTION AND LOYALTY .
In B2B , unpleasant surprises ( e . g ., delayed or short shipments , out of stock products , and software crashes can shut down a business ) and poor / slow response to a problem can affect the career of the company manager responsible for that part of the company ’ s operations .
I talked with several supermarket meat counter managers who complained bitterly when a major chicken supplier short-shipped each about 100 chicken breast packages with no notice .
One said , “ I personally get the complaints from multiple consumers in a single day because they come in , expecting to buy on sale , and then find the cooler completely empty ! I get blamed for it and I really don ’ t like it .”
This can become even worse when the chain is B2B2C ( business-to-business-to-consumer ). I experienced this with a recent major home appliance purchase when , after paying several thousand dollars , I was then told there was a supply chain problem which would add nine months to the delivery date .
When asked for an explanation , the retailer , distributor , and manufacturer all pointed fingers at each other as to why I was misinformed . My loyalty to both the retailer and manufacturer has been damaged .
28 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE