In this article, Between The Lines reviews some of the recent research and considers some of the options for service providers as they ponder their business models in an increasingly multi-play world.

THE EVIDENCE MOUNTS

A survey carried out by YouGov in April 2007, revealed that telecoms companies and internet service providers are among the types of firms which most make British people feel like complaining.

Clearly not all customers have bad experiences and there is much good practice in the market. But YouGov also reports that 23 per cent of respondents listed telcos and ISPs as having the worst customer service. This was ahead of banks and insurers at 19 per cent and utility companies at 17 per cent.

Another recent piece of research from specialist consultants Merchant Europe, also found that telecoms firms and ISPs were the biggest culprits when it came to customer service via call centres. The findings measured a drop in customer satisfaction levels from 82 per cent to 68 per cent now. Merchant Europe reported that the call centres of telcos and ISPs were responsible for taking the longest time to answer calls –65 seconds on average – and also notched up the highest number of abandoned calls.

Meanwhile, a survey by analysts Point Topic, showed a sharp decline in the satisfaction levels of UK broadband consumers compared with a similar study carried out by the same firm ten months previously.

And to compound this trend, influential broadband information website, Think Broadband, recently published it’s own round up of customer service ratings for ISPs. The results here reflect a growth in the amount of discontent within the broadband community in the last year or so.

DOES IT MATTER?

In the last issue of Between The Lines, we highlighted the growing trend of business broadband customers who are now fully prepared to switch between suppliers as new services and bundled technologies come onto the market.

According to IPSOS/Mori, poor call centre or customer service experiences can only accelerate these market churn rates. Click here to read the story

Even when a customer is wholly satisfied with the speed, price and reliabilty of the broadband service they get from their ISP. A single, lengthy, ‘hanging on the telephone’ experience might be all it takes for a customer to request a MAC code in frustration.

The common finding of the surveys mentioned above, and the rising propensity of broadband customers to switch ISPs suggests an equation that communications service providers cannot afford to ignore:

 Low prioritisation of customer service investment = high-risk strategy.

By choosing not to invest in customer service, some ISPs may be putting their current business models in danger. The broadband market is developing in such a way that those offering value-added services will, increasingly, call the shots. And highly rated customer service is very much a value-add.

CUSTOMERS WANT MORE

There seems little doubt that there is a rise in customer expectations when it comes to making phone contact with their ISP. Consumers want to be dealt with quickly. They are becoming less and less tolerant of delays when it comes to contacting their providers via a call centre.

So how can ISPs give customers what they want? Do they need to invest in technology-based solutions to ensure they are meeting the needs of their subscribers – or is it a people issue?

The answer is probably both.

Deploying the right technology can lead to calls being answered more quickly and by providing answers to more simple requests automatically, it can free agents up to deal with more complex enquiries.

And the ability to make agents available to handle complicated inquries is sure to become even more of a critical issue for ISPs, as the market continues towards multi-play propositions for customers.

Going beyond just voice connections and offering a customers a choice of contact channels might also be one way to make customers feel more wanted.

Managed technology solutions such as e-mail and text messaging could therefore be part of the answer. Already a fifth of customer interactions with call centres are happening through these media.This has the advantage of being able to open and maintain a two-way dialogue with customers around the clock cost effectively – and without needing to have call centre agents involved.

READ BETWEEN THE LINES

BT Wholesale has a number of solutions available for ISPs with call centres that might want to rationalise the services they offer their customers.

BT Queuebuster is one way of reducing instances of customers having to be on-hold. This simple and effective solution enables call centres to offer callers an automated callback service, so they can keep their place in the queue without having to wait on hold. When a caller gets to the front of the queue, they get a call that then presents them to the agent in the normal way.

BT QueueBuster offers:

BT Wholesale also offers service providers with Smart Agent Technology that enables call centres to use other channels – mainly e-mail and text messaging – for handling customer queries.

BT Wholesale’s Interactive Customer Messaging (ICM) service extends the two-way contact channel concept to include voice call transmission. Again, the service can capture inbound responses immediately and automatically, over one integrated platform.