The UK has a long-standing association with poor customer service. It has provided a rich seam for popular sitcoms, giving us characters such as Basil Fawlty, Albert Arkwright or Julie Walters’ waitress.
According to the World Economic Forum, the UK ranks a lowly 34th in the world for customer service, putting it behind countries such as Lithuania. The study finds that while 80% of UK employees believe they provide a superior service, just 8% of customers agree.
This disparity demonstrates the stark realities of British customer service and shows a clear disconnect between how businesses and consumers perceive the level of assistance being provided.
The Online Revolution
Britain is a huge adopter of online shopping and spends more per capita than any other country (except Poland) on goods and services over the Internet.
UK businesses have been quick to embrace e-commerce to drive profits; the sector is currently worth £121 billion and growing. But the growth in internet sales is also forcing businesses to update the level of service they offer to consumers online. Making people wait on hold, fill in online forms, answer emails or write letters doesn’t work with simple customer service questions for an online store.
Are You (Still) Being Served?
Poor customer service, particularly online, causes consumers to turn their backs on organisations that do not provide a good level of support. A recent survey by Econsultancy found UK companies are losing the equivalent of 24% of their online revenues due to poor online customer experience.
The situation needs to be addressed urgently if UK businesses are to thrive in a difficult economic environment. Customers in today’s market have a host of companies to choose from, and they can change allegiance at the click of a mouse. This makes holding on to customers harder and UK businesses are vulnerable because many are failing to deliver an adequate level of online customer service.
So, are we being served online? Netop carried out a research project of over 2000 UK consumers and businesses to gauge public perception about the different customer service platforms available. Are email, overseas call centres and letters really still the best companies can offer? With so much of the UK population now using the Internet, have businesses responded by embracing new online customer service technologies, such as live chat?
The research finds a number of worrying trends for companies reliant on traditional offline customer service tools.
Britain’s love/hate relationship with traditional support channels
The telephone remains the most used customer service channel in the UK; 75% of us have used it to contact companies with questions in the last year. However, almost the same number of respondents (73%) said being held in a long phone queue was their biggest pet hate.
Second in popularity after the telephone today, email was used by 71% to attempt to obtain customer service in the past year. The lack of real time response causes frustration with this service channel however, as 61% of respondents identified ‘securing a real time response’ for their questions as one of the top benefits of live chat.
Telephone and email support are the default options for for most companies today, but suffer from a significant number of failings in the eyes of the UK public. Given the opportunity, 88% of those polled saw a benefit to communicating with a company using online chat rather than through traditional support channels.
Demand for Live Chat Is High, but UK Businesses Are Ignoring the Opportunity
Although a relatively new method of customer interaction, the research showed live chat was already preferred by over one in five consumers (21%) as their number one communications choice.
The research also found consumers were more favourable to online customer service (21%) than in-person customer service (17%). Despite the limited availability of live chat in the UK, it was used by more than a quarter (28%) of those surveyed last year, suggesting that wherever a live chat option is available on a website, it will be used heavily.
The findings should make interesting reading for the vast majority (93%) of UK businesses that are not using live chat to enhance their customer service experience. By providing a more user-friendly and immediate service, live chat looks set to make a significant impression in the future. A marked preference towards live chat, rather than having a physical meeting, further suggests the face of UK online customer service needs to evolve fast. A lot of people don’t know what live chat is, but those that do, use it disproportionately when it is available.
Customer Service Habits Change As We grow Older
The survey found a marked fluctuation in the use of email according to age group. Notably, 18-24 year olds were 27% less likely to use email than other age groups. In fact every generation, including the over 65s, used email more frequently than the youth of today.
In the younger professional generation, the demand for live chat technology stands out. The 25-34 year old group is 36% more likely to use live chat, and 16% more likely to favour it over telephone support.
What of those entering retirement age? It appears that those over the age of 65, inspired less by Alan Sugar and more by Victor Meldrew, are rediscovering the art of letter writing. Although clearly in decline in almost every age group, particularly today’s youth, 31% of the 65+ group have sent a letter to a company in the past twelve months.
Creating an holistic customer service experience
Customers generally agree that live chat has the potential to transform the online customer service experience and bring them closer to the brands that they use and trust. But it’s an option few businesses offer today, forcing them to resort to phone and email, despite the shortcomings of both these channels. This trend needs to change if UK firms are to maintain close relations with their customers.
In this respect, live chat needs to become an integral part of an holistic customer service experience. Offering live chat adds to this experience and businesses that embrace it sooner should be in a stronger position to retain existing, and perhaps win over new, customers.
It’s a sign of the times when people say they would rather engage via live chat than meet their bank manager, retailer or travel agent in person. But if this is what the customer wants, this should be what the customer gets. Live chat is not a solution looking for a problem; it’s an evolutionary step in online customer communication and brand loyalty.
