By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD
I received an interesting press release. The headline reads:
“Mobile Companies Fail to Meet Customer Service Needs Online”
The subhead says: “Comprehensive consumer study reveals that technical issues prevent consumers from accessing the services they want online.”
The announcement continues: “U.S. consumers have declared that mobile operators are falling short of their online customer service standards.
A study conducted by Dimensional Research, an independent research firm, for Business Transaction Management (BTM) software company, OpTier, has found that 72 percent of mobile phone users in the U.S. are heading online to view or pay a bill, upgrade their phone, change their calling plan or purchase content.
Yet more than half (51 percent) stated that they have experienced ‘significant’ problems in doing so. Users identified poor performance, website functionality and usability as prominent pet peeves when using their mobile operator’s portal.
“Adding to the pain for mobile operators, 74 percent of consumers said they will call their service provider if their inquiry is not resolved online.
This means that mobile service providers could be missing out on the potential cost savings of providing online customer service, as visitors get disillusioned with self-service only portals and instead choose to call customer service.”
This presents an opportunity for outsourcing contact centers on many different levels: text chat, assisted browsing, and email and telephone support.
Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD, is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Connections Magazine, covering the call center industry.
Read his latest book, Call Center Connections.
