Monday, April 27, 2015

The growing customer experience gap - even worse than you think

This report (The Power of Linguistics in Customer Service) from Eptica is worth reading if you are attempting to improve your customer experience.

This study is all about the digital channel although I doubt if it is much better in other channels.

I quote from the Exec Summary.

Consumers’ biggest frustrations revolved around a lack of understanding of their query, and a failure to acknowledge
their feelings, such as upset or anger. 78% said that receiving a response that didn’t answer their query at all, or partially answered it, was one of their two largest frustrations. One fifth (20%), said that a failure to acknowledge
their feelings was their biggest gripe.
Agents are equally frustrated at not being able understand consumers. 61% said they found it difficult to grasp what a customer was asking, particularly when they used jargon or slang.

What is SO annoying is that this problem is not new. Sure the technology is different but the same problem has been hanging about for decades. Why?

The report hits the preverbial nail on the head.

Many companies run different channels as silos, so there is no integration – meaning an agent doesn’t know that the angry customer that is now emailing is frustrated because the tweet they sent two days ago still hasn’t been answered.

All of the factors that are identified by Eptica are even worse when you mix the age of the consumer into the equation. Lack of understanding of the language (by that I mean current digital speak) is a big, big problem for many older consumers.

Got a CX issue? Read this report and then do something about it. Dick Stroud

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