Aug. 9, 2006

Recently, a study done by Accenture surveyed one thousand B2B participants and U.K. consumers and its report revealed that modern service technologies, specifically e-mail, regular telephone conversations, Instant Messaging (IM) and voice-based services don't necessarily create an automatic increase in overall customer satisfaction, not even in the B2B segment.

Nearly 600 of these respondents said that "poor" service levels had caused them to switch providers to switch at least one provider over the past 12 months.

However, some modes of service delivery seem to work better than others. Forty-seven percent of respondents declared themselves either satisfied or very satisfied with e-mail; 42 percent were similarly happy with live phone conversations; IM came in at 28 percent; and voice-based service was at a mere 10 percent.

Real-world, person-to-person service rated highest, at 59 percent. Unfortunately for enterprises, this is by far the most expensive method of providing service.

The results for voice-based service ought to be a warning to vendors that consumers do not generally favor this service channel.

That could be because some of these systems still encounter difficulties in basic comprehension, or it could be because of the kind of circular design that forces callers to spend a lot of time on the line.

Source: Line 56