Computerworld Philippines
July 20, 2010

The likelihood of businesses in Asia Pacific to lose customers who are dissatisfied with their contact center interaction to the competition in 2010 is as high as 47%, says an annual Contact Center Consumer Index 2010 report generated by callcentres.net and commissioned by Avaya.

The report found that 10% of dissatisfied respondents said that they had already switched their business elsewhere. These figures come from the annual Avaya Contact Centre Consumer Index 2010 report generated by callcentres.net and commissioned by Avaya. It surveyed 1797 consumers in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India, Malaysia and Japan.

Respondents were asked about their overall satisfaction with their last call to a contact center. A good 69% said they were satisfied while 18% said that they were dissatisfied. Australia topped that list with close to a quarter (24%) of dissatisfied respondents. Across the region, respondents who did not feel strongly happy with their last interaction with a contact center blamed the inability to resolve their problem or because it took too long to resolve their call. Singapore was the only market where respondents felt that a long holding time was the primary reason why they were unhappy. 36% of all respondents regard poor customer service as a key factor in switching to a competitor.

“We have conducted this survey with Avaya for three years and the trend is clear,” said Dr Catriona Wallace, Director, callcentres.net. “There is a strong and growing correlation between a customer’s contact center experience and their loyalty. Indeed in Asia Pacific a customer having a single poor contact center experience results in a 47% chance that the customer will move his or her business to a competitor. These are compelling results confirming the strategic importance of the contact center,” she added

A quarter of respondents (24%) believed that a quick response time is what a company’s contact center should offer to them to be rated truly excellent. This is an increase from 21% a year ago. Other determining factors are politeness (13% of respondents Vs. 10% a year ago) and having access to a knowledgeable customer service representative (10% of respondents Vs 14% a year ago). The most significant driver of customer engagement in Asia Pacific is the ability for the contact center to resolve the customer’s enquiry during the first call or contact, which is technically known as first call or first contact resolution.

“The 2010 Contact Center Consumer Index shows what consumers want when they call into a Contact Center,” said Chong Win Lee, Avaya APAC Contact Centre Solutions Leader at Avaya. “Organizations must tailor customer service strategies to meet the requirements of an increasingly demanding customer base. If a company understands the level of service its customers expect and enables this through the channels and technology the consumer wants to use, the business can truly differentiate itself by being a Customer Service Leader – meaning better retention and new customer acquisition.”–Melba Bernad

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