There is a disconnect between the enterprise and expectations of connected customers as it relates to context, time, and effort according to a new study from [24]7.
According to the survey, today’s smartphone owners want enterprises to know the context of their prior customer service interactions in order to provide a better experience. With the accelerating adoption of smartphones, consumers now engage with the world via multiple channels and devices. These new parameters of engagement have changed consumer expectations as they now demand contextual customer service delivered on “their terms.”
The key findings from the survey revealed that smartphone owners have high levels of frustration when customer service does not know the context of the customers’ situation. Of the total consumers surveyed, 83% were smartphone owners.
Here are some key findings from the research:
Four out of five smartphone owners say that companies do not have the context of their last conversation, forcing them to start over
71% cannot easily cross channels (e.g., from the web to the phone) and have to repeat their situation
71% say that customer service is impersonal when companies do not know who they are or the issues that they have.
“Poor customer experience caused by the lack of context is a wakeup call to companies,” P.V. Kannan, co-founder and CEO of [24]7, said in a press release. “Today’s consumers engage in stops and starts across channels and devices at will. According to a Google Research Study(1), 90% of consumers cross devices in pursuit of a single goal and 98% move between devices in the same day. Unless companies adapt to 'the new world order of engagement,' they will see high customer churn. Companies must invest in technology that enables the customer's context to be available on the web, mobile, chat, social, and the phone and on whatever device that the customer chooses to use.’’’
What’s more, the survey found that consumers want issues to be resolved faster and with less effort – 78% of smartphone owners said that customer service departments take too long to resolve an issue; and 72% said it takes too much effort to solve their situation.