How Call Center Services Can Affect Marketing
Impact of Customer Service Quality on Corporate Branding and Sales
May 27, 2009
Call centers have become one of the effective marketing tools for providing customer service solutions. Poor call center customer service can however ruin the benefits of any creative marketing and branding strategies used by an organisation. Such poor services can also negatively affect customer perceptions about a firm and its products or services. The benefits of customer service contact centers thus lie in quality and professional service provision.
A research conducted by Ernan Roman Direct Marketing, a customer relations and marketing firm, on the impact of call center services on business fortunes showed that damage resulting from poor customer service call center experiences among consumers can be greater than what many companies anticipate. The study, published in issue no.14 of the company’s marketing bulletin and carried on its website, stated: “Customer service call center experiences directly impact customers’ relationship with the companies they do business with.”
How Poor Call Center Services Affect Branding and Marketing
According to Ernan Roman Direct Marketing’s study which sampled 195 business professionals and 165 college students, poor customer service from call centers negatively affect customers' willingness to buy from a company, their perception about a company and the possibility of recommending a company to others. About 86% of business professionals said poor customer service from call centers will negatively affect their willingness to buy from a company.
Almost all business professionals (98.9%) indicated that poor consumer services by a company’s contact center will make them have negative perception about the company as a whole. On recommending a company to others, it was found that about 91.5% of professionals thought a negative experience from a firm’s customer service point, would deter people from recommending a firm to others.
Findings regarding College students were literally the same. The figures on how poor services negatively affect willingness to buy from a company, perception of company and likelihood to recommend a firm to others were 93.5%, 96.8% and 95.5% respectively.
Impacts of Good Call Center Service
Contrary to the negative effects of poor contact center services on branding and marketing efforts, positive call center experiences among customers will have a positive impact on an organisation's fortunes. In a study conducted by US-based Beta Research Corporation titled: "Customer Satisfaction as it Relates to Call-Center Experience,” and published on the corporation's website on March 14, 2007, it was found that “customers who have positive call-center experiences are more likely to say that they are satisfied with that company's products and services and/or are more likely to purchase from that company again in the future.”
Beta Corporation’s study also found that 80% of customers hold the view that the quality of service received from a customer service representative reflects the quality of a company and its products or service.
Tips on How to Improve Call Center Customer Service
- Telephone inquiries at call centers should be answered as quickly as possible. Based the findings of its study, Beta Research Corporation observed that six or more rings before a customer is connected is unacceptable.
- Companies using automated call centers may have to add live operator services to fully meet customer satisfaction. “Most prefer to speak to an actual person rather than an automated system – respondents who were initially connected to a 'live' operator were significantly more likely to be satisfied with the service experience than those connected to an automated menu,” according to the Beta Corporation’s study.
- As much as possible, call center representatives should avoid putting customers on hold for long periods of time. Beta’s study found that putting customers on hold for three or more minutes can have a negative impact on a company's image.
While most companies may experience some form of customer dissatisfaction for reasons they may not be in a position to control, call center experiences among customers, which has an impact on customer satisfaction, marketing and branding is something they can, should and must improve to ensure business success.
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