I’ve just been on hold to the tax office for the last thirty five minutes and I have been inspired to write a blog. I know that my “call is important” to them and that “all operatives are helping other people”, but I really, really, really want to get my problem sorted. It’s my money!
The thing is, I’m trying really hard to get my issue resolved in ‘working hours’. The working hours of the Tax office, not my working hours, I might add. I have had to shoehorn this call in between writing proposals, travelling to see my clients and the never ending list of phone calls – constructive activities that add value to my business.
I begrudge this time ‘hanging about’, dangling on the end of the phone, on what seems like permanent hold, waiting for a human to speak to before the place closes at five o’clock sharp. I’m casting my eye over a couple of web pages crammed full of customer service research and the results seem to reflect my situation perfectly.
It appears that at this very moment I have become part of the 69% (Harris) who say they’re on hold for way too long. I am also in the same boat as the 72% of all customers who believe it takes far too long to reach a live agent. I’ll say it does!
The similarities don’t end there! Like 80% of customers (Mobius Poll) I would have preferred to have made this call and spoken to someone on the weekend but I can’t. They’re closed!
Just to be clear, this rigmarole is not an isolated incident. This is the SECOND time I have had to go through this process. The last time the person on the other end couldn’t find me in the system and so couldn’t help me until I called back with more information. I’m not alone there either. I don’t want to percentage you to death, but apparently a shocking 50% of the people surveyed by Harris said that agents failed to answer their questions whilst 44% said the information they received was not even accurate. How frustrating!
Little wonder then that research carried out by Gartner found that 85% of consumers are dissatisfied with their phone experience – it just goes to show how annoying call centres of any description have the potential to be.
I have to say, thankfully, I have never been transferred when I’ve finally gotten through to the tax office, otherwise, I really would be tearing my hair out AND I’d be included in yet another statistic – the 94% of customers who just do not want to be transferred to another representative more than once – (Mobius Poll)
The truth is that if this call wasn’t essential to me, I would have given up.
If this was a service that I had chosen to use, I would have transferred to someone else and taken my business with me.
So I guess the key learn here, for anyone that is running a call centre, is how many of your customers are sitting on the end of the line feeling this way about your business?
And how many of them will still be there in the future?
