Poor customer service costing business

Poor customer service continues to plague Australian businesses, with a new study showing almost half of consumers are unable to have their problems solved by their service providers.

The survey, commissioned by IT vendor BMC Software found 42% of respondents said their suppliers could not adequately solve their problems, while 20% had issues with inexperienced staff manning their calls. The survey said six out of 10 consumers had changed a supplier in the past year.

Customer churn was estimated to cost local businesses $1.5 billion a year, with telecommunications companies the biggest losers. The study said telephone, mobile phone and broadband companies suffered the most from customer turnover, ahead of electricity providers, banks and insurance firms. Seventy-nine per cent of respondents singled out pricing as the main factor for leaving a company, followed by a lack of incentives to stay loyal (48%).

Originally published in Callcentres.net