If you’re like most of your peers, you’re on the lookout for fast and effective ways to cut expenditures in today’s cost-constrained environment. On the top of many executives’ lists – relaxing their average speed of answer (ASA) to cut back on staffing requirements. It’s an instant win for many contact center executives, but not one they exercise freely.

The prevailing belief is customers don’t want to wait on hold, so we’d better pick up the phone fast.  Companies spend significant resources to determine what ‘fast’ means to the customer, closely benchmarking their service levels with their peers. Changing their goal from 80% of calls answered in 20 seconds to 90% answered in 30 seconds becomes an agonizing decision without the right data.

So, what are customer breaking points?  Turns out there are greater tolerances for waiting time variance than often thought:

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• Customers preferences peak at 30 seconds, which seemingly indicates that they expect to wait that long, or possibly even that customers like to wait.
• Roughly between 30 and 50 seconds is when service levels impact the experience, though only marginally.
• Beyond 50 seconds the experience reaches a true impact point.

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I’ve talked to hundreds of customer service leaders around the world about their strategies and challenges.  One of the questions I’m often asked is about the big trends we see coming down the pike.

Before talking about where we’re going, I usually tell our members that they first need to think about where we’ve been. 

Without a doubt, the biggest single trend we’ve seen over the past five years has been the shift away from a rote focus on productivity to a much greater focus on the quality of the customer experience. 

Some suggest the “Great Recession” has prompted a return to productivity focus, but we think the rumors of quality’s demise are premature.  As a trend, it’s better to think of the shift toward quality as “global warming,” not simply a “warm summer.” Read More »

Welcome to Customer Service Buzz, a blog from the Customer Contact Council (CCC).  We provide quantitatively-proven, rigorously vetted and unbiased insights on issues facing the world’s best network of customer service/support professionals. 

One of the best parts of our jobs are the ongoing conversations we have with the 500+ companies across our membership to understand their most pressing needs and their current approaches to solve problems facing their companies.  The CCC team is eager share our findings and start a conversation with those, like you, who want to get the pulse of customer service.

 So, what can you expect from the Customer Service Buzz?

• Views on emerging customer service issues and trends
• The latest updates on our ongoing research initiatives
• The inside scoop on what fellow customer service executives are talking about

We can’t promise you we’ll always have the answer, but we can promise thought-provoking and cutting edge commentary on the world of customer service.  We look forward to hearing from you too.