Cross-Agent and Cross-Channel Customer Experience Declines in Financial Services Sector, Research Study Finds
Industry performance in 2010 improves over 2009 in some individual channels but falls in cross-channel and cross-agent experience, according to new research from eGain.
Mountain View, CA, March 12, 2010 --(PR.com)-- eGain Communications Corporation (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), the leading provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software for on-site and on-demand deployment, today announced that the North American financial services sector showed improvement in many customer service channels but declined in cross-channel and cross-agent customer experience in 2010, when compared to 2009.
eGain’s 2010 State of Customer Service Study evaluated multiple aspects of web self-service and contact center customer service of 175 leading enterprises in the U.S. and Canada. These companies are equally distributed across eight sectors: financial services, retail, communications, consumer goods manufacturing, insurance, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. The financial services sector included companies across banking, brokerage, asset management, and diversified financial services.
Analysts used a “mystery shopping” approach. Customer service was performance along multiple dimensions: choice of communication channels, email response, web self-service, cross-channel consistency, cross-agent consistency (phone channel) and phone customer service*. Scores in these metrics were then abstracted to an overall Service Quotient (SQ) on a scale of 0.0 to 4.0, for each of the companies that were assessed, as well as for each industry sector and the overall market.
The numeric scores map to the following ratings:
4 Poor (<1.0)
4 Below average (>=1.0 and <2.0)
4 Above average (>=2.0 and <3.0)
4 Exceptional (3.0 to 4.0)
2009-2010 Performance Comparison
Overall performance of the sector improved slightly—from 1.9 (“below average”) in 2009 to 2.0 (barely “above average”) in 2010.
Email customer service received an “above average” rating of 2.5, a slight improvement from last year’s score of 2.3.
Web self-service and interaction choice both performed “below average,” but improved with ratings of 1.7 and 1.9 (versus 1.3 and 1.6, respectively, in 2009).
Multichannel experience took a deep dive, dropping from 1.9 to 1.1 this year. 2010 performance bordered on “poor”—an area of concern as customer communication channels continue to proliferate.
Cross-agent consistency also declined from 2.2 (“above average”) in 2009 to 1.8 (“below average”) in 2010, another big source of customer frustration.
"Multichannel customer experience has suffered in this sector due to the recent market meltdown, although service through some specific channels has improved,” said Anand Subramaniam, VP of Marketing for eGain. "Even so, forward-looking businesses in the sector are adopting a Customer Interaction Hub (CIH) strategy to unify cross-channel and cross-agent experiences to meet the needs of today’s highly connected customer.”
Details of findings can be obtained by sending an email request to pr@egain.com.
About eGain
eGain (OTC BB: EGAN.OB) is the leading provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software for on-site or on-demand deployment. For over a decade, hundreds of the world's largest companies have relied on eGain to transform their traditional call centers, help desks, and web customer service operations into multichannel customer interaction hubs (CIHs). Based on the Power of One™, the concept of one unified platform for multichannel customer interaction and knowledge management, eGain solutions improve customer experience, optimize service processes end to end, increase sales, and enhance contact center performance.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, eGain has operating presence in North America, EMEA and APAC. To learn more about us, visit www.eGain.com or call our offices: +1-800-821-4358 (US), +44-(0)-1753-464646 (EMEA), or +91-(0)-20-6608-9200 (APAC). Also, follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/egain) and Facebook (http://facebook.com/egain).
eGain, the eGain logo, and all other eGain product names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of eGain Communications Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names and products mentioned in this release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies.
* Telephone customer service was included as an additional area of measurement for 2010, and included criteria such as the number of transfers and hold time.
eGain media contact:
Jamie Abayan
Phone: 650-230-7532
Email: pr@egain.com
###
eGain’s 2010 State of Customer Service Study evaluated multiple aspects of web self-service and contact center customer service of 175 leading enterprises in the U.S. and Canada. These companies are equally distributed across eight sectors: financial services, retail, communications, consumer goods manufacturing, insurance, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals. The financial services sector included companies across banking, brokerage, asset management, and diversified financial services.
Analysts used a “mystery shopping” approach. Customer service was performance along multiple dimensions: choice of communication channels, email response, web self-service, cross-channel consistency, cross-agent consistency (phone channel) and phone customer service*. Scores in these metrics were then abstracted to an overall Service Quotient (SQ) on a scale of 0.0 to 4.0, for each of the companies that were assessed, as well as for each industry sector and the overall market.
The numeric scores map to the following ratings:
4 Poor (<1.0)
4 Below average (>=1.0 and <2.0)
4 Above average (>=2.0 and <3.0)
4 Exceptional (3.0 to 4.0)
2009-2010 Performance Comparison
Overall performance of the sector improved slightly—from 1.9 (“below average”) in 2009 to 2.0 (barely “above average”) in 2010.
Email customer service received an “above average” rating of 2.5, a slight improvement from last year’s score of 2.3.
Web self-service and interaction choice both performed “below average,” but improved with ratings of 1.7 and 1.9 (versus 1.3 and 1.6, respectively, in 2009).
Multichannel experience took a deep dive, dropping from 1.9 to 1.1 this year. 2010 performance bordered on “poor”—an area of concern as customer communication channels continue to proliferate.
Cross-agent consistency also declined from 2.2 (“above average”) in 2009 to 1.8 (“below average”) in 2010, another big source of customer frustration.
"Multichannel customer experience has suffered in this sector due to the recent market meltdown, although service through some specific channels has improved,” said Anand Subramaniam, VP of Marketing for eGain. "Even so, forward-looking businesses in the sector are adopting a Customer Interaction Hub (CIH) strategy to unify cross-channel and cross-agent experiences to meet the needs of today’s highly connected customer.”
Details of findings can be obtained by sending an email request to pr@egain.com.
About eGain
eGain (OTC BB: EGAN.OB) is the leading provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software for on-site or on-demand deployment. For over a decade, hundreds of the world's largest companies have relied on eGain to transform their traditional call centers, help desks, and web customer service operations into multichannel customer interaction hubs (CIHs). Based on the Power of One™, the concept of one unified platform for multichannel customer interaction and knowledge management, eGain solutions improve customer experience, optimize service processes end to end, increase sales, and enhance contact center performance.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, eGain has operating presence in North America, EMEA and APAC. To learn more about us, visit www.eGain.com or call our offices: +1-800-821-4358 (US), +44-(0)-1753-464646 (EMEA), or +91-(0)-20-6608-9200 (APAC). Also, follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/egain) and Facebook (http://facebook.com/egain).
eGain, the eGain logo, and all other eGain product names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of eGain Communications Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names and products mentioned in this release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies.
* Telephone customer service was included as an additional area of measurement for 2010, and included criteria such as the number of transfers and hold time.
eGain media contact:
Jamie Abayan
Phone: 650-230-7532
Email: pr@egain.com
###
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eGain Communications
Jamie Abayan
650-230-7532
www.egain.com
Jamie Abayan
650-230-7532
www.egain.com
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