Poor Customer Service Come - Consumers Leave, VE Study Finds

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, May 04, 2007 --(PR.com)-- The online survey of more than 1,700 Middle East consumers was conducted with the purpose of identifying prevailing consumer satisfaction levels of customer service offered in varying industries including retailers, telecom and internet service providers, satellite TV companies, property developers, hotels, airlines, banks and financial institutions. The purpose of the online survey of more than 1,700 ME consumers was to gain a broad understanding of consumers’ satisfaction with customer service, particularly as technology has assumed a more prevalent role in the delivery of service across industries.

While more than half (54 percent) of respondents reported they quit doing business with a company in at least one industry category in the past year as a result of poor service, some industries fared worse than others. For instance, retailers suffered the greatest number of customer defections due to poor service, which was selected by 21 percent of respondents, followed by banks (17 percent), property developers (13 percent), airlines (11 percent) and hotels (10 percent).

At the same time, enhanced technologies didn’t seem to be improving consumers’ satisfaction with customer service. Nearly six out of 10 (57 percent) of respondents said customer service technologies such as automated phone service and live online chat had not done anything to improve the level of service.

“Good customer service takes a lot of work to assemble within an organization – its got to be integrated into the mainframe functionalities. Esteemed organizations are relatively aware of what frustrates their customers and focus primarily on understanding their customers’ varying preferences and intentions,” said Farid Gasim, Chief Economic Ambassador. “They utilize vital data such as the survey findings to tailor services more towards the consumer’s needs and thus foster consumer loyalty. Training front line and sales representatives is a pivotal factor in ensuring customer service culture is set within the processes to deliver a consistent customer experience.”

The VE survey also provided insights about which aspects of customer service most frustrated consumers. Those most frequently identified by the respondents included:

Being kept on hold on the phone too long (selected by 72 percent of respondents)

Having to repeat information to multiple service representatives (70 percent)

Sales personnel over-promising and under-delivering (66 percent)

The inability of customer-service agents to answer client inquiries (59 percent)

“Industry leaders recognize that customer satisfaction is built on a platform where coordination of every customer interaction is kept consistent with regular monitoring for enhancement purposes,” said Farid Gasim. “As industries evolve with further consumer demand and technological integration, companies that fail to identify customer service as one of the prime priorities risk losing market share to competitors as apparently portrayed in the survey results.”

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