Half of service agents admit to botching customer calls: Study

Hyderabad More than half of customer service agents say they botch how they record customer requests during service calls - with nearly 40 per cent admitting they regularly fail to understand their customers' needs because they get distracted - according to new research by Pegasystems Inc.

The global study, conducted by research firm Savanta, surveyed customer service agents from six countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific to uncover the difficulties they have helping customers and the resulting negative effects on customer outcomes.

The research found that outdated technologies were causing customer-facing staff a number of headaches, leading to frustration for both agents and the customers they serve. A total of 51 per cent of agents say they have full confidence they accurately take down customer information when manually entering it into systems. Nearly two thirds (64 per cent) say they sometimes become distracted and are unable to be present and fully understand their customers' needs as a result.

When asked what is responsible for slowing them down, over half (54 per cent) of respondents blame the need to switch between applications to enter customer information. A similar percentage (51 per cent) say they are slowed down by having to search systems to find the information for the customer.

Almost half (43) said they had not received sufficient training to search relevant knowledge spaces on behalf of customers to be able to find the answer to their questions. More than one in three (36 per cent) contact center workers report a lack of training is also responsible for the second largest cited customer frustration – contact center staff being unable to provide the best, most empathetic responses.

The overwhelming majority of respondents say that embracing new technologies to help counter these issues would significantly improve their working lives. 83 per cent say they would benefit from all apps they use being available on one screen, while 76 per cent say their lives would be made easier by not having to copy and paste information between screens.

"There's never been a more important time for businesses to arm their customer service operatives to operate as brand ambassadors. Over the last two years, customer expectations have skyrocketed to the point where exceptional service is now demanded as standard across every interaction." said Sabrina Atienza, Director, product management, Pegasystems.