Avaya has published the India findings of the 2012 Avaya Asia Pacific Customer Experience Index (formerly Contact Center Consumer Index).
The 2012 Avaya Asia Pacific Customer Experience Index, now in its fifth edition, surveyed over 2,600 contact center users from India, Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, with over 1,000 unique respondents from India alone. The survey and analysis was commissioned by Avaya and carried out by Australia-based Fifth Quadrant Pty Ltd.
As per the report findings, about 85 per cent of Indian consumers are willing to pay more to a company that provides them with excellent customer service. Also, five out of six consumers are willing to pay more to companies that deliver excellent service, and of those, more than 35 per cent are willing to pay at least 10-20 per cent more. The report asserts that customers understand good customer service, and demand it from every service interaction they have with a company across all the communication channels being used. In fact about, 62 per cent of Indian consumers are likely to move or have already moved their business as a result of a poor response from a customer service center.
The Index findings also reveal that the social media usage in customer service interactions in India has been gaining momentum. About 32 per cent customers are already using social media and/or an online forum for a customer service related query. The top three channels used by the Indian consumers to contact customer service centres are phone conversations (88 per cent), email (77 per cent) and automated and phone conversation (63 per cent).
The research study indicates that social media along with technologies such as smartphone applications and web chat are becoming more popular. These alternative channels are predicted by survey respondents to grow by 33-49 per cent over the next one to two years, demonstrating the growth in importance of the multi-channel contact center.
Despite the growth in the use of non-voice channels, phone based communication continues to be the primary mode of use. The three channels that the Indian consumers believe they will be using more often in the future are email (85 per cent), online phone calls (60 per cent) and SMS/text (56 per cent).
Sharing the research findings, Johnson Varkey, director, contact center sales, Avaya, India and SAARC said, “In today’s scenario, business success of any firm depends on its ability to create compelling customer experience. Our 2012 Avaya Asia Pacific Customer Experience Index further proves this trend with five in six consumers willing to pay more to companies that deliver excellent service. In fact great customer service, along with availability of multiple channels of communication like phone, social media, web-self-service, email etc. can lead to greater customer satisfaction and increase business. Companies must realise that a customer judges the business by its ability to deliver seamless customer service, so it is important to understand the various elements that will determine the quality of customer interaction, and ensure a collaborative communication approach.”
The key Indian consumer trends from the 2012 Avaya APAC Customer Experience Index are:
Live agents will remain as the primary service channel for the long term
Consumers prefer using a live customer service agent, with one third of Indian consumers rating it as their most important factor for their channel choice.
The live customer service agent is preferred for all query types with reasons attributed to the ability to connect quickly at 69 per cent; good for complex issues at 64 per cent and easy to use at 68 per cent.
Web self-service channels are a significant focus for consumers
About 63 per cent of Indian consumers prefer to solve their query by using the company’s website before contacting a customer service agent, and this trend is found to be significantly higher amongst Gen Y consumers at 65 per cent. And 40 per cent of consumers think web self-service is cheaper to use.
At 30 per cent finance, banking and insurance have the highest use of web self-service.
Consumers continue to be less tolerant to poor service
Consumers across Asia Pacific felt that the overall service levels have improved, with significant improvements in India at 64 per cent and Singapore at 47 per cent. In particular, consumers in the hospitality, tourism and entertainment industry appear more satisfied at 91 per cent as compared to 72 per cent satisfaction for consumers interacting with the finance, banking and insurance industry.
Businesses offering a wider range of communications channels may do better
Consumers from India at 72 per cent are significantly happier to use a wide range of contact methods to interact with a customer service center. And 73 per cent of Gen Y consumers are happy to use a wide range of contact methods to interact with a customer service center, whilst both baby boomers at 66 per cent and the silent generation at 44 per cent are significantly less likely to agree with this statement.
Gathering pace ahead of other channels, social media and mobile deliver simple, engaging and convenient user experiences
The use of social media as a customer service channel has seen the highest adoption in India at 54 per cent. At 61 per cent, Gen Y consumers are the highest adopters of the platform as compared to the other consumer segments.
The trend of increasing smartphone application adoption is here to stay, in particular, with 50 per cent of the users from India continuing to look at the smartphone applications more than any other market in Asia Pacific. Also at 55 per cent, it is notably higher for Gen Y as compared to other consumer segments.
