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Cape Town - South Africa’s worst customer service is to be found from government agencies and utility providers, according to new research released by the contact centre experts Interactive Intelligence.
The research was carried out by Actionable Research between February and March this year in seven countries, namely Australia, Brazil, Germany, North America, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Aiming to determine what customers expect from companies in terms of customer service, the surveys looked at customer experiences and expectations when dealing with company contact centres.
The South Africans polled for the global consumer survey felt the best customer service came from hotels, in line with the the ranking of respondents globally.
About 61% of South African respondents ranked their customer service as among the best, in line with the global respondents' ranking of hotels.
Online retail stores came in second place as far as best customer service, according to South Africans (41%) and globally (51%).
Third in line for best customer service were banks with 41% of South Africans ranking it and 45% globally.
The worst service came from government agencies with 85% of South Africans ranking them among the worst and 52% of respondents globally.
Second worst were utility providers with 68% of South Africans ranking them among the worst and 34% of respondents globally.
According to Deon Scheepers, a strategic consultant at Interactive Intelligence Africa, the survey's findings indicate that companies and their employees need to move away from the misconception that customer experience is a "touchy-feely, soft" issue.
“Employees must be shown the bottom line impact of bad customer experience and bad customer service,” he said.
“Staff need to understand that the company will not exist without the customer and adopt a mindset of ‘the customer pays my salary’.”
- Fin24
Tell us about your good or bad customer service expiences.
The research was carried out by Actionable Research between February and March this year in seven countries, namely Australia, Brazil, Germany, North America, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Aiming to determine what customers expect from companies in terms of customer service, the surveys looked at customer experiences and expectations when dealing with company contact centres.
The South Africans polled for the global consumer survey felt the best customer service came from hotels, in line with the the ranking of respondents globally.
About 61% of South African respondents ranked their customer service as among the best, in line with the global respondents' ranking of hotels.
Online retail stores came in second place as far as best customer service, according to South Africans (41%) and globally (51%).
Third in line for best customer service were banks with 41% of South Africans ranking it and 45% globally.
The worst service came from government agencies with 85% of South Africans ranking them among the worst and 52% of respondents globally.
Second worst were utility providers with 68% of South Africans ranking them among the worst and 34% of respondents globally.
According to Deon Scheepers, a strategic consultant at Interactive Intelligence Africa, the survey's findings indicate that companies and their employees need to move away from the misconception that customer experience is a "touchy-feely, soft" issue.
“Employees must be shown the bottom line impact of bad customer experience and bad customer service,” he said.
“Staff need to understand that the company will not exist without the customer and adopt a mindset of ‘the customer pays my salary’.”
- Fin24
Tell us about your good or bad customer service expiences.
