Telecoms leaving customer satisfaction on hold?

A recent blog post by the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) entitled ‘Poor complaints processes and customer loyalty in the telecoms sector’ struck a chord with me.  The personal experience cited by the author of calling his telecom provider and receiving a never-ending string of automated instructions to deal with his complaint left him reluctant to re-purchase from this particular provider in the future.

This story is a typical example of using technology to the opposite effect from what it was designed for. Technology should be used to make life easier and reduce costs – but the cost to these companies could be high if processes are not used to simplify the customer journey.

In this extremely competitive sector, where there is little product differentiation and low, if any, brand loyalty, switching regularly between competitors is regular practice as customers search out value for money and expect more from their suppliers and packages. Customer retention in this sector is low, with customer defection high. One of the few areas of opportunity for telecommunications to enhance customer retention is to excel in one of the most critical areas - customer service.

In these days of mass social media, negative word of mouth can spread like wildfire, threatening to ruin brand reputation in a matter of hours (we all know that from EuroStar). So telecoms companies better watch out and get their acts together before it’s too late...