Study: Brands need to put context in customer service

Some interesting findings from the report include:

• Four out of five say that companies do not have the context of their last conversation, forcing them to start over
• 78 percent say that customer service departments take too long to resolve an issue
• 72 percent said it takes too much effort to handle their situation
• 71 percent cannot easily cross channels (e.g., from the web to the phone) and have to repeat their situation
• 71 percent say that customer service is impersonal, does not know who they are, and does not know their issue.

“Poor customer experience caused by the lack of context is a wakeup call to companies. Today’s consumers engage in stops and starts across channels and devices at will. According to a Google Research Study1, 90 percent of consumers cross devices in pursuit of a single goal and 98 percent move between devices in the same day,” said P.V. Kannan, co-founder and CEO of [24]7. “Unless companies adapt to ‘the new world order of engagement’, they will see high customer churn. Companies must invest in technology that enables the customer’s context to be available on the web, mobile, chat, social, and the phone and on whatever device that the customer chooses to use.”

While considering how to stem the disconnect, brands should also focus on timing. According to the report 78% of mobile consumers believe customer service departments ‘take too long’ to rectify issues and 72% say it ‘takes too much effort’ to fix issues.