Research and Markets: 2012 Customer Contact Experience Benchmarks Multi-Channel and Cross-Industry: Assessing the Customer Contact Experience in the United States

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/vt5qzb/2012_customer) has announced the addition of Frost & Sullivan's new report "2012 Customer Contact Experience Benchmarks Multi-Channel and Cross-Industry: Assessing the Customer Contact Experience in the United States" to their offering.

This research study benchmarks various customer contact experience attributes such as customer satisfaction, customer experience, and customer loyalty for various industries across contact channels including: live agent phone, IVR, e-mail, chat, and Web self-service. A Web-based survey methodology was used for this study: N in 2012=1863, N in 2011=3001. Industries benchmarked in this study include airlines, auto insurance, banking, consumer electronics retailers, health insurance, online travel companies, personal computer (PC) manufacturers, telecommunications, and utility providers. Phone-live agent is still the most used contact channel across all verticals surveyed. It is followed by e-mail and Web self-service.

Extracts from Executive Summary:

Despite some general trends across all verticals, popularity of certain contact channels varies among industries. Phone-live agent is particularly strong in telecommunications, auto insurance, and health insurance verticals. E-mail is popular within PC manufacturers, consumer electronics retailers, and online travel, while Web self-service is especially popular in the online travel sector, airlines, and banking.

All surveyed contact channels meets or slightly exceeds customers' expectations, which keeps customers loyal. Interestingly, loyalty scores obtained are significantly higher than in 2011, in spite of similar satisfaction and meeting expectations scores.

Usage of mobile devices to contact Web site self-service is a growing and visible trend. It is quite consistent across all surveyed industries (highest for telecommunications, lowest for utilities).

Although customer satisfaction mean scores are fairly high in absolute terms, e-mail, Web chat, and IVR are still not very effective channels for resolving customer issues and queries. Of those customers who initiate contact in one of these channels, many still resort to contacting a phone-live agent to resolve issues or queries. In the case of Web self service, this repeat contact percentage is considerably lower than other channels.

All the results indicate that consumers are fairly accustomed to good customer service in all surveyed industries, and the providers need to optimize the channel mix, while maintaining and improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Companies Mentioned Include:

- AAA

- AT&T

- Acer

- Aetna

- AirGorilla

- AirTran

- Airfare

- Alabama Power

- Alaska

- Allstate

- Amazon

- Anthem

- Apple

- Asus

- Bank of America

- Best Buy

- California Edison

- Capital One

- Chase Bank

- CheapOair

- Cheaptickets

- Cigna

- Citibank

- Comcast

- Commonwealth Edison

- Consolidated

- Continental

- Costco

- Cox

- DIRECTV

- DISH Network

- Dell

- Delta

- Detroit Edison

- Duke Energy

For more information and a full list of companies mentioned in this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/vt5qzb/2012_customer

Source: Frost & Sullivan

Research and Markets
Laura Wood, Senior Manager.
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Sector: Consumer and Personal, Retailing and Services

Source: Research and Markets