Every six months we ask 26,000 people what they think about the service they’ve received from the UK’s major organisations. We then collate the information and publish the results as the UKCSI.
We add a series of questions at the end of each survey that provide a snapshot of how the nation feels about a particular customer service issue. This time we asked respondents about their experience of call centres.
We get annoyed when the person we’re speaking to isn’t in the UK. Especially as we get older.
Dealing with staff outside the UK emerged as the number one annoyance for the British when they contact call centres and encounter a problem (17.5% of respondents selected this option).
Maybe it’s the subtle (or not so subtle) linguistic barriers, or perhaps it’s the apparent remoteness of the call centre.
An off shore call centre. The UKCSI indicates that the British dislike dealing with remote call centres when there's a service failure.
Interestingly, there was a clear generation gap in callers’ attitudes. In the 65+ age group 26.8% put this as their number one gripe, whereas only 12.4% of 18-24 year olds placed it at the top of their annoyance list.
This could mean many things. One obvious interpretation is that it reflects a generational shift in attitudes towards foreign-ness. Or it could just be that the idea of speaking to someone in another country about your phone bill has been around long enough for it not to phase younger callers.
I’ve already explained my problem
The second most unlikeable aspect of call centres was Explaining yourself multiple times to different members of staff (16.2%). Again, there was a clear age difference in this area, with 22.8% of the 65+ age group placing this at the top of their list, while it frustrated just 11.4% of 18-24 year olds more than anything else.
An upward trend in frustration starts with the 25-34 age-group, so this difference may have little to do with any age-related decline in faculties or an inability to use call technology. Perhaps older callers demand a better level of service than the young, and become more frustrated at being passed around departments.
Be nice to us
So what does annoy 18-24 year olds? Top of their list wasn’t time spent queuing, gaps in staff knowledge or endless hold music, but Unfriendly staff (18.9%). Conversely, as the British become older they become less and less concerned with how friendly their interlocutor is: a tiny 0.6% of the 65+ age group listed this as their major concern.
Again, we could interpret this data (and use it) in many ways. The MySpace generation may deal with officialdom in a more informal manner than the old, who perhaps maintain a distance when discussing their business. As a consequence, this could affect how organisations deal with incoming calls (see this discussion on our LinkedIn group).
But it could also reflect a shrewdness on older callers’ part. Just as they don’t appreciate being passed around call agents, they are perhaps unconcerned with how personable the call agent is. They just want to solve their problem.
A nation of curmudgeons?
The numbers appear to paint a rather irascible picture of the British and their dealings with call centres, which is perhaps unsurprising considering the frustration they can cause.
Joanna Lumley was the respondents' top choice. Image from http://photographyandpolitics.wordpress.com/
Perhaps fittingly, when asked which celebrity they’d like to take their call, they chose Joanna Lumley (14.7%) before anyone else, with Jeremy Clarkson coming a close second (14.2%).
What do you think? What’s the real story behind the British public’s experience of call centres?
A summary of the latest (January 2010) UKCSI results is available from the UKCSI website. If you’d like detailed, sectoral information, you can buy reports from the ICS shop. Press enquiries should be directed to Daryll Newman at Man Bites Dog (0844 561 1416), or ICS marketing and communications director, Duncan Baker (01206 216180).