Subscribers want telcos to preempt problems

According to a survey by Coleman Parkes, 84% of consumers said they would be more likely to recommend their service provider if the provider was able to identify and preemptively resolve potential issues while 83% said they would be more likely to make a recommendation if they were offered easy-to-use and consistent self service via their mobile device.
 
The survey also found that in addition to helping to increase customer satisfaction, the measures could also decrease call-center traffic.
 
Ian Parkes, director and co-founder at Coleman Parkes, says: “The survey
shows that the provision of proactive care and self-service apps would be a highly effective strategy for helping service providers to increase their NPS and reduce the burden on the call center.
 
But, according to our study, consumers feel that service providers need to improve the online experience with a more consistent and personal service.”
 
Other key findings include:
  • Consumers are willing to embrace proactive care and self-service: 83% said they would follow proactive notification instructions, rather than call the contact center, to resolve issues affecting them individually; 76% would use a mobile app rather than call the contact center.
  • Current proactive notifications and self-service tools are ineffective and can actually increase call-center traffic: 73% of consumers said proactive notifications at present were not useful and 24% of all notifications resulted in a call to the contact center, adding to costs instead of reducing them. Of the consumers who use mobile self-service apps, 78% said they are hard to use.
  • There is a lack of consistency and personalization in consumer interactions: 65% of consumers said their service provider does not know them and fails to provide a personalized service during interactions; only 17% said they receive a consistent response across channels from their service provider.
  • Poor experience holds consumers back from mobile shopping: 72% of consumers have attempted to purchase a product or service online but 51% abandoned the purchase as it was too complicated; 79% said they would be more likely to complete an online purchase if they could switch between channels to continue transactions.
The global consumer survey, sponsored by Amdocs, explores the link between proactive care tools, customer satisfaction and call-center traffic.
 
The research is based on 4,000 interviews with smartphone owners, both prepaid and postpaid customers, in North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.