Customer Perception Does Matter

Customers really do have a preference and perception about the way they are being helped.

In fact, a poll conducted in 2003 by Harris Interactive for Nuance Communications Inc., a Burlington, Mass.-based provided of voice-automation solutions, found that 88% of consumers report the customer service they receive is either influential or very influential in their perception of a company.

Telephone automated response systems contribute to that perception. The Harris research reveals that 61% of consumers try to use automated phone systems, but only 11% report success in those endeavors, and another 37% immediately press zero to talk with a live service rep because they don't believe the automated system can help them.

This is from an article Aetna Customers Talk Back

This article stems from some results that were presented at the SpeechTek Conference in San Francisco. I attended the presentation yesterday made by Dottie Verkade and shared 3 important insights from what they learned to help them build the successful "Aetna Voice Advantage" program (which gave them a 15% completion rate - 4% higher than the average):

1) Callers who can use their own language and have an option to talk to a service rep at any point will stay in the automated process longer and have higher completion rate.

2) Callers want to be able to have control over the interaction; to go at their own pace, start and stop when they want.

3) Callers want to be gratified with incremental indications of completion and a sense of location in the process.