Four out of five smartphone owners say context matters in customer service

CAMPBELL, USA: According to a new survey released today by <24>7, the intuitive customer experience company, today's smartphone owners want enterprises to know the context of their prior customer service interactions in order to provide a better experience.

With the accelerating adoption of smartphones, consumers now engage with the world via multiple channels and devices. These new parameters of engagement have changed consumer expectations as they now demand contextual customer service delivered on "their terms."

The key findings from the survey revealed that smartphone owners have high levels of frustration when customer service does not know the context of the customers' situation. Of the total consumers surveyed, 83 percent were smartphone owners. They indicated that they faced the following issues:

* Four out of five smartphone owners say that companies do not have the context of their last conversation, forcing them to start over;

* 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 when companies do not know who they are or the issues that they have.

"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."

The survey also found that consumers want issues to be resolved faster and with less effort. 78 percent of smartphone owners said that customer service departments take too long to resolve an issue, and 72 percent said it takes too much effort to solve their situation.

"As the survey shows, consumers are increasingly frustrated with a company's inability to offer service in the way that they engage in their lives. Customer effort is a key metric that companies need to get their arms around," Kannan continued.

"To reduce customer effort, companies must offer predictive analytics in omnichannel - the new customer experience that anticipates what customers want and maintains their context across channels. If companies can provide service on the customer's terms, they will be rewarded with increased satisfaction, loyalty and ultimately with sales."