Latest Investments In Customer Service Falls Short During Downturn

New Accenture research has found that communications and high-tech companies — many of which are falling short in their customer service delivery — need to direct their investments at new levels that enhance the customer experience, including social customer relationship management tools.

The research, entitled “Lessons from the Recession: Where Customer Service and Support Investments Yield Superior Returns for Communications and High-Tech Companies,” revealed that:

• Vendors’ investments to improve customer service were extensive, but improvements were rarely noticed by customers.
• Vendors didn’t provide nearly enough information to customers about the downturn and its impact on those customers.
• Vendors showed preferential treatment to business customers.  Sixty-five percent of consumers said they received no information from vendors about the downturn, compared with 17% of enterprise customers.
• Vendors revealed that they valued the business of enterprise customers much more than residential customers.  Eighty four percent of enterprise customers thought their vendors valued their business; only 40% of residential customers felt the same way.
• Despite vendors’ ongoing efforts to improve customer loyalty during the downturn, the results show that the majority of customers were not loyal to vendors.