A new study commissioned by the CCMA and Odigo highlights a drop in self-service satisfaction across multiple contact reasons.
An excellent example of this is complaints, with just 28% of customers now happy to self-serve them. In 2021, 34% of customers were willing to do so.
Yet, this trend extends beyond submitting complaints. The "Voice of the Contact Centre Consumer 2022" report finds that – compared to 2021 – more customers would prefer human assistance with queries related to a refund, invoice/bill, warranty/repair, routine servicing/technical support, and advice before an order.
Such research seems to conflict with the general principle that customers never want to engage with someone from the contact centre and expect a fully automated experience.
Yet, perhaps something larger is at play. The CCMA engaged with a host of contact centre leaders to discuss the possible reasons for this worrying development. In doing so, another trend revealed itself: a lack of customer trust.
One of these leaders was Anita Renyard, Senior Manager at TSB. In the report, she says:
Some of the self-serve solutions that were offered during the pandemic weren’t great and sometimes you feel like 'no, I want to almost see the whites of the eyes of the people and get a commitment.'
Indeed, it is likely that spikes in contact volumes during the pandemic, combined with staffing issues buoyed by The Great Resignation, could have caused companies to rush self-service deployments. In turn, CX may have taken a hit as brands accelerated the test, learn, and optimise implementation process.