Customer Service in the Digital Age: Between Demand and Reality
Successful customer service is a decisive factor for companies. But how do you create the necessary proximity when things are becoming increasingly digitalized? The ZHAW Institute of Marketing Management surveyed around 200 companies from the DACH region for a recent benchmark study.
Customer service is a key element for companies. Despite widespread acceptance of automation, most customer inquiries are still processed manually - at the expense of response times and efficiency. 80 percent of the companies surveyed consider customer orientation to be important for competitiveness. In this context, they rate reliability, friendliness and competence as the key factors. However, companies underestimate the importance of inspiring customer experiences. "In an in-depth analysis, the study clearly shows that customer enthusiasm, together with reliability, is the most important driver of success," emphasizes Frédéric Monard, CEO of the Pidas Group.
Only a small proportion measures customer satisfaction
Only 19% of the companies surveyed stated that they actually record or historicize customer interactions electronically. However, this measurement would be the basis for keeping the value proposition and would sustainably improve the customer experience.
The companies' own and external images also appear to differ. 83% are certain that their customers are satisfied with their service. However, only 13% of companies measure the actual willingness of their customers to recommend them using the so-called Net Promoter Score (NPS). The NPS is of course only a key performance indicator (KPI), but one that is very easy to measure as it only asks about the probability of recommendation. An important key performance indicator, especially when comparing the industry.
"Such measurements not only generate statistical key figures, they also help companies with their self-assessment and should be carried out in a structured manner," explains Pia Furchheim, lecturer at the ZHAW Institute of Marketing Management and co-author of the study.
Manual processing instead of automated processes
If we look at the digital aspects, the difficulties are very clear. Although everyone is talking about digitalization, only just under half (48%) of companies offer their entire range of services digitally. The picture is even worse when it comes to customer inquiries: At 43 percent of companies, these are still processed manually as there is simply no corresponding software in use. This leads to slower response times and a loss of efficiency in processing.
However, there are certainly signs of change here too, as around 53% of companies have already invested in the automation of customer processes and around 24% are still planning to do so. Although the 2018 study showed that chatbots are being increasingly accepted and used by consumers, only 9% of companies actually use chatbots. So here, too, there is great potential that is still untapped.
The current Benchmark study "Customer service in the digital age" was conducted by the ZHAW Institute of Marketing Management in cooperation with the international service provider Pidas. The survey took place in the second half of 2019. A total of 210 companies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were surveyed. The surveys were conducted by telephone. The questions were answered by those responsible for customer service or related functions. The study was conducted for the seventh time.
