// This entry was originally posted on the Aberdeen Blog, available here //

Aberdeen’s Service Management research has revealed how customer satisfaction plays a vital role in driving loyalty, retention and increased profitability. In Aberdeen’s State of Service Management: Forecast for 2012 research (January 2012), organizations reporting a 90%+ level of customer satisfaction revealed significantly higher retention, loyalty and service profitability rates when compared to those organizations with sub-50% levels of customer satisfaction.To drive customer satisfaction rates, organizations need to stay keenly focused on call center performance despite the increasing role being played by e-service, social and other non-call center based channels.

Aberdeen’s call center research (December 2011) has revealed that 41% of incoming service requests are still resolved via the call center, more than twice the amount resolved by the second most popular resolution channel (Email at 18%).

Still organizations are struggling to drive resolution rates in the call center. Aberdeen’s data reveals that only 51% of incoming calls are resolved by the first agent and that nearly 20% of all incoming calls go unanswered, significantly impacting customer satisfaction. More so, the adoption of technology solutions such as IVR has compounded the problem with organizations reporting that only one-half of all calls answered by IVR are actually resolved by this medium, therefore negating any perceived cost savings tied to the self-service nature of the channel.

More so, research conducted by Assistant Professor Liel Leibovitz at NYU finds that customers have negative perceptions toward IVR, considering it the least preferred medium when trying to reach customer service.

Service teams, such as the Reward Division at Best Western International, have looked for improved alternatives to enhance the self-service options available to their customers, without incorporating the negative experience associated with traditional IVR systems. In a recent webinar hosted by Aberdeen, Tammy Lucas, Managing Director of Marketing Programs at Best Western International, discussed the recent adoption of a more conversational virtual assistant system that has enabled her organization to provide its customers with increased self-service capabilities while improving the overall customer experience.

To learn more about Best Western’s customer service solution and results from Aberdeen and Dr. Liebovitz’s research on contact centers, feel free to access a complimentary recording of the webinar, sponsored by Interactions Corporation, at http://aberdeen.reg.meeting-stream.com/voice_self_service/