India Inc. top loser in ‘onshore’ customer service - loses USD 2.46 billion every year due to disconnect on customer service
90% of Indian top management ignore customer service as a strategic function
Tweet-- While India emerged as a top offshore destination in a recent survey, the ‘onshore’ scenario on customer service is the reverse. A follow up survey commissioned by Genesys Telecommunication Laboratories confirms the fact that 90% of India Inc. is disconnected on the customer service as a strategic function of the organisation. The first survey revealed that India Inc. loses over USD2.46 billion each year due to poor customer service. The follow up survey strives to understand why C-level executives are ignoring the ‘customer service’ element of their business. The survey results reveal that there is a ‘deep disconnect’ in India Inc. and a mere 10% of C-level executives characterize their customer contact centres as a strategic function. However, about 92% of Indian C-level executives and customer care professionals believe that customer service impacts company’s brand identity. The survey also reveals that only 56% of companies of Indian companies try base decisions on customer lifetime value as compared to that of 73% for the European companies.
Shamsheer Ahmed, MD, Genesys Telecommunication Laboratories India, comments,"Indian Inc. has won global accolades for the quality of its offshoring operations. However, when it comes to serving ‘onshore’ customers, 90%C-level executives seem to be disconnected and that is a wake up call for all of us. We cannot afford to be laid back in serving customers as brand identity and loaylty in the future will be built around this strategic function. Besides, there are significant benefits to the economy if all companies enhance productivity through the customer service function".
Here are few of the highlights:
Strategic vs. Operational Role
- Customer Service in India is slightly more operational than other parts of the world, with 59.2% characterizing their contact centres as operational, compared to 57% globally.
- In India, customer care professionals and executives overwhelmingly agree that customer service impacts the company’s brand identity, with 92% saying so.
- However, only 10% of C-level executives and 15% of customer care professionals characterize their contact centres as largely strategic.
Measuring Revenue and Customer Experience vs. Speed and Efficiency
- In India contact centres are challenged because roughly half of them perform outsourced operations. Whilst this is changing, driven by domestic growth in the economy, many of the metrics used are very much oriented toward speed and efficiency. But they are also significantly ahead of other parts of the world when it comes to using contact centres to generate revenue during interactions.
- The combined views of customer service and C-level executives show that customer satisfaction is a more important metric in India than anywhere in the world (80% vs. 70% globally)
- More than 43% of executives in India said their customer service is measured on revenue per call, but only 34% of customer service professionals validate that notion ― a gap of 9%. Nevertheless, in India organizations are more focused on this metric than their peers worldwide, where only 29% of companies say they use revenue as a key performance indicator.
Capturing Customer Feedback
- In India there is a major (16%) gap between C-level execs who believe they are adequately capturing important customer feedback, and the views of customer service professionals.
- Whilst 78% of the C-level think their company is doing a good job of collecting information on customer and market needs and passing it on to sales, only 62% of customer service professionals agree.
India’s companies rely largely on operational metrics
- Customer satisfaction is a more important metric in India than anywhere in the world (80% vs. 70% globally), as are many traditional operational metrics.
- 84% measure call duration.
- Over 84% measure average speed-to-answer.
- 59% measure first call resolution rates.
- 36% measure revenue per call
More Indian companies are ready to expand services offered to customers
- 79% of companies in India plan to add improve their customer interactions
- 65% want to improve business processes to better address customers’ needs.
- 32% want to offer Web chats.
- 39% plan to add virtualization
Genesys Telecom Labs India engaged an independent research firm, Equation Research, to poll key employees ranging from CEOs to customer service professionals at 927 companies in 47 countries. The 30 question online survey was completed by companies from a variety of markets that included financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, government, retail, manufacturing, technology, and education ― and was not limited to Genesys customers. The result of that effort is “The Executive Disconnect: The Strategic Alignment of Customer Service,” an in-depth look at businesses across geographies worldwide.
A closer look at companies in India helped to better understand the dynamics in this market. Those results are included in this report, “The Executive Disconnect: The Strategic Alignment of Customer Service in India.”
The size of the these companies’ customer service operations ranged from under 500 to more than 10,000 employees, and respondents included more than 35,000 contact centre agents in India, as well as back office, branch, and field level support professionals across occupations and industries.
Notes to Editor
About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
Genesys, part of Alcatel-Lucent’s Applications Software Group, is the leading provider of software to manage customer interactions over the phone, Web and mobile devices. The Genesys software suite connects customers with the right resources – self-service, assisted-service and proactive outreach – to fulfill customer requests, optimize customer care goals and efficiently use resources. Genesys software directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government agencies in 80 countries. These companies and agencies can leverage their entire organization, from the contact center to the back office, to dynamically engage with their customers. As a result, Genesys stops customer frustration, drives efficiency and accelerates business innovation.
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 16.98 billion in 2008 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com
