Genesys Survey Shows the Growing Importance of Self-Service in Customer Service

Results of a survey on self-service in the contact centre industry, announced today by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company (NYSE: ALA, Paris: CGEP.PA), clearly illustrate the importance of self-service to contact centre management and its growing acceptance by consumers. The survey, carried out throughout Europe with 235 contact centre managers and 1056 consumers, showed that 68 per cent of contact centre managers see self-service as an extremely high or very high priority. On the consumer side 67 per cent consider a company’s website a highly important factor for their satisfaction and 74 per cent consider speech-enabled IVRs (Interactive Voice Response) as a satisfactory alternative to 24 hour live agent service.

“This survey highlights the critical role that self-service is now playing within the contact centre and in people’s lives. We want service wherever we are in the world – whatever time of day it is. The only way to provide this is through combining multi-channel self-service with live agents,” said Nicolas Kaploun, Genesys senior vice president of EMEA field operations. “Genesys believes that the high quality integration of self-service with live agents both improves the consumer experience and lowers costs.”

Self-service technologies have over the past two decades become a much larger part of the contact centre business. While customer expectations for service have steadily risen and markets have become increasingly competitive, contact centre and customer service executives have been able to consistently increase service across a wide array of channels (such as phone, web and e-mail) while simultaneously reducing costs through enhanced self-service. It is therefore not surprising that 67 per cent of contact centre managers put the need to ensure the same level of service across all channels, whether live agent or self-service, as a key priority.
Executives are increasingly acknowledging that high quality self-service is an imperative for satisfying and retaining customers. 38 per cent of contact centre managers stated that self-service systems were a key determinant of whether customers continued to do business with a company. Consumers were even stronger on this issue with 52 per cent stating that they would be highly likely to stop using an organisation if they had a frustratingly complex IVR.

The survey provides a number of hints on how to ensure customer satisfaction with self-service. For example 82 per cent of consumers consider it valuable to be able to request a call back when having problems on the web and 25 per cent see it as essential to be able to send an e-mail directly from a company’s website. Speech recognition is also rapidly gaining acceptance amongst consumers due to the great improvements in speech technology and its ease of use – 56 per cent prefer speech enabled IVRs over touchtone IVRs. 29 per cent of executives expect speech recognition to be deployed in their contact centres by the end of 2005.

“Both sides benefit from self-service providing efficient solutions to general customer enquiries and transactions – the customer is served quicker while the live agent has the time to help with more complex requests,” stated Nicolas Kaploun. “Top companies also see self-service as a tool that can liberate agents from their traditionally reactive approach to customer needs. Agents can now be more used to build up a stronger bond with the customer through proactive and targeted communication to individual customers. Those organisations that lead with the most sophisticated implementations of self-service can secure a major competitive advantage.”

About Genesys:
Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company, is 100% focused on software for call centers. Genesys recognizes that better interactions drive better business and build company reputations. Customer service solutions from Genesys deliver on this promise for Global 2000 enterprises, government organizations and telecommunications service providers across 80 countries, directing more than 100 million customer interactions every day. Sophisticated routing and reporting across voice, e-mail and Web channels ensure that customers are quickly connected to the best available resource - the first time. Genesys offers solutions for customer service, help desks, order desks, collections, outbound telesales and service, and workforce management. Visit www.genesyslab.com for more information.

Media Contacts:
Paul Roberts
Genesys
0118 9747144
proberts@genesyslab.co.uk