British consumers lose confidence in call centres

January 15th, 2009

A survey carried out by 100% online insurance company swiftcover.com shows that British consumers are continuing to be frustrated by call centres.

The main findings from the survey are that:
• One in 10 consumers have experienced waits of more than two hours
• Telecoms companies offer the worst call centre service
• Four out of five callers experienced poor connections to overseas call centres
• 62 per cent do not realise companies are charging above the standard rate for call centre calls
• Consumers want to listen to comedy, news and heavy metal while on hold.

The Survey found that call centres continue to be one of the largest annoyances to British consumers, with 91 per cent of British consumers irritated by having to hang on the telephone to get through to an operator.

BBC Two programme ‘Losing It’ also found that the thing most likely to make people angry was being kept on hold. 3,787 people were polled for a two-part documentary presented by comedian and actor Griff Rhys Jones.

One of the complaints that people have is that they find it hard to understand the call centre operator due to the call centre being based overseas. Bangalore has now become the call centre capital of the world according to The Telegraph.

Entry Filed under: call centres