British consumers lose confidence in call centres

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.

Add comment January 15th, 2009

Call Centre Queuers Prefer Comedy

Call centres are a huge frustration, but despite long waits, being cut off and high call charges, new research by 100% online insurance company swiftcover.com has found that callers would rather listen to comedy, news and heavy metal whilst on hold - proving Brits need something to laugh at while their patience is being tested.

In the research 878 consumers were polled nationwide and the top choices of hold music people want to listen to are:

Comedy 23 per cent
News 18 per cent
Heavy Metal 16 per cent
Current Pop 15 per cent
80s cheese 10 per cent
Classical 9 per cent
Motown 8 per cent

More traditional kinds of hold music like Classical and Motown are wanted less by callers proving that call centres are not listening to what there users really want.

The research also 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. Nearly half (43 per cent) of those surveyed are regularly put on hold for half an hour. In addition, four out of five (81 per cent) of callers have been cut off after waiting for ten minutes or more.

The easy solution to this is (where possible) to go on line. Why are us Brits so intent on getting into queues? I read an article the other day on The BBC website that said that some people in London are sometimes being forced to wait 28 minutes to get served at a Post Office.

The New Year will bring even more queues as the sales start and people will be looking to snap up a bargain. Hopefully things won’t be as bad as they have been in America. The Guardian reports that some people have died or been hurt due to stampedes as some stores have started their sales. No bargain can be worth that much.

You can now buy nearly everything online, from car insurance to clothes - so jump the queues and get online for your bargains.

Add comment December 17th, 2008

Calling for an end to call-centres

Over the weekend I read that, according to research from Nationwide Building Society, 93% of people felt it was important that their calls were handled by UK-based call centres. Furthermore, 79% claimed they would be less likely to deal with a company that used call centres abroad and 52% would switch providers if they found their main bank or building society using a call centre abroad. And the point of their story - call me Sherlock - is probably that Nationwide only use UK-based call centres.

Now, at the risk of sounding like a Union Jack waving, tub-thumping xenophobe, I can see why people feel this way…. I have a credit card with M&S and every time they feel like a chat, I get a call from someone in Mumbai via the lowest quality telephone line you can imagine. Trying to ‘go through security’ with them is a seriously trying experience, and usually several minutes in, I am not only wound-up from asking them to repeat everything, speak louder or clearer, but also racked with self-hate from possibly single-handedly destroying my call-centre correspondent’s love for the nation that gave it cricket, tiffin, railways and er…Girls Aloud. At least with, say, MBNA you get someone cheery in Chester.

Of course, as William Kay’s piece in The Sunday Times noted, one question not asked was “do you actually like using call centres”, with him betting “the percentage answering yes to that would have been a lot lower” and noting that he “once counted 20 options on a Tesco phone line before I could speak to a live person” and finally concluding “please don’t try to kid us that we love phone hell just because we are talking to a fellow Brit.”

An astute commentary for sure, and it does make you wonder whether though companies might save money by ‘off-shoring’ their call-centres, it must cost them money in terms of lost goodwill and eventually customers.

It’s just a shame the piece didn’t mention Swiftcover.com seeing as this particular insurance service is all about fast and efficient online insurance without the need for call-centres at all. No surprise then that this very lack of call-centres and ensuing efficiency is a major reason why Swiftcover.com can enjoy being “officially the cheapest car insurance” according to data from the UK’s leading price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com.

1 comment August 28th, 2007