The Executive Disconnect
1 Nov, 2008
By: Linda Driscoll-DobelContact Professional (CP): recently caught up with Paul Segre, president and CEO of Genesys Labs, a contact center solutions provider for an exclusive interview. Paul’s career includes 15 years of management experience in the network management and workforce management industry. Before becoming chief executive of Genesys, Segre served as the company’s chief technology officer and EVP and chief operating officer.
CP: Your company recently came out with some interesting research on the topic of customer service. Can you share more about this research?
Paul Segre (PS): Sure, Genesys commissioned an independent research firm to survey executives and customer service employees from 927 companies in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific region about the disconnect between what the C-level’s perspective of customer service is and their customer service personnel in the trenches. The results showed a significant gap between the perceptions of CEOs, CIOs, CFOs and CTOs and the customer service managers and personnel.
Let’s face it --- hardly a day goes by without an executive unveiling a strategic initiative aimed at improving the customer experience. As markets become more competitive, customer service is widely acknowledged as a key differentiator. But, if customer service is so strategic, then why do so many consumers and customer service professionals keep asking about the gap between what executives promise and what their companies deliver? We thought this was a question that needed to be answered and we sought out to do just that.
CP: Were there any results that really surprised you?
PS: A couple of different results really took me by surprise. First, the research showed that most C-level executives underestimate the emphasis their organization places on efficiency, and overestimate how easy their organization makes it for customers to purchase during interactions. The research showed that 55 percent of C-level executives believe their operations use average speed to answer as a critical metric, compared to 70 percent of customer service professionals. On a worldwide basis, 67 percent of all organizations considered this a key metric.
CP: Any other parts of the research worth sharing?
PS: Yes, the results on the topic of garnering customer feedback are worth highlighting. The study revealed that there is a major gap between C-level execs who believe their companies are capturing important customer feedback and the views of customer service professionals. For example, while 78 percent of executives think their company is doing a good job of gathering customer feedback on their companies’ products or services and passing that information on to the sales team, only 62 percent of customer-service professionals agree.
Additionally, another disconnect the research revealed was that 92 percent of executives say customer service is key to brand identity, compared with 85 percent of employees working directly with customers.
It is also important to note that 79 percent of companies plan to add services and functions to their customer service operations, including business processes focused on customer-centric needs (37 percent), Web chat (25 percent) and virtualization (21 percent). This is a positive sign that companies are taking action to provide better customer service.
When it comes to reporting, adding efficiency metrics is the number one goal, with nearly 58 percent of companies planning to do so. 45 percent want to identify the reasons customers contact customer service, 43 percent want to better understand how customers interact with customer service and 37 percent want to take advantage of improved caller segmentation to identify high-value customers so they can better serve their needs. As a result, 38 percent of companies have plans to improve efficiency metrics in the next 18 months.
CP: Did the research reveal any information on how contact centers are changing to bridge the gap between the C-suite and the customer service professionals?
PS: Indeed. Many companies have already implemented or plan to initiate priority projects over the next 18 months, to address misalignments in their contact centers. The survey also revealed that companies are offering a variety of contact channels to customers, with three in four companies offering e-mail and inbound phone service.
At Genesys, we interact with top executives and their customer service professionals. We are intimately aware of the challenges they face in having the right information, technology, people and processes in place to deliver on their vision of a great customer experience. We hope this research will be of use to all levels of the organization as they all work to bridge the customer service disconnect.
