During the peak months of the COVID-19 emergency, corporate contact centers were overwhelmed by a huge number of calls from their customers.
But how did various companies manage this surge in calls and ensure a good customer experience ?
Spitch AG conducted a nationwide analysis to understand how the relationship between consumers and contact centers has changed during this challenging period.
Even during the height of the pandemic, the internet remained consumers' primary choice when seeking assistance from a company. Indeed, most respondents preferred to browse the internet first to seek solutions, followed by calling a contact center. Voice and text chats are on the rise, while good old-fashioned email is losing ground, perhaps due to its lack of immediacy.
When contacting contact centers , users had to deal with peaks in incoming calls during the emergency period. Indeed, part of the sample had a disappointing experience, while shop more than half said they were only partially satisfied, sensing that the company was experiencing problems related to the large number of calls . Only a small percentage reported having a completely positive experience . Among the main problems encountered by those interviewed were queues and extremely long wait times , having to call back several times, and receiving incorrect, confusing, or incomplete answers from the operator.
The positive aspect is that consumers, on this occasion, proved to be understanding of brands faced with a new and unexpected event. Indeed, for the majority of the sample, these negative experiences did not change their opinion of the company in question. However, the percentage of those who did not appreciate the treatment and lost trust in the brands should not be underestimated.
The difficulties encountered are obviously physiological in an emergency context. In the future, significant assistance in managing call peaks could come from automated IVR response systems , the so-called " call center robots ," which are slowly becoming increasingly popular. Of the portion of the sample that interacted with this type of technology, almost all reported a satisfactory level of service. Similarly, during the COVID emergency, a significant percentage of the sample communicated (at least once) with a contact center using exclusively automated self-service systems or a voice bot.