The results of a survey that measures the economic impact of negative customer experience on UK businesses are to be revealed during the Call Centre & Customer Management Expo event being staged at Birmingham’s NEC next week. A similar survey in Australia calculated the cost of each lost relationship to around US$338.85.

The research from Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories (an Alcatel-Lucent company), quantifies the frequency and value of lost relationships due to poor customer service and also identifies preferred communication channels for consumers. This aims to provide call centre managers with detailed insight and understanding of how valuable good customer service is to businesses and what customers want from their contact centres.

The survey in Australia, New Zealand and India revealed that more than 30 per cent of dissatisfied consumers chose not to spend any money after ending a relationship with a company that did not meet its expectations, resulting in a substantial loss in the amount of capital being injected into their businesses. This highlights the importance of having a good customer service system in place that reduces customer frustration by integrating all methods of contact including, phone, email, web chat, SMS and video calling, with the customer’s total contact and transaction history.

Lucille Jackson, senior marketing manager UK & Ireland, Genesys, said: “The statistics provide novel insight into the importance of customer service for UK businesses. The importance of these statistics is further highlighted by the results of the surveys taken in Australia, New Zealand and India, which showed that businesses in these regions lost a combined USD$5.6 billion each year in revenue due to customer dissatisfaction. In Australia, the average lost relationship was valued at approximately USD$338.85, which alone may not seem like a large figure, but multiplied has the potential to generate large losses for companies.

“The losses generated by poor customer service is a key area for concern and illustrates the importance of having a good contact centre and customer relations. Genesys platforms focus on reducing customer frustration by not only providing integrated contact centre solutions, but also helping to optimise workforce performance and drive business goals.

“A more unified approach to customer services is needed in order to reduce the amounts of customer complaints and lost relationships for businesses.”

Copies of the UK research will be available at Genesys’ stand G5 at Call Centre & Customer Management Expo, Birmingham, September 22-23.