German consumers annoyed by waiting times – British irritated by accents

• Wednesday, 28 February 2007

Wicom Communications presents results of new Call Center Survey

London, 28th Feb 07 – A recent survey conducted by GMI found cultural differences in end-user attitudes towards and experiences with Call Centers in the UK and Germany. The survey was commissioned by Wicom Communications, a leading European provider of all-IP contact center solutions and VoIP enterprise telephony software, and was conducted in February 2007 amongst 1000 end-users in Germany and the UK respectively.

The Call Center contact pattern across the UK and Germany were similar with around a quarter of respondents in both Germany and the UK contacting their Call Centers at least once a week, if not a few times a week on average.

A large proportion of survey respondents (82%) in Germany seem to call their telephony providers on a regular basis, while only just over half of consumers in the UK (54%) contacted their mobile or fixed line operators with their query. In the UK, end-users more frequently dialed the customer service number of their banks. Around 74% of respondents in the UK stated they had called their bank at least once, while this was the case with only 37% of respondents in Germany.

When asked for the motive/reasons behind the calls, answers across both countries were consistent. Around 73% of respondents in both countries contacted a helpline typically for general inquiries.

“It may be a cliché, however the results reflect some of the cultural differences between the two countries. On average Germans tend to grab the phone more often to complain while Brits are more hesitant”, commented Stephan Bahr, Business Development Director of Wicom Communications for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Only 36% of British said they called a Call Center to raise a complaint while almost half of all respondents in Germany frequently called to complain.

Positive marks for banks and travel agents – telephony providers and public sector under scrutiny

Just over 23% of German respondents said that on average their calls were transferred three or more times before they were able to speak to the relevant agent. In the UK, this occurrence was at almost 38%. The survey also set out to investigate appropriate waiting time length when placed on hold, and found that 48% of German and 75% of British consumers often waited longer than 10 minutes until they reached a relevant agent. However, still only one in five British respondents found waiting times one of the most annoying traits of call centers, while 37% of their German counterparts thought this was the worst trait. British respondents to the survey highlighted annoying agent accents as one of the most annoying aspects of having to get in touch with agents in Call Centers.

Both countries showed similar attitudes towards the quality of service across various industry sectors. German and British respondents gave top marks to the quality of customer services for banks and travel agents, while telecommunications, IT companies and public sector organisations seemed to offer lower quality service “This is alarming news for telecommunications companies who tend to be seen to be able to provide a good service in this field”, commented Stephan Bahr.

British end-users were also very strict when it came to giving companies second chances. Around 54% of respondents said they had switched providers due to having received bad call center service. In Germany, respondents seemed to show a little more patience, however still 40% of survey respondents said they had left a current provider as a result of bad customer service quality.

About Wicom

Wicom Communications is a leading European provider of all-IP contact center and enterprise communications software. The Wicom solution replaces all traditional telephone systems, offering the functions of a PBX, mobile PBX and contact center as a single centrally managed system. Wicom software ensures the availability of services and personnel regardless of time, location and contact channel. Currently used in 18 countries with 200+ client organizations, Wicom solutions are available through selected partners throughout Europe. Wicom has been commended for its innovative technology by leading industry experts such as Frost & Sullivan and Red Herring.

For more information, please visit www.wicom.com.

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