Genesys study reveals positive views of self-service

Meeting customer expectations more important than reducing costs

A recent study on customer self-service commissioned by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP), surveyed more than 200 North American customer service executives and 300 consumers. “This industry study confirms that self-service is a valuable tool for call center management and also indicates that consumers are growing used to—and preferring—self-service applications for getting questions answered and issues solved,” said Wes Hayden, CEO, Genesys.

Sixty percent of executives say meeting customer expectations and improving the customer experience is a greater priority than reducing costs. According to the study, executives rated self-service as the most important business priority, with most indicating that the greatest value of self-service is its ability to make an organization more accessible to the customer. Seventy-three percent of executives rated self-service a high or very high priority for their business.

The study revealed that 42% of organizations already have deployed speech recognition, or are developing their first application. A notable 85% percent of consumers think speech recognition works satisfactorily or very well, and 65% prefer voice self-service to touchtone self-service. As a result, 62% of organizations using speech recognition have seen an increase in customer satisfaction.

Consumers polled in the study indicated a preference for self-service systems, particularly for routine customer service activities (such as checking an account balance). With increased use of the Web and other self-service technologies, consumers now expect quality self-service as a standard customer service offering.