Demonstrating the frustrations some customers feel with their cable and satellite TV service, new research from Marchex (by way of DSLReports.com) highlights that customers are moved to curse more with these operators in call center customer service settings. Cable and satellite TV operators occupy two of the top three types of firms that engender the most cursing from customers. They are joined in the top three by housing contractors.
The cable industry has put forth considerable effort in the past few years to shed itself of their poor customer service perception. Perhaps they can take solace in the fact that customers seem to be more fed up with their satellite competitors, at least as measured by the amount of cursing that goes on.
The researchers cite long hold times and pricing frustrations as the main culprits. “We conclude that television providers prompt consumer ire for two reasons. First, long hold times are frustrating and some of the cursing the study detected was during these wait times. Second, consumers don’t appreciate being surprised about price or level of service and want products and services with easy-to-understand pricing,” reports Marchex.
Their study looked at more than 1.2 million phone calls placed to businesses by consumers over the last 2 years. Who do customers curse at the least? Veterinarians.
Image courtesy of flickr user drewleavy.
Funny how many times I put in my phone number and the first thing a customer rep asks, "could I please have your phone number!"
Anyway, two nits:
-cable video menus continue to be the laughing stock of the UX/UE world
-it would be great when complaining or making a suggestion that the customer rep says, "yes I will report this to our management review team and someone will get back to you." then i don't need to dream it anymore.