Cross-sell offers don’t make consumers cross, survey suggests

Call centers can help companies reach out to customers as well as answering their questions, suggests a new survey. 84% of consumers participating in the survey said they would like to receive proactive communication from their suppliers, and 76% said they would like to hear about other products and services a company offers.

While only 21% said they would like to hear about cross-sell offers when speaking with a company representative on the phone, 82% said they would like to get such offers via e-mail.

The results come from a fall 2006 online survey of 500 consumers age 18 and over who had dealt with a contact center in the previous 12 months. The survey was conducted by Lightspeed Research on behalf of Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc., a provider of software for managing customer service interactions.

The survey suggested that customer service is important in building loyalty. 48% of those surveyed said customer service has the biggest impact on their loyalty to a company, while 37% cited product quality, 13% price and 2% brand name and reputation. 63% said the last time they stopped doing business with a company was at least in part a result of poor customer service.

The survey found consumers are willing to communicate by other means besides telephone. Asked which methods they like to use for communicating with a company, 82% cited phone, 78% e-mail, 28% live chat, and 2% text message.

The survey also showed that consumers expect companies to respond quickly to e-mail inquiries. 20% said they expect a response to their e-mail within one hour, up from 6% when the same question was asked in 2003. 15% expect a response within four hours and 51% within 24 hours. [via]