Brits prefer automated customer service to foreigners

Over a third of citizens get angry with foreign call centre agents, says research

Communication struggles with foreign call centres are main cause of frustration

Almost half of UK citizens would prefer to use automated customer service systems than dealing with a foreign call centre agent, according to research.

The study covers 200 consumers aged 18 or more who contacted a call centre over the past 12 months and found that 60 per cent of the respondents were less than satisfied with the interactions with customer service departments.

The survey, commissioned by supplier Nuance, suggests that 46 per cent of those surveyed would favour an automated service than struggle with foreign call centre employees.

The difficulty of understand agents due to language barriers was cited by 28 per cent of the respondents as one of the main reasons for frustration, followed by prolonged wait to speak to an operator (25 per cent).

“Typically, when UK consumers contact a call centre it is often to complete a routine or rudimentary task – they simply want to get that task done, and don’t necessarily want or need to speak to an agent to do it. They want to be served quickly and effectively,” the report noted.

“There appears to be a general recognition amongst call centres that customer service has to improve and we have already seen some progress in this area,” it added.

Companies such as British Airways and Virgin Trains were mentioned in the study as examples of firms that have seen positive improvements after introducing automated customer service systems.

And other firms such as British Gas have introduced call monitoring software to help reduce customer defections and assess training needs for contact centre staff.

A separate poll of 6,000 people commissioned by comedy channel Gold found that Britons are the angriest people in Europe. Communication breakdown with foreign call centres was cited by 37 per cent of respondents as one of the top blood-boiling nuisances.