BURLINGTON, Mass., July 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- "Your call is
important to us. You are the 50th caller in line."
Whether it's weaving your way through a maze of automated prompts
or waiting for a worker to show up at your house, the service
experience in the U.S. is bound to raise blood pressure. New
findings from a ClickSoftware (NasdaqGS: CKSW) study show dealing
with service issues is causing more than just frustration. It could
be costing Americans $108 billion
annually with an individual loss of more than $750 per person. Businesses stand to suffer a
yearly productivity loss of approximately $900 per employee due to work time spent
contending with customer service inefficiencies. Overall, that's a
$130 billion annual expense to
companies nationwide.
Click to Tweet: #ServiceFrustration could be
costing Americans billions says new @ClickSoftware survey via
@HarrisPoll http://bit.ly/1ymjpve. #custserv
The online survey of 2,051 U.S. adults, 1,197 of them employed,
was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of ClickSoftware in
May 2014. Collectively, employed
Americans reported burning 30.8 potential work hours per year
waiting for service industry responses. Based on the average
national hourly wage of $24.45[1],
that's an average $753.06 that people
lose waiting instead of working. Multiply that by 144 million
employed Americans[2] and the cost of frustrated wait time
experienced by the U.S. population emerges at $108 billion.
$108 Billion Cost
to Americans of Service Industry Wait Times
|
$24.45
U.S. average
hourly wage
|
*
|
30.8
Potential work
hours
per year spent waiting
|
=
|
$753.06
Total cost of time
wasted by survey
respondents
|
$753.06
Total cost of time
wasted by
survey respondents
|
*
|
144
Million
Number of
employed
U.S. citizens
|
=
|
$108
Billion
Total cost of time
wasted by employed
U.S. adults
|
When Americans waste time dealing with service industry issues
during work hours, businesses take a massive productivity hit. On
average, human capital costs a company 20 percent more than an
employee's base salary[3]. This 20 percent added to the individual
American's $753.06 loss reveals an
unaccounted expense of $903.67 to
companies per employee. $903.67
multiplied by 144 million U.S. wage earners arrives at a total
annual cost to businesses of more than $130
billion in lost productivity—attributed solely to service
sector issues.
$130 Billion Cost
to Employers in Productivity Losses
|
$753.06
Total cost of time
wasted by
survey respondents
|
+
|
20%
Additional cost
of
employee to employer
|
=
|
$903.67
Yearly cost to
employer per employee in
productivity loss
|
$903.67
Yearly cost to
employer per
employee in productivity loss
|
*
|
144
Million
Number of
employed
U.S. citizens
|
=
|
$130
Billion
Annual expense to
companies overall
|
"Service industry shortcomings have massive implications—both
for consumers and for businesses—as revealed by this survey, so
organizations that are taking measures to equip their workforce
with tools and analytics to adeptly handle customer needs gives
them a strong advantage," said Steve
Timms, President, North
America for ClickSoftware. "The findings show people want
first rate service, they won't pay extra for it and more than a
third will sever ties if they don't get it. Businesses need to
realize the actual toll poor service quality takes and put a
specific focus on optimizing their existing resources in order to
more effectively serve their customers and improve their bottom
line."
U.S. Service Industry Consumer Frustration Index
The following information provides key insights into how
Americans feel about certain industries and the time spent on
service issues. Employed adults who find fault with the service
sector each selected their top two most frustrating industries.
They then reported the number of hours spent dealing with these two
industries over the course of a year when they otherwise could
have/would have been working.
Industry
|
Average number of
hours spent
dealing with their most recent issue
|
Banking
|
6.0
|
Repair/Home
services
|
5.3
|
Insurance
|
4.7
|
Automotive
|
3.7
|
Healthcare
|
3.1
|
Communication service
providers
|
2.5
|
Public
Sector
|
2.2
|
Retail
|
1.8
|
Utilities
|
1.5
|
Total
time
|
30.8 hours per
year
|
- It's gonna take time.
A whole lot of precious time. As the table above indicates
employed Americans are frustrated about dealing with virtually all
service industries. At least two in five employed adults who find
an industry frustrating have spent at least one hour dealing with
the issue that they could have/would have spent working. The
banking industry is the most time consuming with those frustrated
spending six hours dealing with them that they could have been
working followed by the repair and home services industry where
they could have spent, on average, more than five hours
working.
- Brands are losing
business. Big time. Over one-third (35%) of Americans have
cancelled their service or stopped using that brand altogether due
to a frustrating experience. And a whopping seven in ten Americans
(72%) say their frustrations have caused them to take action of
some sort. Half (51%) have demanded to talk to a supervisor, while
over one in ten have yelled at the service representative (14%) and
voiced their complaints on social media (13%) while smaller numbers
have lied to get better or faster service (6%), begged (3%), or
cried to the service rep, either real or fake tears (3%). However,
seven in ten Americans (71%) say they would not pay anything more
for VIP service or premium appointments.
- Frustration comes in
many flavors. Besides the industries themselves being
frustrating, there are also frustrating aspects of actually making
and going to the service appointments. More than two in five
Americans say waiting for the service rep (44%) and being put on
hold while on the phone with the service rep (43%) are among the
most frustrating while almost two in five (38%) say it is service
representatives who do not know how to fix the problem. Around
one-third of U.S. adults say among the most frustrating things is a
service rep who doesn't understand the problem (35%) or who have to
come back because the problem wasn't fixed (32%) while one in five
(21%) say it is billing issues and around one in ten each say it is
scheduling the appointment (12%) and calling to make the
appointment (10%).
- Can companies do
anything to improve their services? Yes they can. Around
half of U.S. adults say companies can provide customers more
frequent and exact estimate arrival times via their preferred
method of contact (52%) and show they understand them as a customer
(49%) to improve their services. Around two in five Americans say
companies can proactively update them on the progress of their
problem (43%) and share more accurate service estimates by
understand the full extent of the job and required part(s) (39%) to
improve their services while around one-quarter say companies can
provide more opportunity to communicate with service reps (27%),
schedule appointments via phone (23%) and schedule appointments via
other methods (23%).
"Ultimately, satisfied customers help drive retention and
profitability for service organizations. Our research found those
that reached a 90%+ customer satisfaction rate achieved an annual
6.1% growth in service revenue, 3.7% growth in overall revenue, and
an 89% level of customer retention," said Aly Pinder, Senior Research Analyst, Service
Management, Aberdeen Group[4].
"Today solutions exist to alleviate consumer frustration.
Considering the high cost to the bottom line, there is no
justification for under-performance. Service organizations of all
sizes should consider adopting automated tools to improve
forecasting, planning and invest in mobile tools to provide field
workers better access to information and the ability to communicate
in real-time."
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted
online within the United States
between May 12 and 14, 2014 among
2,051 adults aged 18 and older by Harris Poll on behalf of
ClickSoftware via its Quick Query omnibus product. Figures for age,
sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were
weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual
proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used
to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online. For complete
survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact
clicksoftware@mslgroup.com.
About ClickSoftware
ClickSoftware (NasdaqGS: CKSW) is the leading provider of automated
mobile workforce management and service optimization solutions for
the enterprise, both for mobile and in-house resources. As pioneers
of the "Service chain optimization" concept, our solutions provide
organizations with end-to-end visibility and control of the entire
service management chain by optimizing forecasting, planning, shift
and task scheduling, mobility and real-time management of resource
and customer communication.
Available via the cloud or on-premise, our products incorporate
best business practices and advanced decision-making algorithms to
manage service operations more efficiently, in a scalable,
integrated manner. Our solutions have become the backbone for many
leading organizations worldwide by addressing the fundamental
question of job fulfillment: Who does What, for Whom, With what,
Where and When.
ClickSoftware is the premier choice for delivering superb
business performance to service sector organizations of all sizes.
The company is headquartered in the
United States and Israel,
with offices across Europe,
Latin America and Asia Pacific. For more information, please
visit www.clicksoftware.com. Follow us on Twitter.
[1]
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2014/07/03/more-than-half-of-2014s-new-jobs-pay-higher-than-average-wage/
[2] http://www.dlt.ri.gov/lmi/laus/us/usadj.htm
[3]
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/capitolreport/2014/07/03/more-than-half-of-2014s-new-jobs-pay-higher-than-average-wage/
[4] Aberdeen Group, "Secrets to Optimize Field Service for
Better Customer Experiences" September
2013
Media Contacts:
|
|
|
|
Kristin
Amico
|
Tiffany
Darmetko
|
ClickSoftware
|
MSLGROUP
|
781-272-5903 ext.
2364
|
781-684-0770
|
kristin.amico@clicksoftware.com
|
clicksoftware@schwartzmsl.com
|
Photo -
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140715/127216
SOURCE ClickSoftware