Poor customer care is one of the top causes of churn for more than half of mobile customers, and the main reason for a third, according to a global survey.
The survey, conducted by Ovum for Tektronix Communications, also shows that 23% of mobile subscribers rate their provider a 5 out of 10 or lower for customer care. A similar proportion plan to switch provider over the next 12 months.
Mobile users lack confidence in the ability of cellcos' customer care agents to quickly pinpoint the source of their problems, particularly when it comes to complaints of inadequate network coverage, poor handset performance or dropped calls.
“Despite significant investment in human resource and infrastructure improvements in recent times, customer care continues to be a challenge for operators,” Tektronix president Lyn Cantor said.
He said while network upgrades are critical to improving performance, the bigger impediment to providing adequate customer care is the fact that most operators' intelligence and organizational structures remain siloed.
“Operators need to combine the data they own with applications that link workflows between their network operations and customer care organizations to speed up identification and resolution of problems,” he said.