Australia Lags APAC In Online Customer Support

October 11th, 2006: According to a new survey, Australia is dropping the ball compared to its Asian competitors when it comes to using the Internet for customer service and support.

Compiled by callcentres.net and sponsored by customer interaction management service provider Talisman, the survey looked at 113 call centres around Australia, New Zealand and the greater Asia Pacific region during September.

What it found was significantly higher use of online forms of customer support, such online chat and help services in Asian call centres compared to their A/NZ counterparts.

All regions surveyed displayed between 96 and 98 percent use of email as a support tool, however, for A/NZ this dropped to a mere 3 percent for online chat services compared to 35 percent for Asian call centres.

"Organisations in Australia have not embraced the opportunity to differentiate themselves by providing fully-integrated multi-channel assisted service,” says Dr Catriona Wallace, Director of callcentres.net. “Since they are not optimised to handle these different types of transactions, many non-voice calls are not treated with the same urgency.

"Also, it appears that the Asian contact centre industry, a large proportion of which is represented by Asian-based US or European multi-nationals, is strongly influenced in its technology choice by its corporate head offices. In the US and Europe the uptake of web-based self-service is much higher than it is in the Asia Pacific region. This is particularly the case with the outsourcing industry."

Along with representing an established comfort-zone for customers, the telephone remains the quickest and easiest method for support in Australia, so it is no wonder why alternative online methods are not so popular. However, Dr Wallace believes that as the net savvy generation Y begins to dominate the marketplace, this situation will shift rapidly.

"We know that access to Australian call centres is fairly easy, with calls answered after an average of 34 seconds and only four percent abandonment rate,” says Wallace. “Most Australian contact centre managers still believe the demand for web channels is so low that there is no requirement for them to focus resources in this area. However, Generation Y consumers (12-28 year olds) will demand access to these channels in the imminent future so they will have to gear up when this demand occurs.”

The survey also found that:

• Greater popularity in Asia of skills-based routing for online chats and email requests (55 per cent of Asian contact centres compared to 32 per cent in A/NZ)
• Higher availability of online help for customers using online chat and self-service facilities (39 per cent in Asia compared to 24 per cent in Australia)
• Greater reliance on exit surveys after an online customer interaction session to track results and customer satisfaction levels and invite feedback (35 per cent in Asia compared to just nine per cent in A/NZ).

Comment on this story