How to Improve on the Highest Weighted Driver of Customer Satisfaction

May 2024 Update

Timeliness of resolution is still the highest weighted driver of satisfaction, and a good call recap can help improve the perception of resolution, but we are seeing some other diagnostics creep in and impact the perception of both resolution and agent knowledge.

As companies are looking for cost effective ways to utilize the operations, it’s tempting to send as many calls as possible to lower cost resources in hopes that these resources can resolve the call.  This may work for the most simple of call reasons, but when the transfer rate to more highly skilled agents starts creeping up to 20-25% of the calls we are advising our clients to rethink their call routing strategies.

When a call is transferred correctly, and under the best of circumstances, there is a drop in satisfaction but we’ve seen top performers limit the negative impact by reducing the need for callers to repeat information that they have already given. Re-authentication and restating their question or problem has a huge negative impact on satisfaction, NPS and other outcome measures. If you are transferring at or above 20% of your calls you are significantly increasing the chance that your callers will have to both re-authenticate or repeat information that is already given unless you are very intentional about reducing the need for re-authentication and a warm transfer where all pertinent information is given to the agent receiving the transfer.

Want to quickly impact satisfaction? Work on both reducing your transfers and making the transfer process less stressful for the caller by reducing the need to repeat any information that has already been given

Original 2023 Article

Since 2011, J.D. Power research has shown that timeliness of resolution is the highest weighted driver of satisfaction for a customer service interaction on the phone with a live person. While this attribute has the biggest impact, knowledge of the representative and the representative’s concern for your needs, which has stayed fairly steady in importance over the last decade, have both increased in importance this year.  

How Do These Factors Impact Customer Satisfaction?

A customer’s experience with a contact center is not all about a binary measure of the customer’s recollection and perception of the experience, specifically, was their call resolved or not. It’s also impacted by interaction processes leading to resolution and key behaviors exhibited by the representative. Is the representative leaving the caller with the perception that they have the level of concern needed to fully understand the problem/issue and how it is impacting them? Do they adequately exhibit the knowledge and skill to resolve the problem/issue?

One very impactful diagnostic measure of performance that is highly correlated with timeliness of resolution is the rep clearly explaining next steps regarding the problem/issue. While customers of top performing companies in our research indicated that this occurs on the majority of calls, the impact when it doesn’t is drastic. Customers that say the representative didn’t clearly explain next steps have a 206-point drop in satisfaction with the customer service interaction overall on a 1,000-point scale.  With a greater than 20% drop in satisfaction resulting from this specific step not occurring properly, it’s easy to see how critical it is to understand how your call center representatives are performing on diagnostics beyond simply call resolution.

Going even further, customers are also more likely to perceive their problem/issue as not resolved or on the path to resolution if a best-practice call recap does not occur and are more likely to call back. This not only significantly impacts their satisfaction but also increases your costs to serve them due to potential repeat calls about the same problem/issue.

What Do I Do About It? Start With This Best Practice.

Contact centers looking to start the year off with increases in customer satisfaction and customer perception of resolution, knowledge, and concern should start with this best practice (and quick win). Ensure agents are performing a call recap with the customer. Our research shows that a good call recap by your agents will include clear explanation of both the next steps in the resolution process and the timing of the next steps. Stress is created when a customer is unsure of the next steps and/or the timing of the problem resolution, and stress reduces the perception of resolution and increases the likelihood to call back, even if the problem may have been or will be resolved.  A good call recap not only clearly explains the next steps, but the timing of the next steps and actions the customer needs to take in the interim (if any).  (Call recaps should also not be perceived as scripted, but that’s a topic for another day.)

Need Help?

If you don’t have a best-practice call recap in place, we recommend adding one to your training (initial and ongoing), monitoring them with your QA program, and having your front-line supervisors frequently coach their teams on call recaps. If you already have one in place, ensure it meets best practice standards, or place an added emphasis for this year. If you’re struggling to understand what constitutes a best practice call recap, or if you want to discuss other gaps-to-great in your contact center, don’t hesitate to reach out.

We’re here to provide the benchmarks, data, and best-practice insights needed to move the customer satisfaction needle the most with the least amount of cost and effort.  

About the Author: Scott Killingsworth is Director of the Customer Service Advisory Practice at J.D. Power. He manages the Customer Service Certification programs and is responsible for developing and maintaining the standards and operational benchmarks for the program. 

The Data Behind the Insight: Each December, J.D. Power analyzes hundreds of thousands of customer service interactions across industries to develop benchmarks and to understand what is driving customer service interactions. This enables customer service leaders to understand the level of service they are providing based on customers’ expectations, and what can be done to increase not only satisfaction with a discrete customer interaction, but outcomes that impact the bottom line: repeat calls, likelihood to purchase/repurchase or to recommend to friend or family member.

Where to find more insights like this:
This blog post was featured in the Customer Service Advice & Insights monthly newsletter. Sign up for the latest customer service channel intelligence >