Bad service delivery to most customers : Oracle survey

Most customers have bad experiences with organisations trying to provide them a service, according to Michel Van Woudenberg, the Asia Pacific Vice President for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) at Oracle. Further, he cited the 2011 Customer Experience Impact (CEI) Report, based on a survey commissioned by CRM company RightNow (acquired by Oracle in March 2012), and conducted by Harris Interactive, which stated that only 1% of customers feel that their expectations for a good customer service are met.

Mr. Van Woudenberg made these comments while briefing the media recently in Colombo about Oracle's Customer eXperience (CX) product range. In this, his first visit to Sri Lanka, he noted that he had made presentations about this to local companies in the Banking and Insurance sectors, as well as to telcos and retailers.

He also noted that customers no longer trust the service vendors or providers for accurate product infor- mation but instead trust each other. And, offering up a 'high involvement' industry such as banking as an example, he referenced the Ernst & Young Global Consumer Banking Survey 2012 which stated that 44% of customers use social media as a source for product information while 71% seek advice from friends, family and colleagues.

Additionally, he also indicated that customers are more willing to dump a brand following a bad experience and, as per the 2011 CEI Report, 89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience.

Again citing the Ernst & Young Global Consumer Banking Survey 2012, Mr. Van Woudenberg noted that 27% of customers will post a negative comment on a social networking site like Facebook and Twitter after a bad experience. He also added that 79% of consumers who shared complaints about poor customer experience online had their complaints ignored.