Superior Customer Service Capabilities4

Accenture Electronics & High Tech Solutions

Superior Customer ServiceCapabilities: Key Factors in theJourney to High Performance

2 Accenture Communications & High Tech Solutions

Superior customer service is one ofthe hallmarks of high-performancebusinesses. In fact, for high-techcompanies, service that exceedsthe industry norm has become vir-tually required to ensure repeatbusiness and strong customer loy-alty. This observation is supportedby recent Accenture research,which has found that even com-panies providing an “average”service experience are at risk oflosing a substantial percentage ofcustomers.

Yet, many companies delude them-selves into thinking that their serv-ice experiences truly please theircustomers—when, in fact, cus-tomers as a group are more angrythan ever about their encounterswith companies’ service organiza-tions and are taking to the Internetto express their displeasure, oftenin vivid color via online outletssuch as YouTube. Accenture hasfound while companies applaudthemselves for the “improvements”they have made in their servicecapabilities, their customers aredesperately seeking—and oftenfinding—alternative providers oftoday’s most desired high-techproducts.

Figure 1Level of satisfaction with customer service directly correlates with stated loyalty to provider

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ExtremelyHigh

More loyal

ModeratelyHigh

AboutAverage

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ExtremelyLow

Customer Service Satisfaction RatingEffect on Loyalty

More disloyal

In this paper, we draw on severalcomprehensive Accenture surveys(see page 9) to explore the extentof the customer service challengefacing high-tech providers—includ-ing the wide disparity of percep-tions between companies and theircustomers on critical aspects ofcustomer service. We also discussfour key steps that companiesmust take to create superior customer service capabilities thatfoster a high degree of customerloyalty that ultimately results instronger financial performance for the business overall.

Customer Service and Support White Paper 3

Loyal customers can havea major, positive effect ona company’s bottom line,but companies’ approachesto service are drivingmany customers away.There’s clearly a relationshipbetween customer satisfaction andloyalty. But companies may not beaware just how critical a role thatcustomer service plays in creatinga satisfying customer experience—and, hence, in engendering loyalty.Indeed, Accenture’s technologyindustry customer service and sup-port surveys confirmed what mostpeople intuitively know: that themore satisfied a customer is withthe service received, the more loyalhe or she becomes—and vice versa.In fact, consumer technology cus-tomers that have an extremelyhigh satisfaction experience arenearly 300 percent more loyal thanthose that have an average satis-

faction experience. Those that havean extremely high satisfactionexperience are nearly 2.5 timesmore likely to repurchase from thatsame company than if they had anaverage satisfaction experience.But stunningly, only about one-fourth of consumers said that theywould buy again from a companythat, in their minds, provides onlyaverage service, and just 19 per-cent said they were likely to bemore loyal to such a company.

That means technology companieswhose customer service capabili-ties are only as good as those oftheir competitors will likely losenearly 75 percent of their cus-tomers, and companies with whichcustomers have a moderately highlevel of satisfaction stand to onlyget about half of those customersto buy from them again.

As if that’s not bad enough, cus-tomers today have potent toolsthat enable them to loudly expresstheir displeasure with companiesto anyone with an Internet con-nection—thus potentially having afar greater impact on a company’sfuture business than in the “olddays,” when a customer’s sphere ofinfluence was limited to family andothers with whom they had regularcontact. In other words, companiesthat don’t deliver superior servicerun the risk of incurring the wrathof bloggers, creative “YouTubers,”and even regular customers whopost their experiences on a host of“review sites” such asEpinions.com,theconsumersreview.com, reseller-ratings.com, and gethuman.com.The potential damage to the reputations and business of poor-performing companies is virtuallyunlimited in a world where tech-savvy, networked customers holdenormous power.

“Word of mouth is much more powerful than it’s ever been. Customersaren’t going to write many letters to companies any more. They are goingto blog about you, and the smart companies are going to find those blogs.”-Robert Stephens, Founder and Chief Inspector, The Geek Squad.

Figure 2Level of satisfaction with customer service directly correlates with propensity to be a repeat customer

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4 Accenture Electronics & High Tech Solutions

Figure 3High-tech executives’ perception of customer service satisfaction

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74% above average

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To be sure, many factors contributeto high levels of industry churn—maturity, level of competition andtechnology substitution, to name afew—and these survey results donot reveal these underlying causes.They do, however, show that thereis a direct relationship betweenhow satisfied customers are withthe service they receive and howlikely they will be to continue topatronize a provider. Indeed, anycompany that believes simply gen-erating an average to somewhatabove-average level of customersatisfaction with its service willsecure its customer base could finditself sadly mistaken. To the con-trary, providing average service—just to save money on what’slargely viewed by most companiesas a cost center—is an open invita-tion for customers to shop else-where.

There’s considerable disparity between howcompanies and customersperceive the state of customer service, as well asin the service prioritiesexpressed by each group. The preceding findings clearly showthe importance that customersplace on quality service—a fact that,at least on the surface, has notescaped the notice of companyexecutives. In fact, VP-and-abovelevel executives of leading globalhigh-tech companies who partici-pated in Accenture’s technologyindustry customer service and sup-port surveys emphasized their beliefthat customers’ service expectationshave increased substantially inrecent years. When asked to ratethe degree to which their cus-tomers’ expectations for service andsupport is increasing (on a scale of1=increasing to a small extent and10=increasing to a large extent),three-fourths of executives surveyedgave a rating of 8.

Yet despite executives’ tacitacknowledgment that customerswant much more from their service

interactions with providers, com-panies and consumers differ intheir impressions about severalaspects of service—with the moststriking difference relating to serv-ice quality. High-tech executives inAccenture’s survey think the after-sale service and support their com-panies provide is well above aver-age, and many believe their com-panies’ efforts have kept pace withcustomer expectations. In fact, 80percent of executives polled saidthey would describe the customerservice satisfaction of their overallcustomer base as moderately orextremely high, with 54 percentrating their service and support an8 or higher on a scale of 1=verypoor to 10=excellent. Furthermore,three-fourths of executives saidcustomers’ satisfaction with theservice they receive is above aver-age, with 57 percent estimating itwas moderately high and 17 per-cent saying it was extremely high(Figure 3). Asked to compare theircompany’s performance to theircompetitors, fifty-four percent ofthe surveyed Vice Presidents saidthat their customer service capa-bilities are among the best in theindustry.


Figure 4Benefits executives believe their new self-service capabilities have generated

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Faster resolution of customer problems

Higher customer satisfaction

Lower costs

Decrease in calls to the call center

Higher costs

Slower resolution of customer problems

Increase in calls to the call center

But consumers have a differentopinion. Many, in fact, believecompanies are falling far short oftheir expectations for customerservice from providers of high-techproducts and services, as evidencedby the following statistics fromAccenture’s technology industrycustomer service and support surveys:

• 57 percent of consumersdescribed themselves as some-what upset, very upset orextremely upset when theyaccessed customer service chan-nels from such providers

• 78 percent of consumers stillbelieve their provider’s customerservice is at or below the level ofservice offered by competitors

And those are not the only areas ofdisparity between companies andtheir customers. For instance, 77percent of high-tech executivesreported having implemented newcustomer self-service capabilitieswithin the past two years—andbelieve these new capabilities havehad a very positive impact on theorganization (Figure 4): Ninety-three percent said they’ve seenfaster resolution of customer prob-lems and 74 percent said they nowhave higher customer satisfaction.

But one gets a different impressiontalking with customers. Nearly half(46 percent) of the consumers inthe survey said they have had toaccess customer service channelsbetween two and four times toresolve their problems, and 18 per-cent said they have had to do somore than four times. And, despitecompanies’ “new capabilities,” one-third of consumers rated their cus-tomer service experience with suchproviders about the same as—and22 percent said it was worsethan—two years ago (only 14 per-cent rated their experience “muchbetter”). Overall, 61 percent ofconsumers believe technology hasnot improved the service theyreceive from high-tech companies.


Furthermore, when looking at theservice agendas for companies andtheir customers, it’s apparent thatthe two groups aren’t even close tobeing on the same page (Figure 5).For instance, consumers’ two mostimportant wishes for customerservice are to have their problemsolved completely (ranked first,cited by just under 70 percent ofrespondents) and quickly (rankedsecond, named by 65 percent).

Conversely, the top service agendaitem for companies—increasingrevenue opportunities from serviceand support—is completely compa-ny-centric and has little to do withcustomers. Similarly, while only 11percent of consumers said theyvalue the ability to solve a problemthemselves with online tools, near-ly 40 percent of high-tech execu-tives said increasing customer self-help capabilities via the Web was a

top-three agenda item for them inthe coming year (good enough forsecond place on their list).

In sum, companies have a long way to go before their customer servicecapabilities provide the experiencecustomers seek.

Figure 5Top priorities for customer service: companies versus customers

Increasing revenue creation opportunities from service and support 43%

Increasing customer self-help capabilities via the web 37%

Becoming more efficient in handling service calls 31%

Improving product quality through insight and action based on customer service data 31%

Improving call resolution times 29%

Improving underlying information technology systems for customer service and support 26%

Improving the quality of agent support our customers receive 20%

Doing more selling during the support process 14%

Increasing customer self-help capabilities via IVR 6%

Selling new extended support agreements 3%

Completeness of solving my problem 69%

Speed of solving my problem 65%

Solve my problem with one service agent 45%

Use a logical and efficient process to solve my problem 38%

Ability for me to quickly reach a live service agent when desired 35%

The ability for me to solve a problem myself with online tools 13%

Companies’ top priorities

Consumers’ priorities


Four key actions can helphigh-tech companiesdeliver the kind of servicethat customers demand.Is it reasonable to expect thathigh-tech companies can rise tothe challenge? In a sense, theyreally have no choice.

In our work with clients around theworld, Accenture has found thatcustomer expectations are crossingindustry boundaries at an increas-ing rate—to a point at which thenotion of different service stan-dards for different industries is athing of the past. Today, manyorganizations face dual threatsfrom rapid commoditization andincreased competition, which areeroding their traditional advan-tages and undermining customerrelationships. And guess what? It’sonly going to get more difficult inthe future, especially given theemergence of two major trends:the growing complexity of prod-ucts and service bundles and amassive divergence in needs andexpectations as customer segmentsbecome more fragmented. Thesetwo trends will be a driving forcebehind the need for companies tostop making incremental improve-ments to how they respond to cus-tomers’ request for assistance and,instead, completely reinvent cus-tomer support and service.

Four key actions should be part ofthat effort:

Address customer support early inthe support lifecycle.As customer requests for help getescalated in a company, the cost toserve that customer and addresshis or her needs increases dramati-cally. That’s why it’s vital for com-panies to do what they can toresolve customer issues as early aspossible—by, for instance, loadingonboard customer “help” optionsonto a new system, deliveringtechnical updates automaticallythrough online customer touch-points, and providing system diag-nostics to provide support person-nel with better insight into theservice problem. These capabilitiesall lead to reduced time to resolvea service event and in some casescan prevent a service event, whichis in alignment with the customer’sultimate desire.

One company that has effectivelyaddressed customer support earlyin the lifecycle is OracleCorporation, one of the world’slargest providers of enterprise soft-ware. Oracle recently won theService & Support ProfessionalsAssociation (SSPA) Star Award forInnovative Support for its develop-ment of real-time diagnostic andmonitoring capabilities that identi-fy system performance problemsbefore they affect a customer’sbusiness. Oracle developedConfiguration Support Manager(CSM), a proactive automatedcapability that provides its cus-tomers a simpler way to track,

manage, and support their config-urations while reducing the risk ofunplanned system downtime. Byintegrating Health Checks andProduct Alerts with ConfigurationSupport Manager, Oracle is able tooffer automated secure notifica-tions that identify potential risksto a customer’s IT environment andprovide proactive advice and cor-rective actions to avoid loss ofservice.

Use technology more effectively.Technology can either enhance ordestroy the service experience.Judging from responses to anotherAccenture research effort—theAccenture Customer ServiceSurvey—it’s doing the latter inmany companies. A majority ofparticipants (58 percent) in thatsurvey said they are not at all sat-isfied with automated telephonecustomer service, which manycompanies have implemented in anattempt to control escalating callcenter costs. But there’s a differ-ence between simply replacinghumans with an IVR system to cutcosts and optimizing the use of IVRas part of a larger effort to makean organization more customercentric. The latter requires muchmore than simply “dropping in” anew system. Furthermore, as oneglobal software company discov-ered, there are many technologiesthat can have a major impact oncustomer service—not just thosethat customers use directly.

“Customer service starts from customer focus, so our group is trying thebring the service needs of the customer into the product right from thebeginning.” -Mr. Yoon C. Lee, Director of Product Development, Samsung.


Accenture’s expertise was put towork recently at BEA Systems Inc.,which found its service and sup-port infrastructure facing numer-ous challenges during a period ofunprecedented growth. For exam-ple, in addition to having to keepup with a growing array of serviceofferings, the company’s supportorganization found itself spreadacross multiple locations and lacking the necessary supportingtechnology and processes.

BEA teamed with Accenture on acomprehensive program to addressBEA’s support organization chal-lenges—with the ultimate goal toimprove customer satisfaction andcost to serve. Accenture workedwith BEA to segment its customersand offerings to better understandhow each would be best supported.Finally, Accenture created a newscalable support organization withnew technology tools and anInternet portal for customer self-service.

As a result of the initiative, BEAincreased revenue from a new“higher touch” offering, increasedproductivity of its support person-nel by as much as 40 percent, dou-bled case submission via lower-cost Web channels, increased calldeflections via usage of customerself-service by 15 percent, andreduced response time by 50 percent for its most important customers, improving customersatisfaction.

Help agents to be more capableand personable.Consumers in the AccentureCustomer Service Survey showed aclear preference for the humantouch. Eighty-two percent of par-ticipants said when they seekadvice, they call for assistance. Yettwo of the most frustrating aspects

of customer service for these con-sumers are agents not having theanswers customers need and repre-sentatives who are not personable.Furthermore, “the inability of repsto fix the problem” was the topdriver of dissatisfaction with digi-tal products and services providersamong participants in theAccenture Converged Digital HomeSurvey. To address these issues,companies must more effectivelyprovide agents access to the infor-mation (customer, product, andtransaction) they need to do theirjobs, and institute better agenttraining and development pro-grams to encourage and rewardappropriate behavior.

An excellent example of an organi-zation that has taken this to heartis New York City’s Department of ITand Telecommunications. New YorkMayor Michael Bloomberg believedthe city could better serve its citi-zens by implementing a central-ized, all-purpose call center—accessible by dialing 311—thatwould quickly direct callers to theinformation or resources theyneeded, any time of the day ornight. The city’s technology depart-ment built and launched the newcitizen service center and hotline,which is supported by a searchablerepository of information on morethan 6,000 aspects of city govern-ment; an entirely new, integratedcall center operation; and newoperational processes using com-mercially available customer con-tact software applications andcontent management tools. NewYork citizens now can dial the hotline anytime to speak with acitizen service representative, whocan help callers with a wide rangeof service requests and informationin 170 languages. The integratedsystem provides callers with morepersonalized service, faster prob-

lem resolution and easier access to knowledgeable help.

Create a superior customer service experience.The majority of customer serviceexperiences are long and painful.For instance, in the AccentureCustomer Service Survey, 54 per-cent of consumers likened theirinteractions with customer serviceto “driving in city traffic: slow andoften requiring alternative routesto reach their destination,” while24 percent said their interactionswere “like being stuck in trafficgridlock with no chance of movingforward or going back.” Thesehardly sound like the perspectivesof happy customers. Companiesthat can break the mold of subparservice and establish a differentiat-ed, positive service experience willwin fans in the short term andcompetitive advantage over thelong haul.

To take the driving metaphor a little further, consider what high-tech companies can learn aboutthe service experience from a master: Lexus. The car companyhas built its reputation on provid-ing an exceptional service experi-ence to match the quality of itsautomobiles. In studying Lexus’ssuccess, high-tech executives couldsee that creating a superior cus-tomer service experience requirescompanies to shift their thinkingfrom service starts after the sale toservice sells the product; fromservice is elective—the customerhas to ask for it—to service isembedded in the product or solu-tion; and from service is operatedas a cost center (with “call avoid-ance” being a key metric) to serv-ice is operated as a profit center(with customer intimacy being adifferentiating feature).


It’s time for companies to recognize the criticalrole that service plays ingenerating customer loyalty and achieving high performance.Breaking out of the customer serv-ice morass requires an entirely newapproach to designing, buildingand sustaining customer supportand service capabilities.Accenture’s research and clientexperience confirm that all theincremental improvement in theworld won’t create the capabilitiesnecessary to keep customers in thefold in today’s hyper-competitive environment.

As we have seen time and again,service often spells the differencebetween mediocre companies, poorperformers and market leaders.Given the results of Accenture’sresearch, one could argue thatmany, if not most companies arefailing the service test today. Thisis unfortunate because the tools,approaches and resources existtoday for companies to createworld-class customer service capa-bilities that live up to customers’expectations while remaining fis-cally sensible. While such capabili-ties may be considered by manycompanies to be an option today,they will be a competitive necessi-ty tomorrow—especially for thoseorganizations seeking to buildenduring customer loyalty andachieve high performance in anever changing world.

Accenture research contributing to this reportOur insights presented in thisreport are not simply conjecture;to the contrary, they are rooted incomprehensive, ongoing researchthat Accenture conducts on relatedtopics—as well as on our extensiveclient work in the customer serviceand support arena.

1. BPRI Group fielded research ofVice President-level service andsupport executives at 35 globaltechnology companies regardingtheir customer support and service practices, capabilities, and infra-structure. The survey was initiatedin August 2006 and completed inNovember of 2006.

2. The survey of customers of con-sumer technology companies wasfielded between January andMarch 2007 by the LightspeedConsumer Panel. It included over1,200 consumers in Italy, UnitedKingdom, France, Germany, Japanand the United States, who werepolled on their perceptions gleanedfrom over 1900 technology-related service incidents.

3. Accenture Customer ServiceSurvey (2005 and 2006): Survey ofmore than 2,000 consumers in theUnited States and United Kingdomon perceptions of customer serviceacross 10 types of providers,including high-tech and communi-cations products and servicesproviders.

Authors: For more information on customerservice in the technology industry,please contact:

Brett Anderson at [email protected]

Brian Sprague [email protected]

Copyright © 2007 AccentureAll rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, and High Performance Deliveredare trademarks of Accenture.

About AccentureAccenture is a global managementconsulting, technology services andoutsourcing company. Committed todelivering innovation, Accenturecollaborates with its clients to helpthem become high-performancebusinesses and governments. With deep industry and business processexpertise, broad global resources and a proven track record, Accenture canmobilize the right people, skills, andtechnologies to help clients improvetheir performance. With approximately152,000 people in 49 countries, thecompany generated net revenues ofUS$16.65 billion for the fiscal yearended Aug. 31, 2006. Its home page iswww.accenture.com.

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Superior Customer Service Capabilities4