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Do You Know How Many People A Caller Tells About Their Call Center Experience?

August 13, 2021 | 3min read

How Many People Do Callers Tell About Their CX?

Most call center leaders are unaware of how many people a caller tells about their experience using the call center to resolve their inquiry or problem. However, it is essential to know how many people callers tell about their experience because it indicates the customer service your call center delivers and an understanding of which customer experience (CX) metrics you should focus on to improve performance.

Customer Referral

Some leaders overestimate how many people a caller will tell others about their call center experience. It is not uncommon for leaders to think that callers will tell between 5 and 10 people about their call center experience. However, SQM research shows that for the call center industry, on average, only 47% of customers will tell someone about their experience calling a call center and will tell, on average, only one person. Even for customers who experienced FCR, only 45% will tell someone and, on average, will still only tell one person. Moreover, this means that 55% of customers will not tell anyone if they experienced FCR or had great CX.

Customer Experience

SQM's research shows that for a call center that has a high FCR rating, the transactional Net Promotor Score (NPS) will also be high. However, although the transactional NPS is high as a result of achieving high FCR, the fact is that callers are not telling many other people about their positive customer experience. Callers do not share their call center experience because the call length is typically under seven minutes. It is difficult for callers to be motivated to tell others about their experience when the call is so short. Furthermore, 93% of customers expect their call to be resolved on the first call, and in most cases, their CX is easily forgotten within one day of their call when FCR is achieved.

​Conversely, customers are more likely to remember a poor call center customer experience and tell more people than if they had a positive experience.  For example, SQM research shows that 75% of customers whose call was unresolved and very dissatisfied with their call center experience will tell three people about their poor experience. Put differently, callers dissatisfied (unresolved call) with their call center experience will tell three people, and satisfied customers (FCR achieved) will tell only one person.

Number of people told about the call center customer experience

What Is More Important Net Promoter Score or Net Retention Index?

There is much debate about whether transactional NPS or transactional Net Retention Index (NRI) are appropriate customer experience measures for the call center. It is SQM's viewpoint that you can make a strong argument for either of these metrics to be used to measure the call center's contribution to customer retention or new customer referrals. However, since it is more likely that a customer will tell someone about their poor customer experience, and in many cases, the call center is the last line of defense for retaining customers, we consider the NRI a more appropriate metric.

SQM believes that the call center's primary purpose should protect existing customers from leaving the organization. SQM's research shows that the average customer's experience when calling a specific organization's call center consists of a five to seven-minute call that takes place only three times, or less, per year. Therefore, it is essential to emphasize that every call matters for retaining customers, especially when you consider that a customer only makes three relatively short calls to your call center annually.

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