Large contact centers take note: Customer insights level playing field

Midsize companies are leveraging their customer feedback generally in more useful and sophisticated ways compared to other sizes of companies, ultimately driving better customer experience (CX), Metrigy’s Customer Insights & Analytics 2023-24 research study shows.

In this post, I’ll share Metrigy research on the midsize businesses, defined as companies with 500 to 2,000 employees that typically operates small and midsize contact centers. In this group, an average of 13% of the employees are contact center agents. The average number of agents is 109, with the minimum at two and the maximum at 900. They also have another 45 outsourced agents, on average, which equates to 5% of the employee population.

From my perspective, any technology adoption is only as good as the business value it delivers. When it comes to adding Voice of the Customer, or customer insights, programs, success is largely determined by the extent to which CX leaders act on the information. Metrigy’s research shows midsize businesses have better business metric improvements than average: Revenue increased by 9%; customer ratings improved by 9%; and employee productivity increased by 12%.

Digital channel shift for customer interactions

How companies interact with their customers, in and of itself, can affect customer satisfaction. Midsize organizations use 3.3 channels, slightly above the average of 3.2, but slightly lower than large companies, which use 3.4 channels. The midsize segment is moving more aggressively into digital channels than other sizes of companies—and they’re successful in doing so.

For example, midsize companies have the lowest percent of traffic originating in voice (40%), and the highest starting in video (19%) and chat (25%). Of the traffic that originates in channels other than voice, only 28% must be transferred to voice for resolution—notably lower than large companies, which must transfer 34% of their digital traffic to voice for resolution.

In fact, 40% of midsize organizations said the number of digital customer support interactions increased in 2022 vs. 2021, by an average of 21%. At the same time, 36% said their voice call duration has increased by 25%, driven primarily by the fact that calls now coming to live agents are more complex (because the easier ones are handled in self-service or digital channels) and require more time to handle. That said, when calls do come into live agent voice calls, midsize companies are more apt to use agent-assist pop-ups than their larger counterparts (34% vs. 28%).

Gathering customer feedback

Customers of midsize companies have been more engaged by providing feedback. For example, they receive more completed surveys compared to other size companies: 48% vs. 44% among all company sizes, and only 42% for the large companies. Aside from surveys, midsize companies use other methods for gathering feedback, such as focus groups, live chat, AI-enabled surveys, and website statistics. This helps to explain why 36% of customers provide feedback among midsize companies, compared to only 27% among large companies. And when they do ask for feedback, they are more likely than all other sizes to rely upon qualitative comments. They’re also more likely to survey customers at every touchpoint if they switch channels (39% vs. 30% of large companies)—giving them insight into the complete customer journey. They see value in AI-enabled surveys. Because AI-powered surveys can adjust questions and branching based on early trends observed, that may explain why 48% of midsize companies say their overall customer feedback accurately reflects all customer feedback (vs. only 42% of large businesses).

Acting on the insights

Most importantly, midsize organizations act on the insights. More have adopted the actions noted below than companies overall in every area except adjusting sales strategies and agent scripts. They are significantly more likely than both smaller and larger companies to remove or reduce technology that aligns with negative feedback, to share feedback with employees, and to adjust marketing strategies.

• Share feedback with employees – 67%
• Adjust marketing strategies – 48%
• Ask customers to write a review – 40%
• Add/increase use of technology that aligns with positive feedback – 34%
• Adjust sales strategies – 34%
• Remove/reduce usage of technology that aligns with negative feedback – 30%
• Change customer interaction channels in use – 28%
• Adjust agent scripts – 24%
• Ask customers to provide referrals – 23%

Three-quarters of midsize companies correlate customer feedback with employee performance (vs. only 71% overall). This is crucial to improving contact center agent performance and reducing attrition. In fact, they are more likely to add customer feedback to automated workflows (54% vs. 47% overall average) with their top automation directed toward online agent training and also to feed gamification or agent reward programs.

Nearly 70% of midsize companies correlate customer feedback with sales performance, compared to only 60% of large businesses. When they use customer insights to help with sales generated in the contact center, midsize businesses excel in a few key areas, compared to their larger counterparts. They see bigger improvements in close rates, deal sizes, sales productivity, and time spent on administrative tasks. Midsize companies still can improve. Though close rates have gotten better, they haven’t increased revenue as much as large companies or the overall average (22% vs. 27% for large companies). And although customer churn improved by 21%, the all-company average improved by 26%.

Midsize companies analyze their feedback frequently: 22% of midsize companies analyze feedback from customers after each call or interaction, compared to only 11% of the large companies, and 37% analyze it weekly, compared to only 30% of large companies. (In fact, half of large companies analyze customer feedback only monthly or quarterly, and 8% only do so annually!) They also are more likely to get a survey out to customers immediately or within one hour after an interaction than all companies overall. One word of warning, though: 48% of midsize businesses allow agents to select who receives a post-interaction survey—significantly higher than the 27% of large businesses that do the same.

Midsize CX leaders see plenty of value in gathering customer insights. More so than other sizes of companies, they use the information to help them decide which customer-facing technologies to use and to identify emerging problems they can immediately address. They aren’t as concerned as their larger counterparts with using the feedback to validate performance to investors, to show what customers like or dislike about their products and services (though it’s still an important benefit) or whether it was difficult to reach them.

By gathering and acting on customer insights through a formal Voice of the Customer program,midsize businesses are more effectively competing with larger companies and improving customer experience.