Brits speak to call centres more often than friends and family

Call centres have become so ingrained in our daily lives that 6.6 million Brits speak to them more often than they do to their own friends and family, according to research by MORE TH> N.

It seems we have become a nation of electronic communicators; the research reveals the reasons for the chattiness with call centres are that almost half (47 per cent) now communicate with friends and family by email, and one in five (21 per cent) get in touch by text messages. One in seven (14 per cent) Brits confess they don’t actually like talking on the phone to those closest to them.

The research, which examined people’s attitudes towards call centres, also reveals that a quarter of people find them to be the most frustrating thing in their day to day lives. Two thirds of people (66 per cent) are irritated by having to explain their situation repeatedly to a series of different people. For 55 per cent, the irritation is simply being passed on to lots of different people and a further four in ten claim their biggest frustration is when call centres do not call them back when they promise to.

Mo Shapiro, a communications psychologist, commented on MORE TH>N’s findings: “Call centres are more than ever part of everyday UK life. Despite many people speaking to them more often than their loved ones, they can get quite frustrated with the whole experience. They are ready for a fight before they begin and irritations can build up when they spend a long time giving identical information to a number of different people. They are ringing because they have a complaint or a question and they already have negative expectations. Stress and angst often occur when we feel that we are not in control of a situation and not being listened to.”

The research was commissioned to mark the launch of a new experience in call centres from MORE TH>N. The insurer is the first to offer customers their own Personal Customer Manager (PCM) free of charge. Customers get the email address and direct phone number of their own named contact who they can email, call or leave a voicemail for any time of day. The company promises to respond within 24 hours to a customer enquiry.

Mike Holliday-Williams, managing director at MORE TH>N, said: “It’s clear that in our time-poor society, people simply can’t be sat for hours on the phone, especially when they are at work. This could be part of the reason people limit calls to their friends and family, but some don’t have the choice when it comes to call centres.

“With MORE TH>N’s new personalised call centre service, our customers now have someone solely accountable to them, who will deal with their query and take ownership of it. We’ve already piloted the scheme with 60,000 customers and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. We’re delighted to be rolling it out to all our customers.”

Mo Shapiro continued: “We are increasingly used to communicating by text or email and so have come to expect a much quicker response to queries and concerns. As we become less used to conversation it is vitally important we can talk to call centre operators with whom we feel comfortable and familiar. We need to feel we are being treated like individuals and in communication with a sympathetic human being. MORE TH>N’s personalised service will immediately relax the customer, and much more can be achieved once a relationship has been formed.”