Customer Service
Flawed proactive customer service does more harm than good
April 11, 2022
Using a proactive approach in customer service is a good thing, but not when it ends up causing more issues for the customer.
That's a prime finding of a Gartner survey that revealed two-thirds of customers reach out to customer service after receiving proactive outreach from the brand, and consumers are often not provided needed answers.
Simply, a flawed proactive customer service approach can do more harm than good, according to a press release on the research findings.
Gartner surveyed more than 4,800 customers from November through December 2021 to understand evolving relationships with customer service channels.
The findings show that proactive service creates a better customer experience for B2C and B2B customers and respondents who received proactive service reported better customer effort scores compared to those who did not.
However, findings also revealed that rather than resolving the issue on their own, or taking no action, 66% of B2C and 82% of B2B customers contact the company after receiving proactive outreach.
"Receiving proactive service leads to a 9% increase in a customer's value enhancement score," Eric Keller, senior research director in the Gartner customer service and support practice, said in the release. "However, proactive outreach that raises unanswered questions erodes the benefits for customers and leads to additional costs for the company. To avoid this, customer service and support leaders must center their proactive approach around building customers' confidence in the company's ability to serve them effectively."
