$55 Bn Lost As Indians Spend 15 Bn Hours On Hold
India's customer service fails to deliver as billions of hours are lost waiting to connect on phone call
A latest study has found that Indians wasted more than 15 billion hours waiting to reach the customer service in 2023. This cost the nation about USD 55 billion.
The study, which surveyed over 4,500 Indians, noted that each person spent an average of 30.7 hours on hold, equivalent to more than one day per year. It also found that slow service solutions are causing frustration among customers, with 66 per cent considering switching to another company if their issue is not resolved within three working days.
In a statement, Sumeet Mathur, Senior Vice President & Managing Director of ServiceNow India Technology & Business Center, said, “Indian businesses are at risk of losing two-thirds of their customer base in 2024 due to slow service solutions.”
He also added that AI self-service was effective in addressing people’s problems, with nearly two-thirds of respondents having resolved more issues through self-service options in 2023. Mathur pointed out that AI is important to businesses because it enables them to provide better solutions to customers to gain a competitive advantage.
Structural problems were also named as important factors that hindered the customer services and included such issues as ineffective communication between departments and polarisation of responsibilities. The kind of reform that Indians are demanding mainly focuses on the speed of resolution; the less time consumed in completing the process, the better will be the customer satisfaction level.
The ServiceNow study recommended that in order to increase learners’ satisfaction, Indian enterprises should embrace AI and make the right interventions in the customer service area.
