SOME consumers in the Asia-Pacific will be voting with their feet in the coming year because they are dissatisfied with the level of service of their contact centre, according to a survey commissioned by contact centre solutions vendor Avaya.

In this annual survey conducted by Sydney-based research firm callcentres.net, around 38 per cent of respondents from five Asia-Pacific countries said that they plan to switch business to a competitor in the next 12 months because of poor contact centre service levels.

And 10 per cent of respondents replied that they have already switched in the past year over the same issue.

In this survey, respondents were asked to nominate a company that they had contacted by phone recently and then answer questions based on that experience. The five Asia-Pacific countries covered were Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore.

According to the survey, fast response was the key factor in determining contact centre excellence. And having a round-the-clock contact centre operation helps companies get more business from consumers.

The survey also uncovered disparities in service level satisfaction among the five Asia-Pacific countries. Over half of respondents from Singapore and India indicated that the service provided by contact centres over the past 12 months has improved.

In that respect, Singapore and India fared markedly better than Australia, Japan and New Zealand. Only around 23 per cent to 25 per cent of respondents from the latter three countries felt the same.

This story was first published in The Business Times on 18 December 2008.