UK households inquiries to hit 148M this year
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM — Households are expected to make an extra 148 million customer service inquiries this year as the cost-of-living crisis continues and consumer spending tightens.
According to an analysis by Business Process Management (BPM) firm Firstsource Solutions Limited, UK households are more likely to cancel subscriptions, downgrade packages, query charges, and shop around for better deals due to higher interest rates, inflation, and rising energy costs.
About 38% of service calls could be attributed to households with an income of £17,000 (US$20,479) per year.
Firstsource Europe Business Head Rajiv Malhotra said they are already seeing companies expanding their contact centers to accommodate this growth. However, it would likely be difficult with the current labor market.
“Businesses can relieve some of the pressure on their contact centers by reviewing their digital customer journey by, for example, updating website FAQs, reviewing automated voice queues, adopting SMS and WhatsApp messaging, and channeling basic queries to chatbots,” he added.
“Companies can also plan ahead by considering options for more affordable packages and policies for customers who are behind on payments or facing financial difficulties.”
Firstsource Solutions is a BPM pioneer that offers solutions for many sectors, like banking and financial services, mortgage lending, healthcare, communications, media, and technology. It is also currently subscribed to the OA Source Partner Program, a powerful tool that helps BPO firms with marketing, sales, and business intelligence. The program also co-promotes its partner BPOs to OA’s web traffic and inbound leads and assists them in generating sales.
