The Aspect Contact Center Satisfaction Index Europe, established in 2006 by Aspect Software, provides an indicator, in the form of a letter grade, which quantifies consumer satisfaction with the quality of their telephone and internet-based interactions with companies and their representatives.

Contact centers across Europe continue to fall short when it comes to typical contact center experiences. This year consumers give centers an overall satisfaction grade of 64, a score that is three percent lower than last year's rating. However, new in 2007, the Aspect Index Europe measures exceptional experiences, finding that consumers who have had an outstanding interaction assign contact centers an overall grade of 86 percent.

Consumers across Europe continue to use the telephone as the dominant interaction channel, but its usage is slowly decreasing, registering a six percent decline. Email, on the other hand, is gradually gaining momentum, while chat remains in the minority.

Of the 25 attributes measured for typical experiences in 2007, none show an increase, 14 remain unchanged, and 11 record a decrease in consumer satisfaction. Ten out of the 11 lower scores are assigned to Empathy and Advocacy-related attributes.

Exceptional Contact Center Experiences Score Higher in All Categories
The 250 consumers who claim they recently had an exceptional contact center experience are evenly split across all six European countries. These consumers score contact centers higher in every category, recording an overall grade that is 22 percent higher than consumers who have had a typical experience.

Attributes that improve from failing to excelling when comparing typical and exceptional interactions:

Empathy and Advocacy
• Provides Follow-up

Efficiency
• Minimize Waiting Time

Automation
• Easily Access Person from Automated Menu
• Automated System that Resolves Issues

Business Impact
The 2007 Aspect Index also helps contact centers understand how each interaction impacts the amount of business customers plan on doing with them in the future.

• One third of consumers who are satisfied will conduct more business with a company; eight percent of those will do much more business.
• Nearly half of consumers who are unsatisfied will conduct less business with a company; of those, half will do much less business.
• Twenty percent of consumers are likely to switch companies based on their latest interaction.

Download a PDF of the Executive Report
This report provides a description of key findings, and includes a gap analysis on how consumers and industry professionals rate contact center performance factors that matter most to consumers.

Aspect Software commissioned the Aspect Index Europe to provide customer-focused companies with a resource containing valuable insight on consumer expectations and desires. Learn more about Aspect Software

The Aspect Index Europe was conducted by an independent research firm, Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, LLC. Shapiro has created a variety of indexes that measure consumer behaviors and attitudes, including retail customer service satisfaction, significant consumer trends, grocery store shopping, and others. Learn more about Leo J. Shapiro.