Telecom service providers looking to improve customer service should concentrate on providing a consistent level of care across all platforms, including calling centers, email and Web self-service help, according to one provider of knowledge management software and multi-platform solutions. Companies that fail to do so will fall victim to additional churn and customer rate-shopping, said Anand Subramaniam, vice president of marketing for eGain Communications.

The annual international benchmarking report done by eGain shows the communications sector, which includes telco, cable and wireless companies, could do much better, particularly in the email and Web arenas, Subramaniam said.

“Often times, online channels are treated as second-class citizens to the phone channel,” Subramaniam said. “Many of these companies are using legacy systems for email management that are not really robust, and emails fall through the cracks. Obviously end users aren’t happy about it – it’s one of the reasons you see so much churn in the communications sector.”

For example, in North America, 20% of companies ignored email queries or complaints and 45% failed to respond to them within 24 hours, Subramaniam said. In addition, customers rated 45% of the responses as “poor” or “below average” in quality. Where Web self-service is concerned, there’s a clear split between those companies doing it well and those that are not; 55% scored “above average” or “exceptional” in Web self-service according to eGain’s benchmarking, but 45% received “poor” or “below average” ratings.

That lower 45% “are not paying too much attention to Web self-service,” Subramaniam said. “We measure the number of Web self-service options – do they have FAQ answers, do they have the capability to search for information on the Web site, do they provide more advanced capabilities like guided help? Let’s say I want to buy a new service or product – do they have guided help that would walk them through? The more options the Web sites had for Web self-service, the higher their ratings were.”