Consumer Demand Personalization & Intelligent Interaction.

KANA announced that results of a recent study of consumers show that personalized and proactive customer service is the critical element in providing a positive customer experience. Almost 75 percent of respondents pointed to personalization as a major contributor to their most satisfying purchasing experience, on- or off-line.

The study, sponsored by KANA, was based on a cross section of consumers who have made purchases in both on-line and off-line environments. The study sought reaction to customer service independent of channel, including off-line interaction, phone, e-mail, Web chat or on-line self-service. Results show that consumers demand personalization in both proactive and reactive customer service.

Key findings of the survey include:

Personalization capabilities including: self-service, personalized voice or e-mail interactions, the ability to track purchases and requests and knowledgeable customer service representatives who are educated in the customer’s history with a business contributed to 73 percent of the most positive customer experiences.

34 percent of respondents noted that lack of personalized customer care contributed to their least satisfying customer experience.

50 percent of the negative customer experiences reported included untargeted marketing campaigns over the Web or via mail and contact center interactions that were redundant, inaccurate or slow.

The survey illustrates the need to build integrated contact centers focused on personalized eCRM solutions that are highly flexible and scalable to grow with increasing demands. Consumers are demanding contact centers focused on personalization that analyze consumer behavior; rapidly answer customer inquiries; and enable customer service representatives to easily access robust knowledge histories to ensure the highest level of proactive, personalized customer service.

“KANA sponsored this survey to demonstrate that as consumers increasingly choose to shop over the Web, they are demanding the high level of personalized customer service that they have grown accustomed to in off-line environments,” said Bud Michael, executive vice president of products and marketing for KANA. “An integrated, external-facing contact center solution like KANA’s enables businesses to provide the highest level of service with scalable solutions that will support continued personalized care even while interaction over the Web increases.”

For more information at http://www.kana.com