Nearly 40 percent of callers surveyed say that being transferred when they reach customer service leads them to think they're talking to a call center, while nearly one-third (29 percent) say that poor voice quality or perceived use of a script (28 percent) is a sure sign a call center rep is on the other end of the line.
However, when live agents provide help quickly and speak conversationally, callers typically say they do not believe they're speaking to a call center.
Callers prefer to speak to a person rather than a phone menu or interactive voice response system when they call customer service, the survey found. In addition, 21 percent of callers who initially contact an automated phone system appreciate being offered the opportunity to talk to a real person.
The findings paint a logical picture, said Nathan Strum, CEO of AbbyConnect, a virtual receptionist company. Talking to a real person, he said, conveys to customers that someone's dealing with their issue.
"You're not [upset] about talking to a machine, necessarily. You're frustrated because you're not talking to a true representative of the company," said Strum.
Customers who think they're speaking to a call center are less likely to say that calling resolved their problem, the survey found.
Less than half (44 percent) of callers who assume they are speaking to a call center employee report total issue resolution. However, more than three-quarters 76 percent) of customers who believe they are speaking directly to the business they called report being satisfied.
Professor Shehzad Nadeem, a sociologist and author of Dead Ringers, admits that call centers vary in the quality of service they provide. However, he suggests callers might be inclined to report low satisfaction rates because of stereotypes about offshore call center employees. "There's a presumption of low quality," he said.
Nadeem said he has found the opposite. The call center employees he's studied tend to be "very smart, ambitious, and well-educated. They're multilingual and global-oriented."