Customer Cursing: Which Types of Businesses Trigger the Most Frustration? New Marchex Call Analytics Data Shows Satellite TV ...
December 18 2013 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
If you work at a veterinary clinic or a flower shop, chances are
you won’t get cussed out by customers over the phone. But
conversations often turn a blue streak when people call up
satellite TV providers and housing contractors, according to new
data released today by Marchex Inc. (NASDAQ:MCHX), a mobile
advertising technology company.
The study examined rates of cursing across 20 service-related
industries, such as hotels and auto dealers, which rely on consumer
phone calls for sales.
Marchex Call Analytics technology assessed data from more than
1.2 million consumer calls placed to U.S. businesses over a nearly
two-year period from March 2012 to November 2013 to determine which
industries generated the highest and lowest rates of customer
cursing. The Marchex Institute, the research and insights team at
Marchex, aggregated the data across a range of common curse words
and found:
- Satellite TV providers received the
most cursing – 1 out of every 82 calls resulted in customers
swearing.
- Veterinary clinics received the least
amount of cursing over the phone – 1 out of every 2,634 calls.
- 64% of the conversations that included
a curse word were from men; 36% from women.
The study follows up on a widely-recognized Institute analysis
released in May, which ranked the Top 5 and Bottom 5 states where
consumers were most likely or least likely to curse when talking to
businesses. Marchex is planning to release an annual follow-up
study in May 2014.
Marchex analyzes rates of cursing across industries to
understand how companies can improve customer service and
performance.
“Consumers expect great service and easy-to-understand pricing
from national and local businesses, and they aren’t afraid to voice
their displeasure when they don’t receive it,” said John Busby,
Senior Vice President of the Marchex Institute. He added that the
study also found that a fair amount of cursing occurs while
consumers are on hold.
“This should be a clear signal to businesses that long hold
times leave a negative – and lasting – impression,” Busby said.
Here is the full list of cursing rates across the 20 industries.
The numbers denote how often cursing occurs when customers are on
the line with a business. (Ranked from Worst to Best).
1. Satellite TV providers 1 in every
82
conversations
2. Housing contractors
90 3.
Cable providers
123 4. Auto
Repair
144 5. Tow Truck
159 6. Locksmith
192 7. Storage
214
8. Pest Control
215 9. Heating
& Cooling
215 10. House
Cleaning
218 11. Lawn Care
271 12. Carpet Cleaning
275 13. Plumbing
334 14. Home Buying
411 15. Auto Dealers
870
16. Flowers
1,110
17. Property Management
1,390
18. Hotels
1,486 19. Senior
Living
1,742 20. Veterinary
clinics
2,634
Read more about the study on our blog here.
About Marchex
Marchex is a mobile advertising technology company. The
company provides a suite of products and services for businesses
that depend on consumer phone calls to drive sales. Marchex’s
mobile advertising platform delivers new customer phone calls to
businesses, while its technology analyzes the data in these calls
to help maximize ad campaign results. Marchex disrupts
traditional advertising models by giving businesses full
transparency into their ad campaign performance and charging them
based on new customer acquisition.
Please
visit www.marchex.com, blog.marchex.com or @marchex on
Twitter (Twitter.com/Marchex), where Marchex discloses
material information from time to time about the company, its
financial information, and its business.
MEDIA INQUIRIESMarchex Corporate CommunicationsSonia Krishnan,
206-331-3434Email: skrishnan(at)marchex.com
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