Picture this: You’re standing outside your favourite restaurant. Through the window, you can see every table is full, with a line of hungry patrons stretching down the street. You make an instant decision – perhaps tonight isn’t the night. You’ll come back when it’s quieter.
Now imagine a different scenario. You’re on hold with your internet provider. “Your call is important to us,” drones the automated message for the twentieth time. But is it? With no visibility into queue length, staffing levels, or expected wait times, you’re trapped in a customer service void. How many others are waiting with you? Are there even agents available? The opacity is maddening.
The Great Customer Experience Deception
Businesses today proudly proclaim their customer-centricity. Their websites showcase gleaming testimonials and ambitious service promises. Their marketing speaks of putting customers first. Yet millions sit on hold daily, caught between these lofty claims and the harsh reality of understaffed contact centers.
This disconnect between promise and delivery isn’t just frustrating – it’s eroding trust. Every minute spent listening to hold music chips away at brand loyalty. Every generic “high call volumes” message undermines those carefully crafted customer experience manifestos.
Time for Radical Transparency
What if we reimagined this relationship? What if, before purchasing a service, customers could see exactly what level of support they could expect? Imagine checking a company’s website and seeing:
“Currently serving 47 customers with 12 active agents. Average wait time: 8 minutes. Our historical data shows this hour typically handles 40% of our daily call volume. For faster service, try calling between 2-3 PM when wait times average under 60 seconds.”
This isn’t just about numbers – it’s about respect. It’s acknowledging that customer time has value. It’s replacing empty platitudes with actionable information.
The Price-Service Reality
Let’s be honest: exceptional service costs money. Some customers will happily pay premium prices for guaranteed response times. Others might choose lower-cost options, accepting longer wait times as a trade-off. But shouldn’t this be an informed choice?
Consider vulnerable customers – the elderly, those with disabilities, or those in genuine distress. A transparent system could ensure they receive priority support without navigating complex IVR systems or explaining their situation repeatedly.
A Vision of Change
Imagine a world where contact center performance becomes a key differentiator in purchasing decisions. Where companies compete not just on price, but on their commitment to accessible support. Where quarterly performance reports show trending improvements or deteriorations in customer service levels.
The technology exists. The metrics are already being tracked internally. All that’s missing is the courage to pull back the curtain.
The Challenge to Business
It’s time for organisations to ask themselves: If we truly put customers first, why hide our service levels? If we’re proud of our customer experience, why not showcase it? And if we’re not proud of it, isn’t that precisely what customers deserve to know?
The first companies to embrace this transparency will face scrutiny. Their competitors might initially celebrate their exposure. But they’ll also set a new standard for customer trust and accountability that others will eventually have to follow.
I can almost see an Awards Category being created to demonstrate this commitment, not only to transparency, but truly delivering improvements off the back of it.
The Path Forward
This isn’t just about publishing numbers – it’s about fundamentally changing how businesses think about customer service. It’s about moving from reactive damage control to proactive expectation management. From hiding problems to addressing them openly.
The question isn’t whether this change will come, but who will lead it. Which organisations will be brave enough to show customers the unvarnished truth? Who will transform “Your call is important to us” from an empty phrase into a demonstrable commitment?
The future of customer experience isn’t in prettier hold messages or more sophisticated IVR systems. It’s in honest, transparent communication about service capabilities and limitations. It’s in treating customers as partners rather than problems to be managed.
Are we ready for this future
?
