1. Hello

Thank you for agreeing to complete our short survey. The survey consists of 23 short questions, and should only take approximately 5 minutes of your time.

Your responses will be used in our market research programme, which aims to gather public opinion on the initial experiences of calling a customer service / contact centre of major companies or organisations.

All of your answers and personal information are confidential, and we won't pass them on to any other parties, we promise.

You have the right to withdraw from this survey at any time.
To start with, there are just a few questions about yourself, so we can get to know you better..

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* 1. What is your gender?

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* 2. Which category below includes your age?

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* 3. In which country do you live?

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* 4. How did you hear about this survey?

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* 5. Would you please provide us with your email address, so that we can contact you if we have any follow up questions and also send information that we feel may be of interest to you?

Thanks for that. Now we'll get started. The following questions are based on your previous experiences when calling the contact centre / customer service department of major companies or organisations.

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* 6. On average, how many times a month do you call a Customer Service Centre?

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* 7. When you make calls to a Customer Service Centre, how frequently do you make these calls on a mobile phone?

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* 8. Based on your previous experiences, before making a call to a Customer Service Centre, how would you rate your feelings and expectations?

Many call centres use Automated Phone Menus (APM's) that will request you to "Please Press 1 for X, Please Press 2 for Y" in order to help them filter and direct your calls. The following questions are based on how you feel about APM's.

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* 9. What are your general feelings of the APM's (see definition above) commonly used by such centres?

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* 10. From your personal experience,please rank your level of agreement with the following POSITIVE statements about APM's.

  1- Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neutral Feelings 4- Agree 5- Strongly Agree
They are simple to use
They are easy to navigate
They are efficient in getting my call to the right department
They provide clear instructions to take me through the process
I like using them for simple tasks like checking my bank balance

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* 11. From your personal experience,please rank your level of agreement with the following NEGATIVE statements about APM's.

  1- Strongly Disagree 2- Disagree 3- Neutral Feelings 4- Agree 5- Strongly Agree
It takes too long to get through the menus
There are often too many options per menu
The options can be confusing and sometimes I pick the wrong one
I sometimes give up going through the APM and hang up
There are too many menus and levels to go through

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* 12. How would a poorly designed APM affect your views on dealing with the company?

  Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Feelings Agree Strongly Agree
My views would not be affected
I would think twice before contacting them by phone again
I wouldn't call them again, but would contact them another way
I would consider taking my business elsewhere

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* 13. On average, how long do you feel it takes you to get through all the options of a typical APM and to reach the service you want, or be put in a queue?

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* 14. What is your general opinion of voice recognition / voice response systems where you are required to speak your answers?

When you complete an automated menu, you often enter a queue. The following few questions are based on the queuing process and how it affects you.

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* 15. Typically, how long do you feel that you are made to wait in a call centre queue?

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* 16. How important is it to you to know where you are in the queue?

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* 17. How often do you spend time completing an APM and / or waiting in a queue, only to find that the service you require is closed or unavailable?

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* 18. When seeking help with a Customer Service Enquiry, please rank the following methods of communication in order of your preference, using the drop down boxes below.

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* 19. When searching for a Customer Service Centre Phone Number, how likely are you to use the following methods?

  Never Rarely Possibly Likely Almost Certainly
Ring Directory Enquiries
Log on to Company Website
Use a Search Engine
Use their Email address
Look at Company Documents
These next questions are full of stuff that we'd really like to know. We're nearly at the end so please bear with us for this final part!

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* 20. Did you know that you can quite often select your option without listening to each full menu list, and get through quicker?

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* 21. If you answered 'No' to the above question, now that you know, do you think you would do this to get through quicker?

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* 22. We'd love it if you'd share with us any other comments, likes or dislikes, general views or stories of problems or success from your experiences of phoning call centres. This will help our research and inform our campaign to improve customer service and the call centre experience.

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* 23. Finally if we have further surveys may we contact you again?

Thank you for completing our survey!

Your responses and contact information will be held confidentially in a secure electronic file for a period of 12 months before being destroyed.

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