Accenture accidentally unleashed The Wrath of Siebel yesterday, by publishing a piece of research that found that poor customer service is the top reason for customers to switch service providers, and that "new technologies alone fail to improve customer service".
Neil Morgan, VP of Marketing EMEA for Siebel spat: "There is nothing new about publishing market research to prop up a quiet summer news season and there’s certainly nothing new about this research. To say this is pointing out the obvious is an understatement." To which Accenture is believed to have replied: "miaow!"
But according to Morgan, "The customer service industry recognised long ago that it takes the right combination of three elements to make the customer service experience successful – people, process and technology. Only the successful application of all three together will deliver what people desire."
Considering all of the hard lessons that have had to be learned thanks to the countless failed customer service technology implementations, Morgan’s comments are also perhaps a case of stating the obvious. Or as Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut put it: "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is."
