95 Percent of Respondents Cite Rising Customer Demand for Personalised Tailored Services

London, UK – September 28, 2011 – TOA Technologies, the only cloud-based provider of enterprise-class mobile workforce management and customer experience management software solutions, today released “Beyond Logistics: Meeting Customer Needs for In-Home Service,” a study of customer satisfaction and business practices for the in-home service industry. The report, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), highlights several key industry trends spurred by customer demand for more streamlined services. A strong majority of respondents (92 percent) noted that their organisations are developing a stronger customer-centric culture and recognise that properly responding to customer needs is the key to staying competitive within the industry.

More than 125 executives from companies representing a diverse range of industries, including retail, telecommunications, healthcare and utilities, who provide in-home or in-field services to a global customer base were surveyed to establish their thoughts and motivations on current and future customer service initiatives. Thirty-nine percent of respondents represent companies with $1 billion or more in annual revenue.

“We are excited to work together with the Economist Intelligence Unit, a world authority on business trends, to uncover the most important opportunities for companies to differentiate and compete today. By focusing on how companies around the world capitalise on the hottest trends in community and customer service we are looking to help define a path to increased customer satisfaction in the in-home service industry,” said Yuval Brisker, co-founder and CEO of TOA Technologies. “Based on our study’s findings, how a service provider responds to increasing customer demands for personalisation is just as important as the offering or service itself. TOA’s business has been built around enhancing and elevating the overall customer experience by providing customers preference, relevant information and choice. As the customer voice has become more powerful these capabilities have become crucial to the continued growth and durability of many companies.”

Tailored Customer Service
Today, customer demand is determining the corporate business plans of tomorrow, and customer service is becoming the foremost commodity within the in-home service sector. Survey respondents identified the most effective way for companies to harness the power of the customer: highly personalised customer service.
- Virtually all survey respondents (95 percent) agreed that in-home customers expect services to be tailored to their specific needs.
- 80 percent of respondents agree that customers expect service times to be highly specified within a narrow range.

More than half of the respondents agreed that brand image and recognition is becoming increasingly important. Furthermore, in the age of social media, how a company speaks to the needs and expectations of its customers is crucial to building brand differentiation. The study also showcases a trend towards the commoditisation of customer service, which will force companies to be more proactive in their communication with customers, focus on tailoring their services to the individual and establishing clear methods of measuring the ROI of a content customer-base.
The survey confirms that the Internet is an important driving force behind the in-demand changes for in-home services. More than two-thirds of survey respondents agreed that social media, blogs and review sites have a greater impact on their brand equity than ever before, making online media platforms an essential source for companies to gain an understanding of what their customers are saying about them.

“As a growing number of customers rely on social media to guide them in their purchase decisions, the ability to interact with other customers has intensified competition in virtually every market,” said Annabel Symington, deputy editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit. “This study suggests that Internet-based media is not only creating more educated consumers, but has also evolved into a useful business tool for companies to manage their brand image and by continuation their bottom line.”

The Future of In-Home Service
Tying together customer demands, with a nuanced understanding of how to address them is a key challenge for in-home service providers. The survey’s respondents were generally positive about their ability to do this and identified methods for improving customer service, including increased employee training and implementing new customer service systems or software.
- 93 percent of respondents said their companies have either recently run employee training programs or plan to do so in the next three years.
- 51 percent of respondents say they will introduce new customer service systems or software in the next three years.

Beyond Logistics: Meeting Customer Needs for In-Home Service is available for free download at http://toatech.com/company/research.php.  For more information about TOA Technologies, please visit http://www.toatech.com.