New Zealanders spent 24 million hours on hold in 2024

A new report from ServiceNow highlights that New Zealanders collectively spent 24 million hours waiting on hold to customer service in 2024, averaging 11.3 hours per person.

The Customer Experience Report attributes some of these lengthy wait times to a disconnect within organisations, where customer service employees reportedly spend only 22% of their week resolving customer issues. The rest of their time is spent on administrative tasks (16%), waiting on responses from other departments (9%), and chasing information from other parts of the business.

Customer patience appears to be declining, with two in three New Zealanders considering changing their service provider due to slow service. Industries such as financial services and government experienced some of the longest average wait times at 1.7 hours per person.

Kate Tulp, New Zealand Country Manager at ServiceNow, commented, "For the first time, we're seeing signs that some organisations are addressing our nation's customer service problem, by helping teams with the right tech to solve issues fast. In a cost-of-living crisis where 96% of people are changing behaviour like cutting back on spending, customers will vote with their feet and turn their backs on poor service."

In comparison, Australia saw an increase in customer service wait times to 123.6 million hours, equating to 11.1 hours per person.

There is a notable gap between the perceived and actual resolution times according to the report. Customers report waiting over four days on average for resolution, whereas a majority of customer service employees claim they resolve issues within 30 minutes for simple complaints and under two hours for more complex issues.

Ms Tulp stated, "It's great to see we're beating the Aussies where wait times are still getting worse. Kiwi are making the move to digital channels, and businesses are waking up to the problem by using technology to resolve issues without human intervention." She further added, "Despite a small improvement, business leaders shouldn't be high fiving themselves. Your teams may think they are fixing things quickly, but your customers disagree. This shows how disconnected organisations are, which leads to significant delays customer service teams are often not aware of."

The report highlights a preference among consumers for contact methods like phone and email, despite these being slower than AI-powered options. Phone and email contacts average 2.5 and 2.8 hours respectively for a resolution, whereas digital channels such as online chat take 1.4 hours on average.

The financial services sector and government had the longest on-hold times, while the transport sector performed best at one hour on hold. The household and utilities sector was the only one to see a year-on-year improvement.

Employees face challenges within organisations, with some citing delays in receiving responses from other teams (32%) and having to repeatedly explain the same issues to multiple departments (31%). Only 21% reported their systems are fully integrated, highlighting significant areas for improvement.

Significant stress on employees is noted, with 53% finding dealing with angry customers the most challenging part of their jobs, and nearly a quarter stating a need for more training, management support, and better mental health resources.

There is an appetite for AI-powered tools to support customer service, with 74% of consumers believing these tools would improve after-hours service and 59% suggesting they would enhance speed and efficiency. However, only 13% of organisations currently have AI chatbots available for customer use.

Kate Tulp of ServiceNow advised, "Organisations need to act now before customers leave. More than 4 in 5 will ask for a refund or switch brands for slow service. With loyalty on edge, the answer is simple: provide a fast and easy customer journey. AI is the answer to our nation's customer service problems: it will help people get what they need, when they need it."

As a case in point, Southern Cross Insurance has successfully implemented an AI-powered virtual agent to assist its team in resolving common requests. James French, Principal Lead – Platform Experiences at Southern Cross Health Insurance, stated, "We now have a 24/7 service desk where employees can easily find what they need anytime and have deflected hundreds of calls since we went live. Users can now track the status and resolve issues quickly. Even when there is a delay, they know why and how they can follow up. This improved our satisfaction rating to 99.3% last year, up from 70%."