Several weeks ago, I blogged asking for insight into the contact center costs of login recovery to help inform a project I was working on. Many companies responded — for which I thank you  — and I wanted to share some of the insights that were provided.

In the words of one eBusiness executive, “Helping customers resolve login issues is by far the largest call driver to our contact center. The costs are high — probably higher than we fully realize. But we look at it as the cost of doing business.”

Among the companies surveyed, the percentage of login issues among B2C contact center contacts ranged from  3% to 40%. Only one company was on that lower end and, while their 3% may seem small at first glance, their call center receives more than 10 million calls per year so 3% represents a hefty number of contacts. The higher end  of 30 to 40% of call center volume related to login was more common. Overall, among the companies who responded to my request for information, the operational cost of login issues ranged from $250,000/year to well over $1,000,000 per year.

These high dollar figures do not have to be the cost of doing business. Instead, eBusiness leaders should:

  • Ensure their login recover adheres to best practices. My document called “Mastering Login Issues” will hopefully provide helpful insight.
  • Consider social login, which lets users log in to your site with their social identities from Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites. This may be particularly useful for news, retail, media, entertainment.
  • Consider that email or chat may be more cost-effective than the telephone. For example, Earthlink deflects login issue calls to its contact center by proactively offering a chat conversation once a customer encounters an error on the "My Account" login page or remains on the My Account "Password Retrieval" for an extended time.
  • Consider automated login recovery solutions. One such option is Next IT's Access Assistant, which is a conversational software solution that allows your users to gain access to their online accounts when they get locked out or need help retrieving their user id and password.

Thank you once again to those eBusiness leaders who generously provided insight from their organizations. I hope the information they have shared will provoke conversations about the call center cost of login issues and the many ways that these costs can be reduced.