It’s estimated 80% of Australians are employed in some form of service industry, yet only 3 out of 10 people are ‘off the street naturally capable’ for customer service roles.

That is according to test results from a new Australian-developed Customer Service Predictor (CSP) tool being rolled out throughout the world.

The CSP has found that only 3 out of 10 people possess the ‘intrinsic personal characteristics’ (IPCs) of being good service providers.

“Five out of every 10 people are either inappropriate choices for many service jobs or will need extensive development, depending on the industry,” said Bruce Acutt, one of the CSP developers.

“This in itself goes a long way to explain why we encounter so many glaring examples of poor service in our everyday lives.” Mr Acutt and his colleague Associate Professor Tony Ward are the two Australian academics behind a new Customer Service Predictor being rolled out throughout the world.

The Central Queensland University duo are commercialising their web-based tool via Psych-Press and its international networks.

A decade of their research has gone into the tool which will help companies recruit the right people for customer service roles. It will also identify potential training or retraining options and provide vocational guidance.

The CQU duo has conducted research into psychographics to identify Intrinsic Personal Characteristics (IPCs) of servers who are perceived by customers to offer above average customer service performance.

People being assessed spend 10 minutes answering questions about how they behave, rather than their perceptions. The tool has several features to make it difficult for people to fudge or fake their answers.

The outcome is scores in areas described as calm, social, aspiration, organisation, kindliness, routine, humility and membership.

Dr Ward said 10,000 surveys had been carried out in the development phase.

“A feature of our research has been to survey service providers and the customers they serve in-situ (immediately after the service encounter) to gather data that provides a direct correlation between the servers’ behaviour in the customer service task and the customers’ perceptions of that service,” he said.

“Testing has been undertaken in a wide range of service industries, for example, hospitality, specialist retail, banking, supermarket check-out, call centres. The research has been conducted with many businesses from, for example small banks and retailers, to national and international firms.

Dr Ward said there is a direct statistical relationship between the IPCs of servers and their ability to provide above average customer service.

“There is a strong correlation between the ability of servers to use relationship marketing techniques to develop strong relationships with customers, and customers’ perceptions of customer satisfaction, service performance and strength of relationship with customers.

The CQU academics undertook an extensive study to identify the attributes of ‘superior’ customer service that the general public seeks as customers. This study provided much critical information on the way in which ‘customers’ evaluate customer service, and thus the detailed attributes that customer services providers should possess.

Tony Ward has over 35 years of experience in practical market research, including over 14 years of academic research experience in marketing. Bruce Acutt is a psychologist, and is fully qualified and registered to administer personality and psychometric tests, and has over 20 years of private and academic experience in the field of psychometric assessment, particularly in the areas of industry and organisations. ENDS.

For details or interview call Tony Ward on 07 4930 9580 or t.ward@cqu.edu.au or Bruce Acutt on 07 4930 9478 or 0417 730 867 or Email b.acutt@cqu.edu.au