3 companies surveyed consumers and customer-facing employees about the reality of customer harassment. Both groups identified 3 minutes as the waiting-time threshold, while the survey pointed to company systems as a trigger and outlined potential solutions using AI.
Mobilus Corporation, IVRy and RightTouch conducted a survey of 950 consumers, including people in their 50s, and customer-facing employees nationwide. The survey was conducted against the backdrop of the enforcement of the amended Comprehensive Promotion of Labor Policies Act, with the aim of empirically examining customer harassment in non-face-to-face customer interactions.
Respondents identified deficiencies in their company's guidance processes and systems as triggers for customer harassment, with 51.8% of customer-facing employees citing these as triggers for anger. Consumers also indicated that waiting to get through by telephone and inadequate information sharing contribute to heightened emotions.
The most common response was that 3 minutes is the breaking point for both consumers and frontline staff. Among consumers, 52.2% selected a cumulative waiting time of 3 minutes or less, compared with 57.4% of frontline staff, indicating broad agreement. There is growing recognition that strong language and complaints increase once waiting times exceed that threshold.
Expectations are high that AI-based initial responses can reduce the psychological burden. More than half of consumers expect AI to help restrain emotional behavior. The survey also found that 65.0% of consumers have held back what they wanted to say, while customer-facing employees routinely feel that they have experienced customer harassment. Through CX solutions such as MOBI VOICE and MooA, the 3 companies propose strengthening customer-experience design before and after telephone interactions and support for operators.