Over two-thirds of UK call and contact centre board staff base their business success on call handling volumes, and one third by minimising the duration of the call. This and other aspects of CRM in UK call centres can be found in a report divulged by Vocalis. Commissioned to Resource Research, a B2B consultant, the study involved around 500 telephonic inquiries to call centre businesses with more than 50 seats.
The report also reveals that a third of the businesses say the prime purpose of their contact centres is to provide customer service, however only 4 per cent actually measure the success of the contact centre based on customer satisfaction.
‘This paradox of stated aims and actual measuring criteria is unhelpful to the contact centre business. If the aim is to provide a high level of customer service then the focus for the contact centre operation should be on that and not just meeting call handling targets, said Paul Wright, CEO of Vocalis.
The study concludes that contact centre agents being ordered to keep conversations short to meet call handling targets, are leaving customers feeling rushed and confused, increasing the risk of losing them to competitors.
However there is no reason why, by focusing on the customer service aspect, the overall operation cannot be efficient and other measurement criteria used, in the form of more qualitative methods such as customer surveys on the service levels, explained Mr. Wright for whom shifting calls, as a performance indicator, is typically sixteen times as important as delivering a good customer experience.
A contact centre is now a prime tool for communicating the brand values of a business and inspiring customer loyalty. Some call agents are being motivated to deliver volume rather than focus on customer service aspects. If customers feel they are not getting the quality of service they require and are not valued, they will move. They certainly wont recommend the business to others, Mr. Wright concluded.
Vocalis works with organisations to build their brands and businesses through their contact centres. Its Voice of Business Report, published in full this month, examines a range of issues surrounding contact centres.
Filipe Samora
2003-01-24
Note of the Ed: Europecontactcenter will issue an insight on this study in the following days.
Em Foco – Pessoa