Panviva today revealed the results of a new survey into how UK companies judge and direct the performance of their contact centres. The survey of 54 contact centres found that while internal efficiency measures were well monitored through multiple metrics, external effectiveness in terms of customer service received less focus. In particular, despite 65% of contact centre staff saying that that 'first call resolution' (FCR) is what customers want, only 35% both measure and then report the figure to their board.
“Customers want to be connected quickly to an agent able to resolve their query right away,” said Oke Eleazu, managing director of think outside in and vice-president of the Institute of Customer Service. “Companies that want their contact centres to deliver a good customer experience must measure first contact resolution rates. Those companies that do not measure it could lose touch with customer perceptions, damaging their brand.”
While 81% of contact centres said they do ask customers whether they are satisfied, this is much too broad a measurement, says Eleazu.
“Measuring customer satisfaction is great, but many traditional measures are nebulous and imprecise and can make it difficult to know what to focus improvement initiatives on,” he said. “With First Contact Resolution you have an actionable measure - you can work on people, process and technology to improve the situation. You can very quickly and accurately observe and report on the effectiveness of those actions.”
Improving FCR is becoming increasingly challenging. As companies introduce self-service solutions for answering customers' simple questions, the queries that reach customer service representatives become more complex. But customers still want their queries answered correctly, in the first contact. One answer is to implement a business process guidance (BPG) system.
“With contact centres consolidating, they require agents to have a broad knowledge base. But agents cannot be experts in every product and service and can struggle to resolve complex customer enquiries in the crucial first contact,” said David Frenkel, CEO of Panviva. “Agents need easy real-time access to detailed knowledge, often hidden in existing system investments. They need a system that immediately steers them through the process at hand; a business process guidance system.”
A number of leading brands have adopted BPG solutions. One such solution, SupportPoint from Panviva, is like a GPS for the desktop. It tracks where users are in a process and, when needed, guides them from that point through to the completion of their work, in compliance with their company's policies and procedures.
Some of the many companies using SupportPoint to guide contact centre staff towards delivering high FCR rates include BT, BUPA, HP, Colt Telecommunications, National Australia Bank, NEC Corporation and Thomson Reuters.
The complete survey report can be downloaded here.
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