Technological innovation has been highlighted as a key driver in the development of the contact centre, according to the Merchants Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report 2006. By using technology tools that empower agents and motivate a shift in behaviour, contact centres are working to improve customer service levels.
The contact centre is widely recognised as requiring a fine balance between people, processes and technology and its two largest variable operational costs are salaries and telephony call costs. On average, salary costs comprise 70% of the operating budgets of contact centres.
Thus, effective utilisation of workforce optimisation technologies to drive positive agent behaviour can not only lead to improved customer experience but can also have a dramatic commercial impact.
The most widely used workforce optimisation technologies are workforce management (WFM) for forecasting and scheduling and quality monitoring. Almost half of respondents (48%) use WFM with another 14% planning to install it in the coming year.
Grant Sainsbury, customer interactive solutions, Dimension Data commented: "The next evolution in workforce management is the use of tools for adherence, where workforce management is integrated with the automatic call distributor so that when the agent is logged on, ready time is measured against the schedule. This allows contact centre management to intervene before service levels fall below any point from which they cannot recover."
Increased usage of technologies such as biometric identification using speech recognition technology, together with the wide-spread adoption of Internet-Protocol (IP)-based telephony systems, e-mail, and touch-tone/PIN systems is also contributing to improved productivity and service levels.
Contact centres have been faced with the same major challenges over the past few years of reducing costs and improving customer service. New technologies are providing opportunities for organisations to achieve and meet these challenges. New generation technology, specifically in the form of IP telephony has now matured to a level where it is being deployed without hesitation into many new contact centre build projects.
The Merchants Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report 2006 identifies the transition to IP-based telephony systems as a prevailing trend in contact centres. Almost half of all respondents in the sample indicated they have hybrid or pure IP PBX and ACD switches. In addition, all the participants that indicated they were planning to install an ACD stated that it would be a pure IP solution.
Advanced speech recognition (ASR) technologies are also gaining acceptance by customers due to the advances that have been made and the maturity of the technology. Nearly a third of respondents in the report (31%) use speech recognition technology and a further 17% plan to install it next year.
Sainsbury comments: "If contact centres are true to their plans, almost a half will be using speech recognition within year."
He adds: "Technology continues to play a vital role in delivering customer service in contact centres through the productivity and quality gains it can help deliver. Additionally, a major technology failure in the contact centre can have a significant, if not irreparable, impact on the business."
Sainsbury is co-author of Chapter Eight: Technology Environment of the Merchants Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report 2006.
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Dimension Data plc (LSE:DDT), a specialist IT services and solution provider, helps clients plan, build and support their IT infrastructures. Dimension Data applies its expertise in networking, security, operating environments, storage and contact centre technologies and its unique skills in consulting, integration and managed services to create customised client solutions. www.dimensiondata.com
Merchants
Merchants Limited is one of Europe`s leading customer contact solutions companies, providing a full range of innovative managed services to enable the successful generation of customer value in real-time, every time. From communication centres in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and South Africa, Merchants manages the outsourced customer contact operations of some of the world`s best known and most respected brands. Merchants is a Dimension Data group company.
Synovate
Everyday, across five continents and 24 time-zones, 4 000 smart people driven by endless curiosity, go to work at Synovate, the world`s most dynamic global market intelligence company.
Synovate provides clients with industry-specific and branded solutions utilising best-in-class research tools and proprietary practices. Synovate harnesses the latest technology and thinking in both its methodologies and knowledge delivery to ensure solid scientific, independent and objective research. Synovate in South Africa was formerly known as Proactive Insight. Visit www.synovate.com for further information.
The Merchants Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report
First published in the UK in 1997 by Merchants, Dimension Data`s specialist contact centre outsourcing and operations division, this year`s edition is the eighth in a series of the industry-renowned benchmarking reports. The report has balanced global and industry representation from 363 contact centres located across 38 countries and five continents, and is an invaluable reference for all contact centre professionals. It provides managers with a set of best practice standards and benchmarks, including staffing and training, performance metrics, technology usage, budgets and development plans. The report is published by Dimension Data and researched in conjunction with Synovate, a global research company. For more information about the report, please go to www.ccbenchmarking.com.
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