Global research firm Gartner says a business's failure to be competitive in tough economic times is due to underestimating the customer service contact centre.
Gartner Executive Programs (EXP) conducted a worldwide survey of 1 527 chief information officers (CIOs) in the fourth quarter of 2008 in which CIOs identified their top business priorities for 2009. The survey showed that attracting and retaining customers had dropped from second to fifth place.
Michael Maoz, vice-president and analyst at Gartner, says: “Although still highly placed, customer service is receiving less emphasis than cost-cutting. Of course cost-cutting is essential in the current economic climate, but knowing how to cut costs without damaging the customer experience is critical, and the role of the contact centre is crucial to this.”
According to Gartner, customer service suffers from an overall lack of commitment to the customer service representative (CSR) in the form of tools, training and compensation. Maoz points out that companies need to redouble their efforts in this area and extend the customer Web site, add multiple communications channels, and plan carefully to improve agent performance through the introduction of new technologies.
Gartner predicts that by 2012, managing Web interactions will be a core competency of the contact centre, with customers expecting the contact centre CSR to know their customers Web posts in relevant online communities at the time of a telephone interaction.
This will mean that by 2014, it will be an accepted practice in 30% of contact centres to have two standard monitors on each agent^1s desktop.
Gartner says four key areas that contact centres need to focus on to create a higher impact at lower costs are: implementing personalised customer assistance, better contact centre design, integrating Web interactions, and speedy accurate service.
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