• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Dimension Data Unveils Results of Annual Contact Center Survey

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 September 2009, 14:00 CDT

NEW YORK, Sept. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Dimension Data, a $4.5 billion IT services and solutions provider, today announced the findings from its 2009 Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report, an annual survey of more than 550 contact centers in 36 countries across five continents. Among the numerous findings, the results reveal that contact centers are focused on: serving as key value centers for their overall business; finding new ways to drive satisfaction among existing customers; and implementing processes and systems to better identify sales opportunities during inbound calls.

Keeping Existing Customers a Top Priority

"Rising in importance this year, more than 20% of respondents named customer retention as the number one trend affecting their contact centers," said Martin Dove, global managing director for Customer Interactive Solutions, Dimension Data. "It's widely accepted that it is seven to eight times more costly to win a new customer than retain an existing one. For this reason, companies are waking up and focusing their energies and resources on delivering better service to the customers they already have."

The report also unveiled clear signs that companies are looking at new ways to place the customer at the center of their business. According to Dove, "Businesses are offering more options to customers to improve overall service levels. For example, this year, we're seeing more contact centers - a rise of 10% to almost 70% - focus on how to streamline and simplify processes, and also offer more self service options, for their customers' convenience."

Changes in customer behavior are also prompting contact centers to focus on the new ways people prefer to communicate with them. "Fifty-two percent of consumers between the ages of 16 and 34 are using the Internet as their first port of call*. As younger consumers change the way they interact with businesses, and in light of the global rise in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, companies need to find ways to offer these customers more communication choices, or face losing them," Dove said.

"The good news for consumers is that they should expect to see a greater degree of consistency and continuity across the board. While offering customers more choices, companies must understand that this means also ensuring the service remains the same, regardless of what channels customers use to talk to them."

Delivering More Value to the Business; Identifying Sales Opportunities

According to the report, more companies are recognizing the key role that the contact center can play in creating overall value for the business. However, even as they become core value drivers, contact centers continue to remain focused on driving costs down, with 66% of centers stating they have a strategy in place to cut the costs of serving customers, a year-over-year increase of 9.4%.

For example, the number of contact centers telling their customers about the benefits of using lower-cost methods of communication, such as the Web and self service, has doubled to 36% this year. Dove believes this is an encouraging sign that companies are evolving. However, he warns this will only benefit the business if the lower cost options meet customer expectations.

"The important shift is away from pure cost optimization to the next stage of evolution where driving revenue and value becomes a priority. While companies have focused on consolidating and rationalizing processes, functions and activities to cut costs, they're now seeking ways to deliver more value to the bottom line."

As Dove explains, the global contact center industry is still relatively young, and it may take some time to get the basics of cost optimization right. "We expect this transition to value creation will take the next three to four years to fully take hold, and it is within this context that we expect to see investment decisions made."

"However," Dove says, "we need catalysts to create this change, and the economic conditions of today may well be one of them."

"We're also seeing evidence of a more pragmatic and practical approach to Customer Relationship Management. Much importance is being placed on this trend, with 60% of companies reporting they have 'triggers' in place to identify sales opportunities." According to Dove, this will be one area of technology investment in the coming months as organizations look for new ways to identify and increase sales opportunities from inbound calls.

*Published in Dimension Data's Alignment Index for Speech Self-Service Report 2009.

About Dimension Data

Dimension Data (LSE: DDT), a specialist IT services and solutions provider, helps clients plan, build, support and manage their network and IT infrastructures. Dimension Data applies its expertise in networking, security, operating environments, storage and contact center technologies and its unique skills in consulting, integration and managed services to create customized client services. For more information: Call 866-DIDATA-US or visit www.dimensiondata.com/na.

About Dimension Data's Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report

First published in the UK in 1997 by Merchants, Dimension Data's specialist contact center outsourcing and operations division, this year's edition is the 11th in a series of the industry-renowned benchmarking reports. This year's Report has the highest level of participation over 11 years, contains balanced global and industry representation from 554 contact centers located across 36 countries and five continents, and is an invaluable reference for all contact center 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 researched and published by Dimension Data and this year sees the delivery of a world-first benchmarking portal for use by participants and partners. For more information about the Report, please go to www.ccbenchmarking.com

Media Contacts: Lisa Grimes Dimension Data (703) 217-2692 lisa.grimes@us.didata.com Davies Murphy Group (781) 418-2400 ddna@daviesmurphy.com

SOURCE Dimension Data

Source: PR Newswire

More News in this Category