Quality over quantity the differentiator for call centres

Luke Coleman, Communications Day, Issue 3196, 24 January 2008

Call centres are looking beyond conventional metrics in measuring performance, according to hosted solutions company Global Speech Networks.

The company claims that as 2008 kicks off, contact centres are more frequently looking at customer satisfaction metrics instead of calls handled and time taken.

“Call centres have realised that they’re not really listening to their customers as much as they used to,” GSN managing director Nick Rodda told CommsDay.

“Businesses used to be the face-to-face interaction and call centres were cost-driven initiatives, but it really didn’t fill the gap. Call centre performance metrics like average handling time and all that, call centres are quite good at handling that stuff and hitting those targets. But it doesn’t really tell them if the contact centre is delivering a happy customer outcome. We’re seeing a real demand from organisations really wanting to hear from their customers.”

Rodda says that more contact centres today are getting customer feedback from phone surveys, which take place instantly after a call to a contact centre. He says other user satisfaction surveys yield poor responses, and customers often complete them long after a call, skewing honest answers.

“I think organisations are realising that service is becoming a big differentiator and if you’ve got to give good service,” said Rodda, who sees qualitative metrics as a key growth area in GSN. “We’re definitely seeing an uptake in demand for this type of service.”