Centres rate call efficiency over customer service at their peril

Centres rate call efficiency over customer service at their peril
Internal efficiency measures at UK call centres are well monitored through multiple metrics but customer service receives less focus, a new survey has found.
 
The survey by call centre technology provider Panviva looked at how UK companies judge and direct the performance of their contact centres. The survey of 54 centres found that, 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.”
 
Whilst 81%c 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.
 
The complete survey can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/9mnZvb