Contact centre staff spend just 29% of call time helping customers
UK contact centre staff spend an average of just 29% of call time actually speaking with customers.
Research commissioned by Siemens Enterprise Communications found that 16% of call time was spent conversing and 13% on building a rapport or having a general conversation.
The remaining 71% of call time is split between entering data, making notes, seeking advice and reading from information screens.
Contact centre working has traditionally been focussed on communication with the customer. However, Siemens says the research shows a worrying shift away from this, due to a growing trend towards data entry and administration.
The average customer is more likely to be held in a queue due to operatives making notes or inputting data from a previous call.
Compounding customer service, workers use on average five separate applications when dealing with a call, with 5% claiming an astonishing 15 applications.
The research highlights that, although most reported significant IT upgrades in last year, 66% rated IT slowdowns as having either a high or medium impact on productivity. However, 61% said that further IT improvements were needed – in particular, better systems for managing calls would provide the most positive improvement.
Challenging calls or difficult customers was the second most common option for productivity drains, with 52% citing this as having a high or medium impact.
Anne Marie Forsyth, chief executive of the Customer Contact Association (CCA) commented on the research: “These findings are interesting, as too often contact centre research is focussed on generalisations and statistics rather than aspects of the work from the individual employee perspective. Contact centre work has become much more complex over the last five to ten years due to increased regulation, product complexity, speed to market ambitions and of course rising expectations from time poor customers.”
The survey also found areas where respondents felt that further training would positively impact their productivity. 41% believed that more training in IT systems would improve their productivity, while 40% wanted more training in how to deal with difficult customers, and 33% saw leadership training as key to improving productivity – an interesting point that links to career aspirations.
Tim Bishop, head of strategy at Siemens Enterprise Communications, commented: “The research uncovers an interesting paradox. Despite the majority of respondents reporting a significant IT upgrade in the last year, IT slowdowns are the biggest drain on productivity.
However, instead of citing poor technology provision as the issue, the more realistic challenge is how contact centres keep pace as improvements lead to greater sophistication and throughput of calls.”
UK contact centres employing almost 300,000 people in the UK – around 1% of the national workforce and about the same percentage as teachers.
Research commissioned by Siemens Enterprise Communications found that 16% of call time was spent conversing and 13% on building a rapport or having a general conversation.
The remaining 71% of call time is split between entering data, making notes, seeking advice and reading from information screens.
Contact centre working has traditionally been focussed on communication with the customer. However, Siemens says the research shows a worrying shift away from this, due to a growing trend towards data entry and administration.
The average customer is more likely to be held in a queue due to operatives making notes or inputting data from a previous call.
Compounding customer service, workers use on average five separate applications when dealing with a call, with 5% claiming an astonishing 15 applications.
The research highlights that, although most reported significant IT upgrades in last year, 66% rated IT slowdowns as having either a high or medium impact on productivity. However, 61% said that further IT improvements were needed – in particular, better systems for managing calls would provide the most positive improvement.
Challenging calls or difficult customers was the second most common option for productivity drains, with 52% citing this as having a high or medium impact.
Anne Marie Forsyth, chief executive of the Customer Contact Association (CCA) commented on the research: “These findings are interesting, as too often contact centre research is focussed on generalisations and statistics rather than aspects of the work from the individual employee perspective. Contact centre work has become much more complex over the last five to ten years due to increased regulation, product complexity, speed to market ambitions and of course rising expectations from time poor customers.”
The survey also found areas where respondents felt that further training would positively impact their productivity. 41% believed that more training in IT systems would improve their productivity, while 40% wanted more training in how to deal with difficult customers, and 33% saw leadership training as key to improving productivity – an interesting point that links to career aspirations.
Tim Bishop, head of strategy at Siemens Enterprise Communications, commented: “The research uncovers an interesting paradox. Despite the majority of respondents reporting a significant IT upgrade in the last year, IT slowdowns are the biggest drain on productivity.
However, instead of citing poor technology provision as the issue, the more realistic challenge is how contact centres keep pace as improvements lead to greater sophistication and throughput of calls.”
UK contact centres employing almost 300,000 people in the UK – around 1% of the national workforce and about the same percentage as teachers.