| Call Center Research |
08.05.2008
Planning makes the difference for 2008 award winners
Success was celebrated this week by six contact centres who demonstrated exceptional improvements in making their organisations a better place to work and to contact.
The Awards were presented to EDF Energy, British Gas Services, Canterbury City Council, Carphone Warehouse, Orange and Vodafone at Contact Centre Planning 2008, the 7th annual conference of the Professional Planning Forum on 29th April in Manchester.
The prestigious Contact Centre Innovation of the Year Award 2008 was presented this week to EDF Energy for using analysis of the root causes of customer contact to halve workload in key areas and create a ground-breaking end-to-end service for new customers. The planning team involve advisers in creating and using bespoke end-of-call surveys to pinpoint areas where process or product changes can most improve results and establish a baseline for measuring the success of business cases for investment or service development.
“This has totally changed how managers see planning”, explains Penny Wright, Resource Planning Manager at EDF Energy. As Su Martin, Head of Marketing Operations and Customer Experience, confirms “it’s taken us to a totally different level … we don’t just react, we plan”. Glen Ewing heads New Customer Acquisitions, who have developed the pioneering end-to-end service in the Pontoon department. “It’s changed the business and how we make decisions”, he comments. “I think the Internal Investment Board was surprised. It made them realise that they need a different approach”.
“Making life easier for customers, who currently need to make repeated or unnecessary calls, is still the biggest challenge for customer-focussed organisations”, comments Paul Smedley, Executive Director of the Professional Planning Forum, the Award’s organisers. “The successes at EDF Energy demonstrate the outstanding results that are possible for contact centres when they systematically preventing the service or communications failure that otherwise forces customers to call”. Project work has led to reductions of 50% in direct debit queries and 60% in the billing helpline – increasing customer loyalty by 80% and freeing up time for 1:1’s and team meetings.
The award was presented at Contact Centre Planning 2008, the Professional Planning Forum’s seventh annual conference in Manchester on 29th April. Almost 500 industry specialists gathered for the Gala dinner and the two-day conference at which all the award winners presented their achievements.
The following awards to recognise innovation in specific areas were also given:
The Management Information Innovation Award went to Carphone Warehouse for a rapid transformation of MI that gives visibility to the customer experience and has developed a coaching culture within the contact centre. The new reporting platform is outperforming external specifications at a fraction of the cost and saving £1.5m pa in Microsoft licences alone.
The Resource Planning Innovation Award was presented to Vodafone, for applying call centre planning to retail stores in the Czech Republic, growing sales by 18% and reducing cost overspends. This approach is now being rolled out in the UK.
British Gas Services gained the Innovation Award for Integrated Planning for a resourcing strategy that joins together recruitment, training and resource planning. In just one year, the centres have cut churn by 20% points, boosted new starter quality scores by nearly 60%, and increased employee satisfaction by 6%.
The Innovation Award for Lifestyle Planning went to Orange UK for Your Time, creating new lifestyle shift options, to attract and retain a deliberately diverse mix of employees, involving radical changes to recruitment, induction training and management practices on the operational floor.
Canterbury City Council won the 2008 Public Sector Innovation Award for a uniquely flexible approach to home working and job variety, supported by integrated planning for both front and back office.
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06.05.2008
Softigator Call Center Radar 28-04-08 to 05-05-08
All members are invited to participate and send press releases, comments and ideas to service@softigator.net.
To see the abstracts of the following articles, go to the member area at Softigator.com and click on “Start” or go to http://www.softigator.com/callcenterbusinessnetworking/start.html.
If you are not a member yet, registration is free and takes 1 minute. Just go to the top left button, register yourself and confirm link in the verification email which you receive seconds later.
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General:
Researchers at the University of Birmingham are asking volunteers from the west midlands city to have their voice recorded to help hone voice technology.
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Europe:
CPP will open a new contact centre in July in Chesterfield that will see over 300 new jobs created by the end of the year.
Energy company E.ON has announced it is creating 465 jobs at three of its sites in Nottingham.
Swinton is expanding its Norwich workforce at its city centre call centre.
Hundreds of staff at ITV Digital in Plymouth have escaped redundancy.
Tesco is to take on another 300 people at its call centre in Dundee.
Leading UK lifestyle data provider DLG has acquired specialist call centre and lead-generation experts Positive Response for an undisclosed sum.
Around 70 call centre jobs have been axed from a Black Country loans and mortgages company which has gone into administration.
Home working is still not a popular option for creating flexibility in contact centres, in spite of the widespread availability of broadband and advances in technology, research has revealed.
York District Hospital has been chosen as one of a handful of hospitals in the UK to try out a new way of dealing with phone calls from patients.
Four into one: £15m new call centre for mobile phone company.
Working from home is set to become the "next big trend" in the call centre industry, said Brendan Dick, director of BT Scotland.
Marusa Marketing Inc. has confirmed it is shifting work out of its call centre in Cambridge.
COMPUTER giant Dell is making up to 40 workers redundant at a call centre in Glasgow next month as part of a global drive to push up profits.
The call centre operated by Crimestoppers is expecting its millionth phone call this month, a new report observes.
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North America:
Call center operator PRC Inc. will permanently close its facility in Carrollton on June 30 and eliminate 339 jobs.
Union representatives and workers who were laid off from an AT&T passport call center in Dover (New Hampshire) are meeting with New Hampshire Congresswoman.
A Lauderdale Lakes-based telecommunications firm is opening a Delray Beach call center that will eventually create 450 jobs.
Just days after Dell Inc. announced it will lay off 1,100 of its 1,200 employees in Kanata and close its call centre operation, a small, new technical support company is setting up shop.
Global Hyatt Corp. will put a new shared service center for North America in Oklahoma.
Canada - About 400 downtown St. Catharines call centre jobs will disappear when TeleSpectrum Inc. shuts down in July, Mayor Brian McMullan said Thursday.
Dell Canada is closing its Ottawa call centre after only 21/2 years in operation. Five hundred people have immediately lost their jobs and another 600 will be laid off at the end of June.
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Africa:
Local contact centre equipment suppliers should look to the small and medium enterprise (SME) market for new growth opportunities, says global analyst firm Frost & Sullivan.
South Africa’s outsourced contact centre industry has enjoyed sound growth and expects to see the number of outsourced seats reach about 60 000 in the next five to seven years.
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APAC:
The State Opposition is demanding the Federal Government honours plans to create new call centre jobs in Launceston.
IDT Global Services, which operates call centers around the country and is possibly the country's largest employer of native English speakers, has begun to downsize in a move that has so far eliminated dozens of positions.
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29.04.2008
Scottish Water chooses Graham Technology and Atos Origin
Scottish Water chooses Graham Technology and Atos Origin to help improve its Customer Connections Service - ciboodle customer interaction platform at the core of the solution
Glasgow, U.K. – April 29, 2008 – Graham Technology, a provider of customer-oriented business software and services, in partnership with Atos Origin, has been awarded a new business transformation contract with Scottish Water aimed at dramatically improving its water and sewerage connections service. This new contract forms part of a four-year framework agreement between Atos Origin and Scottish Water for application development projects and programmes.
This new contract will see Atos Origin design, build and implement a new online IT solution. This will streamline the process that builders and property developers go through when applying for water and sewerage connections to new properties. Once fully implemented, the new online system will provide operational efficiencies and reduce costs for Scottish Water, whilst improving the overall customer experience.
"We have selected Atos Origin, in partnership with Graham Technology, due to their proven expertise in implementing large and complex business change and customer-service focused IT programmes," said David Brown, Head of IT, Scottish Water. "They will provide Scottish Water with the right mix of technical and project management capability and I am confident that, working together, we will achieve our business aspirations."
"We are delighted to have been selected to work on this important and exciting project," said Steve Langmead, Vice President – Scotland, Atos Origin. "Working in partnership with Graham Technology and utilising ciboodle, we will provide Scottish Water with a best-of-breed solution that will add real value to the company and its customers alike. We are absolutely committed to helping Scottish Water achieve its operational efficiencies and improve its end customer experience."
Core to the solution will be Graham Technology's ciboodle suite – the company’s award winning customer interaction suite that improves the speed of customer interactions and helps manage business processes more effectively.
"We are pleased that ciboodle has been selected as a platform for change in Scottish Water and look forward to working with Atos Origin to design, build and implement the right IT solution for the Customer Connections programme," said Mike Hughes, Managing Director, Graham Technology. "Working with major IT services companies like Atos Origin is a key part of our business strategy, and we are excited to be their partner on this project."
About Graham Technology
For over 20 years, Graham Technology has helped improve the way large organizations interact with their customers. Provider of the award-winning customer interaction software suite, ciboodle, the company also offers a range of professional technology services. This proven combination attracts and retains high-value customers for Graham Technology's clients, while reducing their operational costs.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Graham Technology has customers in 12 countries across five continents. With industry experience in a multitude of sectors, the company is consistently recognized by industry analysts as one of the world's leading customer-centric technology providers.
www.ciboodle.com
www.grahamtechnology.com
About Atos Origin
Atos Origin is an international information technology services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations. The company's annual revenues are EUR 5.8 billion and it employs over 50,000 people in 40 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and has a client base of international blue-chip companies across all sectors. Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Eurolist Market and trades as Atos Origin, Atos Euronext Market Solutions, Atos Worldline and Atos Consulting.
About Scottish Water
Scottish Water is a publicly owned business, answerable to the Scottish Parliament. As a new public sector model within the UK water industry Scottish Water aims to be as efficient and effective as water companies in the private sector. Scottish Water was formed in April 2002 following the merger of the three former water authorities – East of Scotland, West of Scotland and North of Scotland. This was one of the most complex mergers ever seen in Scotland. Scottish Water’s head office is in Dunfermline with principal offices in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. It employs approximately 3,700 people across Scotland. Scottish Water plays a crucial role in protecting the nation's health by providing water and waste water services 365 days per year to 2.2 million households across an area that is one third of the size of Britain.
Media and analysts contact:
Danny Sullivan
inmedia Public Relations Inc.
Tel (UK): +44 (0) 141 404 6478
Tel (US): +1 613 686 5657
Email: dsullivan@inmedia.com
Caroline Crouch
Atos Origin
Tel: +44 20 7830 4233
Email: caroline.crouch@atosorigin.com
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21.04.2008
Softigator Call Center Radar 14-04-08 to 20-04-08
This is an introduction to our ongoing member service Call Center Radar. If you would like to receive this service weekly, free of charge, just register at www.softigator.com.
Registration at softigator.com is free and takes 1 minute plus verifying our registration link we send you via email. If you would like to advertise with us, or if you have interesting news, reports or events, please get in touch at service@softigator.com.
All members are invited to participate and send press releases, comments and ideas to service@softigator.net.
Softigator Articles:
Efficient Customer Management and Positive Customer Experience through Process-Driven Customer Interaction
By Softigator member Danny Singer
For decades, companies around the globe have been seeking for ways to personalise and streamline interaction with their customers at the same time. This has lead to two major trends in the industry: Off-Shoring and Business Performance Improvement programmes including (semi) automation.
General:
We see more and more stories written by Journalists regarding their experiences with a Call Center…
Frieda Barry, President and Chairman of the CIAC, shed a positive light on offshore accents…
Centris recommends to ask about attrition rates when checking third party Call Centre Outsourcers…
When SaaS Workforce Management solutions makes more sense for the Enterprise...
Overview of Call Center Events worldwide...
Europe:
Brits are unconvinced by the quality of call centres – especially when compared to the Germans…
Ofwat is proposing to fine Severn Trent Water £35.8m for providing false information…
A new customer call centre in Wokingham is being introduced…
A Call centre worker has been jailed for helping to siphon £33,500 from customers' accounts…
49% of Neckermann, one of the largest Mail Order companies have been purchased…
North America:
AT&T Customer Care Center employees have voted to be represented by Union...
ICT Group plans to close its Carbonear, NL, call centre…
PRC negotiating to sell their call center to DirecTV…
Global Solutions Inc. is opening a call center in Lubbock that could hire as many as 600 workers...
Another company signed on to set up a new call center in Texas bringing 168 full-time jobs…
Health insurer Humana Inc. to open a new call center in Tempe, Ariz., on April 21…
StarTek Inc. of Denver to add a new call center…
TouchStar joins the Enterprise Call Center Market…
Up to 500 more call centre jobs in New Brunswick…
PRC LLC of Plantation is shutting its Margate call center and hoping to absorb most of its 424…
APAC:
Dubai Roads and Transport Authority has decided to cancel the contract with the outsourced call centre…
PacificNet Epro was recently awarded 'The Best Outsourcing Contact Center at the China Call Center Award'…
According to AME Info the Largest Jordanian call centre launches its operations…
Indian call centres are rushing to review employee safety procedures…
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16.04.2008
Efficient Customer Management and Positive Customer Experience
Efficient Customer Management and Positive Customer Experience through Process-Driven Customer Interaction
By Softigator member Danny Singer
For decades, companies around the globe have been seeking for ways to personalise and streamline interaction with their customers at the same time. This has lead to two major trends in the industry: Off-Shoring and Business Performance Improvement programmes including (semi) automation.
The Off-Shoring approach tends to leave only large corporate projects with a positive net effect after deducting the exploding project management costs - due to increased quality issues and customer complaints.
As a result, Business Performance Improvement regarding Customer Management has gained more speed again.
Read the full article about Efficient Customer Management and Positive Customer Experience!
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09.04.2008
Contact centre staff attrition - part 3
Softigator member Steve Morrell from Call Centre Research specialists ContactBabel shows us key results from the UK Contact Centre market. This report is an extract of the UK Contact Centre Operational Review. Today we publish the last part of this sequel:
-Call blending
Within an outbound environment, businesses can consider using call blending to decrease attrition rates through varying the tasks that agents do. Call blending is an element of outbound calling which has perhaps not yet reached its full potential, as it stands against some of the conventional wisdom of the traditional contact centre industry, which implies that the more one can segregate the contact centre into a series of production lines, the better-run the operation will be.
Call blending gives the ability to deliver both inbound and outbound calls seamlessly to the agent, regulating outbound call volume based on inbound traffic. When inbound traffic is low, outbound calls are automatically generated for a specified campaign. When inbound traffic picks up, the dialler dynamically slows the number of outgoing calls to meet the inbound service level. Results can include increased agent productivity, streamlined staffing, and improved customer service. It also seems to have an impact on staff attrition: only 29% of contact centres using call blending stated they had a problem with attrition, compared to 56% of operations in which call blending is not used.
Contact centre staff attrition key findings here.
Contact Steve Morrell on Softigator - only in the member area.
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07.04.2008
Contact centre staff attrition - part 2
Softigator member Steve Morrell from Call Centre Research specialists ContactBabel shows us key results from the UK Contact Centre market. This report is an extract of the UK Contact Centre Operational Review. Today we publish part 2 of this sequel:
The problems with staff attrition
It is a fact of life that businesses will experience some staff attrition, and a case can be made for a certain amount of staff turnover being healthy, in that it brings new blood and new ideas into a business. However, once the attrition rates become excessive, a vicious circle emerges that increases cost, lowers quality and prevents the business moving forward:
Contact centre staff attrition key findings here.
Log in tomorrow for the next part of the serial "Contact centre staff attrition" by Steve Morrell. Contact Steve Morrell on Softigator - only in the member area.
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03.04.2008
Contact centre staff attrition
Contact centre staff attrition is certainly one of the key issues in the Call Center Market worldwide. Softigator member Steve Morrell from Call Centre Research specialists ContactBabel shows us the latest key results from the UK Contact Centre market. This report is an extract of the UK Contact Centre Operational Review. Today we publish part 1 of this serial.
The UK Contact Centre Operational Review (5th edition - 2007) is a study of the performance, operations, technology and HR aspects of 211 UK contact centre operations. Taking a random sample of the industry, a detailed structured questionnaire was asked to contact centre managers and directors: the result - the 5th edition of the largest and most comprehensive study of all aspects of the UK contact centre industry - is now available.
The report covers 18 key areas of contact centre performance and operation:
• Recruitment and Salaries
• Attrition and Absence
• Training
• Flexible Working
• Outsourcing
• Security and Disaster Recovery
• Headsets
• CRM
• Contact Centre Performance
• IP and Call Handling
• Quality and Customer Satisfaction
• Hosted and Network-based Solutions
• Information and Planning
• Outbound and Call Blending
• Speech Technology
• Multimedia
• Location
• Contact Centre Strategy
This article focuses upon the steadily increasing levels of staff attrition in the contact centre, and the problems caused by this.
Contact centre staff attrition key findings here.
Log in tomorrow for the next part of the serial "Contact centre staff attrition" by Steve Morrell. Contact Steve Morrell on Softigator - only in the member area.
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02.04.2008
Graham Technology joins SWORD Group
Company to benefit from increased international reach and resources
Glasgow, U.K. – April 1, 2008 – Graham Technology, a provider of customer-oriented business software and services, today announced it has been acquired by international IT company, SWORD Group. It is expected that the acquisition will help drive global uptake of Graham Technology’s flagship customer interaction platform, ciboodle.
More in the Softigator Members Area
Read our Graham Technology article What's the big fuss about process management in CRM? vendor.
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01.04.2008
Delivering agility and consistency to customer contact
By Danny Singer
The concept of CRM has brought the subject of effective customer contact to the centre stage. Most organisations recognise now that being able to communicate efficiently and successfully with their customers is of paramount importance.
However, the solutions that have been on offer in this arena so far have fallen well short of the functional requirement of the modern contact centre particularly where agility and consistency of service are concerned. Also, the cost of CRM implementations has proven prohibitive to almost all but the largest of organisations.
Customer Interaction Management (CIM) systems and Synthesys™ in particular address this issue by providing an answer to the specific requirements of the contact centre market across all verticals. This is mainly due to the recognition that the techniques used to deliver successful customer contact within the context of a contact centre form a distinct discipline in their own right. Synthesys™ addresses precisely these techniques .
The first part of this paper presents a high-level overview of the architecture and functionality of the product and then proceeds to analyse the general Unique Selling Points of the system across all markets.
In the second part we look more specifically at six different horizontal markets within the contact centre space and provide a brief analysis of the positioning of Synthesys™ within each market, followed by a relevant case study.
Finally, in an appendix we provide a more light-hearted historical commentary of the parallel development of CRM and CIM and a brief analysis of the future of these two close yet significantly distinct disciplines.
Read this White Paper in the Member area.
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