Customer service operators provide solutions for companies across many different industries to answer a wide range of questions regarding a particular product or service. Delivering this service efficiently and courteously ensures customers get all the answers they need, but poor customer services can result in high customer attrition rates. For businesses looking for the right customer service provider, the process can be labor and capital intensive, and choosing the wrong company can result in losing one's reputation and eventually the business.
A new program launched by Call Centre Management Association (CCMA) and Bright UK, will establish a new benchmarking initiative for customer service operations in the U.K. called the Gold Standard, with a comprehensive set of parameters that will give businesses the ability to make informed decisions about choosing the right customer service provider.
The Gold Standard will rate participating organizations on how well they meet levels of competence in three areas: customer satisfaction, employee engagement and operational performance.
According to both companies the program was conceived after witnessing inefficient methodologies applied to rate customer service providers with non-statistically secure or non-actionable accreditations awarding praises that ended up misleading customers.
The new program will survey 1,000 customers for each service provider in order to get a clear picture of the service it delivers as well as employee satisfaction and key internal performance metrics for a comprehensive view of the overall operations of the organization.
“As the calls and emails handled by contact centers today are getting more and more complex, the amount of training needs to increase and improve,” said Ann-Marie Stagg, executive director of the CCMA. “We also need to collectively improve the status of the advisor roles so that employers will be able to recruit people with the right skills. Should we not act now, low-cost offshoring destinations will become an increasingly attractive proposition for Chief Executives.”
Operators in the U.K. have already applauded this initiative because it will be a tool that will differentiate the top performers. At the same time participants have stated it will give them an insight and up-to-date view of how they are doing compared to peers and other sectors, this according to Julian Price, head of customer contact at John Lewis (one of the first participants).
“All three areas will count towards a potential accreditation as they have all proven to have a direct correlation with customer satisfaction as well as assuring the company’s customer service operations remain competitive,” said Mats Rennstam, managing director of Bright UK.
Edited by Alisen Downey