Top Two Call Center Attributes Revealed in Forrester Study for Avaya

When it comes to measuring call center service delivery, it’s best to get feedback straight from the horse’s mouth: the customers. The Global 2011 Consumer Preference Report™, a new industry study conducted by Forrester on behalf of Avaya, reveals what consumers want from customer service centers in order to give them an “excellent” rating.

The study identified 17 desirable call center attributes; including knowledgeable agents, accuracy of information, and availability of self-service options, among others, and asked participants to rank each attribute’s impact on their valuation of the customer experience. The results point to an important trend in customer perception, one that should be taken into consideration when designing or fine-tuning a call center’s service delivery strategy.

Customers participating in the survey identified accessibility and speed as the top two desirable call center attributes.

“Based on this survey the message from consumers is clear: Time is money! The less time they spend interacting with your contact center the happier, the more loyal and more lucrative they will be,” said Lee Shorten, Managing Director – UK & Ireland, for Avaya (News - Alert).

The results, the study cautioned, should not be over-simplified. “The key to this response,” the study highlights, “is to not misinterpret it solely as a need for speed.”

The RCCSP Professional Education Alliance, accreditation and certification body for the call center industry, defines speed as the rate of activity or throughput over a unit of time; and defines accessibility as the ease with which a customer reaches an agent. According to the authority, study findings illuminate a third critical factor as well. Contact center customers want to:

(1)    Reach the call center quickly and easily;

(2)    Get to a live agent quickly and easily; and

(3)    Get a speedy resolution.

The challenge when managing speed and accessibility is not to focus solely on traditional efficiency metrics such as Average Speed of Answer (ASA), Average Handle Time (AHT), and Service Level, which only tell part of the story. RCCSP advocates a more comprehensive view of the entire service delivery process; monitoring capacity, utilization, efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity metrics.

“Call center managers need tools to identify exactly where in the life of a call a change will produce a better outcome,” says Nina Kawalek, CEO for RCCSP. “Poor routing schemes, insufficient agent capacity, or underutilized capacity will also impact ASA. To put your finger on the problem, and to determine who in the organization should have the responsibility and authority to fix it, you need a metric map that monitors construction of your service product from start to finish.”

RCCSP-Certified Call Center Managers and Certified Directors are versed in the organization’s Contact Resolution Process Model™, and how to use balanced scorecards based on a minimum of five sequential areas of metric – and business – analysis.

About RCCSP

RCCSP is a progressive industry-supported and industry-recognized accreditation and certification organization, maintaining and coordinating the most comprehensive portfolio of certification credentials available to call center professionals.