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Dimension Data's Survey Reveals Omnichannel Communications Crucial for Call Centers

By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributor

A recent survey from Dimension Data (News - Alert), a provider of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services and solutions, says customers are increasingly dissatisfied with the call center services delivered to them.

The survey, which included 817 participants covering 11 business sectors in 79 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Australia, and the Middle East & Africa, shows the increasing need for new technology and resources to keep clients engaged and employees happy.

The dissatisfaction is higher in generation X and Y that want to leverage multi-channel communications. With the growing need for multi-channel interaction, customer service today extends beyond phone calls to include Web chat, smartphone applications and social media.

As the communications platforms in contact centers become more complex, front-line customer service staffs are leaving their positions at a growing rate. This is because agents are not hired or trained to communicate within these new channels.

The survey has revealed that contact center agent absenteeism is three times higher than contact center management, and agent attrition is up an alarming 26 percent over 2012 rates.

The 2013/2014 Contact Center Benchmarking Report from Dimension Data notes that organizations must revamp their operating models, starting with properly trained agents – or risk losing them.

“The pace of technology adoption by end users is driving contact centers to evolve and gather speed, which means the complexity of transactions has increased. Organizations haven’t kept pace with technology and are operating outdated systems,” said Andrew McNair, Dimension Data’s head of Global Benchmarking.

“There’s no doubt that if management does not plan for increased contact center agent competency, and develop skills across multiple channels and disciplines, these organizations will fail,” McNair added.

To survive in this multi-channel era, organizations need not have one strategy for each channel like Web, mobile or social media. Instead, they need a single, unified strategy for customer contact across all channels, for all purposes.

“If contact center leaders can raise their game, they can be the ones to drive it. The big danger for now is non-action,” McNair said.

Contact resolution rates and subsequent customer satisfaction also were down for the fourth year running. According to the survey results, customers are left with a three-in-four chance of having their issue resolved when contacting a service provider.

Almost one third of contact center advisers are now handling transactions across a variety of emerging channels including smartphone applications, social media and Web channels.

Omnichannel interactions are the way forward and customers want to hop seamlessly across channels and experience true connectedness. Omnichannel interactions that start on one channel and then continue on another, such as Web chat, are no longer a “nice to have” feature, but a necessity, the study concludes.