Proper Contact Center Data Warehouse Methods Help Produce Call Center Certification

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

The call center is an important division for any organization as it serves as the primary interaction point between customers and the company. In many situations, it is the only interaction point and therefore, responsible for the customer’s experience and satisfaction. Due to this heightened level of importance, it is critical that the contact handling process is conducted both efficiently and effectively.

To truly measure how well customer interactions are being handled by contact center agents, many companies look to third party opinions. The third party is often asked to rate the performance of a company’s mission critical contact center as executives continue to recognize the potential the center offers as a significant revenue generator. In fact, some companies have even recognized that one of the best investments they can make is to enhance and create customer value and bottom-line profits through contact center investments. 

To get a better idea of what companies are doing in this space, the Purdue / BenchmarkPortal  warehouse of contact center data has collected information from contact centers throughout the world.The information contained within this contact center data warehouse includes key performance data (KPIs) for more than 46,000 inbound contact centers; captures real-time best practice performance measures; is continually updated with fresh contact center data; uses a rolling 24 month cycle to generate averages; and performance is compared to a Peer Group. 

In addition, the database provides accurate ROI analysis for metric improvements. To provide this information for decision makers in the contact center space, data is continuously collected, scrubbed, validated and updated through several methods, including RealityCheck, In-Depth RealityCheck, One Minute Surveys and Call Center Certification. Reality Check is an 11 point questionnaire considered the easiest method contact center managers can use to generate a report of their key performance metrics to use for comparison. In-Depth RealityCheck takes the benchmarking to a deeper level by examining 60 KPI data points within the contact center operation. One-Minute Surveys gather information to be fed into the database to refresh the information.

Call center certification is a process considered to be management’s best path to a World Class Quality Contact Center. The certification process is unique as it is based strictly on a quantitative approach and begins with a thorough statistical comparison between the contact center and a peer group of similar centers in the same industry. The balanced score-card approach compared weighted KPIs to the industry. 

The call center certification process relies completely on statistical methods of performance benchmarking that pinpoint areas of high performance and quantify any gaps in low performance areas. This process relies on established scientific methods to measure the achievement to determine if best practice standards have been met. Once call center certification is accomplished, the contact center is well on its way to sustainable success.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Juliana Kenny

(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/channels/call-center-certification/articles/129177-proper-contact-center-data-warehouse-methods-help-produce.htm)

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