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CALL CENTRE FOCUS: First Direct is the UK's Top Call Centre for
Customer Service
(M2 PressWIRE Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
RDATE:10102008
UK's biggest ever call centre benchmarking exercise reveals the UK's
Top Ten Call Centres for Customer Service
--
Retail and financial services call centres are the best performers
--
Cambridgeshire County Council is the highest scoring public sector
call centre and reaches the Top Ten
--
Independent wine merchant Laithwaites is the top retail call centre
--
The highest performing call centre in the telecoms & utilities
sector is United Utilities and Holiday Extras came top in
entertainment, leisure & travel category
--
93% of customers got through to the call centres on their first
attempt and 96% of customer enquiries were resolved by the initial call
--
85% of callers in the study were either satisfied or extremely
satisfied with their call experience
LONDON -- Telephone and online bank First Direct scored the highest
overall score in the UK's biggest ever call centre benchmarking
exercise, conducted by independent market research company GfK NOP.
The study was commissioned by the UK's Top 50 Call Centres for Customer
Service, a programme organised by Call Centre Focus magazine, to raise
customer service standards in the call centre industry. Each call
centre was rated using over 50 criteria across five key areas of
service - timeliness, ease of use, reliability, staff knowledge and
personalised service - and awarded a Customer Service rating in
percentage terms.
GfK NOP made 20,000 mystery shopper calls to 50 of the UK's leading
call centres, across five sectors - retail, financial services &
insurance, telecoms & utilities, public sector and entertainment,
leisure & travel - as part of an initiative to identify the best
performers and raise the standing of the contact centre industry.
The UKs Top Ten Call Centres for Customer Service
1First Direct 91.73%
6 Prudential 89.33%
2Denplan 91.32%
7 Charles Tyrwhitt
89.29%
3F&C investments 91.26%
8 ING Direct 87.89%
4Lloyds TSB Insurance 91.02% 9 Specsavers 87.57%
5Laithwaites 90.36%
10 Cambridgeshire County
Council 87.13%
The strongest performing sectors were retail and financial services
sectors; six financial services and three retail call centres feature
in the UK's Top Ten Call Centres for Customer Service. First Direct
topped the list with an impressive 92%, nudging ahead of Denplan, F&C
Investments and Lloyds TSB Insurance, all with 91%.
The top performing retailers were independent wine merchant Laithwaites
with a score of 90%, while quality shirt maker Charles Tyrwhitt scored
89% and Specsavers achieved 88%. Cambridgeshire County Council was the
leading public sector call centre and was included in the Top Ten,
setting the standard in this sector, with a score of 87%, against the
public sector average rating of 78%.
The highest performing sectors were retail and financial call centres
with scores of 87% and 86% respectively. Public sector call centres
scored 78%, four points behind the telecoms & utilities and
entertainment, leisure & travel sectors, which both scored 82%. The
highest performing call centre in the entertainment, leisure & travel
category was Holiday Extras with 85% and United Utilities topped the
telecoms & utilities sector with a score of 86%.
The 50 criteria used to evaluate the call centres took into account all
aspects of customer service, including time to get through to a
customer service representative, queue management, automated IVR
systems, politeness, knowledge and friendliness of call centre staff,
as well as how quickly enquiries were resolved.
Overall, the benchmark study showed that all Top 50 Call Centres are
getting the basics right: 93% of customers got through to the call
centres on their first attempt and a staggering 96% of customer
enquiries were resolved by the initial call. In addition, 85% of
callers were either satisfied or extremely satisfied with their call
experience, 76% said they were likely or extremely likely to recommend
the organisation and 71% said they were likely to start or continue to
use the organisation.
Overall Top 50 scores
Overall 83%
1. Retail87%
2. Financial services & insurance86%
3. Entertainment, leisure & travel82%
4. Telecoms & utilities82%
5. Public sector78%
The weakest results uncovered by the benchmarking exercise were for
personalised' service covering a range of softer' skills such as
friendliness, politeness and eagerness to help. The overall score for
this category, at 68%, was significantly below the overall score of 83%
for the Top 50 Call Centres.
Claudia Hathway, Editor of Call Centre Focus, commented:
"This benchmarking survey represents a landmark for the call centre
industry, with 50 of the UK's top call centres prepared to put their
reputations on the line in order to raise service standards for their
customers. We would like to congratulate First Direct for their
excellent performance, and indeed all of the Top 50, for such high
achievements. We hope this initiative will inspire other call centres
to improve their levels of customer service to reach the standards set
by our Top 50 members and we are grateful to Siemens for their
enthusiastic sponsorship and support of the programme and its aims.
"The results show that many organisations are already delivering a
world-class service to their customers. However, there is still room
for improvement, particularly in the area of personalised service. By
investing in the frontline employees who provide call centre service,
organisations have an opportunity to differentiate their performance
and increase customer long-term loyalty."
Paul Cooper, Strategic Director at the Institute of Customer Service
which is a supporter of the awards, said:"The aim of National Customer
Service Week (6-12 October) is to celebrate outstanding customer
service and we are delighted to see the top 10 call centres announced
at the same time.
"The programme is a great way of raising the profile of those companies
which take the time to ensure customer satisfaction over the phone. It
is important to recognise these companies as beacons within the
industry, with the hope that it will inspire others to make it into the
list for next year."
Notes to Editors
About the Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service
Organisations who took part in the Top 50 Call Centre initiative
include: Boots, BUPA, Cambridgeshire County Council, Comet,
Co-operative Financial Services, Direct Line, DVLA, EDF Energy,
Eurostar, First Direct, Holiday Extras, ING Direct, John Lewis Direct,
Kent County Council, Laithwaites, LEGO, Lloyds TSB Insurance, M&S
Direct, Nationwide Direct, O2 UK, P&O Ferries, Prudential, Specsavers
Optical Superstores, Surrey County Council, Tesco Personal Finance,
Thomas Cook, United Utilities, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Vodafone.
Research methodology
In total, 400 calls were made to each of the 50 organisations -
resulting in a total sample of 20,000 calls. The mystery shopping
exercise is based on a comprehensive analysis of call centre service in
five key areas derived from extensive focus group research with actual
customers. The report will be published in October 2008.
Calls were split across customer and non-customer assessor profiles and
across simple and more complex enquiries. Assessors were profiled as
closely as possible to the organisation they were calling and used
their real background, contact details to maximise their credibility.
Where appropriate to the scenario in question, they had policy numbers;
customer reference numbers etc. to hand in case they were asked for
these to resolve their enquiry.
Scenarios were constructed so as to be comparable across all
organisations and sectors involved. Examples are shown below:
Entertainment, leisure & travelFlight, holiday and accommodation quotes
and enquiries, fares and schedules, facilities for children / disabled
customers / elderly customers, parking, changing dates,
Financial services & insurance Requests for balances / information on
recent transactions / standing orders, product / service enquiries,
excess charges, insurance quotes (including non-standard risk
profiles), checking policy details, changing policy details
Public sector Enquiries about services (such as libraries, recycling,
social housing), costs of services, appointment booking, enquiries
about benefits / taxes
Retail Store card enquiries, opening times, appointment booking,
enquiries about refund processes, catalogue ordering, product detail
enquiries
Telecoms & utilities Enquiries about product packages / add-ons, price
objections, payment and balance enquiries
Trained mystery shoppers were used for the calling and restrictions
were placed on the number of calls made by individual assessors. On the
customer' scenarios and those where contact details may be requested,
shoppers were limited to no more than 1 call per organisation.
Calls were made between May and August 2008.
About Call Centre Focus
Call Centre Focus is the UK's leading monthly magazine covering all
aspects of the call centre industry and customer service in general.
Articles give practical advice and tips on how to ensure successful and
effective customer contact and the regularly updated website
(www.callcentre.co.uk) ensures that readers are kept abreast of the
very latest market news. In short, it is a one-stop-shop for call
centre professionals everywhere.
About Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service
The Top 50 Call Centre initiative is a benchmarking exercise, conducted
by GfK NOP, a leading independent market research organisation, and
sponsored by Siemens, that aims to help call centres find out how the
general public thinks they are performing through 20,000 mystery
shopping calls, half of these from current customers of each
participating organisation.
Calls were rated against five customer service criteria identified by
extensive focus group research with customers themselves: timeliness,
ease of use, reliability, staff knowledge and personalisation. The
calls reflected different enquiry types from simple requests to more
complex enquiries, truly reflecting the range of calls the call centre
receives. They took place at different times of day, during peak and
non peak periods, including weekends.
About Siemens Enterprise Communications
Siemens Enterprise Communications is one of the world's leading
suppliers of Unified Communications technologies. The company's unique
Open Communications approach to providing software, solutions and
services for enterprises of all sizes enables business processes to be
more productive, faster and more secure - with any device, network or
information technology infrastructure.
CONTACT: Call Centre Focus
WWW: http://www.callcentre.co.uk
Sarah-Anne Bray, Wildfire PR
Tel: +44 (0)208 339 4420
e-mail: Top50@wildfirepr.co.uk
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provided within M2 PressWIRE. Data supplied by named party/parties.
Further information on M2 PressWIRE can be obtained at
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Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd.
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