Study Shows U.K. Call Centers Performing to Expectations

Customer satisfaction with their interaction with the call center is essential to overall success of the call center. The main purpose of the center is to provide customer support and if they cannot do that is a way that is satisfying to the customer, the whole organization suffers.


Commissioned by fifty of the U.K.’s leading call centers, new independent research has shown that 93 percent of customers get through to the call center on their first attempt. This study is part of The Top 50 Call Center Initiative, commissioned by Siemens (News - Alert).

The number of customers reaching the call center on first attempt rose to 98 percent in the retail sector, followed by 95 percent in the financial services and entertainment, leisure and travel sectors. The public sector returned a performance of 87 percent, lagging behind the telecoms and utilities at 90 percent.

Surprisingly, a staggering 96 percent of customer inquiries were resolved by the initial call. The retail sector proved to perform the best in this area, achieving a 98 percent first call resolution rate. Financial services and telecoms and utilities returned a 97 percent. For the Public Sector, this number fell to 92 percent.

The survey found that it takes on average just 1.3 minutes for customers of the Top 50 Call Centers to get through to speak to an actual person. This figure accounts for time waiting to get through, as well as time spend selecting IVR or touch-tone options, before getting through to a customer service representative.

This study also found that 58 percent of callers got through to a Customer Service Representative in less than one minute. The retail sector performed even better as 74 percent of callers reached the company within 60 seconds. The telecoms and utilities sector was the lowest performing, at 52 percent, just ahead of the entertainment, leisure and travel and public sectors, both at 53 percent.

Apologies tend to be lacking in these call centers, according to this study. For those callers that had to wait more than one minute to get through, only 27 percent received an apology for the delay. Again retail performed the best at 35 percent, and entertainment, leisure and travel returned a 20 percent. 

Claudia Hathway, editor of Call Center Focus, said in a company statement: "It is great to see so many of the U.K.’s leading call centers get together to find out how they are performing, by asking their customers. That has to be the ultimate test for any call centre. Speed of response has long been the bugbear of U.K. consumers, but this research proves categorically that, in this area, many of the U.K.’s leading call centers are getting it right."