Interesting call center market stats

On the The Taylor Reach Group's website, they have listed an amazing list of fascinating call center industry trends, including:

Workforce Optimization Technologies (WOT\'s) are growing at the rate of 12.1% CAGR
Datamonitor- April 2005

92% of customers form their opinion about a company based on their call center.
Purdue University

68% of Customers will switch brands based on a poor service experience.
Gartner Group

A Yankee Group study of 350 US and Candaian call centers has found that 24% of agents or 672,000 workers, work from their homes.

This number is expected to grow by 24% per year through 2010.
Yankee Group

Looking for workforce optimization content

One of our technology partners is seeking workforce optimization content for their website. They are looking for an article on emerging trends, software comparisons, maintenance costs, differentiating features, and integration.

Feel free to submit your article here in the comments area of this blog.

The latest real-time updated Call Center Openings...

Top Ten Ways a Quality Monitoring Program Can Improve Agent Performance

Actually, we're looking to build a top ten...here are the first ones that have been sent in:

* Hear What I sound Like - The ability for an agent to 'hear themselves speak' can be very enlightening. Frequently, a dedicated agent is more critical of themselves than an evaluator is. "I didn't know I always use that phrase", Why do I say 'uh, so much?", "I can hear myself chewing gum!", etc.

* See What I am Doing on the Screens - To be able to follow the 'process flow' taken while on a call can greatly assist in streamlining how the agent responds to questions, gathers information and updates client records.

* Call Evaluation - The ability to listen to a call, watch the screen-flow, evaluate the call and provide feedback to agent can be instrumental in helping an agent improve as quickly as possible. The ability to 'package' a call and let the agent listen to the call, read the evaluation and utilize any e-learning tools available can speed up the agent's learning curve.

* Measurable Standards - The ability to produce reports that display the agent against a group, or to analyze the group as a whole, provides an enterprise with the ability to determine if they have an individual training need, an organizational training need, or a process (procedure or system) development need. For example, one customer watched the listened to the agent get the customer's charge card number at the appropriate time, confirm the charge card number, and then follow the screen-flow correctly. However, the charge card number did not appear until screen number 8. It was then entered, long after it had been confirmed with the customer. The very next day, the charge card number was part of screen 1, so it could be entered and verified immediately. This was a Process/System improvement, as the agent had followed all rules.

....Please comment back with your own list!

Setting a tone of excellent customer service

From the top of your organization down, everyone must be on board with providing excellent customer service. One place where customer service skills often get overlooked is when dealing with co-workers. Rather than viewing a peer's request as an extreme nuisance, you should treat them as if they were your most valuable customer. Great customer service can be contagious.

Imagine if your co-worker asked you to review an important document she was preparing. Let's concede that normally you would sigh internally, but verbally offer up a "sure, no problem", skim it, and then hand it back, declaring the document as "fine". Your co-worker would wonder if you actually read it at all. Instead, you could actually read through it, offer a few corrections, and then ask if your review was satisfactory. Your co-worker would be amazed at your level of service and she would most likely carry that back with her in her own actions.

One of the best quotes I've ever heard is "Never let anyone come to you who doesn't leave happier than when they first arrived".

If every call center agent in the world echoed that philosophy, customer service would be at an all time high, globally.

Just a thought for the day!