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The Multichannel Contact Center Study II
International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), Sep 2006, Pages: 33
The multichannel revolution has brought with it numerous management challenges. New modes of contact and expanding customer expectations have forced managers and supervisors to change everything from how the center recruits, hires and trains its staff, to how performance and customer satisfaction are measured.
In June 2005, we conducted a comprehensive study on multichannel contact center management to help managers obtain the information and insights they need to become successful leaders in this rapidly evolving environment. The study—which surveyed 648 contact center leaders from a wide variety of industries and geographic locations—focused in detail on how the expanded channels of customer contact have impacted the people, processes and technologies in today’s centers, and how it will likely shape the centers of tomorrow.
Key Findings:
- The vast majority (92.4%) of respondents work in call centers that handle traditional phone calls and at least one of the following: email, fax, chat, VoIP-based Web calls (a.k.a., “click-to-talk” or Web call-through), Web callback transactions, and Web self-service.
- 85.6% handle customer email
- 76.4% handle fax transactions
- 54.3% handle IVR-only calls (those requiring no live-agent support)
- 52.8% support Web self-service applications
- 15.6% handle Web chat
- 10.9% handle Web callback transactions
- 4.3% handle VoIP-based Web calls
The most common service level/response time objectives reported were:
- 80/20 (80% of calls answered within 20 seconds) for phone calls
- 4.01 hours to 24 hours for email
- 90/20 for chat
- 80/20 for Web call-through
- 4.01 hours to 24 hours for fax
Only 44% of centers handling email currently have an email response management system in place (to enhance email routing, tracking and reporting).
Agents at 62.2% of centers handling chat handle more than one chat session (multiple customers) at a time. Most (63%) of these agents handle a maximum of two to three sessions simultaneously; though handling as many as 10 sessions at a time is not unheard of.
The five most common Web self-service applications indicated by respondents were:
1. FAQs (83.9%)
2. Customer access to personal accounts (71.9%)
3. Instructions on how to use self-service options (63.9%)
4. Knowledgebase/search engine (55.8%)
5. Shopping carts (33.3%)
Despite the new skills required to handle today’s newer contact channels, nearly three-quarters (73.6%) of respondents use the same recruiting methods/hiring criteria for e-contact/multichannel agents as they do for phone-only agents. In addition, nearly two-thirds (63%) continue to train all agents the same.
There is room for improvement in how holistically multichannel call centers measure customer satisfaction:
- 72% of centers do not survey customers who contact the center via fax
- 51% do not survey customers who contact the center via email
- 69% do not survey customers who complete transactions via the center’s IVR
- 61% do not survey customers who complete Web self-service transactions
The top three multichannel management challenges indicated by respondents were:
1. Technology implementation/integration issues
2. Securing budget for multichannel needs
3. Ensuring quality/consistency across the various contact channels
The five most common changes/improvements that respondents plan to make to their multichannel call centers over the next 12 months are:
1. Improve service level/response time for all contact types
2. Begin monitoring all contact types to ensure quality and consistency
3. Implement customer satisfaction surveys for all contact types
4. Revamp recruiting and/or assessment methods for e-contact/multichannel agent applicants
5. Revamp training for e-contact/multichannel agents.
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