Call centres still cost centres
The report reveals that there has been little change in the past three years in the financial status of contact centres in organisations, with just under six out of ten (57.4%) centres reporting their status as cost centres.
Cost centre financial status is most prevalent in Europe with 60.3% of centres being cost centres; while Asia-Pacific has the lowest proportion at 52.2%.
Africa and the Middle East and North American contact centres sit at 58.3% and 55.7% respectively. The challenge with a cost centre approach is that it tends to dictate a focus on cost-cutting and efficiency oriented strategies.
The Report suggests this is also an inhibitor for contact centres wanting to deliver value to customers and their organisations. This accounting approach can lead to them being single-mindedly driven to save money, sometimes to the exclusion of all else.
"As each call made to the contact centre has an associated cost, executives need to ensure that every customer interaction is managed to achieve value for both customers and organisations," says Cara Diemont, editor of Dimension Data’s Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report.
"There needs to be a clear strategy in place to do this. Agents and self-service systems need to resolve calls the first time. This keeps customers happy because they’re getting what they called for – their enquiry solved. It also saves money as calls resolved first time require no follow ups, which can often cost more than the initial calls," she adds.
Dimension Data’s Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report 2007 will be published on March 19, 2007.
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