Global Benchmarking Insights: Bridging The Gap People Build Success

Bridging the gap
People build success
Global Benchmarking
Insights
National Best Practice Seminar

16th October
Aintree Race Course
©Professional Planning Forum 2014

accelerate your ambition 1
Before we start …
Take time to introduce yourselves to others on your table or

from other organisations.
Have a chat with on your table …
■ What new channels and customer expectations are you

facing in your customer contact operations?
■ Are you noticing any differences between demographic

groups of customers – such as by age?

Bridging the gap
Global Benchmarking
Insights

16th October
Aintree Race Course

This session is hosted by
Paul Smedley, Chair & Founder,

Professional Planning Forum
Colin Whelan, Head of Professionalism
Professional Planning Forum

This session is being videod
■ Conversations in groups or round tables will not be

recorded
■ If you make a comment in the whole room, this is public

and will be recorded
■ To support this, when you give your insight to a session

please introduce yourself with your name, job title and
organisation

Thank you to today’s Gold Sponsor

Bridging the gap
Global Benchmarking
Insights

16th October
Aintree Race Course

Your presenters
Robert Allman David Howard

Principal Director Chief Executive
Dimension Data Officer
Communications Insight Now
Dimension Data’s
Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report
Benchmarking Report 2013/14 Insights

(and 2015 preliminary findings)
accelerate your ambition

The Global Contact Centre
Benchmarking Report
Launched in
1997 by Merchants,
Dimension Data’s Annual global
subsidiary contact research study
centre specialist. of multichannel 17 years
interactions and the Of trends, performance analysis and
contact centre best practice techniques
Endorsed by over 30 of 6 core review areas

the world’s most Spanning innovative strategies on
operations and technology to self- and
important industry groups and associations assisted-service solutions
About the 2015 Report
6 chapters, 400 data points, 100 charts
901 companies from 72 countries globally contributed to this year’s research

174 representatives from UK
86% in-house 14% outsourced
B2B/B2C customer service, sales & IT service desk
12 industry sectors represented
Endorsed by 30 of the world’s most important industry associations
…2015 Report will be launched in Jan 2015

2015 preliminary results
59% Social media is already
1st choice for Gen Y (globally)
67% of companies see overall Yet 57% of contact centres
recognise service as a have no capability
interactions
competitive differentiator
that’s an 22% year-on-year increasing Omnichannel will
uplift in last the 2 years in 2 years become a necessity
It needs joined up
The agent’s role is
Could
expanding.
Requiring different Cloud solutions Analytics, will be key in
skills, and address future the next 5 years,
collaborative Integration and Enabling channel routing
Technology needs intelligence, driving satisfaction
interactions. and delivering revenues
2015 preliminary finding
What channels are being used by your customers?
DIGITAL ERA
Electronic
Telephone
Internet/ Social Media messaging Smartphone
web chat (eg Twitter) (e.g. Email,
SMS)
application
Telephone
is now 5th
Generation X
Generation Y 61.2% 53.7% 43.2% 38.8% 37.4%
choice for uptake on digital
messaging,
(born after 1981) (1st choice) (2nd choice) (3rd choice) (4th choice) (5th choice)
Gen Y internet/web chat
is catching up
with Gen Y
The Landscape is
changing
Which channels are most popular with your age-profiled customers? (UK)
Role of Contact Centres are changing
Supporting
other Providing
Broadening channels assisted
Provide improved channel access - not always support for
customer access first choice integrated
digital channels
Channel
migration for Part of a Focused on
Replacing cost reduction multi-channel resolving user
face to face experience issues ‘in-
channel’
1990s 2000s 2010s 2014 – 2020

Call Contact Multichannel Omnichannel
Telephone-based customer service

Customers are changing the landscape
2010s 33 15 7 4 30 11
PHONE
2000s 65 9 7 2 12 5
For many, has

become channel
1990s 90 5 3 2
of last resort
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Human Agent Email DTMF IVR Speech IVR Web (all devices) Other
Source: Aggregated data from Dimension Data and Merchants Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report
Evolution of contact centre in next two years
Non-voice traffic will... 91.1 5.3 1.8 1.8
Overall interactions (across all channels) will... 59.2 23.7 17.2

56% say
Headcount employed will... 29.0 35.5 35.5
voice traffic
Outsourcing will... 24.3 13.0 10.7 52.1
will decrease
7% net decrease in
Voice traffic will... 12.4 30.8 55.6 1.2
FTE forecast,
Need for offshore capacity will... 11.8 13.0 5.9 69.2
despite increase in
Need to reshore will... 5.3 15.4 4.1 75.1 overall interactions
Increase Stay the same Decrease Not applicable to us
How do you see your contact centre(s) evolving in the next two years? (UK)

Omnichannel – the industry is massively unprepared
Complexity levels are Analytics are being

intensifying as contact neglected & information
centres evolve into channel systems are not joined up
resolution hubs
Customers
Resource models need a want a seamless, Customer experience
broader approach – cost easy and levels are cited as key,
immediate yet satisfaction levels
and effort frequently being journey, on
ignored channels of their are dropping year on
choosing year

Contact centre types/multiskilling agents
UK
2012
UK Global
2013/14 2013/14 54% of UK
Voice channels only 69.4 53.8 59.2
centres are
Non-voice channels only 5.9 5.8 9.0
voice only
That’s a drop of
Combination of both voice and non-voice channels 24.8 40.4 31.8 23% in one year,
and indications are
it’ll fall even further
in 2015.
What percentage of your agents handle…

Increased complexity: consider the signs
Global Global Global

People metrics
2011 2012 2013/14
Attrition is worsening.
Percentage annual agent attrition rate 22.4 21.8 27.5
Absenteeism is
worsening (at supervisor
Percentage agent absenteeism rate 14.9 12.8 13.8 level too).
Percentage supervisor absenteeism rate 5.8 4.8 5.8 First contact resolution
have dropped.
Customer satisfaction score 82.1 80.4 77.6
Customer satisfaction
First contact resolution rate – all cases 74.9 73.3 73.1 scores have dropped.
Percentage full-time permanent agent FTEs (permanent
employment)
78.0 74.0 72.6 Complexity levels
Agent:supervisor ratio 13 : 1 12 : 1 13 : 1
are intensifying
FAST
“We’re filling gaps by employing more temporary
staff but not training them as well and providing
reduced management support”

Training being squeezed…
Classroom based training is being balanced with a softer landing to the live environment.
TRAINING New days Ongoing days
Manager 11.3 8.3
Supervisor / team leader 13.0 9.6
Advisor 18.7 12.1
Down by 10.1 days Down by 1.4 days

35% from 2011 10% from 2011
Increase coaching allocations have emerged as a standard, to better promote agent enablement through competency
COACHING 2011 2012 2013/14 23.5%

up by 6.1 FTE from
Agents per Coach 26.0 20.8 19.9
2011

1. Conclusion: Complexity
Contact Centre Staff Jump Ship as Employers Lag Behind

Customer Expectations
Contact centres are changing form to cross-channel multimedia
hubs. This is creating increased complexity for contact centre agents,
because they aren’t always hired or trained in these new channels.
Future contact centres will require a disparate network of skilled people
and technological resource that facilitate customer journeys over multiple
channels. As pressures grow, contact centre agent attrition and
absenteeism is 3x that of management. Organisations need to change
their operating model, and upskill and train agents for the future before
it’s too late.
For discussion on your table
■ How do these trends compare with experience in your organisation?
■ How do skills and competencies need to change?
And then if time permits take one of the questions below ….
■ What does this mean for us in our role or support team?
■ What are the challenges for training, coaching or performance development?
■ What changes could be explored during recruitment? Post recruitment?
■ Social media is already first choice for Gen Y. How are they represented in
your customer base? Can you analyse customer expectations this way?

Ranked factor companies

The say will do most in Multi to
No 1 reshaping the contact Omnichannel
Analytics and
centre industry technology
during the next 5 years is integration will
’Customer analytics’ place the CC
centre stage

Infrastructure – current and future needs
Business support systems 56.7 16.6 26.7
CRM (customer relationship management)

A range of 13%
59.3 22.0 18.7
application
to 27% say IT
Knowledge management systems 58.2 23.9 17.9
doesn’t meet
Call avoidance applications (e.g. self-service
options)
65.6 17.2 17.2
current needs.
Workforce optimisation systems 64.8 22.2 13.0 78% fear WFO
Channel routing applications (e.g. SMS, email,
web chat etc)
59.9 26.7 13.3 systems won’t
CTI applications 58.7 26.1 15.2
meet future
requirements.
Meets current needs Meets future needs Not at all
How well does the following infrastructure meet your current and future needs? (UK)

Benefits of business intelligence systems
Top voted benefit

What benefits are enabled by your business intelligence systems? UK of business
Customer experience (via actionable customer feedback and intelligence) 1 intelligence systems
Enhanced agent performance (via identification of process/system inefficiencies) 2 is customer
Business agility (via performance knowledge and action area awareness) 3 experience
Reduced operating costs 4 But it only works if
Greater organisational alignment (e.g. integrated data systems) 5 it’s available and
used.

2. Conclusion: Systems and analytics
Part of the problem for organisations is that they’ve moved so fast just to
establish a presence, is that they’ve failed to apply many basics, used as
standard on their telephone operations, to the new channels. A key omission
is on cost and time per interactions. This leaves the company blind in regards
to the optimal channel paths available for segmenting of customer enquiries
(I.e. What should they seek to route to whom and when).
To optimise the omnichannel customer experience, the contact centre will
need to apply analytics across all channels, draw management information in
real time, and use the insights gathered to build a rigorous programme of
testing, learning and improving. The customer experience will be determined
by whether the offered services work, and resolve the customer issue.
Channels managed by contact centre
Email 97.4 1.7 0.9
Telephone 99.1 0.0

0.9
Web chat will
Internet 74.1 8.9 17.0
IVR (touchtone) self-service 57.2 13.4 29.4

grow to 77%
Social media - Facebook, Twitter, etc. 44.1 27.9 27.9 by 2015
SMS (text messaging) 44.0 21.1 34.9 2015 preliminary
Web chat 33.3 44.1 22.6 finding:
Speech self-service 21.0 20.0 59.1 1/5 will offer video
Smartphone application services 17.4 46.8 35.7 by 2016
Available Now Available within 2 years No plans
What channels are managed by the contact centre? (UK)

Evolution of contact centre in next two years
Non-voice traffic will... 91.1 5.31.8

1.8
56% say
Overall interactions (across all channels) will... 59.2 23.7 17.2 0.0
voice traffic
will decrease
Headcount employed will... 29.0 35.5 35.5 0.0
7% net decrease in
FTE forecast,
despite increase in
Voice traffic will... 12.4 30.8 55.6 1.2
overall interactions
Increase Stay the same Decrease Not applicable to us
How do you see your contact centre(s) evolving in the next two years? (UK)

2015 preliminary findings
Workforce management effectiveness (targets and measurements)
Volume forecast accuracy - voice interactions 70.9 71% have

systems in place
for voice
Volume forecast accuracy - non-voice interactions 43.3 interactions
Versus 44% for
non-voice
Management satisfaction with WFM process 18.1
engagements
Do you have targets in place to measure the effectiveness of the following workforce planning areas? (UK)

3. Conclusion: Resource models
Contact centres are not dying – rather they’re changing form. Operating
models and management structures have been slow to follow suit
The agent’s role is expanding – almost a third (31.8%) are handling
transactions from a variety of channels, requiring more collaborative
interaction across the entire company. The continuing impact of
increasing complexity is clear. Despite notable progress in supporting
processes and supervisory support, first call resolution is also down for
the fourth year running. Can multi-skilling go too far, and is there a case
for creating entirely new resource models, and new management
positions that will ensure better consistency and accountability across the
customer touch points?
Most important Customer

The
strategic performance experience levels
No 1 have dropped for
measurement for contact the fourth
’Customer
centres is the
consecutive year.
First contact
experience’ resolution levels
are dropping too, as
complexity leaves
centres unprepared

Impacting customer experience
57% of
companies
An increase in company revenue/profits 57.0 54.4
globally can
relate improving
customer
A wider choice of contact channels 54.5 51.5 experience
levels to
Global UK
revenue/profit
growth
Is your contact centre able to show a relationship between improving customer experience levels and:

Is service a competitive differentiator?
Yes
71.6 Organisations
72.4
increasingly view
the contact centre
15.8
No as a differentiator
19.8
(up to 72% from
12.6
55% in 2012)
Not sure
7.8
yet majority are still
being operated as
Global UK cost centres
Does your organisation view the contact centre/customer care as a competitive differentiator?

4. Conclusion: Customer experience
The Customer experience is deemed the top most important indicator of

operational performance, yet satisfaction scores are falling year on year.
There remains a majority of cost model operating structures and what
organisations say and what they actually do can often be contradictory.
Is short term gain the way to go and/or can organisations really develop
their business around happy customers? Common prime objectves
typically focus upon profit and/or cost reduction…is it only beyond that
and cutting cloth with material left over that customer experience
becomes an important factor?
For discussion Take the question most relevant to your roles
■ How do we improve the customer journey experience in a multi-channel
world? Do our current approaches reflect all customers expectations?
■ Should resources be grouped or are skills transferrable across channels (if

so which ones)? Should primary and secondary skills be applied to
accommodate for overflows? Should any channels remain specialist?
■ Can generic KPI’s be applied across multiple channels? Is lack of

management accountability a cause for low use of analytics outside voice?

How can support teams meet the increasing need for immediacy on data,
and what systems need better integration?
Bridging the gap
Global Benchmarking
Insights

16th October
Aintree Race Course

2015 preliminary themes and emerging trends
Digital – coming of age
Integration: the increasing
demands to provide choice and Multichannel: the continued
seamless experiences as evolution towards an integrated
service consumers hop across customer experience.
channels to fulfill a single
enquiry/need. Mobility and (unifying)
Choice – and the user communications: the ever-
being at centre of it all: growing array of choice available
customers are dictating how to the customer, and being
they’ll be engaged with. adopted by the enterprise. Last
year’s findings showing a
remarkable level of immaturity
Social media: continues across the emerging channels.
to exert an increasingly important
influence on service sector.
Report will be launched Jan 2015
Lots of (year-round) marketing collateral …

Benchmark Comparison Service
Create your business case for change

1. Bespoke client consultancy service
2. Benchmark against the best practice standard for strategic and
operational performance.
3. Bespoke Report on results, containing expert analysis, context
and roadmap of recommended actions.
Contact Centre
Development Model Prioritisation Matrix
Magic Quadrant for Self Service
Optimised
Lower
Could Do Invoice Processes Must Do
enquiry
Strategic development
Transit
Ease of Implementation
time – get
Addresses a quote
TO
drop off
BE points
Integrated
Complexity /
Risk
Registering for
PIM
Coordinated Creating a new

account
Customer
Satisfaction
AS
Don’t Do Should Do
High
IS
er
Basic
Lower Business Higher
Benefits
Business Benefit
Operational development

Thank you for your attention
Happy to talk
further!!
Robert Allman David Howard
Principal Director, Communications Chief Executive Officer
Dimension Data Insight Now
+ 44 (0) 7964 194643 + 44 (0) 207 492 1895
Robert.Allman@dimensiondata.com David.Howard@insightnow.co.uk
Further information available at:

http://www.dimensiondata.com/microsites/ccbenchmarking
Bridging the gap
Global Benchmarking
Insights

16th October
Aintree Race Course

Benchmarking Webinars
Join to take the discussion further within our professional communities:
■ November 25th Focus on Planning and Resourcing
■ January 20th Focus on Data, Analytics & Insight
■ February 9th Focus on Quality & Customer Experience
Provisional dates to be confirmed shortly.

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Bridging the gap
Global Benchmarking
Insights

16th October
Aintree Race Course


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Bridging the gap

People build success

National Best Practice Seminar

©Professional Planning Forum 2014

Take time to introduce yourselves to others on your table or

Have a chat with on your table …

■ What new channels and customer expectations are you

■ Are you noticing any differences between demographic

©Professional Planning Forum 2014

National Best Practice Seminar

©Professional Planning Forum 2014

Paul Smedley, Chair & Founder,

Colin Whelan, Head of Professionalism

Professional Planning Forum

©Professional Planning Forum 2014

■ Conversations in groups or round tables will not be

■ If you make a comment in the whole room, this is public

■ To support this, when you give your insight to a session

©Professional Planning Forum 2014

©Professional Planning Forum 2014

National Best Practice Seminar

©Professional Planning Forum 2014

Robert Allman David Howard

Benchmarking Report 2013/14 Insights

accelerate your ambition

Endorsed by over 30 of 6 core review areas

901 companies from 72 countries globally contributed to this year’s research

…2015 Report will be launched in Jan 2015

1990s 2000s 2010s 2014 – 2020

Telephone-based customer service

For many, has

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Non-voice traffic will... 91.1 5.3 1.8 1.8

Overall interactions (across all channels) will... 59.2 23.7 17.2

Increase Stay the same Decrease Not applicable to us

accelerate your ambition 19

Complexity levels are Analytics are being

accelerate your ambition 20

accelerate your ambition 22

Global Global Global

accelerate your ambition 23

TRAINING New days Ongoing days

Manager 11.3 8.3

Supervisor / team leader 13.0 9.6

Advisor 18.7 12.1

Down by 10.1 days Down by 1.4 days

COACHING 2011 2012 2013/14 23.5%

accelerate your ambition 24

Contact Centre Staff Jump Ship as Employers Lag Behind

©Professional Planning Forum 2014

Ranked factor companies

accelerate your ambition 29

Business support systems 56.7 16.6 26.7

CRM (customer relationship management)

accelerate your ambition 30

Top voted benefit

accelerate your ambition 31

Email 97.4 1.7 0.9

Telephone 99.1 0.0

IVR (touchtone) self-service 57.2 13.4 29.4

What channels are managed by the contact centre? (UK)

accelerate your ambition 35

Non-voice traffic will... 91.1 5.31.8