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Dimension Data Shows Results of 2011 Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report
Recently the contact center has gained popularity among companies as a preferred channel to communicate with their customers. Now the results of the 2011 Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report are out. The report is done by Dimension Data (News - Alert), a $4.7 billion global IT services and solutions provider. It is based on the data collected from 546 contact centers across 66 countries in 2010. This survey has coved the region of Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, the United Kingdom and Europe, Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand.
Andrew McNair, head of global benchmarking for Dimension Data, said, “Interactions through new channels like social media and SMS messaging are increasingly being used as a differentiator for organizations that recognize the contact center is the heart of the business. Consumers are coming to expect the ability to interact and engage through multiple communication channels and if done right, this effort can most certainly result in operational efficiencies and improved business ROI.”
According to a press release, the report reveals that the convergence of voice, data and video is the number-one trend on the agendas of most contact centers, which is predicted to drive a move towards simpler contact center environments through increased access to cloud-based services.
Additionally, IP is being increasingly adopted in the contact center and is pivotal to enabling access to emerging cloud-based solutions. The year’s report found an almost 30 percent increase in the number of respondents already adopting IP in order to fulfill specific business requirements. Traditional contact centers are transitioning to “customer management centers” with 71 percent already handling Internet-based interactions, 14 percent managing SMS interactions, and 36 percent offering web chat - all via the contact center.
Only 25 percent of web and telephony systems are integrated, which impacts the delivery of a more consistent customer experience through improved agent access to detailed customer profile information.
Mandira Srivastava is a TMCnet contributor. She works as a full-time writer, ghostwriter and blogger, and has more than two years of experience in print and Web media. She has also worked on company brochures, website content and product descriptions, as well as proofreading and editing content. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
