Contact Centres: Global and Regional Trends – Sept 2009

Rod Jones
Consultant – Analyst
Contact Centres: Global & Regional Trends and Influences
www.c3africa.com

Themes :

2009 > 2010 : From Crisis to Growth:Driving Operational Efficiency and Reducing Cost
Insights for High Performance 2009> 2010

Sources:

Five Key Challenges
Into 2010
Increase
Customer
Satisfaction
Reduce Cost
Of Operations
Increase
Efficiencies
Increase
Revenue
Reduce
Risk
Doing a lot more …..
With a lot less …..
Without compromising quality
Fulfilling The Key Elements
of Most Organisations’ Strategic Plans

10 Year Comparison – Performance KPIs / Metrics
2008
1998
Performance Metric
65%
72%
% Calls Answered < 10 Secs
Ave. % Calls Abandoned
(Agent Queues)
12%
6%
81%
83%
1st Call Resolution Rate
39 secs
23 secs
Ave. Speed to Answer
Ave. Wait Time Until Call
Abandoned
45 secs
53 secs
% of Total Agent Capacity Utilized on Speaking to Customers
62%
57%
Ave. Time Taken to Respond to Customer Message (voicemail)
20 hrs
11 hrs
Source: Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report 2008, Dimension Data

The Global Quest to Increase Operational Efficiencies
2.1 What are the three most important current main commercial drivers of the contact centre ??
Source: Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report 2008, Dimension Data

Typical Contact Centre Costs
Source: Dimension Data Global Benchmark Report

Contact Centres: Global & Regional Trends and Influences

KEY THEMESTrends - Impacts
1: Strategic re-Alignments
2: Manpower & Staffing
3: Technologies

Key Strategic Trends
Cut Costs – Deliver More – Increase Quality
A time for Introspection
Self Analysis – Auditing – Benchmarking
Implementation of Operational Standards (e.g. SABS)
Changes in the Staffing / Personnel Environment
More focus on Compliance Issues
Sarbanes-Oxley / King III
Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS and PCI )
Sector Growth
Debtor Management & Collections
Sales and Revenue Generation
Resurgence of ‘Professional TeleMarketing’
Attracting International BPO
Technologies
Towards Self-Service
Quality Assurance
Outsourcing & Hosted Solutions
Increase Bandwidth – Reduced Costs?

Moving Ahead into 2010
OLD PARADIGM
NEW PARADIGM
Call center is a support function
Call center is a source of value creation
Customer service is a necessary evil
Customer service is a company and product differentiator
Reactive mindset
Proactive mindset
Play catch-up with customer needs and expectations
Stay ahead of customer needs and expectations
Goal is customer satisfaction
Goal is customer advocacy and product differentiation

Manpower & Staffing

Working with the “Y-Generation”
Unionisation in Contact Centres
BBBEE and Labour Legislation
Changes to Employment Equity Act
Women, Youth, People with Disabilities
Department of Labour’s Human Resources Development Strategy
Chief Learning Officer (CLO)
Delivering career-pathing and employee engagement
Wellness
Effective Workforce Management

12
Winds of change
Boomers Generation Generation
X Y
Generation statistics
Percent of population 41% 20% 14%
Ave. no. of hours spent at work per week 42.6 39.1 35.4
Percent reporting that their job 'severely' or 'very severely' interferes with their family life 14% 29% 36%
Percent of 'leavers' (people considering leaving their jobs) who cite work/life imbalances as a key reason 12% 45% 48%
Percent who would like additional responsibility in the workplace 60% 39% 23%
Percent of men who would like more flexible working arrangements 23% 69% 75%
Percent of women who would like more flexible working arrangements 65% 83% 85%
Percent of men who predict that they will work on a part-time basis in the next 5 years 1% 12% 19%
Percent of women who predict that they will work on a part-time basis in the next 5 years 15% 19% 36%
Percent reporting that they would leave their jobs for greater control over their work schedules 1% 66% 85%
Percent reporting that they would leave their jobs for greater flexibility 2% 59% 92%
Percent reporting that they would leave their jobs for the ability to work fewer hours 1% 48% 64%
Percent reporting that they would leave their jobs for the ability to telecommute 0% 50% 75%
Percent who expect to leave their current employers in the next year 43% 52% 70%
Used with permission
© 2007-2008 Quest Flexible Staffing Solutions. All rights reserved.

www.contactindustryhub.co.za
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Sector Growthin South Africa
Points for Discussion

Debtor Management & Collections
Sales and Revenue Generation
Resurgence of ‘Professional TeleMarketing’
Attracting International BPO
City of Joburg BPO Park
Growth in Public Sector Contact Centres

Impact of Technology
Points for Discussion

Towards Self-Service
More demanding Customers
New ‘Tech-Savvy’ customers
More sophisticated technologies
Drive for cost reduction (human capital costs)
Quality Assurance, Compliance & Security Issues
The Advent of Interaction Analytics and Process Automation
Outsourcing & Hosted (On-Demand) Solutions
Increase Bandwidth
Reduced Costs ?

Technology Drivers 2009>2010
The key business drivers of cost reduction and revenue growth have given rise to a number of significant trends including :

‘Offshoring’ and outsourcing,
Self service and
Growth of the virtual contact centre.

Underlying these business trends are two key technology enablers:

Voice over IP (VoIP) and
Replacement of proprietary, hardware-based technology with open, standards-based software solutions.

Technology Drivers 2009>2010
“Another driver will be the desire by larger enterprises to insure business continuity and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley. The combination of quick deployment, minimum or no upfront investment, a tight correlation of revenue streams with expenses, and the ability to free up enterprise personnel to focus on core business functions makes the hosted contact centre solution an attractive and smart choice for such organisations.”

Key Business DriversWhy Companies Outsource

CONNECTIVITY
The Game is on !