Contact Centres to participate in global benchmarking study

Participation in the study is open to all contact centres. The research is being conducted online via a questionnaire covering essential industry statistics such as operational, performance and development benchmarks in addition to areas such as contact centre location strategy, technology and financial management.

The 2005 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report drew participation from contact centres in 24 countries. With over 54% of last year's participants citing the report as used to benchmark their own performance, the independent and confidential study, provides an insight into the standards of the contact centre industry, not only in South Africa but across the globe.

Contact centre growth has been estimated at 6% over the next three years, with the number of call centres growing from 110 000 to 130 000 worldwide. Business and customer demands will also grow and keeping abreast of this growth will necessitate contact centres to address and set benchmarking standards for key performance areas.

Customer interaction will increase substantially (with almost 60% of contact centres experiencing in excess of 20% annual growth in call volumes) and with just 64% of contact centres having a defined and documented procedure for assessing the quality levels of process adherence, there is a need to address this performance indicator in an effort to increase customer satisfaction and deliver sustained growth.

Similarly, the expected growth within the industry will demand development strategies that embrace the entire contact centre performance and management process. The most recent Global Contact Centre Benchmarking study reveals that budget (88%), technology (78%) and headcount (75%) as the top three drivers in strategy development with customer base growth (59%), cost reduction targets (58%) and customer profitability (56%) also on the agenda however at relatively low levels considering the industry is customer driven.

Commenting on the Global Contact Centre Benchmarking study, Cara Diemont, marketing director, Customer Interactive Solutions, Dimension Data said: "The contact centre market continues to grow and with growth comes the need for the industry to benchmark its performance, especially in the areas of customer, organisation and staff. Successful customer interaction remains key to successful contact centres and being able to respond to today's challenges against competitors, on a global basis, will ensure continued improvement and advancement within the industry."

Contact centres wanting to participate in the study can register online at: www.ccbenchmarking.com or can contact Clare Knowles on +27 11 575 1798 or at .

The study will be published by Dimension Data and is researched in conjunction with Synovate global research company. All data collection adheres to Data Protection and Data Privacy regulations and guidelines, and all participant information is held and analysed anonymously.