The rise of the multichannel contact centre – at last

New research published by ContactBabel reveals that over 17% of interactions handled by UK contact centres are through email, web chat or social media.  

“The UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers’ Guide”, is the 10th edition of the largest and most comprehensive study of the UK’s contact centre industry, which directly employs well over a million people. A major study of 216 UK contact centre operations, looking at all areas of contact centre performance, investment, technology, HR and strategy. It is available free of charge from www.contactbabel.com.

Having surveyed over 200 contact centres of all sizes and business sectors, some of this year’s findings include:

• There is a sharp rise in non-voice communication, led by email (which has risen from 10% to 15% of interactions), but also supported by jumps in web chat and social media.
• Salaries have grown by over 5% for new agents, and by almost 7% for contact centre managers, with the latter’s average salary being over £38,500.
• First-call resolution is seen as the most important factor contributing to customer satisfaction.
• Web chat is the most likely new technology to be implemented in the next 12 months, with call recording and management information systems being the most likely to be replaced or upgraded.

The report’s author, Steve Morrell, commented:

“After a great many false dawns, we can now state with confidence that the multichannel contact centre is really with us. The rise in web-initiated interactions with contact centre agents – through email, web chat and social media – has jumped from 11.4% to 17.4% in the past 12 months. There has been a corresponding decline in the proportion of interactions that are through voice traffic, with agent calls accounting for 73% (down from 78.7%) and voice self-service dropping to 3.2% from 4.2% last year.”

“For a number of years, the trend has been for simple interactions to be handled through self-service, although the voice self-service channel has declined as web-based self-service has grown. As mobile, app-based self-service takes off further, this pattern will continue. The general move to the website has meant that increasing numbers of customers are choosing to stay with that channel if they need help, rather than use a phone. This has led to the increase in email and web chat, with the improvements in email response times and growing availability of web chat serving to validate these as reliable channels in the eyes of customers.”

With key statistics and insight into all elements of the contact centre industry – including technology, HR, benchmarking, strategy and investments – “The UK Contact Centre Decision-Makers’ Guide (2012)” is available to download, free of charge, from www.contactbabel.com/reports.cfm.