For those who do not receive Claudia Hathway’s (Editor, CCF and eCCF) weekly newsletter, below is the link to a recent letter following Claudia’s attendance at the CCA convention in Edinburgh.

http://www.callcentre.co.uk/newsletter/index.asp?issueDate=17%2F11%2F2006

Is it just me or is it mind boggling to think in this day and age that 58 per cent of the organisations represented and who took part in the electronic vote focus more on operational efficiency than on customer service?

Is the focus on operational efficiency and the lack of focus on customer service to blame for the reputation contact centres have today? How long will it take for people to understand that we may run/work in what we believe to be an efficient contact centre however without customers, there would be no need for a contact centre.

I would certainly be interested to hear other member’s views and thoughts on this subject.

Neil

The silly thing is that if you concentrate on the customer (in the right way) you can make huge leaps forward in operational efficiency. The other way round, however, does not work and can make customer service worse.

Is it the company, and the way it trains and prepares it's staff, or is it the individual who brings with them a desire to help and make a difference in the very stressfull world of the contact centre? In truth it's about 70/30 split in favour of the individual.

Ask who is responsible for poor customer service and the split is the same, 70/30 only this time the 70 belongs to the company.

Customer service these days is governed by the STATS. Each individual is allocated a time for any given type of call and is expected to provide "first class customer service" within the given limit. Service levels overall should be Green for the centre, and this requires each and every agent to adhere to the rather unrealistic times set (although they can perhaps afford to 'splash out' on the ocassional customer if they have managed to rattle through several calls in less than the allowed time).

I would say from experience, anyone who survives in the contact centre environment for a year or more has done so because they really want to offer customer service in the old fashioned way. They will want to help, to resolve, to perhaps even share a smile. And if they are doing so, they will not be 'Green' on their key performance indicators and will be being 'managed' with regards to their performance.

If the industry continues to focus on the STATS, then i'm afraid even the most eager individuals will only ever be able to provide a fraction of the service they would like to.

Personally, the customer should matter. Privately they don't really, and publicly "OF COURSE YOU DO". The stereotypical view of the contact centre worker is the battery hen clucking away behind the grey desk. The truth is, the customer is actually the battery hen..get 'em in, get the eggs and get 'em out again as quickly as possible.

Customer service does exist, but in little pockets of resistance where those who believe in it strongly enough are prepared to stand up and face the music when their call duration is too long or their talk times are high.

Attrition in this industry is still one of the highest, and it's not all down to normal 'student turnover'. The believers are leaving too, unable to offer the service they themselves would expect if they were at the other end of the phone, fed up with being told to 'cut down on your talk time' they eventually find themselves at the door for the last time.

Your call does matter to the person who answered it. If you get poor service, then on average you can blame the board of directors.