Autumn 2007

Businesses that run their contact management in-house are generally more concerned about customer service than those that outsource it. That's the finding of a survey conducted by Spectrum Consulting on behalf of Teasel Performance Management.

As an example, it found that among companies that run their own contact operations, 83 per cent send out questionnaires; 43 per cent call customers at random; 43 per cent calculate average call value; and 26 per cent ask customers to stay on the line to complete a brief survey.

The equivalent figures for outsourced operations were respectively 43 per cent, 29 per cent, 29 per cent and 14 per cent.

Yet the survey found that respondents ranked improving customer service at number one in their priority list, followed by resolving customer problems quickly and efficiently, reducing cost and increasing sales. Creating a marketing differentiator was cited by just over half (54 per cent).

The report suggests that operations involving outsourced contact centres seemed to put more emphasis on call numbers than the quality of the call. Teasel says this suggests that the centres under scrutiny focus more on meeting the terms of their service level agreements than on enhancing the customer experience.