Global Study looks at regional differences in contact / call centre disaster recovery preparedness
Based on a study of 369 contact centres worldwide, early results indicate that North American contact centers have failed to keep up with the rest of the world in security and disaster recovery preparedness, and ranked as the slowest contact centres in answering inbound calls. This could place enterprises operating call centres in North America at greater risk of service disruption and customer defections than companies operating call centres in other parts of the world. While security and disaster recovery remain top of mind for most organisations around the world, only 29 percent of North American contact centers surveyed have tested disaster recovery plans, compared with Asia-Pacific and Africa/Middle East at 45 percent and 49 percent respectively, and Europe at 31 percent. Similarly, security is highest in emerging contact center markets with approximately 50 percent of contact centers in Africa/Middle East and Asia-Pacific authenticating customers on some or all calls, compared to only 37 percent of respondents in North America and 39 percent in Europe. The survey found that inbound calls account for approximately 70 percent of all interactions. Calls are being answered quickest in Africa/Middle East (average 19 seconds) with North America recording the slowest time-to-answer at 32 seconds and Europe/UK sitting at 22 seconds and Asia-Pacific at 28 seconds. Other preliminary findings from the report include: * Voice remains the predominant method of communication, even in multi-channel contact centers. Adoption of alternative technologies to resolve customer queries is relatively small in comparison: SMS/text messages account for only 0.5 percent of interactions and Internet (website) inquiries 4 percent, though there are variations across regions most likely accounted for by regional adoption rates of the associated technologies. * One in 10 interactions handled in the contact center occurs via e-mail communications, making e-mail the second highest volume channel after agent-assisted telephone. North American centers have 150 percent more e-mail interactions than other regions, which is not surprising given that Internet penetration is 68.2 percent of the population, compared to Africa where just 2.7 percent of the entire population use the Internet.
•Date: 8th Dec 2005 • Region: Various • Type: Article •Topic: Telecoms continuity |
