Dimension Data Announces Results of 2011 Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report

Contact centers are playing a key role in the overall business landscape and taking the lead with new technologies such as cloud services, social media and web chat

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dimension Data, a $4.7 billion global IT services and solutions provider, today announced results of its 2011 Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report, which includes data collected from 546 contact centers across 66 countries in 2010. This year’s report found that in addition to prioritizing the customer experience, contact centers are driving technology change across the organization with the adoption of cloud-based services.

“Consumers are coming to expect the ability to interact and engage through multiple communication channels and if done right, this effort can most certainly result in operational efficiencies and improved business ROI.”

Survey respondents were from regions including Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, the United Kingdom and Europe, Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. Industries spanned financial services and consumer goods to healthcare and media and entertainment.

In addition to cloud services playing a larger role, a key discovery in this year’s report revealed that social media interactions with Facebook and Twitter are high on the agenda of contact center businesses. More than 18% of survey participants reported they already manage these interactions, with 32% saying they plan to do so over the next two years.

“Interactions through new channels like social media and SMS messaging are increasingly being used as a differentiator for organizations that recognize the contact center is the heart of the business,” said Andrew McNair, head of global benchmarking for Dimension Data. “Consumers are coming to expect the ability to interact and engage through multiple communication channels and if done right, this effort can most certainly result in operational efficiencies and improved business ROI.”

Other key findings in this year’s report include:

Top ranking trend - voice, data and video convergence:

• The convergence of voice, data and video is the number one trend on the agendas of most contact centers, which is predicted to drive a move towards simpler contact center environments through increased access to cloud-based services.

Service availability and consolidation follow as second and third top trends:

• Service availability and consolidation of technologies are ranked as the second and third top technology trends, respectively, with 70% of contact centers focused on demonstrating a return on investment for new upgrades or new technologies.

Enabling the cloud:

• Cloud-based services rated the sixth most important overall technology trend in this year’s report as organizations explore its advantages for the contact center and for the wider business.
• In addition, IP is being increasingly adopted in the contact center and is pivotal to enabling access to emerging cloud-based solutions. The year’s report found an almost 30% increase in the number of respondents already adopting IP in order to fulfill specific business requirements.

A move towards a “customer management center” model in the U.S.:

• Traditional contact centers are transitioning to “customer management centers” with 71% already handling Internet-based interactions, 14% managing SMS interactions, and 36% offering web chat - all via the contact center.

Customer satisfaction replaces cost reduction:

• 60% of organizations said they placed more importance on the customer experience than cost reduction, with 41% reporting they recognized the value of providing customer choice via multiple self-service channels.
• Recruiting and training agents is up 50% and 40% respectively from the 2009 results. In addition, spending on motivational and social events grew by 37% over the past two years.

Integration is key to a consistent customer experience:

• Only 25% of web and telephony systems are integrated, which impacts the delivery of a more consistent customer experience through improved agent access to detailed customer profile information.

To view the full results of Dimension Data’s 2011 Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report, visit: www.dimensiondata.com/microsites/ccbenchmarking.

About Dimension Data

Founded in 1983, Dimension Data plc is an ICT services and solutions provider that uses its technology expertise, global service delivery capability, and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate the business ambitions of its clients. Dimension Data is a member of the NTT Group. www.dimensiondata.com

About the Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report

First published in the UK in 1997 by Merchants, Dimension Data’s specialist contact center outsourcing and operations division, this year’s edition is the twelfth in a series of the industry-renowned benchmarking reports. This year's Report has drawn the widest level of participation over 12 years, contains balanced global and industry representation from 546 contact centers located across 66 countries on five continents, and is an invaluable reference for all contact center professionals. It provides managers with a set of best practice standards and benchmarks, including staffing and training, performance metrics, technology usage, budgets and development plans. The Report is researched and published by Dimension Data and includes a benchmarking portal for use by participants and partners.