Communication, Privacy and Security are Major Call Center Issues with Users CMP Media's
Managing Offshore and Call Center Magazine announced groundbreaking results from a study
on the corporate and consumer use of call centers. Rusty Weston, founding editor of Managing Offshore, said "Call centers are at a low point in terms of public and media perception. Between Do Not
Call registration and the controversy generated by offshoring, call centers have attracted a tremendous amount of negative attention. This study highlights that both business and consumer customers
are dissatisfied with and wary of offshore call centers."
The Web-based study included more than 500 interviews in June and July 2004 on the use of call centers for personal and business
purposes. Some highlights of the study include:
- Consumers were evenly split in their depth of interest in the location of a call center. Thirty six percent say it's highly important to them
where the center they call is located, while 32% say it's not very important. Sixty percent of consumers sometimes or always ask the agent where the center is located.
- Outsourcers say that 65%
of customers are highly satisfied. The customers themselves say they are highly satisfied only 22% of the time.
- Nearly two-thirds of both groups of respondents reported that it is difficult to
understand an agent's accent.
- Staff is 'poorly trained,' agents 'misunderstood my accent or English', and agents 'were unable to resolve my problem': all of those options scored at least 40%
from both groups.
- Customers are less likely to come away from an email, Web, or other 'alternate' interaction with better feelings than from a telephone call, however, customers prefer
the phone to any other mode of interaction.
- One in five business customers say that they have experienced a security or privacy concern on the phone with an offshore center.
SOURCE: CMP
Media LL
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