Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

The contact center industry in the UK is a significant contributor to the global contact industry as a whole. As such, it is important to study and understand the environment in which these contact centers operate.

 

Previously, we examined research provided by Datapoint that provided insight into such elements of the industry as the demographics and facilities. Here, we will further examine this study to understand support, training, development and technology in contact centers in the UK.

 

Empowerment and proper training are essential for the contact center agent to be able to perform at his or her optimal capacity and ability. In contact centers in the UK, just over half are encouraged to use their own initiative, while another 40 percent reported that they have some room to make their own decisions.

 

Contact center leaders also appear to be in tune with proper motivation as over 80 percent of agents believe they have sufficient or a lot of management support. This lends well in an environment where high turnover is often a result of a lack of proper motivation.

 

UK contact center leaders also appear to understand the importance of training their agents. This Datapoint study indicates that 40 percent of agents receive more than one day of training per month, dispelling the myth that contact center employees are unskilled. In the UK as a whole, the national average for employee training of one day per month is 14.3 percent, significantly lower than that of the contact center industry.

 

Technology is an important part of the contact center environment. It can be used to automate self-service options, route calls to specific agents, provide for desktop applications and so much more. When Datapoint investigated this element in UK contact centers, researchers found that nearly 50 percent of centers do not route calls to agents based on their areas of expertise or knowledge. 

 

Of those contact centers that do routinely route their calls, only 40 percent of agents found that these calls were routed accurately. This indicates that there is a significant need for developing subject area specialists in the contact center and ensuring that the technology is in place to properly route incoming calls to the correct agent.

 

Datapoint also found that UK contact center agents are not adequately provided with the information they need regarding incoming callers. Just over a third of these agents are provided with all the information on an incoming caller. So, not only are a majority of the calls coming into the contact center going to the wrong agent, but he or she is also denied the proper information to adequately address the caller’s issue.

 

This research from Datapoint strongly indicates that while there are several areas for improvement in terms of technology in the UK contact center, the region certainly exemplifies strengths in training, support and development. If the technology element could be brought up to par, the UK could likely lead the global contact center industry.

 

 

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMC and has also written for eastbiz.com. To see more of her articles, please visit Susan J. Campbell’s columnist page.