US Call Centers Under Perform in Data Security
A new report has suggested that USA based call centers are falling behind in preparing disaster recovery procedures or maintaining security in their data. Considering the recent cases where Verizon Wireless had to use the courts to stop companies attempting to extract customer information from their call centers, this is significant. Dimension Data announced the preliminary findings, which are based on a study of 369 contact centers worldwide.
While security and disaster recovery remain top of mind for most organizations around the world, only 29% of North American contact centers surveyed have tested disaster recovery plans, compared with Asia-Pacific and Africa/Middle East at 45% and 49% respectively, and Europe at 31%. Similarly, security is highest in emerging contact center markets with approximately 50% of contact centers in Africa/Middle East and Asia-Pacific authenticating customers on some or all calls, compared to only 37% of respondents in North America and 39% in Europe.
The survey found that inbound calls account for approximately 70% 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.
Cara Diemont, editor of the Merchants Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report, commented: "The early findings suggest interesting anomalies between the regions, most specifically in areas of security, disaster recovery and call-answer times. We have also noted a huge difference between the performance of the top quartile of contact centers and the fourth quartile, specifically in the average speed-to-answer which peaks at 5 seconds in the top quartile and bottoms out at 57 seconds in the fourth."
Other preliminary findings from the report include:
* Skilled contact center managers are demanding premium salaries across all markets, and specifically in emerging markets. While minimum salaries are lowest in Africa/Middle East at $34,486, maximum salaries peak at $85,058 in Asia-Pacific. North American contact center manager salary levels range from $48,075 to $72,114.
* 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% of interactions and Internet inquiries 4%, 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 email communications, making email the second highest volume channel after agent-assisted telephone. North American centers have 150% more email interactions than other regions, which is not surprising given that Internet penetration is 68.2% of the population, compared to Africa where just 2.7% of the entire population use the Internet."
Posted to the site on 9th December 2005