Good question. They are most often exactly the same. The difference is that the Peer Group Report digs into more KPIs than the Free RealityCheck Benchmark Report. There is a small chance that the “dig deeper” KPIs will point to a problem not visible through the free Reality Check experience…..not often, but possible.
Dr. Jon
If you start with our new RealityCheck survey, you need only 12 data points. This should take less than 30 minutes. The complete peer group survey may take the better part of 4 hours for an organized team.
--Dr. Jon
Yes, we have many wonderful vendors willing to talk to you about their experience with us in doing webinars and product validation studies. We do not just give out names and email address, because we need to know who you are, and what industry you’re in, and the connect you with the best reference. I suggest you email me at DrJonAnton@BenchmarkPortal.com with your details. Thanks for your question. Hope to hear from you soon.
We have a database of thousands of call center in 43 different industries (banking, insurance, travel & leisure, and the like). From each of these call centers we gather 28 of the most important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). We scrub the data for outliers, and do additional statistical comparisons to ensure that the data is accurate and realistic.
When a call center wants to be certified, we collect the same 28 KPIs, and produce a Performance Matrix. If the center is in the upper right quadrant (both very efficient and very effective), they are certifiable and we contact them to tell them this good news. To actually become officially certified, they must send us the original reports from which they took their 28 KPIs. Our certification auditors thoroughly check the accuracy and authenticity of these hard-copy reports, and if they prove to be accurate and factual, the center is awarded The Purdue University Center of Excellence Award.
We differ from other “certification bodies.” For instance, in contrast to COPC and ISO 9000, we do not focus on “how” the call center does its internal processes. For instance, we do not review how they hire, select, or train their agents…..or how they might do call monitoring/coaching. We feel this approach is too subjective and depends a lot on the auditor. Instead, we focus on numerical results that show top performance, i.e., we focus on KPIs…
An analogy might be the “Dean’s List” at a University…. For example, the rule might be that any student that can produce a grade point average (GPA) for 4.5 out of 5 is automatically placed on the Dean’s List….Therefore, the student that never studies, but is just naturally brilliant might be on the Dean’s List along with an average student who has to study 90 a week to make the GPA of over 4.3……In conclusion, we are more like the Dean’s List approach….totally “objective” and numbers driven, versus judging a call center on “how” they manage their processes.
This is a VERY complicated area, for which little standardization exists. "Best Practice" approaches to categorization go beyond symptom (or problem code as you describe), and consider a broader classification schema. A typical schema would include: Productline (i.e. Pc, server, printer) , Domain (i.e. database, network, etc), Symptom (squeaky sound, blue screen) , Failure (missing DLL) and Solution (patch # 12345).
Many of the providers of Knowledge Management Software and Help Desk solutions offer insights into problem categorization on their web sites. You can find many of the fine companies offering these solutions in the Yellow Pages section of our web site. We strongly recommend that you participate in our Help Desk Technical Support Benchmark Service to compare the performance of your help desk to your peers.
From our research of over 25,000 call centers, including the Fortune 1000, companies outsource only approximately 8% of their calls. The teleservices industry continues to grow at about 11% per year, however, it is a very crowded industry with many small players. I would anticipate a consolidation in the next twelve months.
A1. Suzanne, we do have good references, but why bother...just send your data and benchmark with us….after all, the Reality Check Benchmark is FREE…
A2. We do not list our member companies as part of our total confidentiality approach. We do have many health insurance call centers in our database. Please join us...
--Dr. Jon
Yoojin, this is a very complex question. If you are an outbound sales call center, then the contribution is easier to predict. If you are an inbound customer service center taking customer’s orders, again easy to predict. If you are an inbound customer service center just handling questions, then it is very difficult to predict. What are you?
--Dr Jon
Yes, our research shows that individuals with a higher level of education are likely to contact call centers more often. In addition, individuals in the 20- to 40-year-old age group are more likely to contact companies than individuals in the 50- to 70-year-old age group. There is a free white paper available on our Web site, www.BenchmarkPortal.com regarding caller and Web visitor demographics.
Yes we do. We currently have data on almost 50 countries. I suggest you email me at DrJonAnton@BenchmarkPortal.com with which countries your are researching. Thanks for your question. Hope to hear from you soon.
I work for both organizations.
I am the academic "liaison" between BenchmarkPortal and Purdue University's Center for Customer-Driven Quality. I founded this unique research Center at Purdue in 1993. I am the Director of Benchmark Research for both organizations.
I also work for the Anton Press, a publishing house that focuses on books for the customer service contact center community. I have authored 24 books and has another 10 in the production pipeline.
Six Sigma is a worldwide organization focused on Total Quality Management. They certify QA professionals to do quality improvement in all aspects of a company. A Six Sigma person can be your strongest ally in conducting benchmarking using the BMP methodology.
Dave, thanks for your question, and a pleasure to meet you last week in Tampa. Let me get some materials together to send you. Because of the demand on my time, allow about two weeks.
--Dr. Jon
This is an older book, and is really “out of print”.
I suggest my new book with Bruce Belfiore, Benchmarking at its Best for Contact Centers. Check it out on our Web site Bookstore:
http://www.benchmarkportal.com/store/index.taf
--Dr. Jon
Thanks for your questions. We have details on both topics. Please review our Web site for details. Also, our Insurance Industry Benchmark Report has many of these statistics. Visit our Web site bookstore for more information.
Dr. Jon
Yes. Our research shows that women are more likely to call catalog call centers than men, and men are more likely to call financial services call centers than women. Also, women are more likely to make purchases by phone, and men are more likely to just call for information.
Thanks for your question. I would very much like to know more about what the negative "rule change" was, but regardless, here is my advice:
1. Most customers can relate to a balanced and fair business practice.
2. I have to assume that your BOD is not an irrational group and that the policy change is something that must be done for a good business reason.
3. I suggest you share with your users the predicament that your company is in, and the business rationale behind the decision by the Board.
4. The best relationship management strategy between customers and companies is balanced, rational, and fair...I am assuming that your Board has taken this into effect and that the problem has been articulating their position to your users with a positive spin for both parties.
Good luck.
Dr. Jon
I am the principal investigator on all engagements conducted by BenchmarkPortal. From a quality assurance perspective, I am intimately involved in all major projects.
In July, we launched a special benchmark study of call centers in Government agencies, namely Federal, State, and Municipal centers (also know as the "Public Sector"). We are already seeing some interesting differences. In general, we have found that Public Sector call centers are more focused on effectiveness to ensure that their annual budgets will be re-approved, and less on efficiency. Therefore, costs per call might be higher in the Public Sector, but so are "once and done" calls and turnover is much lower. The complete study will be published in January of 2001.
Good question and one of our most frequently asked questions. We do all of the following:
1. We visit many call centers to validate their data.
2. We put participants on notice that their data may be audited at moments notice.
3. We also do several “reality checks” on the data and flag data that seems to be out of range or just plain erroneous.
4. We also have cross-computations through which we compare numbers submitted…..any data point two standard deviations from the mean is flagged immediately for further review.
5. Lastly, we have a staff of QA experts that inspect every data point submitted, and who are quick to call a participant whose numbers seem unrealistic.
Dr. Jon
Public means a governmental agency, period……Private means an actual corporation, or a non-profit organization.
Typical Peer Group is ideally 30 call centers.
Our certification program was launched four months ago, and we now have 14 centers certified, and 58 centers working through the process.
We have been collecting data for almost 10 years and have had over 50,000 call centers participate from 28 different countries.
Dr. Jon
We recommend that a peer group should be between 5 and 20 call centers. The statistics are those of small groups, meaning we need at least 50 percent of all call centers that fit the “peer criteria.” Peer informational criteria are user-selectable, and vary from such parameters as size, and industry to parameters such as type of calls handled and calls handled/agent/shift.
Dr. Jon
At last count, there were 253 Canadian call centers in our data base.
Dr. Jon
In Canada, we work exclusively through TELUS.
In the USA, we have several hundred certified auditors. These individuals
are listed on our website.
We currently have over 100 companies that are Purdue University Centers of Excellence, and another 300 companies that are in the queue trying to get their KPIs in line for top performance and the Award.
-Dr Jon (answered 8/22/05)
Although most senior executives of the companies surveyed are personally committed to improving call center performance, many are unsure how best to focus their commitment. In other words, they realize the value of the call center to the company's success but they remain cautious in demonstrating their commitment through increased budgeting to achieve higher service levels.
So far we have not had a specific focus on the public sector. We do, however, have quite a few public sector call centers in our database. In addition, we are actively looking for a sponsor to help us develop a public sector-only benchmark report.
1. They send their representatives to call center conferences to exhibit in booths that offer comprehensive information about their cities. 2. They help arrange for companies to tour their cities. 3. They provide tax incentives. 4. They work with the local educational institutions to provide courses targeted at call center skill requirements.
In my “crystal ball,” I see four major trends impacting call centers dramatically in the next 5 years, as follows:
1. I see a major move to IP Telephony in the “call channel” – this will change costs and will also allow easy implementation of “virtual” centers with agents “anywhere”
2. I see a major move to use the caller in the call quality monitoring process through post-call IVR surveys with the results linked immediately back to the agent via an agent-specific dashboard indicating caller feedback in real-time, including a verbatim response from the caller indicating (by the caller’s voice) what the agent could have done better in handling the call. I see this new technology, replacing some, if not all, of the currently expensive and ineffective call monitoring software using internal quality teams.
3. I see that there will be a major move to outsourcing in general, i.e., North American based, but also off-shore outsourcing will grow asymptotically.
4. I see call volumes continuing to increase by over 50% in the next five years because the American consumer “loves” asking questions before, during, and after the sale, HOWEVER, I see a new emphasis on “call avoidance” by giving today’s callers the option to move to other channels including, IVR, web, web-chat, and email...these channels will grow substantially, and all will be integrated through a universal queue that will make managing volumes a reality...the key is to give consumer choices, and real-time information to make the “best choice” for a particular contact.
I do see all sorts of secondary “happenings” – but your wish was the most dramatic changes. In a nutshell, call centers of the future will be smaller, more dispersed, more virtually managed, handling mostly “high value” calls (because most easy calls will go to self-service), more often outsourced, more efficient, and more effective….
Hope this helps.
Jon
The cost of handling an inbound call for a 100-seat call center varies greatly by industry and the type of call being handled. Two extremes would be $7.01 for financial services agents handling transactions, to $17.78 for technology products where agents “fix” complex problems over the telephone. On average across industries, Fortune 500 companies have 36 call centers with an average of 128 agents in each.
An industry report represents the averages for each question (and sub-question) that the participants responded to, but the number of participants answering each question often varies, so the averages are only relatively related to each other.
The affect of this is that the average for each question “MUST STAND ALONE” and cannot be directly related to the other numbers. The averages are, however, relatively representative of the “industry average” when taken in their overall context.
Our list of "hot" issues tends to vary almost month to month as we poll the members of our benchmark community.
Currently the following are at the top of most call center manager's agendas: 1)preparing the call center for "eBusiness" 2) striving for a balance between efficiency and effectiveness, 3)seamlessly integrating e-mail, Web site, and telephone contacts, 4)redefining the call center from a cost center to a profit center, and 5)processing the mountains of data generated by customer contacts.
It is possible for a company to have more than one call center represented within an industry report; however, it is important to remember that our specific methodology is to benchmark call centers, not companies. Therefore, each call center is benchmarked as an individual entity, thus bringing its own merit to the report.
Title: “Listening to the Voice of the Customer”
Price: $33.95
Where to buy: Find our bookstore at:
http://www.benchmarkportal.com/store/index.taf
Top five hot issues that we are seeing in the States:
1. minimizing agent turnover by applicant screening to ensure better "fit" for the telephone customer service type of job
2. developing practical strategies to migrate callers to use email and web chat for low-value interactions, i.e., call avoidance
3. measuring caller satisfaction and driving results in real-time to all levels in the call center to change behavior
4. adding user-friendly analytics to allow better decision making within the call center, and to make caller data available to departments outside of the call center, i.e. marketing, QA, and others
5. experimenting with using countries like India to outsource customer interactions to determine the cost effectiveness
Early on we decided on a “rolling” 24 months window for peer group comparison. We are seriously considering changing this to a 12 months window. Benchmarking is not an exact science. We are comfortable with our current methods, but we now have so many participants that we plan to move to a smaller time window for comparison – could even be that we move to a 6-months window. So to answer your question, yes, your intuition is correct…the smaller the time window the more current the data, the better the benchmarking results.
Dr. Jon
I recommend you go to the Call Center Magazine “Buyer’s Guide.” There you will find a listing under Business Recovery and Disaster Recovery. Contact those companies in the business and ask for their advice and best practices.
--Dr. Jon Anton
Answered 01/17/05
There are several approaches:
1. Call several outsourcing companies and tell them you are thinking of outsourcing some of your calls, then ask them to give you some “ballpark” prices
2. Conduct a “bottoms up” analysis of your cost and determine the base cost of call handling, then add double that cost for your price points for providing the service...I recommend doubling your cost to cover marketing, relationship management, and contracting with the new business partners
3. Your cost offering should include:
a. by the hour
b. by the minute
c. by the call
d. $s/hour per dedicated agent
e. and more
In closing, Kandi, this is a complex business...it is very competitive, and the current supply is in excess of the demand, i.e., a buyer’s market. Good luck.
--Dr. Jon Anton
Answered 01/17/05
Everyone logically thinks they are “truly unique.” I have yet to not be able to find all of our participants a peer group. However, if we fail to find one for you, we will recruit your competitors into our database. We have done this many times for others. You make the list, we check our database, and if they are not there, we recruit them for you…no additional cost.
Dr. Jon
There are other companies that offer benchmarking in some form or another.
We are different and unique in the following ways:
1. The size of our database is over fifty times greater than the nearest
competitor.
2. The size of our database allows us to offer statistical observations
about true best practices that the competitors are not able to do with their
very small sample sizes.
3. Our basic industry peer group report is completely free, yet is very
informative.
4. We encourage participants to further refine their benchmark research by
selecting a "close fitting" peer group of very similar call centers.
5. We encourage self-assessment using our peer group report.
6. We offer a 'membership' in our benchmarking community that gives members
access to free information and telephone consulting.
7. We offer a four-hour course in benchmarking that is taught in major
cities throughout the world on a regular basis. This course enables
participants to do self-assessments
8. Our benchmarking leads to certification as a "Center of Excellence" when
all the performance metrics reach prescribed levels.
A certified auditor must participate in our workshop, take an exam, and do at least one audit with one of our certified auditors. Auditors are re-certified each year. We are very careful and detailed about who can be a BenchmarkPortal auditor.
Dr. Jon
There are many great publications that pick up Dr. Jon’s research results and articles. They include:
Contact Center Professional
Connections Magazine
Call Center Magazine
CRM2Day
Customer Interaction Magazine
Contact Center World
ICCM Weekly
SOCAP’s Customer Relationship Management Magazine
And many more…
All of our content people come from a call center background.
Dr. Jon
The original benchmarking of call centers began at Purdue University under my direction. The initiative grew so quickly and so successfully, that it became too much for a university-based service primarily staffed by part-time students.
BenchmarkPortal, Inc. was founded as a joint venture with Purdue University, and as a way to move the operation "off campus." Purdue staff still takes an active role to ensure the scientific nature of the best practice research, including having a seat on the Board of Directors.
Almost all the major call center consultant teams use some sort of benchmarking during their discovery process.
Over 200 call center consultants have taken our call center "auditor" course and are now formally Purdue University Certified Call Center Auditors. Representative from all of the "big five" have participated, and in addition a partial list would include: CAP Gemini, EBay, PWC, IBM, e-Loyalty, AT&T, AMS, Bain, McKinsey, and more.
The Best in Industry Average of any BenchmarkPortal Industry report represents the average of the top quartile (25%) of the industry. This is a running average used throughout the report and not a metric by metric average.
Typically listed on our Web site in the "Events" section. If you can not find them, please contact SusanHampton@BenchmarkPortal.com.
-Dr. Jon
Call Center Magazine often reports on outsourcers (also known as teleservices companies), including their contact information and call handling specialization. In addition, we have just launched a benchmarking study of teleservices companies. We will collect pricing, quality and performance data during the next four months. Reports will be available from our Web site.
No other organization offers contact center benchmarking in the exact business model used by BenchmarkPortal. Two groups that are close are ISO 9000 and COPC. Both of these professional groups do call center benchmarking and certification - and they do an excellent job of it. However, if one looks thoroughly at the models of each organization they are completely different from each other and from BenchmarkPortal. Therefore, for instance, Microsoft in the last year actually got their ISO, COPC, and BenchmarkPortal certification, and - most importantly found each effort worthwhile as a learning experience for make quality improvements.
In the Government report, “all participants” are all governmental agencies, including Federal, State, and Local Municipalities.
You can benchmark directly with us. Sometimes the on-site team does not have the time to take full advantage of the benchmark results. Our approach is designed for you to do it yourself…so please try, and if you’re in trouble contact us for assistance.
--Dr. Jon
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