Call Centers Plan To Invest in Technology, Processes, and Agent Training in 2010
Posted by Kerry Engle on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 @ 03:49 PM
Knowlagent recently conducted a survey to determine the areas where call centers will be focusing their improvements and investments in 2010.
The increase of these processes clearly demonstrates how enterprises plan to use the front lines of the call center to gain a competitive edge. Increased investment in technology, process improvements and training will be part of many call centers' 2010 strategic operational plans. Interestingly enough, the area where call centers are most likely to spend to meet their 2010 goals is technology. The technology budget, compared to 2009, is expected to grow in 2010 (according to 35 percent of survey respondents) or remain the same (48 percent).
Call centers are planning to invest in new technologies and/or upgrade their existing systems over the next 12 months in the following areas:
- IVR - 42 percent (especially medium and large call centers)
- Workforce management - 38 percent (especially small call centers)
- Quality monitoring - 45 percent (especially small and large call centers)
- Performance management - 34 percent (especially small and large call centers)
- eLearning - 28 percent (especially large call centers)
- Hiring assessments - 18 percent
- Analytics - 25 percent (especially small and large call centers)
Other tactics that call centers plan to use in 2010 to increase effectiveness and productivity within their operations include a mix of at-home agents, outsourcing, reducing headcount, increasing headcount and increasing self-service. While the survey did not report any across the board trends in the projected usage of these tactics, there did seem to be micro-trends based on the size of the call center.
At home agents: Nearly 41 percent of respondents (mostly large call centers) plan to use more at home agents in 2009, while 44 percent aren't planning to use at all.
Outsourcing: Nearly half of large call center respondents are planning to outsource more in 2010 (42 percent), while an overwhelming majority of small and medium centers don't plan to do it at all (70 percent and 68 percent, respectively).
Reducing headcount: A significant amount of respondents will scrap this tactic in 2010, as 38 percent have no plans to reduce headcount, 11 percent plan to make fewer reductions, 34 plan to change little from 2009 and 17 percent (mostly large call centers) plan to make more reductions.
Increasing headcount: Approximately 25 percent of survey respondents plan to increase headcount, while 30 percent plan to keep hiring at 2009 levels. Only 12 percent plan to do less hiring, and 34 percent of respondents said they were not planning to add to their current headcount at all.
Increasing self-service: Perhaps the most ubiquitous trend across all call center sizes, 71 percent of respondents plan to increase self-service in the year ahead.
The next 12 months will undoubtedly be a state of flux for most enterprises. The ability to improve customer service and satisfaction levels at a minimal investment will be instrumental in determining who will thrive.
Additional details can be found in this white paper:
The Post-Recession Call Center - The Focus, the Spend and the Opportunity