National Trends Analysis

Transcription

1 National Trends Analysis March 2012, Survey Finding 1

2 Introduction and Methodology Contact Centre Canada is pleased to present our first 2012 quarter Trends Survey report. With the completion of every trend survey cycle, Contact Centre Canada (CCC) produces a comprehensive overview of results. A copy of this report is provided to each participant in the survey and a brief summary is posted on Contact Centre Canada s website for all members to view. The trend survey is intended to provide contact center leaders with relevant intelligence that will help them make informed decisions relative to their businesses. This survey was conducted in April, 2012 for the period January, 2012 March 2012 using a web-based survey engine. An invitation to participate was sent to three groups 1) previous participating companies, 2) prospective participants and, 3) Provincial/Regional Industry Associations. Participating companies in the survey represented Canadian contact centre vertical markets, sectors, geographic regions, operational size and categories. Summary of Findings This report of survey findings is intended to track the trends in the contact centre industry in Canada. Similar to 2011, Canadian contact centres consider employee engagement and motivation as the top HR challenge facing their organization. Over 75% of those surveyed are implementing strategies to improve employee engagement. The consensus was that the key tactic employed was to engage agents in other tasks and/or projects outside of their customer care duties, such as training & development, mentoring and agent led task forces. This trend within the industry demonstrates efforts to decrease attrition and to highlight career opportunities within the contact centre industry. Of the organizations surveyed many felt attrition was due to pace of work, pay, work hours and repetitive work. Although, 74% of those surveyed, promoting up to 10% of their agents within the last year. With regards to technology, it was concluded that Canadian contact centres are focused on the need to use various social media mediums within their organization. A large majority confirmed the need for new technology based on increased pressure to improve customer loyalty and compliance requirements. Of those individuals surveyed, the primary technology used by their contact centres was for quality monitoring purposes. Seventy-seven percent of the Canadian organizations felt the technologies used by their organization are effective in meeting the needs of their customers, but felt social media will have the greatest impact on the industry as a whole. 2

3 Survey Value Contact Centre Canada has been conducting these surveys since January, 2011 with company participation levels increasing each quarter. As such, it was prudent to seek feedback from participants as to how the survey results are used in their organizations and the value they derived from the survey report. The following are the key points that were consistent in the feedback received. Provides contact centre leaders insight as to industry changes, challenges and opportunities The report findings are used for decision making purposes The information provided is comprehensive and topical The survey results offer high value from a benchmarking perspective The report identifies and validates issues in the industry in Canada Provides relevant industry specific information and HR data The report is used by all levels of management and as a tool for strategic planning The National Trend Report is a critical research tool used to formulate business plans A source of best practices to improve the contact centre industry at large Provides base line information relative to the Canadian market Valuable industry trends that stimulate strategic ability and validates proposals and business plans Timely information used to support strategic decisions Valuable information with respect to hiring, policy creation and innovation in the industry 3

4 Survey Results Question 1 What changes do you anticipate in your staffing levels over the next 3 months? 50% 44% Increased hiring Layoffs Closure No Change 1% 6% Fifty percent anticipate no change in hiring over the next three months while 44% anticipate increased hiring. A minimal 6% anticipate layoffs and 1% anticipate a potential for a site closure. These findings show a nominal decrease in hiring and layoffs as compared to the September trend survey results. Organizations anticipating change over the next three months attribute this to seasonal changes that have caused decreased volume. Similar to 2011, most organizations do not anticipate changes in their staffing levels. Question 2 Has your organization experienced increased turnover in the last 3 months? 24% Yes No 76% Seventy-six percent of Canadian contact centres reported no increased turnover in the last 3 months. The majority of those surveyed stated turnover was prompted by poor performance issues, job fit or seasonal circumstances. 4

5 Question 3 What is your organizations average turnover rate? 5% 12% 6% 5% 0-10% 11-20% 41% 21-30% 31-40% 41-50% 31% More than 50% Fourty-one percent of the respondents stated their turnover was less than 10%, while another thirtyone percent of the organizations stated their attrition ranged between 11-20%. Question 4 What do you consider the key challenges facing your organization in 2012? Other 6% Labour/Skill Shortage 21% Emerging Skill and Knolwedge Requirements Cost Cutting/Management Productivity 28% 31% 31% Managing Employee Performance Attracting and Retaining Employees 36% 39% Emloyee Engagement and Motivation 46% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% The majority of respondents stated the top three key challenges facing their organizations included lack of employee engagement (46%), challenges attracting and retaining employees (38%) and managing employee performance (36%). Many of the respondents commented that a tight budget, growing client expectations and employee engagement are the key causes for attrition. Other respondents commented that it was difficult for their organizations to keep the employees engaged and provide job enrichment. 5

6 Question 5 Has your organization closed operations in Canada within the last 3 months? 6% Yes No 94% An overwhelming majority of respondents (94%) stated their organizations have not closed operations in Canada within the last 3 months. Some respondents stated the remote agent program has assisted in ensuring sites were not closed due to agents working from home. Question 6 Has your organization repatriated business to Canada? 5% Yes No 95% 6

7 Question 7 What tools do you currently use in your agent hiring process? Automated Job Simulations Other Role-Play Personality Assessments Competency Profiles Knowledge Tests Telephone Interviews 12% 19% 28% 36% 41% 63% 85% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% A large majority of respondents surveyed (85%) stated their organization used telephone interviews as the leading tool to hire agents. Another sixty-three percent are using knowledge tests. Other organizations have stated they use behavioral based interview questions, while others interview in person, while other organizations have used a group interview technique. Question 8 Do you involve agents in other tasks and /or projects outside of their customer care duties? No 22% Yes 78% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Seventy-eight percent of organizations surveyed involved agents tasks and/or projects outside of their customer care duties. 7

8 Question 9 What tasks and projects are agents involved in? Agent presentations at executive meetings Other 9% 11% Articles written by agents for internal/external 19% Opportunities to participate in calibration 37% Peer monitoring/feedback initiatives Agent led task forces 63% 65% Mentoring Programs Training development and/or delivery as subject 72% 75% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Many of the Canadian contact centres are providing various opportunities to engage their agents and thus allowing for increased employee engagement and motivation. Other tasks agents are involved in, outside of their regular duties included administration, committee involvement, quality monitoring, research for their organizations and participating in town hall meeting in order to solicit new ideas for company-wide processes. Question 10 What percentage of agents has been promoted within the contact centre within the last year? More than 50% 3% 21-30% 8% 11-20% 15% 0-10% 74% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 8

9 Question 11 What is the average length of employment for your current full-time agent pool? Six months to one year Less than six months 1% 1% 6-9years 7% More than 9 years 5-6 years 10% 10% 4-5 years 14% 3-4 years 16% 1-2 years 18% 2-3 years 23% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 9

10 Question 12 Please rate the following common causes of turnover in your organization. Lack of rewards/incentives Lacking tools to effectively meet customer needs Inflexible work environment Skills/competencies expertise not utilized Lack of challenge Never Seldom Sometimes Very Frequent Sense of powerlessness or lack of control Pace of work 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Lack of training Lack of promotion opportunities Pay Work hours Dislike handling complaints Not valued Never Seldom Sometimes Very Frequent Lack of or excessive management Repetitive work 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% Of the respondents surveyed the most common cause of turnover identified were due to repetitive work (51%), work hours (53%) and lack of promotion opportunities (51%). 10

11 Question 13 Does your organization conduct employee satisfaction surveys? 23% Yes No 77% Seventy-seven of the respondents surveyed stated their organization conducted employee satisfaction surveys. A small amount of respondents stated they hired an external consultant to conduct the survey, which was developed by both the consultant and organization. Most of the respondents stated the survey results are reviewed by executive management, who would extract the key points to distribute to their staff. Other organizations stated they ed the full results of the survey and compared their employee satisfaction to their customer satisfaction scores using their NPS system. The majority of respondents stated the results were conveyed through town hall meetings or at their corporate monthly meetings. Once the employee satisfaction survey results were distributed the majority of the organizations stated they would work towards an action plan by developing employee focus groups/committees that would address specific topics and work towards strategies to resolve the issues. Some organizations stated all staff had the opportunity to volunteer for any of the committees created. Question 14 What methodology do you use to conduct customer satisfaction surveys? i.e. directly after calls, annual survey Some organizations confirmed they did not have a process in place while other organizations stated they conducted customer satisfaction surveys monthly, quarterly, weekly, semi-annually or every few weeks. Some organizations stated callers were selected randomly and were asked to stay on the line to conduct a survey. While others called a certain percentage of their clients that experienced problems with products or service. A few organizations would randomly pull call tickets and send out the survey through . 11

12 Question 15 How many customer experience interview/surveys are conducted per year? 30% 25% 26% 24% 20% 15% 17% 15% 12% 10% 5% 0% 3% 3% Over Question 16 Do you use an external organization to conduct customer experience surveys? 57% 43% Yes No 12

13 Question 17 What is the process used to address customer satisfaction feedback? The majority of respondents surveyed stated that customer satisfaction feedback was analyzed by executives and/or management. Others identified that client complaints are managed by management, with a follow up conducted to ensure the customer was satisfied with the outcome. Many organizations stated trends are monitored and the results shared with employees at all levels of the organization. The information is used to change policies, developing new strategies or coaching and development. Some organizations form committee s which would analyze and prepare a resolution report for management. It was evident that all respondents communicated or forwarded the results of the customer satisfaction survey to various departments within their organization. Many have a dedicated alert team who are responsible for responding to ratings below a set standard. It was clear that the majority of the Canadian contact centres value customer s feedback, which in turn helps to drive improvement. Question 18 Do you use Integrated Voice Recording (IVR) to record customer responses? We received various responses from contact centres regarding IVR, but the most common quality control methods were to select and rely/randomly record calls or consistently record all customer calls. Results show that some organizations must comply with regulatory or contract terms. Question 19 What social media channels does your company use? The majority of respondents stated their organization is not currently using social media channels (52%). The remainder are using, blogs, Google plus, yammer, company websites and online forums moderated by staff. Question 20 What is the average number of incoming social media contacts received per day? The majority of respondents stated they received between 1-10 social media contacts per day while 7% were receiving fewer than 100. Five percent stated they were receiving up to a thousand per day. A minority stated they received 0 responses per day, noting they were new to social media. 13

14 Question 21 What is the percentage of your agents are using social media channels in your organization? The majority of respondents are not currently using social media capabilities to the fullest extend nof their time. Organizations using social media channels state an average of 27% use it between 5%-25%. Another 15% stated they have between 80%-100% of their agents using social media. In some cases social media is managed by the marketing team, while others stated their agents are adept with this channel but the organization has yet to initialize. Question 22 What technology options are currently being used by your organization that has the potential to reduce cost per call? The technology option most currently used by Canadian contact centres is IVR. Other options identified were: Audo Dialer Online Chat VOIP CATI CMS CRM Remote Access Tools AXIS Navigator AVAYA Sales Force Sabre Opera Proprietary software Mediagateway (2 way voice integration) 14

15 Question 23 Please indicate what would prompt your organization to implement or consider a new technology? 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 45% 40% 23% 22% 20% Increased pressure to improve customer loyalty Increased compliance requirements Other Increased pressure to provide work-athome options Not applicable Question 24 What technologies are currently being used or considered in your organization? 25% Quality monitoring 54% 66% Enhanced call routing i.e. mulitmedia and/or skills based routing voice over IP Other 62% 15

16 Question 25 Do you feel the technology and tools your organization uses effectively serve your customers needs? 100% 80% 77% 60% 40% 20% 0% Yes 23% No The majority of respondents (77%) felt their organizations technology effectively served their customers needs. Results demonstrated that organizations need additional tools to enhance the customer experience. Often times they stated the technology used was driven by business needs rather than the needs of the customers. There was also consensus that as customer needs evolve there needs to be increased investment in technology to meet those evolving needs. Question 26 What technologies do you feel have or will have the greatest impact on the industry as a whole? 17% 23% 77% Social Media Digital marketing Other The majority of respondents stated social media will have the greatest impact on the industry as a whole. Results showed that technologies associated with chat coupled with Google technologies will have a direct impact on the Canadian contact centre industry. A few respondents felt Google was beginning to package various tools into a common platform and will eventually offer an integrated web package. Comments included that the contact centre industry should increase their investment in listening to the customer activities as opposed to media ads. 16

17 Participant Profile 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 1% 2% 5% 6% 6% 19% 27% Figure 1 - Location of Participants 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 2% 3% 5% 8% 8% 8% 11% 11% 14% 30% Figure 2 - Sector of Participant Companies 17

18 8% 41% 36% 15% 51 to to to 499 over 500 Figure 3 - Size of Organization by number of employees to to to 10 1 to 5 Figure 4 Number of Sites/Operations in Canada 18

19 Contact Centre Canada provides strategic and tactical solutions, content and services based on the human resource needs of the Canadian contact centre industry. Based in the nation s capital Ottawa, Ontario it is our goal to brand Canada as a world-class contact centre destination of choice. Contact Centre Canada is committed to providing products and services that contribute to the growth and sustainability of the contact centre industry membership it serves in Canada. You represent the contact centre industry s leadership and we want you to be a central player in shaping the future of our industry in Canada. Join us on this journey and become a member of Contact Centre Canada! As a Contact Centre Canada member, you will benefit from our many products, programs, market intelligence and knowledge sharing opportunities. For more information on how to participate in the next Trend Survey please contact Allison Chapman; Program Manager allison@contactcentrecanada.ca 19