Does Newer Technology Really Make Your Call Center Perform Better?

Does the latest technology really make your call center better? (Here's where you think to yourself, 'I sure hope so given how much money we've spent on some of our solutions.') But have you ever wondered how much – really – the latest and most high-tech systems have improved customer satisfaction and your bottom line?

So has Benchmark Portal, apparently. The contact center benchmarking, certification, training, industry reports and consulting group recently published a new report entitled “The Impact of Technology on Contact Center Performance.” The goal was to produce a statistically valid research study, with data from companies across a diverse set of vertical industries that clearly indicates whether a relationship truly exists between more advanced technology and better company performance.

So what's the answer? “Yes,” says the study's authors in a press release. There does exist a definitive relationship between up-to-date solutions and performance quality.

“The key findings in The Impact of Technology on Contact Center Performance report are that advanced technologies are potent enablers of superior performance,” said Bruce L. Belfiore, senior research executive at BenchmarkPortal (News - Alert) and co-author of the study. “By looking at validated data sets from 143 contact centers, we are able to provide CEOs and senior executives with evidence that investments in advanced contact center technologies reduce costs and increase the quality of service.”

One example? Benchmark Portal's study discovered that a contact center that handles an average of two million calls a year could save $707,000 annually by using the right technology to improve a single (but very important) key performance indicator: first call resolution.

After studying the data alone (and leaving out managements' opinions), Benchmark Portal found that technologies that ensure proper staffing, connection and recognition of inquiries; that promote proper routing, queuing and resolution/escalation of contacts; and that provide reporting and analytics to both agents and management are statistically related to superior performance. It also demonstrated that among the many key performance indicators studied, more advanced technologies provide higher FCR, lower cost per call, increased calls handled per agent per hour and reduced queue time.

Edited by Carrie Schmelkin