Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

Contact Centres see importance of sharing data

- Datamonitor event reveals how contact centres can leverage customer data to drive revenue & customer satisfaction

Manchester UK, 15th November, 2006 - Amcat, a global leader in customer care & interaction solutions reports that over 63% of contact centre professionals polled at its recent sponsored Datamonitor event, “Leveraging Data to Enable Better Customer Interactions” recognised the importance of sharing data from the contact centre to help make decisions in other parts of the enterprise.

The webinar delivered by Lead Analyst Robin Goad, follows on from a white paper researched by Datamonitor ‘A new model for integrated customer contact’ on behalf of Amcat earlier this year that interviewed 200 contact centres across Europe on the way they managed their contact centre operations. Over 52% of those interviewed said that data was still compartmentalised and was not shared; 35% said they were in the early stages of sharing data and only 11% said that information was already shared across the organisation.

Amcat’s Chief Marketing Officer Richard Costello commented, “As a contact centre solution provider, we focus on providing and capturing data to facilitate each customer interaction. Our unified inbound outbound system is also increasingly acting on and making use of CRM type data and making that more useful for customer communications. Additionally, we see the data captured during interaction as feeding analytical programs that provide real insight into organisations regarding operations, customer satisfaction and much more. The results from the Datamonitor research and the people who took part in our survey highlight a shift in attitude. Companies are beginning to realise the strategic value of their data, but they are looking for help in getting value out of it.”

He continued, “The series of webinars are designed to continue the debate with contact centre professionals on how both operational and customer needs are changing and the implications this has on the use of data. What is reassuring is that contact centres are beginning to realise the importance of abandoning a silo-based approach to holding information and are looking towards breaking down the traditional walls between the contact centre and other parts of the organisation through greater integration.”

Robin Goad, Lead Analyst, Contact Centres, Datamonitor commented, “Today, organisations still need to achieve better efficiencies, increase productivity and control costs. But, can it all be done with happier employees and more satisfied customers? When contact centres automate a data process or get access to critical transaction data, they often lower call handling time, obtain instant productivity and efficiency gains that can lead to happier customers. Feedback from the session discussed the best methods for leveraging data in the call centre that increase efficiency, improve first call resolution and achieve better customer care.”

Other surveyed results collected from the event include:

Do you use the data collected in your contact centre to help make decisions elsewhere within the enterprise?

63% answered ‘often but could do more’
36% answered ‘Seldom’
0% answered ‘Always’

Does your contact centre currently operate via a silo approach or do you share data across the enterprise?

53% answered ‘Silo approach’
12% answered ‘Share data across enterprise’
35% answered ‘In early stages of sharing data’

If you had sufficient data to analyse, which of the following would rank highest as a key benefit?

30% answered ‘Grow your business’
20 % answered ‘Improve agent performance’
50% answered ‘Improve customer service’

Who do you think that you would benefit from sharing more data and knowledge around the enterprise?

9.5% answered ‘Call Centre management’
43.5% answered ‘Customers’
9.5% answered ‘Employees’
28.5% answered ‘Enterprise operations’
9.5% answered ‘Executive management’

Over 90 delegates registered for the event in North America and Europe from all sizes of contact centre from 1-50 agents up to 1,000 + seats.

For those that missed the webinar it is possible to listen to it by visiting www.amcat.co.uk. A copy of the Datamonitor white paper is also available on the Amcat website to download.

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Editor’s Notes:

About Amcat:

Amcat™ is a leading provider of contact centre solutions. With an Amcat IP-based contact centre platform, organisations can guarantee that each customer contact is intelligent and productive, increasing employee morale and customer satisfaction. The Amcat customer contact platform ensures that companies align their entire organisation around customer care, providing better service at lower cost. As a result, companies profit from better customer acquisition and retention metrics, and ultimately, more revenue and profit. Today, Amcat is helping over 2,000 companies delight their customers while improving efficiency, increasing productivity and enhancing professionalism. For more info visit www.amcat.co.uk or call 0161 772 7100.

About Datamonitor:

Datamonitor is a leading provider of online database and analysis services for key industry sectors. We help our clients, 5000 of the world's leading companies, to address complex strategic issues. Through our proprietary databases and wealth of expertise, we provide clients with unbiased expert analysis and in-depth forecasts for seven industry sectors: Automotive, Consumer Markets, Energy, Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare, Technology, Transport and Logistics.
Robin Goad, Lead Analyst, Contact Centres, has been with Datamonitor for over six years and has worked on a number of large-scale research projects and reports, including: Managed and Hosted Contact Centre Services; Global Contact Centre Component Technologies to 2008; Call Centre in EMEA to 2007; Call Centre Outsourcing in EMEA; IP Call Centre; and a number of call centre end-user surveys.

Robin has also worked on a number of consultancy projects - including networked and hosted call centre, call centre outsourcing, call centre technology pricing, and IVR / speech recognition and enterprise application convergence. He has spoken widely on the topic of contact centre, CRM and outsourcing at conferences in Europe, North America and Asia, and has contributed to numerous print and new media publications.


Press Contact: Jane Moores, TTA Communications LTD. Tel: 00 44 (0) 845 658 0120 or 01225 731 317. e-mail: jmoores@ttauk.com

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