LOCAL contact centres have dramatically improved their service quality, according to a new survey showing that satisfaction levels of Singaporeans using their services have risen significantly this year.

The survey, done by callcentres.net, showed that 41 per cent of respondents were satisfied to extremely satisfied with their last call to a contact centre this year versus 29 per cent in 2007. Speaking to BizIT, Choon Seng Tan, Avaya's Asia-Pacific VP for contact centre business, noted: 'In general, most respondents rate the phone as the most frequent method of contact (77 per cent) and also phone calls as the most favoured mode of contact (63 per cent).'

The 2008 Contact Centre Consumer Index Singapore research report, commissioned by Avaya, saw an increase of five basis points from 0.61 in 2007 to 0.66 in 2008. Mr Tan added that it was also no surprise that the survey found that most consumers prefer to call up the contact centre and speak to a customer service representative without using any form of technology (63 per cent).

'Compared to the older generation, Gen Y consumers feel that the service they receive from contact centres in Singapore are better than in-store service. Gen Y consumers also expect a higher level of service than any other consumer age group. However, it is the baby boomers who report receiving the highest level of service on the last call,' Mr Tan said.

He added that on average, the level of service actually received from a company call centre is still falling short of expectations with service expectations at 5.2 (out of 7) but the level of service received from company call centres stands at 4.8 (out of 7). Notably, the survey showed that 18 per cent of respondents prefer using e-mail as their most preferred method to contact a company versus 10 per cent in 2007 and 13 per cent prefer using the Internet in 2008 versus 10 per cent in 2007.

'It is also very interesting to note that Singaporean women tend to show a higher affinity for using non-interactive tools like e-mail or touch phone to get their queries resolved compared to men (60 per cent versus 40 per cent). Men show a stronger liking for speaking to a customer service representative than women (60 per cent versus 40 per cent) and prefer to do business with companies that operate a 24/7 contact centre.'

The Avaya official noted that contact centres have in recent years focused their resources on improving first call resolution, a key measurement of service quality.

'But there's also a new awareness that not all calls can be directly handled by the centre's front-line, the Tier-1 agents. For many businesses, the nature of the customer interaction has changed from a simple transaction to a collaborative experience in which experts must be brought in and richer media employed including IM, video, text chat etc,' Mr Tan said.

He added that businesses are leveraging the power of open IP (Internet Protocol) standards in the infrastructure of their contact centre or call centre. 'The result is that every agent and expert has full access to the required features, functionality, and information needed to serve customers better on each call or other contact.'

Talking about the results of the survey, Catriona Wallace, director of callcentres.net, noted that Singaporean consumers rate the level of service they receive from contact centres in Singapore as 'fairly good' (scoring 4.82/7). 'The attributes of the call experience Singaporeans rate the highest are courtesy of the customer service representative, accurate identification of the customer and being provided with the correct information,' Dr Wallace noted.

She added that the areas that perform the lowest, as rated by customers as 'average', include offering customers additional products and services and not having to wait on hold for very long.

The attributes of a call experience that are shown to be statistically significant drivers of the call experience in Singapore include: first-call resolution (the query was resolved on one call), the empathy of the service representative and the customer feeling that the company has their best interests at heart, Dr Wallace noted. 'An ideal call experience is described by Singaporean consumers as: answer my call quickly, be friendly and polite and resolve my query on the first call.'

Consumers said that if they received this level of service consistently, they would on average give up to 60 per cent more business to that organisation. 'Conversely, consumers stated that a poor contact centre experience was one of the top two reasons why a customer would move their business away from an organisation.'

Avaya's Mr Tan added that the report also noted that offering consumers their ideal services increases the likelihood of these consumers recommending the company to family and friends and considering the company as their first choice to purchase additional products and services. 'In its Customer Loyalty Index, the report observed a mean increase of nine percentage points from current customer loyalty to future loyalty, if given ideal contact centre experience,' Mr Tan said.

Customer retention is currently a key focus for companies and this is growing. The current survey reveals that emotions and behaviour continue to be key drivers in the overall value that consumers perceive from contact centres and already our solutions are taking that into consideration, Eugene Chng, Avaya's Asean MD added.

This story was first published in The Business Times on 17 November 2008.