SOUTH EAST WALES CALL CENTRE INITIATIVE

Benchmarking Study

Outline of Recommended Approach

September 2001

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES

• Members of SE Wales Call Centre Forum are keen to establish mechanism for obtaining aggregate information relating to regional call centre sector

• Aims are:– To monitor trends over time – To allow individual companies to benchmark

performance against sector as whole

• Data is available at UK level from annual Merchants International survey, but this does not provide detailed feedback required on SE Wales

SCOPE OF STUDY

• Main areas of interest for study are:o Volume of callso Type of callso Hours of operationo Numbers employedo Attrition rateso Remuneration & salary levelso Sickness levelso Trainingo Customer satisfactiono Service levels and quality management

METHODOLOGY

• Panel of 20 members of Call Centre Initiative will be recruited, across range of types of call centre/industry sectors

• Each member will be asked to complete short questionnaire for every wave of study

• Initially, frequency likely to be quarterly (although could decrease to 6-monthly, if necessary, in future)

• Questionnaires to be emailed out & emailed back to MRW

• Participants likely to be Quality Managers or Operations Managers (most appropriate individuals’contact details to be supplied to MRW)

MAXIMISING CO-OPERATION

• Individual company data will be completely confidential – only aggregate results will be published

• Before recruitment of Panel, introductory letter explaining aims & importance of study and stressing confidentiality will be sent by MRW to all members of Initiative

• Programme of reminders will be set up, so that all non-respondents receive 2 reminders to complete & return their questionnaire

• Questionnaire will be kept as succinct as possible, with mostly pre-coded responses, to speed up its completion

TIMINGS & REPORTING

• Results for each wave will be available within 4 weeks of fieldwork starting, eg if Wave 1 starts 1st week January, then results published in early Feb

• At end of each wave, MRW will prepare summary report (bullet-points with charts illustrating trends over time)

• Report will be emailed to all participants/members of Initiative

• Presentations could also be provided, if desired