The study found that there is an opportunity for the contact centre to be more involved in decision making at board level, since contact centre managers are in the unique position of dealing with customers on a daily basis. Graham Jarvis from the University of Birmingham, which undertook the research, stated, ‘The positive outcome of this would be an increased level of customer engagement, higher levels of satisfaction and loyalty, which in turn will translate into more profitable customers’.
The research involved 118 senior managers and directors, 110 middle managers and 46 junior managers and team leaders from a wide range of call and contact centre industry sectors such as dotcoms, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and charities. It found that nearly half of call centre leaders (48%) report to a member of the executive team, but may not be involved in any decision making. The functions and departments that are considered to exert the most influence over strategic decisions are finance, operations, marketing and the board of directors, with a meagre 5% of strategic decision making occurring in the call centre over time.
Jonathan Gale, CEO of NewVoiceMedia, comments, “Contact centres are the face and personality of your business at the front line, with agents dealing directly with customers on a daily basis, so there is no question that they must play a major role in the company’s decision making. Customers know when a contact centre is well-integrated into a business and recognise when a company is listening and looking after its customers; and the feedback from customer-facing staff can be invaluable for creating a wider role in determining an organisation’s overall strategy”.
NewVoiceMedia is a leading provider of true cloud contact centre and voice solutions, enabling businesses of all sizes to deliver a personalised and unique customer experience, quickly and securely. Customer service is the lifeblood of any organisation and NewVoiceMedia’s ContactWorld for Sales & Marketing and ContactWorld for Service make every customer interaction a great experience. The company now serves thousands of agents in 40 countries on five continents, including Parcelforce, QlikView, DPD and Topcon Positioning Systems.