Genesys' Global Research Survey Reveals Optimised Customer Service is Becoming a Key Priority to Improve the Customer Experience

Wokingham, Oct. 31, 2007 - Nearly three quarters of customer service organisations have begun adopting strategies to optimise the value of every customer interaction, but less than 25 per cent have fully implemented them in key areas, according to a new survey of customer service organisations. The business goals of creating and operating contact centres at maximum efficiency remain top priorities for a large number of businesses, especially in highly dynamic environments, but the goals of complete optimisation remain largely unmet. The most critical areas for improvement are in such areas as the ability to effectively cross-sell, prioritising customers according to their status, and matching customers with the best agent.

The global survey, sponsored by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) included 1,390 contact centre managers and customer service executives from 19 different industries and 76 different countries and is available at http://genesyslabs-registration.com?p=OPGL000001. Results reveal some of the most advanced strategies companies are deploying to optimise effectiveness and efficiency in customer service.

"While great leaps in efficiency and quality have been made over the past decade, contact centres are still in the early stages of evolution," said Arnaud Kraaijvanger, vice president of marketing programmes, Genesys. "The purpose of this survey was to investigate how contact centres around the world optimise customer interactions and more proactively manage customer relationships. We found that many contact centres are employing innovative strategies, but there are substantial untapped opportunities for contact centres to evolve even further."

Key findings include:

Dynamic Contact Centre Strategies
  • An increasing number of organisations implement contact centre management strategies that simultaneously address effectiveness and efficiency of customer interaction
  • 28 per cent of contact centres manage Average Handle Time by actively directing agents to spend longer on interactions during troughs and the reverse during peaks
  • Only 11 per cent of contact centres actively manage cross-selling opportunities
  • 17 per cent of contact centres use voice call-back
  • 26 per cent expand the agents' roles to include managing interactions through other channels, such as e-mail and SMS
  • Contact centre management is integrating all available technology and business processes to manage agent productivity, prioritise business objectives and respond to changes in customer demand
Identifying, Segmenting and Prioritising Customers
  • The most effective and successful contact centres seek to identify the customers at the first available opportunity - 78 per cent of call centres are identifying customers before connecting them to agents
  • Contact centres are also assessing the value of the customer interaction, determining the level of service to provide and how to match the customer with the right agent
  • 22 per cent of contact centres still do not identify customers before matching them with the appropriate resource
  • Only 21 per cent of contact centres use advanced analytics to prioritise incoming calls based on the value of the customer
  • Only 35 per cent match their top-value customers to their best agents - instead using an isolated group of high-performing agents
Segmenting Agents and Matching Customers
  • An increasing number of contact centres have started to consider demographic matching, matching customers and agencts by age and gender
  • The vast majority of contact centres segment agents by the most basic needs - 22 per cent group agents by quality or performance outcomes, 22 per cent use sales results, and fewer than 20 per cent use soft skills
  • Contact centres are beginning to use newer methods of segmenting agents and matching customers including demographic matching
For the global summary and reports covering the Asia/Pacific, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa visit http://genesyslabs-registration.com?p=OPGL000001.

About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
Genesys, an Alcatel-Lucent company, is the only company that focuses 100 per cent on software to manage customer interactions over the phone, web and in e-mail. The Genesys software suite dynamically connects customers with the right resources - self-service or assisted-service - to fulfill customer requests, optimise customer care goals and efficiently use resources. Genesys software directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government agencies in 80 countries. These companies and agencies can leverage their entire organisation, from the contact centre to the back office, to improve the overall customer experience. As a result, Genesys helps stop customer frustration, drive efficiency, and accelerate business innovation. For more information, go to http://www.genesyslab.com or visit the industry blog at http://www.betterinteractions.com
 
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications, and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on the move. With operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology and innovation organizations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved adjusted proforma revenues of Euro 18.3 billion in 2006 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. [All figures exclude impact of activities to be transferred to Thales]. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent at http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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Media Contact:
Duncan Burford, PR for Genesys, 01780 721433, dburford@iba-europe.com
David Radoff, Genesys, +1 650.466.1078, dradoff@genesyslab.com 

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