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Talk to anyone in telemarketing and it's clear the industry has been under considerable pressure in the last year as silent calls have prompted many consumers to register on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), limiting the pool of contacts for outbound telemarketers.

Consumer dissatisfaction with call centres, however, stretches beyond silent calls, according to an international survey commissioned in March by Netreflector, which examines customer feedback for call centres.

Of those surveyed in Britain, 27 per cent said bad accents were their top complaint, while 21 per cent cited being made to wait too long on the line.

"Too many firms have focused on cutting costs, even if it makes the customer experience worse," says Merlin Stone, an expert on customer service for change management consultants WCL.

Never before has contact centre best practice been more important, especially as the communications regulator Ofcom has beefed up telemarketing regulations in recent months and imposed stiffer fines on businesses that abuse the rules.

"Call centres are receiving bad press with questionable ethics surrounding outbound calling," says Simon Bradford, client services director at Direct Excellence, which monitors call centre performances.

Setting standards

How is the industry defining and measuring best practice? Key performance indicators used by contact centres include average time to answer, call abandonment rates and average handling time.

For example, MM Teleperformance, one of the UK's biggest providers of outsourced contact centres, has performance indicators to measure its best-practice levels. These include looking at response times, staff attrition rates and written correspondence response times. It also monitors the quality of interaction, accuracy and timeliness of fulfilment and written response handling.

Peter Gale, managing director of outsourced contact centre and fulfilment services provider Data Base Factory, says there are two officially recognised benchmarks for best practice: the Direct Marketing Association's (DMA) telemarketing guidelines and standards set out by the Customer Contact Association (CCA) (see box, page 9).

"In terms of cost, it is more expensive for the industry to adopt best practice, for example the recent rulings stating that the silent-call ceiling must drop from five per cent to three per cent will have an impact on efficiency of calling teams," says Gale. "But the industry has a choice.

It can take a short-term view and make a quick buck now or be serious about the future of outbound calling as a sales channel and work within the guidelines."

Redefining the rules

Existing ones are being redefined. Instead of measures that focused only on reducing costs and being more efficient, best practice is becoming more customer-focused.

Mike Havard, founder of contact centre consultancy CM Insight, says that for some firms, best practice will involve IT investment and innovative management models. For others it will require a change of mindset - identifying an approach to service or sales.

"Existing standards have not focused enough on the outcome, but have concentrated on input - making systems and technology better," he says.

"The role of a contact centre should be to drive customer behaviour and create a better outcome. By focusing on input, you have little control."

New measures are emerging in areas such as first-time resolution, return-on-customer and customer satisfaction.

"In the US, Canada and the UK consumers are forcing change," says Dudley Larus, vice-president of global marketing at contact centre software provider Amcat. "We've seen consumers force new legislation when they have found a common voice and to curb abusive telemarketing practices."

Too many contact centre providers still fail to match customer expectations.

"Consumers have started to outpace the ability of contact centres to satisfy their demands," says John Orsmond, chairman of Data Vantage Group. "Contact centres are too systems-led, with more of a reliance on technology rather than consumer behaviour. Those organisations that are moving beyond hard skills are leading the way in best practice."

Chey Garland, founder and chief executive of Garlands Call Centres says that to deliver consistently high-quality customer experiences, you must create teams of motivated, skilled and knowledgeable people.

"It's a philosophy that we follow throughout our inbound and outbound call-handling operations," she says. "Best practice is something that touches on people and the way they are recruited, trained and rewarded, as well as on processes, contact centre environments, and the technologies used to support those people."

The hurdles to best practice are also high. Many in the industry perceive contact centres as a cost, rather than an element that brings value to the business.

"Operational divisions often don't have the skills or language to present a case at boardroom level," says CM Insight's Havard. "A typical operational person wants to justify investment by talking about staff attrition and absenteeism rates, at which point the board will switch off."

Confusion over best practice is rife. "Progress is being made and people are taking notice, but we have taken advice from different sources and it's conflicting," says John Shore, head of contact centre operations at multi-channel CRM provider Dataforce.

"Regulations should be a lot clearer."

At the annual TPS Forum in April, telemarketers expressed concerns that the DMA runs the TPS, citing possible conflicts of interest. One delegate expressed concerned that "the DMA is running the TPS, and yet the TPS is killing the outbound telemarketing industry" (see box, above).

Some in the industry say that whether contact centre services are provided in-house or outsourced could also have an impact on best practice.

"When a firm outsources an activity it is often about cost, but it is also about using external expertise," says Martin Dove, chief marketing officer at outsourced contact centre provider Merchants. "An outsourced operation is under a higher level of scrutiny and is always a cost to the business. Ensuring best practice is improved is vital to survive longer term as an outsourcer."

Know your customers

Paul Miller, contact centre director at Prolog says that outsourcers have an advantage in return on capital justifications and have a broader view of what other industries are doing.

Guy Holliday, marketing executive at publisher GE Fabbri, which outsources its web, mail and telephone activity to Data Base Factory, says outsourcers must know the ins and outs of the client's industry. "It's crucial to have a designated person to deal with at the contact center provider," he says. "We have daily contact with Data Base Factory and hold monthly meetings. We expect a great deal of reporting on who our customers are and how they are dealt with."

Graham Ede, chief executive of CRM provider Moonriver Group, says the key to contact centre best practice is to generate leads through other media and use the telephone to engage the prospect further. Ede says there are many ways this type of information can be collected other than by cold call, such as responsive advertising, SMS, email, web, phone, mail and face-to-face.

"Integrated systems which allow the exchange of data between the shop floor and contact centre are integral to creating a two-way stream of intelligent and relevant communication," says Ede. "Whether outsourced or in-house, this approach will eventually position itself as best practice across the board."

Contact centres must view the process of improving customer communication as part of a three-fold strategy: people, process and technology and best-practice metrics are being replaced by best-practice principles.

But the key message is clear. To achieve best practice, contact centres must keep up with the changing pace of consumers' behaviour, or risk alienating them forever.

COMMENT

CHRIS ARCHER-BROWN, MANAGING PARTNER, CLARITYBLUE

"The data management technology to drive call centre best practice exists, but it is an area that has had many false starts.

The challenge is to ensure its use is improved."

Roy White, client services director, Calcom Group "As far as best practice is concerned, we would like to see a move towards customer service measures, rather than a reliance on technology-driven statistics."

COLIN RICKARD, MANAGING DIRECTOR, DATAFLUX

"To achieve best practice, education and data management is key. Most companies don't have the processes, technology or people in place to manage data to their best advantage."

VANESSA BLAKE, MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE PHONE ROOM

"Having a set of industry-wide, key performance indicators allows the sector to believe we are customer focused and adopting best practice, when we are doing nothing of the sort."

THE BIG ISSUE - SHOULD THE DMA CONTINUE TO RUN THE TPS?

YES - ROBERT DIRSKOVSKI, HEAD OF INTERACTIVE, DMA

"It's absolutely right for the DMA to run the Telephone Preference Service.

We are more likely to fight for a balance between consumer rights and commercial freedom. We have a code of practice in place that looks at responsible management of predictive diallers.

But companies are not abiding by the rules and I don't know what it will take to get this to change. There is a perception that the industry is not operating with accordance to consumer desires, but the message is clear. If you lose customers, your business is doomed."

MAYBE - RICHARD WEBSTER, CHAIRMAN, TELEMARKETING ASSOCIATION

"The fact that the DMA runs the TPS does put it in an awkward position.

It is always better to have someone who is on the industry's side who can fight its corner, but the DMA is being pulled in two directions. The DMA wants to promote the industry's interests, yet it has to be seen to be on the consumer's side, otherwise Ofcom will not renew the DMA's contract with the TPS. Until Ofcom carries out prosecutions, non-compliance will continue. The way the TPS is framed, in particular, enabling third-party registrations to be carried out is also a problem. We would like to see a review of the TPS."

NEED TO KNOW - CALL CENTRE STANDARDS

The Customer Contact Association launched the CCA Standard in 2001 to help organisations improve efficiency and customer service and more than 110 centres have been accredited.

A revised version was launched last year, to meet demands for higher levels of customer service, and includes the following changes:

- An increased level of rigour about the role of the contact centre within the organisation

- Guidelines on how the contact centre communicates with other departments to ensure the customer has a better experience.

- A stronger focus on outsourced operations.

"There is no single best practice measurement," says Anne-Marie Forsyth, chief executive of the CCA, "but version two has a greater focus on customers."

The DMA's Code of Practice sets out guidelines for those involved in telemarketing and the Contact Centre Council has published guidelines on achieving best practice Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which operates its call centre in-house, has focused on employee training and technology to achieve best practice.

It decided to capture its call centre agents' interactions to provide the business with a clearer picture of the quality of service delivered. The Aldershot-based call centre, which manages more than 80,000 calls a month, uses NICE software to monitor inbound, outbound and internal calls.

"Any change to working practice can be greeted with a level of scepticism from those it will affect," says Chris Tellegen, project and development manager at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. "We did not want the recording and quality monitoring to be considered a Big Brother tactic."

Enterprise pre-empted this by involving employees in a focus group, where the benefits of the technology to the business and the staff were explained and openly discussed.

Experienced agents are also used to educate and enforce best practice across the contact centre.

CLIENT Q&A - THE BEST PRACTICE CONUNDRUM

THE IN-HOUSE CONTACT CENTRE: BEN DREYER, OPERATIONS DIRECTOR, BODEN

WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF CALL CENTRE BEST PRACTICE?

For customer service the best measure is how your customers judge you. For efficiency there are a variety of measures, such as cost per call and cost as a percentage of turnover. A key measure is to see whether you are improving with time. Best practice saves you money.

You make fewer mistakes, spend less time on recovery and get improved customer loyalty. This all drops through to an improved profit line.

IS IT DIFFICULT TO GET RECOGNITION IN THE BOARDROOM?

At Boden this has not been an issue. The call centre is one of our main contacts with our customers. This is highly valued at board-room level.

HOW DO YOU MEASURE BEST PRACTICE?

There are the hard measurables that are quite straightforward. The softer qualities such as empathy are difficult to quantify. Call listening and scoring needs to be a regular feature, but customer feedback is also essential. Close monitoring is the best approach to ensure levels are excelled.

THE OUTSOURCED CONTACT CENTRE: TOM VOICE, GROUP RETAIL IT DIRECTOR, BAA

WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF CALL CENTRE BEST PRACTICE?

Best practice is the delivery of excellent customer experiences from a highly motivated and knowledgeable team, which is continuously supported with sound training and up-to-date systems and technology. It is a necessity for an efficient and effective operation that delivers real value. The best call centres are already meeting this challenge through a relentless focus on delivering great customer service and, of course, industry accreditation and adoption of CCA best practice guidelines.

IS IT DIFFICULT TO GET RECOGNITION IN THE BOARDROOM?

A likely reason for low levels of recognition in the boardroom is that call centre operations are rarely the main channel to market and the value of the call centre in providing customer support for these other channels is not given proper recognition.

HOW DO YOU MEASURE BEST PRACTICE?

Where a call centre is delivering significant levels of sales and customer insight to the business the value can be clearly identified and costs, while still important, are less likely to be the sole measure of success.