Survey Results Reveal Top Priorities for Customer-Centric Enterprises

Recent Witness Systems User Event, Attended by More than 300 Global Customers, Highlights Opportunity for Speech Analytics, Survey and Workforce Optimization Solutions Across Contact Center, Back-Office and Branch Operations

The survey, conducted by Witness Systems at the Orlando, Fla. event revealed that, as customer service has become an increasingly important differentiator for enterprises, contact center managers and executives are rising to the challenge by proactively implementing technology and processes, including surveys to capture customer feedback, speech analytics for mining and identifying root cause of recurring interactions, and workforce optimization (WFO) solutions to better integrate and streamline contact center and enterprise sales/service activities.

Following is a full break-down of survey results:

What is the number one challenge facing your contact center today?

• First-call resolution – 33%
• Service levels – 28%
• Staff satisfaction – 13%
• Cost reduction – 10%
• Customer retention and churn reduction – 10%
• Improving up-selling and cross-selling ratios – 6%

Which department/group within your organization do you share the most captured interactions with?

• Executive management team – 52%
• Marketing – 14%
• IT – 12%
• Engineering/product management – 10%
• HR – 4%
• All of the above – 8%

Does your organization have specific measurements to support root cause analysis?

• Yes – 35%
• No – 65%

Do you have employee scorecards in your organization?

• Yes – 74%
• No – 26%

How would you categorize your organization’s investment in staff training this year, as compared to last year?

• Increased – 48%
• Stayed the same – 39%
• Decreased – 13%

Does your organization use kiosks, IVRs or e-mail to capture customer feedback following a customer interaction/transaction?

• Yes – 43%
• No – 57%

Are you investing in speech technology for mining and analyzing your calls?

• Yes – 15%
• No, but planned next year – 29%
• No – 56%

Does your company employ home-based agents/staff?

• Yes – 34%
• No, but planned next year – 11%
• No – 55%

In your current organization, which areas of the business have you worked in/managed?

• Contact/call center operations only – 32%
• Branch/storefront only – 3%
• Back office operations only – 10%
• Contact/call center and branch/storefront and back-office operations – 55%

Does your organization have plans to implement workforce optimization (WFO) outside your contact center?

• Yes – 51%
• No – 49%

Which area do you think would be the highest priority area for your organization to implement a WFO solution outside the contact center?

• Retail bank branches – 20%
• Sales – 20%
• Claims processing – 14%
• Order fulfillment – 13%
• Payment processing – 10%
• Other store fronts – 7%
• Billing – 7%
• Credit servicing – 3%
• Loan operations – 5%
• Credit organizations – 1%

Do you expect your organization to place a heavier emphasis on cost control versus the customer experience in the next 12 months, as compared to the past 12 months?

• More emphasis on cost control – 37%
• Same emphasis on cost control and the customer experience – 29%
• More emphasis on the customer experience – 34%

Which of the following is your primary objective in the contact center?

• Cost of service and operational efficiency – 35%
• Customer loyalty and satisfaction – 50%
• Revenue generation – 15%

Does your contact center have revenue targets?

• Yes – 60%
• No – 40%

For more information on this survey or to schedule an interview with a Verint Witness Actionable Solutions spokesperson, please contact Melissa Chadwick at The Merritt Group at chadwick@merrittgrp.com.

About Verint Witness Actionable Solutions
Verint Witness Actionable Solutions was formed as a result of the company’s successful combination with workforce optimization provider, Witness Systems. Verint Witness Actionable Solutions enables organizations to capture and analyze customer interactions, improve workforce performance and optimize service processes in contact center, branch and back-office operations. With the industry’s broadest portfolio of innovative solutions for customer service analytics, workforce optimization, quality monitoring/full-time recording, workforce management, eLearning, performance management and customer surveys, Verint Witness Actionable Solutions helps companies uncover business trends, discover the root cause of employee and customer behavior, and power the right decisions to ensure service excellence and achieve continuous performance improvement across every aspect of customer operations.