Thankfully, Call Centres Are Becoming Irrelevant

Fact: no-one likes having to ring a call centre. And new data suggests that given the choice, we’ll choose any other option.

Call centre picture from Shutterstock

Dimension Data’s Contact Centre Benchmarking Report, based on surveys of 817 contact centre managers in 79 countries, underscores that most call centres now have to handle email and social media as well as phone calls. In Australia, the proportion of centres which identify themselves as “voice only” has fallen from 76.5 per cent last year to 51.7 per cent this year.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a clear preference for phone calls amongst older citizens, but for anyone under the age of 50, the “channel” largely becomes irrelevant. Web chat, Facebook, Twitter or email are all valid options.

The lesson? If your business wants to roll out or subcontract a new call centre with an emphasis on voice, time to think again. Customer contact matters, but phone calls shouldn’t be the primary focus.


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