The ninth annual Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report, a survey conducted by IT services and solutions provider, Dimension Data, reveals that more contact centers have adopted broader organizational segmentation strategies than in the past to improve interactions with customers.
Customer segmentation is the division of a customer base into groups predicated on criteria that are relevant to the business.
The report states that the percentage of organizations worldwide delivering personalized and segmented service has jumped to 42.8% from 28.3% last year.
According to the report, 34.4% of contact centers use the same segmentation as their broader
organization, up 10% over last year's results. These contact centers are using customer segmentation to raise service levels to increased heights, tie in customer loyalty and secure greater spend within their market.
Another fact the report reflects is that just 36.0% of organizations have a single view of the customer across voice, email, chat and Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Yet over 50.8% of contact centers have a single view when it is across products and services; 48.2% across customer data and 46.0% across customer transaction history. As companies realize the true value of retaining existing customers, there has been a distinct move away from separate segmentation strategies with figures dropping to 26%.
The research also states that over 74.3% of contact centers want to reduce the cost of serving customers without adversely affecting service quality. In 2006, more than 80.5% say that increased competitiveness and price sensitivity is making this goal even more important than ever.
Dimension Data's report further asserts that mature markets, like telecommunications and financial services, need greater segmentation of product and services to keep customers happy. Segmentation is important so companies can more effectively target groups with appropriate marketing messages in order to balance customer objectives with cost-to-serve metrics.
"If you're driving improvement in customer satisfaction, ensuring you have a 'one and done'
philosophy is key," said Cara Diemont, editor of the report.
"Answering the phone quickly is no
longer enough. As customers have become more sophisticated in the way they judge the success
or failure of their interactions with an organization, keeping them satisfied is more complex than
ever."
