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F&C Investments is the UK’s Number One Call Centre for Customer Service

The UK’s annual call centre benchmarking study shows UK’s Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service continue to raise the bar for the industry yet again

• Entry level for Top 50 programme increases by 7% year-on-year

• Financial Services remains top performing sector with a score of 87%

• Public Services Sector shows biggest overall improvement in service year-on-year up by 6%

• F&C Investments retains the number one position for a second year running with a whopping score of 97.54%, outperforming the financial sector average by 10.54%

• 97% of callers said their enquiry was completely resolved by  a single call

London, UK – 13th October, 2010:  Global asset management company F&C Investments has repeated its 2009 success to achieve the highest score in the UK’s biggest ever call centre benchmarking exercise, with an impressive 97.54%, outperforming the Financial Services sector average by 10.54%. The study, conducted by independent market research company GfK Mystery Shopping shows that the UK’s Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service continue to raise the bar for the call centre industry, with improved performances across the board.

The benchmarking exercise also showed 96% of customers got through to the call centre on their first attempt. An impressive 97% of callers felt that their enquiry was completely resolved. And the number of calls put on hold fell by a third from 15% in 2009 to just 10% in 2010. Furthermore, 66% of callers to the Top 10 said that the call enhanced their perception of the brand.

The annual study, now in its third year, aims to drive up call centre standards by measuring customer service performance across five key areas: timeliness, ease of use, reliability, knowledgeable staff and personalisation. Over 18,500 mystery shopping enquiries were made to more than fifty call centres participating in the Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service Programme and each participant was awarded a Customer Service rating in percentage terms.

The top five featured a Public Services sector organisation for the first time, with the disability driving scheme organisation Motability Operations capturing second place. Dignity Caring Funeral Services improved on last year’s position, climbing two spots to achieve third position. Laithwaites, the largest direct seller of wine in the UK was the best performing retailer, in fourth position with a score of 91.32%, and Specsavers shot up the rankings to reach fifth place. LOVEFILM.COM topped the entertainment, travel & leisure sector and E.ON UK was the best performer in the utilities sector. 

Overall, the biggest year-on-year improvement was achieved by the Public Services sector, which rose from 80% to 86%, bringing it on a level with the Utilities and Retail & Distribution sectors. Financial Services remained the top performing sector with 87%.  The Entertainment, Leisure and Travel sector was the only sector that scored lower than its 2009 benchmark moving down 1% to 85% from 86%.

Simon Thorpe, Programme Director, Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service, commented:
“We are pleased to be dispelling more call centre myths with our latest benchmarking study, which proves that the UK’s leading call centres are committed to outstanding customer service. Over the last three years the study has also proved that investing in frontline employees and providing excellent customer service offers organisations the greatest opportunity to differentiate themselves from the competition.

“This year’s results demonstrated the steadily improving standards of the UK’s Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service with the overall average score improved by 2%, from 84% in 2009 to 86% in 2010. Our members have continued to raise the bar, reflected by a 7% rise in the level of performance needed just to make it into the Top 50. These year-on-year improvements also suggest that our existing Top 50 members are benefiting from their involvement with the Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service Programme, helping them to drive up customer service performance.

“Getting all the elements of excellent customer service in place has proven to be an invaluable asset to our members in a time when companies are realising that building lasting relationships is highly dependent on levels of service, and we hope their results inspire others to raise their standards of service.

“We hope that the results of the third year’s survey will inspire other call centres to achieve the standards of set by the Top 50 and as always we are grateful to Genesys, Jabra and Noble Systems for their support of the programme and their invaluable contributions to the industry.”

- Ends -

Notes to Editors

Media contacts
For more information please contact:
Alizia Walker or Claire Barber
Wildfire PR
T: 020 8339 4420
E: Top50@wildfirepr.co.uk

Research methodology
Each participating organisation received two hundred calls and one hundred emails from mystery shopping enquiries. The mystery shopping exercise is based on a comprehensive analysis of call centre service in five key areas derived from extensive focus group research with actual customers.  The report will be published in October 2010.
Calls were split across customer and non-customer assessor profiles and across simple and more complex enquiries.  Assessors were profiled as closely as possible to the organisation they were calling and used their real background and contact details to maximise their credibility.  Where appropriate to the scenario in question, they had policy numbers; customer reference numbers etc. to hand in case they were asked for these to resolve their enquiry.

Scenarios were constructed so as to be comparable across all organisations and sectors involved.  Examples are shown below:

Trained mystery shoppers were used for the calling and restrictions were placed on the number of calls made by individual assessors.  On the ‘customer’ scenarios and those where contact details may be requested, shoppers were limited to no more than 1 call per organisation. Calls were made between May and August 2010.

Organisations who took part in the Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service
Some of the organisations who took part in the Top 50 Call Centre initiative include: AVIVA, American Express, British Gas, Cambridgeshire County Council, Coca Cola Enterprises, DHL Express International, DPD, Dyson, EON UK, F&C Investments, General Medical Council, Holiday Extras, Hull City Council, ING Direct, Kent County Council, Laithwaites, LEGO, Liverpool Direct, LOVEFILMS.COM, London Underground, Motability Operations, M&S, Nationwide, NHS Direct, npower, PhotoBox, RAC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Royal Mail Door to Door, Screwfix, Specsavers Optical Superstores, Southern Water, The Co-operative Financial Services, Thomas Cook, United Utilities, Virgin Atlantic, Worcester Bosch Group, Wokingham Borough Council.

About Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service
The Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service initiative is a benchmarking programme, in partnership with GfK Mystery Shopping, one of the UK’s leading independent market research organisations. Its goal is to help call centres to measure themselves on what the general public thinks a good calling experience should be. It is based on over 18,500 mystery shopping enquiries.

The Institute of Work Psychology at Sheffield University and the Manchester Business School support the Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service programme by providing an independent analysis of the results.  

Now in its third successful year, The Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service is an exciting initiative designed to create one benchmark for customer service excellence and transform the public perception of the contact centre industry. For further information visit www.callcentre.co.uk/top50

About Genesys
Genesys software solutions from Alcatel-Lucent manage customer interactions over phone, Web and mobile devices. Genesys software suite handles customer conversations across multiple channels and resources; self-service, assisted-service and proactive outreach. Genesys software directs more than 100 million customer interactions every day for 4,000 companies and government agencies in 80 countries.  For more information, visit www.genesys.com

About Jabra
Through its Jabra brand, GN Netcom is a world leader in innovative headset solutions. With around 1,200 employees and sales offices around the world, GN Netcom develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of wireless headsets for mobile users and both wireless and corded headsets for contact centre and office-based users. GN Netcom’s business activities also include its original equipment manufacturing (OEM) business. GN Netcom is a subsidiary of GN Store Nord A/S.  For further information, visit www.jabra.com

About Noble Systems
Noble Systems is a global leader in contact centre technology, delivering the industry’s most comprehensive and affordable solutions to enhance the performance and management of your contact centres. Noble Systems provides solutions that allow companies to communicate more effectively with their customers via multiple channels, including inbound/outbound/blended voice, email, fax and web. For further information, visit www.noblesys.com