Recession forcing companies to focus on more choices
and service to keep customers

Singapore, 24 September 2009 - Consumers that use contact centres can look forward to better service as organisations realise that great service is the way to keep them from taking their business elsewhere. That's according to new research published in Datacraft / Dimension Data Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report 2009, which reveals that businesses are focused on getting the most value from the customers they already have.

Although customer satisfaction is up overall this year, customers are still frustrated when it comes to dealing with contact centres. Despite this frustration, calls into contact centres continue to increase. However, more consumers than ever before prefer to use the Internet and web chat when interacting with companies.

These are some of the highlights in the 2009 Report released today by Datacraft / Dimension Data. The report, which surveyed over 550 contact centres in 36 countries across five continents, reveals that more contact centres are focused on looking after their customers to increase their value to the business.

Nagi Kasinadhuni, Datacraft Asia's general manager for Converged Communications and Customer Interactive Solutions says in tough economic times, organisations are realising that customers will vote with their feet if service in contact centres doesn't improve. He adds, The good news is that contact centres in Asia outperform their counterparts in most key performance metrics like first-call resolution rates.

This year, there is a huge increase in the number of businesses that are finding ways to get more value from existing customers. Rising from fifth to third place this year, around 20% of respondents named Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) management as the number one trend affecting their contact centre. It's widely accepted that it is seven to eight times more costly to win a new customer than retain an existing one. For this reason, companies are waking up and focusing their energies and resources on delivering better service to the customers they already have.

According to Kasinadhuni, businesses are simplifying internal processes and offering self service options to customers to improve overall service levels - still the top two most important areas of focus for companies this year.

There are clear signs that companies are looking at new ways to place the customer at the centre of their business. This year we also see more businesses - a rise of 10% to almost 70% - focusing on how to streamline processes for their customers' convenience.

Changes in customer behaviour are also prompting organisations to focus on the many ways people want to talk to them. A high 52% of consumers aged between 16 and 34 are using the Internet as their first port of call*. Despite this, we see more calls into contact centres and this means customers are expecting a wider choice when it comes to the way they interact with companies.

As younger consumers change the way they interact with businesses, and in light of the global rise in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, companies will have to find ways to offer these customers more communication choices, or face losing them.

The good news for consumers is that they should expect to see a greater degree of consistency and continuity across the board. While offering customers more choices, companies must understand that this means ensuring the service remains the same, regardless of what channels customers use to talk to them.

Through better quality service and more choices, businesses will keep their customers satisfied, Kasinadhuni concludes.

*Published in Datacraft / Dimension Data's Alignment Index for Speech Self-Service Report 2009.

###About Datacraft / Dimension Data's Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report
First published in the UK in 1997 by Merchants, Dimension Data's specialist contact centre outsourcing and operations division, this year's edition is the 11th in a series of the industry-renowned benchmarking reports. This year's Report has the highest level of participation over 11 years, contains balanced global and industry representation from 554 contact centres located across 36 countries and five continents, and is an invaluable reference for all contact centre professionals. It provides managers with a set of best practice standards and benchmarks, including staffing and training, performance metrics, technology usage, budgets and development plans. The Report is researched and published by Dimension Data and Datacraft, and this year sees the delivery of a world-first benchmarking portal for use by participants and partners. For more information about the Report, please go to www.datacraft-asia.com/ccbenchmarking.

About Datacraft
Datacraft is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dimension Data plc (LSE:DDT), a US$4.5 billion leading global IT solutions and services provider. Datacraft operates in over 50 offices across 13 Asia Pacific countries. We help clients plan, build, support, manage, improve and innovate their IT infrastructures. Datacraft combines an expertise in networking, security, data centre, storage, Microsoft solutions and converged communications & contact centre technologies, with advanced skills in consulting, integration, training and managed services to craft IT solutions for businesses. For more information, please visit www.datacraft-asia.com.