The level of certification in any given call center could offer insight into the level of training its management has received. One company, BenchmarkPortal (News - Alert), is dedicated to providing call center organizations with the necessary tools to drive innovation and excellence. As captured in this BenchmarkPortal report, true call center certification excellence comes from comparing the call center against proven leaders in the field.
To help the call center to achieve call center certification, BenchmarkPortal offers its own expertise, combined with the academic staff at the Center for Customer-Driven Quality founded at Purdue University (News - Alert). Researchers from both groups have been collecting performance data on call centers since 1995.
While there are a number of different things that should be measured in the call center, 22 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have been identified as strongly correlating to the quality and quantity of calls handled. It is quite common for senior corporate, marketing and call center executives to inquire as to how their company would compare when placed against best practices of other industry leaders and competitors.
More specifically, these managers are interested in
call center certification to the extent of how they compare against companies with world class reputations in customer service. BenchmarkPortal prides itself on offering certification courses that provide practical, actionable tools call centers can use to drive continuous improvements. One star in its cap for BenchmarkPortal is the fact that the company was awarded a U.S. patent for its unique methodology for benchmarking call centers.
The company uses this methodology to prepare the call center peer group report on those centers that have completed
call center certification. Within this report, the company offers tables of key classification characteristics; a performance matrix that compares a company to its industry and its peer group; a table of KPIs that indicate the effectiveness of the call center; another table to indicate the efficiency of the call center; and a glossary of terms and definitions.
Managers interested in
call center certification for their centers and their call center supervisors rely on Call Center Benchmark Reports from BenchmarkPortal to establish an objective baseline of current performance compared against industry peers; to identify strengths to be developed and weaknesses that need to be addressed; to create roadmaps for improvement; and lean toward certification as a Call Center of Excellence under the program administered by the Center for Customer-Driven Quality and BenchmarkPortal.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Juliana Kenny