Contact center managers know how useful benchmarking can be as part of an overall best practices program. Managers identify competitive weak spots through the metrics and then take targeted actions to improve their performance.
The major issue that has prevented benchmarking from being an ongoing management tool is the major effort it takes to assemble and input the metrics, most of which come from the ACD, IVR or WFM systems. As a result, most centers benchmark only once per year and do not have continuous tracking of improvement initiatives, which reduces the benefit they could be getting.
After studying this issue, BenchmarkPortal invented iBenchmark. This automated benchmarking product puts technology and advanced processes to work for people who manage contact centers without the hassle of finding and inputting the metrics manually. The BenchmarkPortal (News - Alert) team is now recruiting beta customers for iBenchmark. Those who are accepted into the beta program will be given special pricing terms for iBenchmark through 2014.
Hosted and managed by BenchmarkPortal, iBenchmark is a powerful tool which brings together a number of best practices and works as follows:
- Users are provided with technology that allows their ACD to send metrics to BenchmarkPortal automatically and securely on a monthly basis. The software has been designed to be extremely easy to install.
- The users will receive a series of useful monthly reports automatically
- Users will also have monthly interpretive consulting assistance from a BenchmarkPortal expert, designed to help managers optimize the learning and decision benefits of the iBenchmark reports.
BenchmarkPortal expects that iBenchmark will provide exceptional value to managers and their centers. iBenchmark reports can also be used in presentations to senior management and will show the progress the center is making and the value it is adding.
The price of iBenchmark depends on the size of the center and ranges from only $500 to $4,000 per month. Beta customers will be given substantial discounts through 2012. For more information visit BenchmarkPortal: here.
Bruce Belfiore is Senior Research Executive at the Center for Customer-Driven Quality (founded at Purdue University (News - Alert)) and is CEO of BenchmarkPortal. Bruce hosts the bi-weekly on-line radio show "CallTalk", which discusses hot-button issues with industry experts and interacts with a large audience of call center managers. He is a frequent speaker at industry events in the United States and abroad.
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