With no benchmark reports readily available for phone-based roles across New Zealand, we partnered with the Contact Centre Institute of New Zealand to produce our whitepaper in 2017. Delivering on our promise to fulfil this need, we have updated our findings this year to reflect the trends, size and scope of New Zealand’s phone-based industries and serve as a benchmark for global comparison for senior leaders of Contact Centres. Which brings us to the key findings around technology, attrition and tenure, and in 2018.

Attrition and Tenure

Encouragingly, only 2% of respondents reported employees leaving within their first month and 80% stated employees who had joined the organisation within the last twelve months were still with the organisation. However, the Collections and Outsourcing sectors were the two industries with the highest level of attrition, with Travel and Tourism following behind. Surprisingly, smaller Contact Centres tended to have lower attrition rates than larger ones.

Long tenures of more than two to three years were mostly concentrated amongst Team Leaders, Contact Centre Managers and Workforce Professionals. Similarly, a higher proportion of employees staying for six or more years were also in these roles. When breaking down respondents into full-time versus part-time agents, we noticed that part-time agents saw a significantly higher response in the 6-12 month bracket at 19% compared to full time employees at just 10%.

When asked to rank reasons for leaving, results indicated that personal reasons such as travel, or education were the most common, with internal moves outside of the Contact Centre a close second. Other key reasons for leaving included resigning while being performance managed, seeking a higher salary, and dismissal/retrenching.

Technology

This year saw greater uptake of technology by Contact Centres compared to 2017. 60% of Contact Centres state that they utilise Facebook as a channel, one and a half times more than the 39% of Contact Centres who reported using social media in general in 2017.

An interesting trend was that despite chatbots being the least commonly used service channel, 33% of Contact Centres surveyed stated that this was a channel they would like to invest in. There is a hard split here – 42% of Contact Centres state they do not want or need chatbots, while 50% would like them or would invest in them in the next five years.

We see a similar split with regards to video chat. Although video chat is currently regarded as not needed or desired, it was one of the most commonly cited channels for further investment. The clear division here could indicate that video chat capabilities at present simply do not offer adequate functionality for customer service, but there is potential to be unlocked.

In both cases, a company’s stage in the technology adoption cycle could have substantial impact, with companies further along viewing technology like video chat as more viable than companies still struggling with the basics. Those at that stage may consider transitioning to video chat quite a leap.

Importantly, the use of technology has fairly little impact on whether service level targets are met, which is to be expected given that targets evolve to reflect new performance standards. Therefore, with the advent of new technology, standards would be adjusted accordingly.

In Closing

Contact Centres all tend to face similar challenges when it comes to implementing strategic investments. Integration with existing systems along with budget management and change management are top priorities. The same can be said for hiring people, in a sense; you need people who align with your vision and values, and become productive quickly, without blowing your staffing budget.

As technology takes more of a hold over every aspect of business, it’s inevitable that Contact Centres will have to embrace technology, and keep hold of the people with the skills technology can’t replace. If you’re looking for more insights into New Zealand Contact Centre industry, feel free to get in contact today to secure a copy of our whitepaper.