This was just one of the many statistics provided to call centre operatives by Tim Bishop, Head of Strategy for programme and awards sponsor Siemens at last nights gala dinner and awards ceremony for the ‘Top 50 Call Centres‘. The evening celebrated customer service excellence and the atmosphere from the outset was palpable. The screen behind the stage rotated the logos of the top 50 companies, and there was a cheer from each group every time their logo appeared. The auditory Mexican wave was something to behold and went on throughout the dinner until the awards ceremony proper began. After an hour or so of continued, and increasingly enthusiastic cheering, I began to realise how little positive recognition the call centre operatives receive and also how competitive they are.
Top 50 presenter Eamonn Holmes
Eamonn Holmes hosted the evening and presented the awards and was an excellent speaker. He particularly enjoyed congratulating the team of nine very attractive ladies and one ‘fella’ from Holiday Extras who won the best overall in the Entertainment, Leisure and Travel category. He even took the trouble to visit their table after the awards had ended and congratulate them personally. What a martyr!
The awards are the brain child of Claudia Hathway, Editor of CCF magazine who opened the event with a rousing speech about how call centre operatives were unrecognised for the good work they do. She set a challenge for all companies to achieve an average of 95% satisfaction next year, which looks like a tough target if you ignore how competitive these people are. The data was pulled together by mystery shopping partner GFK NOP who carried out the biggest ever survey of its kind gathering real customer experience data based on real consumer feedback. And the competition was very close with only 1 1/2% separating the top 5 call centres.
So finally, here are the winners:
- 1st was First Direct, who were also 1st in the Financial Services category. They achieved an overall satisfaction score of 91.73%.
- Denplan were narrowly beaten into second place with 91.32%
- 3rd was F&C Investments with 91.26%
- 4th overall was Lloyds TSB Insurance with 91.02%
- 5th and also best in the retail category was Laithwaites with 90.36%
- 6th Prudential with 89.33%
- 7th with 89.29% Charles Tyrwhitt
- 8th ING Direct with 87.89%
- 9th was Specsavers with 87.57%
- 10th and also winners in the public sector category were Cambridgeshire County Council with a customer service rating of 87.13%
- Holiday Extras won the best in Entertainment/Leisure and Travel category with a rating of 85%
Given our recent study in to the travel sector the low overall score and lowest category score is of no surprise and clearly, for all the celebrating last night, this sector has a lot to do.
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