ProtoCall One survey reveals most contact centres are unsure about moving forward with social media

Sept. 16, 2010 - PRLog -- 60% of contact centre managers are not sure how to manage social media in their contact centre and need to understand more about how it pays for itself, according to a new survey from leading contact centre integrator and consultancy ProtoCall One.  

The survey found that less than one in seven (13%) of contact centres are starting to build social media channels into their multi-channel communications strategies, with over a quarter (27%) of survey respondents having no plans at all.  

This finding is in sharp contrast to the recent rise in the use of social media. According to Nielsen consumer research, 29 million UK adults now use social sites such as Facebook and Twitter, with one third of these posting at least once a week.

Paul Weald, strategy director, ProtoCall One comments: “The survey bears out what our clients are saying to us about social media. They know it is coming, but are yet to firm up their plans for including these emerging channels into their contact strategy.”

The Protocall One survey also examined prospects for recruitment over the next six months.  53% of contact centre managers stated their centre was currently not recruiting, with 7% recruiting only to support specific initiatives, but 40% are recruiting at levels higher than in 2009.  

With regard to the impact of the current economic climate, the survey found that contact centre managers are now beginning to invest in new technology for their contact centres, although a budget freeze on technology investment still remains in place for 40% of respondents.  Encouragingly 33% of respondents are now looking to invest in new technology to support multi-channel communications, and 40% are looking to improve their existing IT and telephony infrastructure.

In order for contact centre leaders to overcome this lack of awareness in the role of social media, ProtoCall One are running a free interactive peer-to-peer learning and networking workshop at this month’s Call Centre and Customer Management Expo 2010 on Wednesday 22nd September.  Titled ‘The impact of Social Media on the contact centre – opportunity or risk?’ ProtoCall One directors Paul Weald and Mike Havard are leading a session involving 100 participants.

Weald added: “Social media is new and fast-growing and this early stage is the ideal opportunity for forward thinking contact centre leaders to gain first mover advantage over their competitors.  For example, we know that of the 57 FTSE 100 companies signed up with Twitter, 72% of these have not yet used their account to respond to customer enquiries or comments made about their company.  It is the modern day equivalent of building a call centre and then not installing phones in it.”

Notes to Editors:
Survey was conducted by ProtoCall One at its recent Customer Experience Day held in London, with an audience consisting of senior decision makers across the contact centre industry.

About ProtoCall One:
ProtoCall One is a leading contact centre consultancy and systems integrator specialising in multi-channel communications, workforce optimisation and decision management and analytics.  ProtoCall One is the UK’s leading Genesys contact centre software integration player with more than forty major Genesys implementations.  The company assists contact centre operators from all business sectors to improve how they connect with their customers across multiple contact channels, increase customer loyalty and revenue, reduce operating costs and improve employee satisfaction.  ProtoCall One delivers its solutions via strategic partnerships with Genesys, QlikTech, Alcatel-Lucent, OpenWave and Empirix.  The company supports global customers from its offices in Buckinghamshire, UK and Sydney, Australia. For more information please go to www.pc-1.co.uk.

ProtoCall One sales enquiries:
Jason Sparks, Commercial Director, ProtoCall One
Tel: +44 (0)7966 076585.   Email: jsparks@pc-1.co.uk

ProtoCall One marketing enquiries:
Rob Sherwin, Head of Marketing, ProtoCall One
Tel: +44 (0) 07765 231023.   Email: rsherwin@pc-1.co.uk

ProtoCall One media enquiries:
Miles Clayton or Simon Bennett, Agility PR Limited
Tel: +44 (0) 1992 587439.  Email: miles@agilitypr.co.uk

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About ProtoCall One
ProtoCall One is a leading contact centre consultancy and systems integrator specialising in multi-channel communications, workforce optimisation and decision management. ProtoCall One is the UK’s leading Genesys contact centre software integrator.