Call Centre Agent Empathy Important for Japanese
(Source: Contact News Asia by callcentres.net, 12 December, 2007)
Recent findings from the Avaya Contact Centre Consumer Index for Japan showed that one third of the 300 consumers surveyed agreed that they liked interacting with contact centres in Japan, one third disagreed with this statement and about 40% were neutral.
48% of consumers would prefer to use an internet channel than make a call to a contact centre; and the second channel preference Japanese consumers had for contacting a call centre was by email (following speaking to a live attendant). This result was the highest preference for email interaction in the region (the study also includes Australia, NZ, Korea, India, China and Singapore). The greatest gaps in contact centre service in Japan, as rated by consumers are:
- the level of empathy shown by the agent and
- the professionalism of the agent.
This notion of empathy by the customer service representative was a very strong driver and predictor of consumer satisfaction, relationship and loyalty and was significantly stronger in Japan than any other country studied. Dr Catriona Wallace stated, "One of the fascinating findings of this Avaya Index for Japan, not found in any of the other country studies, was the contact centre agent's empathy and its influence on the overall experience of the Japanese consumer. In Australia and NZ, the key driver of consumer experience is first call resolution, and in Korea it was being provided with correct information, and in Singapore it was the company having the consumer's best interests at heart. Nowhere else is the empathy of the agent more important than in Japan."
XMG: Asian Outsourcing Boom To Continue
(Source: Contact News Asia by callcentres.net, 28 November, 2007)
The global outsourcing market is expected to continue to grow over the next few years for both onshore and offshore providers, according to new research. The study, by research company XMG, focused mainly on the performance of the top Asian offshore countries India, China, Malaysia and the Philippines.
The study predicted the Indian market would be worth US$34.1 billion in total revenue by the end of the year and an 11.5% share of the global market. China is estimated to have a 4.4% share of the global market with 2007 total revenue figures to hit US$13.1 billion. The Philippine's revenue is worth almost US$4.1 billion for 1.4%. Malaysia's revenue forecast by year end is estimated at US$3.6 billion and 1.2% percent of the global market share.
Gartner: Business Discovers Social Software
(Source: Rust Report, 16 November 2007)
 Shrinking returns from business automation and the impact of Web 2.0 are conspiring to revolutionise the workplace and change the way we do business forever, according to Jeff Mann, research vice-president at Gartner.
Mann said that social interaction is the way most value is delivered in the modern work environment and predicted that by 2012, the primary role of business networks will be to support social interactions, not routine business transactions.
Demand for improved information-sharing along business functions is already driving solid growth for collaboration technologies, reflected in the growth of the enterprise social software market. Gartner estimated that the worldwide enterprise social software market revenue will reach $US226.9 million in 2007 and will increase to more than $US707.7 million by 2011, reaching a 41 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2006 to 2011. At present, e-mail is the most widely used tool for collaboration but its use is so prolific that, at times, it has the opposite effect as users can't recognise important messages from noise.
Mann said that other social software applications, such as wikis, discussion forums, and blogs have the advantage of providing user-friendly and flexible ways to aggregate, organise, share, and amplify the value of personal knowledge and experiences. Organisations need to open up to a wider collection of business and social networks, to allow a more collaborative and innovative workplace, Mann said.
(Click the image above to see a collage of the many consumer brands of social software)
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