Birch Communications Contact Center Achieves Certification as a Center of Excellence

The Birch Customer Service Department has been certified as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal, a leading contact center research and consulting organization. “Only the top 10 percent of those benchmarked annually achieve this distinction,” said BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “Achieving Center of Excellence certification is an acknowledgement of strong management and leadership in the call center industry.”    

To achieve certification as a Center of Excellence, a company must undergo a rigorous benchmarking process, which compares the organization’soperationalmetrics to those of its peers, using the world's largest database of contact center metrics. During this process, BenchmarkPortal experts audit and verify key data from the contact center applying for certification.

Factors (called key performance indicators) such asfirst call resolution, cost per call, call waiting time, customer satisfaction, agent satisfaction and utilization of human resources are taken into account. BenchmarkPortal is able to scientifically gauge how the contact center being studied compares to other centers in the same industry, and if the performance of the contact center is superior. Customer satisfaction, which relates to customer loyalty and business growth, is the goal, balanced by financial metrics which show that the center is being operated efficiently.

“Center of Excellence certification indicates that the contact center delivers superior customer service within a responsible cost structure,” said Belfiore. "A great contact center operation reflects its management's passion for balancing the demands of high quality and low costs. Birch Communications has shown its ability to achieve that balance through its objective performance metrics. We have validated its metrics and have certified that Birch is, indeed, among the best in its industry. I congratulate Birch on a job well done.”

“Benchmarking delivers a crackerjack profile of a contact center’s operations that can inspire management to move forward aggressively, even in a less-than-robust economy,” added Belfiore, who has been with the company since 2000.

Proctor Financial, Inc. Call Center Achieves Its Second Certification as a Center of Excellence

The Proctor Financial, Inc. customer contact center has been certified as a Center of Excellence by BenchmarkPortal, a leading contact center research and consulting organization. “Only the top 10 percent of those benchmarked annually achieve this distinction,” said BenchmarkPortal CEO Bruce Belfiore. “Achieving Center of Excellence certification is an acknowledgement of strong management and leadership in the call center industry.”

To achieve certification as a Center of Excellence, a company must undergo a rigorous benchmarking process, which compares the organization’s operational metrics to those of its peers, using the world's largest database of contact center metrics. During this process, BenchmarkPortal experts audit and verify key data from the contact center applying for certification.

Factors (called key performance indicators) such as first call resolution, cost per call, call waiting time, customer satisfaction, agent satisfaction and utilization of human resources are taken into account. BenchmarkPortal is able to scientifically gauge how the contact center being studied compares to other centers in the same industry, and if the performance of the contact center is superior. Customer satisfaction, which relates to customer loyalty and business growth, is the goal, balanced by financial metrics which show that the center is being operated efficiently.

“Center of Excellence certification indicates that the contact center delivers superior customer service within a responsible cost structure,” said Belfiore. "A great contact center operation reflects its management's passion for balancing the demands of high quality and low costs. Proctor Financial, Inc. has shown its ability to achieve that balance through its objective performance metrics. We have validated its metrics and have certified that Proctor Financial, Inc. is, indeed, among the best in its industry. I congratulate Proctor Financial, Inc. on a job well done.”

“Benchmarking delivers a crackerjack profile of a contact center’s operations that can inspire management to move forward aggressively, even in a less-than-robust economy,” added Belfiore, who has been with the company since 2000.

New Show on CallTalk Discussing Transitioning Customer Service Teams For Success With Generation Y

BenchmarkPortal will air a new online radio show on CallTalk, discussing transitioning customer service teams for success with Generation Y. Your company can have a more engaged workforce, decrease your attrition, increased customer satisfaction and experience some profound financial impacts to the organization by placing a much stronger focus on redefining what development and growth means for Generation Y. Kevin will discuss four critical pillars to consider to keep their attention and engagement.

The host for this show is Bruce Belfiore, CEO at BenchmarkPortal. Bruce hosts the monthly online radio show "CallTalk", which discusses hot-button issues with industry experts and interacts with a large audience of call center managers. Bruce is also Chancellor of the College of Call Center Excellence, which provides certificated courses to call center professionals. He has also taught the course "Call Center Management" at Purdue University. He is the author of the book Benchmarking At Its Best for Contact Centers, a manual for best practices benchmarking, and has written numerous research papers and best practices studies focused on contact center topics. He is a consultant to call centers in a wide variety of industries seeking to improve their results, and is noted for helping to calculate the financial impact of proposed changes.

The guest speaker is Kevin Childs, Senior Partner with OneSource Consulting. Mr. Childs co-authored the book Interpreting the Voice of the Customer, with Dr. Jon Anton, of Purdue University. With career experience built on human capital/staffing and on-demand/Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and workforce optimization industries, he has held numerous executive leadership positions that have influenced the Contact Center, Customer Service and Help Desk Industry.

The free online radio show will air Wednesday, October 17th, 2012, at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. Click here to listen to CallTalk, (http://www.benchmarkportal.com/call-center-newsresources/calltalk-online-radio-show.)