Top Contact Center Investment Initiatives Revealed in Groundbreaking Benchmark Research by Ventana Research

CAMARILLO, Calif. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- VPI (Voice Print International, http://www.VPI-corp.com), the premier global provider of interaction recording and analytics, contact center quality management, and workforce optimization solutions, today announced the availability of the findings from the 2009 Agent Performance Management (APM) benchmark research on contact centers. Conducted by leading research firm Ventana Research and sponsored by VPI, this study is the first quantitative research to assess the maturity and direction of the emerging discipline for managing contact center agents and the extended workforce responsible for handling a business's customer interactions. Backed by extensive feedback from 365 contact centers, the research offers significant insights into how companies are improving performance by focusing on their contact center agents, who largely shape the customer experience. The findings include analyses of processes deployed and technologies used to make the agent workforce more effective, as well as the information and metrics used to monitor and assess agent performance.

"Companies interact with customers many thousands of times a day, in many forms including a large number of calls to contact centers,” said Richard Snow, vice president and research director at Ventana Research who led the research and heads the company's Customer and Contact Center Performance Management research practice. “In today's economic environment it is important that agents handle each of these calls in a way that leaves the customer feeling he or she has had a good experience, as well as producing a beneficial business outcome. But this research shows that too many organizations are striving after cost efficiencies rather than ensuring agents deliver an effective experience that will enhance customer satisfaction."

Patrick Botz, corporate vice president of marketing at VPI, stated that VPI was deeply gratified to partner with Ventana Research to launch the innovative benchmarking research on contact center agent performance management. “The results of this research demonstrate that, in order to survive the current economic downturn and prepare for the imminent upswing, today’s forward-thinking companies are positioning themselves for rapid improvements in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency by planning investments in more intelligent, automated interaction recording and contact center workforce optimization software tools.”

Key recommendations include:

• Improve customer interaction-handling by thinking more strategically. Focus on automating the agent quality monitoring process, using analytics tools to improve the agent assessment process, and utilizing more outcome-focused key performance metrics.
• Make better use of available technology and applications. Follow the example of innovative companies and deploy unified communications, smarter call routing to best-skilled and highest-performing agents, call audio and desktop screen recording and analytics, agent coaching, and the latest contact center-specific performance management tools.
• Reassess key performance metrics. Explore supplementing basic measures such as number of calls handled, average length of calls and percent of calls placed on hold with more outcome- and business-related measures.

For a free copy of the summary of the research findings and recommendations for improvement, visit http://www.VPI-corp.com/Benchmark.

About the Research Methodology

A total of 365 responses are included in the formal benchmark results conducted in 2009 and had representation from across the world. Respondents represent a varied sampling of contact center sizes and industries including Service Providers, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Telecommunications and Government. The research commenced in the first half of 2009.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the leading benchmark research and advisory services firm. We provide expert guidance to help organizations manage and optimize performance - to become not only more efficient but more effective. Our unparalleled insights and best practices guidance are based on our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions worldwide. The combination we offer of benchmark research, rigorous market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver business and technology education and expertise to our clients where and when needed. Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst coverage in the industry; more than 2.5 million business and IT professionals through our community of 85,000 professionals and network of media and association partners around the world benefit from Ventana Research's insights. Ventana Research focuses on business and technology trends and best practices that maximize organizations' potential to perform while reducing the time, cost and risk and still achieve optimal outcomes. To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations use of information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory services, visit http://www.VentanaResearch.com. To learn more about the Agent Performance Management benchmark research, visit http://www.VentanaResearch.com/APM.

About VPI

VPI (Voice Print International, Inc.) is the premier provider of integrated interaction recording, analytics and workforce optimization solutions for enterprises, contact centers, trading floors, government agencies, and first responders. For more than a decade, VPI has been providing proven technology and superior service to more than 1,200 customers in 50 countries. VPI’s award-winning VPI EMPOWER software is an essential component for any organization that strives to enhance the customer experience, increase workforce performance, improve business efficiency and manage compliance. With VPI EMPOWER, organizations of all sizes now have the ability to uncover the root cause of important trends and issues via drill-down reports, rapidly retrieve and share recorded interactions, and easily evaluate employee performance with call quality evaluation tools from anywhere – all from a personalized Web-based portal interface. In addition, the secure solution leverages advanced file and data encryption, is built around the principles of open architecture, and is platform independent to integrate seamlessly into any existing and evolving infrastructure, resulting in compound reduction of costs and a significant and rapid Return on Investment. For more information, visit http://www.VPI-corp.com. To follow VPI via Twitter, visit http://Twitter.com/VPINews