Top 50 Awards_Glittering Gala_Grosvenor Hotel
A glittering gala dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London was the setting for the unveiling of this year’s top performing centres in the Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service programme.
Programme director Simon Thorpe ordered everyone to their feet and to make “so much noise the Hilton next door will wonder what is happening” in celebration of the achievements of the entire Top 50, as it was revealed that the average overall score (88.5%) was the highest yet in the initiative’s four year history.
Attaining a top ten spot was tougher than ever, with a three per cent increase in the score needed to reach the highest positions.
The hotly anticipated top ten, along with their performance scores were:
Guinness Northern Counties 95.205%
Auto Windscreens 95.025%
Denplan 94.280%
First Rate Exchange Services 94.125%
Dignity Caring Funeral Services 93.620%
Asda Stores 93.105%
Britvic 92.840%
Coca-Cola Enterprises 92.760%
Worcester Bosch Group 92.635%
RBS 92.525%
Guiness Northern Counties in Number 1 slot for top performing call centres at the Top 50 Awards
It was a particularly good excellent result for Auto Windscreens, who only joined the programme in 2011.
The benchmarking exercise also showed 97 per cent of customers got through to the call centre on their first attempt. An impressive 96 per cent of callers felt that their enquiry was completely resolved. And the number of calls put on hold fell by a half from 2009 to just eight per cent this year and only three per cent of calls were transferred in 2011. Furthermore, 72 per cent of callers to the Top 10 said that the call enhanced their perception of the brand.
Service over email saw a huge boost, with much higher scores than the first year of testing in 2010.
The top ten email performers, along with their overall scores were:
Wokingham Borough Council 95.510%
Coca-Cola Enterprises 94.410%
First Rate Exchange Services 94.380%
DPD 93.050%
Denplan 92.960%
F&C Investments 92.950%
Royal Mail 92.650%
Guinness Northern Counties 92.590%
Charles Tyrwhitt 92.390%
Worecester Bosch Group 92.090%
Wokingham Borough Council in Number 1 slot for the best email award at the Top 50 Awards
The best newcomer in terms of emails was Charles Tyrwhitt, which has rejoined the Top 50 after a year away.
One of the aims of the Top 50 initiative is to drive improved customer service in the UK, and the quality of the reports and business insight given to the members was proven, with some impressive improvements on last year.
The most improved in terms of calls were: Asda stores, which saw an 11.6 per cent increase in its score compared to last year; ITV, which improved by 9.8 per cent; and Coca Cola, which managed a 9.3 per cent better score.
Asda saw the highest score in terms of the most improved calls at the Top 50 Awards
In terms of email, the most improved was CPP, with a massive leap of 33 per cent, DPD were not far behind with a 26 per cent increase and Aviva achieved a 23 per cent improvement.
The best performers by sector were also announced on the night:
Public Sector Guinness Northern Housing
Retail Asda Stores
Travel ServicesFirst Rate
Service Providers Auto Windscreens
Insurance/Financial Services Denplan
Banking/Credit Card Royal Bank of Scotland
E-Retailers Charles Tyrwhitt
Telecoms/Media ITV
Utilities nPower
RBS also took best large call centre (more than 500 seats), Asda was the best performing medium sized centre and Guinness Northern Housing stole top spot for small centres (fewer than 99 seats).
The dinner was hosted by TV presenter Gaby Logan, and attendees were treated to Britain’s Got Talent star Edward Reid’s alternative take on nursery rhymes.
Edward Reid provided entertainment at the Top 50 Awards
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