A POINT OF VIEW PAPER

2007 Customer
Care Satisfaction
Benchmarking report
Benchmarking Satisfaction
for Better Performance
Benchmarking is an essential part of
Benchmarking is critical becoming and remaining a world-class
contact center. It is a tool that contact
to helping organizations center managers can use to become among
the “best of the best.” Assessing one’s
deliver a superior competitive performance is a necessary
step on the path from satisfaction
customer experience. measurement to truly improving the
customer experience. Seeing beyond a
contact center’s day-to-day operational
metrics to key impacts on customer
relationships allows organizations to tailor
service programs that build customer
loyalty and drive growth.
2 • 2007 Customer Care Satisfaction Benchmarking report
Our goal at Convergys is to compile the
landmark data resource on contact center
customer satisfaction and to provide a
benchmark of customer expectations
across care types and verticals. To that
end, our Satisfaction Benchmarking
Database—launched in 2002—warehouses
individual contact centers’ customer
satisfaction data and enables accurate
comparisons of caller satisfaction both
within and across industries.
This benchmarking database includes
essential customer feedback on overall
satisfaction as well as three established
satisfaction drivers:
1. Satisfaction with the agent
2. Total issue resolution
3. First call resolution
 Benchmarking Defined
At Convergys, we believe a successful benchmarking program includes
four key components:
1. Internal benchmarking: This is the process of comparing your performance to other competitive centers within your
organization. Results can be used for compensation as well as performance management.

2. Competitive benchmarking: Designing and implementing a satisfaction measurement program assessing your competitors’
performance within your customer base helps understand and react to competitive pressures. This provides an assessment of
your strengths and weaknesses and alerts you to encroaching threats.

3. Vertical benchmarking: Assessing satisfaction within your vertical helps you understand overall market positioning as well as
potential opportunities among new customers.

4. Service quality benchmarking: As a core component of the customer experience, customer contacts represent the single most
frequently occurring customer experience with your organization. Given its mission-critical status, understanding how your
contact experience stacks up is indispensable in creating loyal customers.

When launching our satisfaction
benchmarking database, we created
a rigorous set of standards for data
inclusion. We now have warehoused more
than two million surveys that meet these
standards, spanning 15 industries and
myriad types of customer support.
Benchmark Study of Satisfaction
with Customer Care
Now in the second year of industry
reporting, we created the following 2007
Customer Care Satisfaction Benchmarking
report to give contact center managers
a snapshot of how well the industry is
satisfying customers.
Responses summarized here include more
than 1,000,000 surveys from customers
who had a contact center experience.
In addition to containing a performance
analysis for the industry at large, we also
provide comparisons of contact centers by
vertical: *
• Cable TV / Satellite TV
• Communications
• Financial Services
• Healthcare / Insurance
• Retail
• Shipping
• Technology
* Industry and support breakouts are not shown in this
report unless at least three companies are represented.

2007 Customer Care Satisfaction Benchmarking report • 3

Study Findings
Two Overall Metrics Showed Slight Increases in 2007. Over the last four years, overall experience ratings across the contact center industry
remained steady, ranging between 80% and 82%. Agent scores nudged up slightly in the past year, from 85% to 86%, marking three consecutive
years of gradual increases. Issue resolution dropped one point to 79%. First call resolution showed the greatest gain (three points), up to 58%;
this reflects a two-year improvement.

Performance Trends across the contact center industry

% 4 & 5 Combined (5-point scale)

Overall Experience 100

and Overall Agent
scores represent 90
“top-two scoring” on 80
a 5-point scale. Total 70
issue Resolution scores 2004
60
represent “yes” on 2005
50
whether the caller’s 2006
issue was resolved. First 40
2007
Call Resolution scores 30
represent “yes” to issue 20
resolution combined
with “1” for the
10
number of calls to 0
resolve the issue Overall Overall Total Issue First Call
Experience Agent Resolution Resolution

Scores for Customer Care Revealed Similar Trends. Looking specifically at customer care contacts, scores for overall experience remained
steady at 81%. Overall agent ratings notched up another point from last year to 86%. Total issue resolution remained unchanged at 80%.
First call resolution improved several points, with 60% of customers reporting their issue was resolved on the first contact

Performance Trends for customer care contact

% 4 & 5 Combined (5-point scale)

Overall Experience
and Overall Agent 100
scores represent 90
“top-two scoring” on 80
a 5-point scale. Total
70
issue Resolution scores 2004
represent “yes” on 60
2005
whether the caller’s 50
issue was resolved. First 2006
40
Call Resolution scores 2007
represent “yes” to issue
30
resolution combined 20
with “1” for the 10
number of calls to 0
resolve the issue
Overall Overall Total Issue First Call
Experience Agent Resolution Resolution

4 • 2007 Customer Care Satisfaction Benchmarking report

Insurance / Financial Services and Healthcare Perform Highest Overall. Across all industries reported here, healthcare /
insurance and financial services led in satisfying customers; more than 82% of respondents provided a top-two rating in these industries.
Technology (79%) and shipping (78%) were close behind. At the other end of the scale, cable and communications had the lowest overall
scores (66% and 62%, respectively).

Overall Contact Experience By Vertical

Technology
Shipping

Retail
Health/Insur
Finance
Communications
Cable/Satellite

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% 4 & 5 Combined (5-point scale)

Similar Results Were Revealed for Agent Performance Scores. Vertical-level results for agent performance scores showed a
similar pattern to overall scores. Healthcare / insurance and financial services organizations (92% and 87%, respectively) were the clear
leaders. Additionally, shipping and technology scored well, with agent ratings over 80% for each. At the low end was retail (71%) followed
by communications (64%).

Agent Performance By Vertical

Technology

Shipping

Retail
Health/Insur

Finance

Communications

Cable/Satellite

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% 4 & 5 Combined (5-point scale)

2007 Customer Care Satisfaction Benchmarking report • 5

Healthcare, Finance and Shipping Lead in Issue Resolution. Customer perceptions that their issues were resolved during the contact
experience were 65% or higher across all verticals, with resolution rates at 79% or higher in three verticals: Healthcare / insurance, finance
and shipping. The strength of these scores highlights an increasing industry focus on issue resolution as a cost-reduction lever as well as a key
customer satisfier. Again, at the low end of the scale were communications and retail; each scored just 65% on overall resolution rates.

Total Issue Resolution By Vertical

Technology

Shipping

Retail
Health/Insur

Finance

Communications

Cable/Satellite

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% Resolved

Across Industries, First Call Resolution Rates Need Improvement. First call resolution rates were less than 60% in all industries except
healthcare / insurance (64%). In verticals where resolving a call the first time can be more difficult, e.g. technology, FCR scores were very
low (43%). Communications showed the lowest performance by far at just 32% first call resolution. Collectively, these results show an area
ripe for organizational focus.

First Call Resolution By Vertical

Technology

Shipping

Retail
Health/Insur

Finance

Communications

Cable/Satellite

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% Resolved

6 • 2007 Customer Care Satisfaction Benchmarking report

Conclusions
Over the past four years, customer
satisfaction with contact center experiences
show slight movement upward followed by
a period of stabilization. In the same time
period, however, there was a heavy industry
and organizational focus on improving the
customer experience. Why don’t we see that
focus reflected in increased scores?
There are two possible reasons. One,
customer satisfaction with transactions
may be plateauing for organizations with a
matured customer service focus meaning
that the impact of internal efforts to focus
on satisfaction performance have maximized
the resulting score changes. Second,
customer expectations are higher than ever
and are possibly increasing at the same rate
as organizational improvements. Together,
these could lead to relative stability in scores
across many customer contact settings.
Interestingly, we did see an impressive About the Author
lift in first call resolution scores for 2007.
While this increase may only help maintain John Georgesen, Ph.D., is Senior Director,
satisfaction scores overall, it has the Analytics and Decision Sciences at Convergys
additional impact of creating cost savings Corporation. Through its Global Consulting
through reduced repeat call volume. So while Services, Convergys integrates marketing
the satisfaction needle itself grows harder research and database modeling techniques
to swing, contact centers still can effect to develop distinct, market-based strategies
meaningful changes in other metrics that will at each stage of the customer lifecycle. We
both keep satisfaction high and also drive have built an in-house team of research
the bottom line. and database professionals, including
Ph.D.-accredited Decision Scientists and Six
One option to consider when facing the Sigma Black Belts. Our focus is on driving
challenge of improving satisfaction an improved customer experience across all
scores is implementation of a Customer touchpoints offered by an organization.
Experience Scorecard. More and more
companies use a scorecard approach to
measure key metrics significant to gauging
the health of the company and indicating
areas that need improvement. Prioritization
of these metrics is greatly impacted by
both industry and customer demographics;
for example, what is important in a retail
experience is not the same as a healthcare
experience. Also, what is important by age
will vary between “Baby-Boomers”, “Seniors”
and “Gen X and Y.” With a scorecard as a
strategic element of the business, executives
can be certain they are directing funds
and efforts to the appropriate areas,
focusing on factors most likely to deliver
a superior customer experience and drive
profitable growth.
2007 Customer Care Satisfaction Benchmarking report • 7
 About Convergys
Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG)
is a global leader in relationship management.
We provide solutions that drive more value
from the relationships our clients have with
their customers and employees. Convergys
turns these everyday interactions into a source
of profit and strategic advantage for our
clients. For more information,
visit www.convergys.com.

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©2008 Convergys Corporation. All rights reserved. Convergys and the Convergys logo are registered trademarks of Convergys.
Convergys refers to Convergys Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiaries. PV5-044N Customer Care Benchmark rev 6.4.08