Call centre failures blamed on software

Poor customer experiences with call centres are being blamed on badly designed software tools, which are hampering the performance of the workers.

Call centres have been told by one expert that they could make significant improvements to customer satisfaction and agent productivity by paying more attention to their systems' user interfaces.

Gabriel White, a consultant with The Hiser Group, said good user interfaces tend to be the exception rather than the rule as far as call centres are concerned.

And problems occur when the poor user interface slows down the agent, forcing customers who are already impatient, having doubtless been kept on hold, to wait.

White said: "Poor usability means poor agent productivity, hence poor customer service. Call centre systems with a user-friendly interface design are critical to engaging successfully with customers."

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