Call Centres - we lead the world, but staff are not happy

New research shows that while Europe leads the world in call centre IT, staff turnover is running at 23%.

As BT call centre staff staged the first of what is set to be several one day strikes over intolerable working practices, interim results from the Merchants 1999 International Call Centre Benchmarking Report show that staff churn at call centres has reached an all-time high.

The average length of service is now 27 months. The average ratio of agents to managers is 39:1 and of agents to supervisors is 12:1.

The interim results of the third annual report also show that European call centres use the most advanced technology including "call me" buttons on their websites.

The survey has participants from the UK, continental Europe, the USA, South Africa, South-East Asia and Australia. It represents therefore, over 40,000 "seats" serving 253 million consumer and 12.8 million business customers.

Merchants says it is always looking to increase the number of participants in the report.

Further information: Sally Watts, benchmarking report manager; 01908 232323; email: benchmarking@merchants.co.uk

Fiona Perrin