1. SOUTH EAST WALES CALL CENTRE INITIATIVE Benchmarking Study Outline of Recommended Approach September 2001

2. BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Members of SE Wales Call Centre Forum are keen to establish mechanism for obtaining aggregate information relating to regional call centre sector Aims are: –To monitor trends over time –To allow individual companies to benchmark performance against sector as whole Data is available at UK level from annual Merchants International survey, but this does not provide detailed feedback required on SE Wales

3. SCOPE OF STUDY Main areas of interest for study are: oVolume of calls oType of calls oHours of operation oNumbers employed oAttrition rates oRemuneration & salary levels oSickness levels oTraining oCustomer satisfaction oService levels and quality management

4. METHODOLOGY Panel of 20 members of Call Centre Initiative will be recruited, across range of types of call centre/industry sectors Each member will be asked to complete short questionnaire for every wave of study Initially, frequency likely to be quarterly (although could decrease to 6-monthly, if necessary, in future) Questionnaires to be emailed out & emailed back to MRW Participants likely to be Quality Managers or Operations Managers (most appropriate individuals’contact details to be supplied to MRW)

5. MAXIMISING CO-OPERATION Individual company data will be completely confidential – only aggregate results will be published Before recruitment of Panel, introductory letter explaining aims & importance of study and stressing confidentiality will be sent by MRW to all members of Initiative Programme of reminders will be set up, so that all non- respondents receive 2 reminders to complete & return their questionnaire Questionnaire will be kept as succinct as possible, with mostly pre-coded responses, to speed up its completion

6. TIMINGS & REPORTING Results for each wave will be available within 4 weeks of fieldwork starting,eg if Wave 1 starts 1 st week January, then results published in early Feb At end of each wave, MRW will prepare summary report (bullet-points with charts illustrating trends over time) Report will be emailed to all participants/members of Initiative Presentations could also be provided, if desired