Press Release

Customer Service Reps Do It All

The latest industry survey from Customer Service Newsletter shows that specialization among customer service reps is on the decline.

(Boonton, NJ, Mar 11, 2010) — Customer Service reps do it all, and that will probably remain the case for some time to come.

In fact, the results of this year's Customer Service Newsletter Standards and Benchmarking Survey show that only 19 percent of survey respondents say that all reps are given specialized channel assignments, and this is clearly a downward trend. In 2009, 23 percent of companies reported assigning special channels, and in 2008, 29 percent had specialized assignments.

Another 35 percent of companies responding to the survey this year say that reps' responsibilities are mixed — with some required to handle all channels while others receive more specialized assignments. While 43 percent of survey respondents say that there is no specialization at all in terms of contact channels on the part of their reps — all reps simply handle all channels.

The full survey data also covers key performance indicators such as frequency and type of customer contact, average call length, average time in queue, first-call resolution, call abandonment, occupation rates, and more.

The data appears in the March issue of Customer Service Newsletter and in the 2010 Customer Service Department Salary and Benchmarking Survey Report.

To learn more about this valuable report, please visit us online at http://www.CustomerServiceGroup.com/csdsr.php.

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About the Customer Service Group

For more than 20 years, the Customer Service Group has helped customer service, call center and help desk managers increase productivity, improve service quality and boost customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. The Customer Service Group publishes Customer Service Newsletter and The Customer Communicator.

Website: http://www.CustomerServiceGroup.com