DHL recognized for industry-leading customer service at ‘Contact Center Awards 2007’
DHL Japan was honored with the Silver Award at the ‘Contact Center Awards 2007’, an industry peer recognition program for and by businesses for outstanding contact center initiatives. Organized by RIC Telecom’s Computer Telephony magazine with the support of e-Partners, the Awards have been held annually since 2004.
A record 27 nominees representing the manufacturing, finance, sales and services, and IT sectors competed for honors this year. Judging is based on a format with each nominee evaluating its fellow nominees. Eight companies were selected for the Category Awards and Judges’ Committee Special Awards as the result of voting by nominees and assessment by judges for individual presentations. These semifinalists then gave final presentations to the judges to determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards winners.
DHL Japan won the Silver Award for its case study The Road to Becoming ‘A Center that Guarantees Every Incoming Call is Answered’, which also garnered a Productivity Award for activities contributing to productivity enhancement. This is the second year DHL Japan has won a main award at the ‘Contact Center Awards’, as well as the third consecutive year it has received a Category Award, following selection for the Productivity Award in 2005 and the Profit Award in 2006.
DHL Japan was recognized for the process leading up to its achievement of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) established for each of its contact centers. These KPIs include answering at least 90 pct of all calls within 10 seconds, and maintaining a hang up rate — the percentage of all incoming calls abandoned by the caller before communication with an operator is established — of no greater than 0.1 pct of all incoming calls that ring for more than 15 seconds.
To achieve its KPI targets, DHL Japan invested in human resource initiatives, such as staff training and morale building based on incentives and recreational activities, while undertaking to improve critical operational processes, including call response flow, peak period forecasting and strategic staff deployment. Contact center technologies were also upgraded. As a result of these efforts, a revitalized contact center system was established that rapidly and effectively deals with increasingly sophisticated customer needs.
DHL Japan’s contact centers are part of DHL’s Customer Service division, which reports directly to the President. Two centers — Tokyo and Osaka — provide toll-free service nationwide, handling requests for pickup and cargo tracking, as well as service-related inquiries. Each center seeks to maintain high levels of quality, profitability and productivity. Contact center operators are professionals trained to understand and meet the needs of each individual customer, allowing them to respond rapidly to a diverse range of requests with appropriate solutions. DHL Japan will endeavor to further enhance its contact center service in order to ensure that it continues to exceed customer expectations.
