Australian contact centre managers can no longer rely on achieving key performance indicators to win promotion, a new study has found.

The study by Drake International, compiled by Dr Michael Valos of Deakin University, surveyed 80 contact centre managers from a cross-section of industries to identify the key factors that "contribute to good leadership, management and career progression in the industry". It found no statistical evidence to link success in achieving key performance indicators (KPIs) with career success.

"KPIs are still important because senior management continue to be driven by measurable results," said Steve Caulfield, National Contact Centre Practice Manager for Drake. "However KPIs can become irrelevant over 12 months, are often industry specific and can be set with a political agenda, which means they're not always an accurate gauge of a person's performance."

Caulfield said the industry was evolving and required a more "expanded view" from its contact centre managers.

In a result similar to a recent Accenture study which showed the leaders of companies value IT skills lower than things such as management leadership, teamwork and general business acumen, the Drake study found the most successful contact centre managers go beyond operational excellence to a holistic understanding of relationships with other departments and senior management.

"While KPIs still have a significant role to play, contact centre managers need to take a broader view of the call centre and its role in the overall business to guarantee career success" said Caulfield. "They need to portray leadership and vision to both senior management and agents and become accustomed to doing more with less."

Caulfield warned call centre budgets would continue to be cut in 2003/04, saying the most valued contact centre managers would be those able to balance the trade-off between service quality and service costs.

"The challenge for contact centre managers now is to start thinking more like business people than call centre people," said Michael Meredith, Executive Director of the Australian Teleservices Association. "The role of the call centre has gone beyond simply answering calls to being a strategic part of the organisation. Leading contact centre managers need to understand the role of the call centre as a business unit and communicate its value to senior management, as well as achieve operational targets."

The research also found that senior management doesn't always understand how vital the contact centre is to the company in terms of building the brand, differentiating the organisation and generating sale opportunities.

It also revealed that medium sized contact centres (30-99 seats), which form the majority of call centres in Australia, have the most difficulty managing the balance between competing demands due to a lack of resources and poorly integrated business processes.

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