REDWOOD CITY, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 05/09/12 -- Enkata, the leader in workforce analytics and workforce optimization solutions in the cloud, today released data that suggests North American companies spent more than $20 billion on unnecessary repeat customer service calls in 2011. The figures are estimates based on average repeat call reductions for Enkata customers deploying Enkata's First Contact Resolution solution applied across total estimated customer service calls placed in North America.

"These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg when you consider how many other unnecessary processes customer service and sales agents perform that may drive up costs," said Dave Stamm, Enkata Chief Executive Officer. "The simple fact is that most companies don't have the right tools to provide insights into workforce performance. That's where the latest workforce analytics capabilities are an indispensable tool for companies today."

Highlights from the data:

• An estimated $20 billion was spent by North American companies on unnecessary repeat calls and call transfers
• An estimated 5.1% of total incoming service calls were unnecessary repeat calls. An unnecessary repeat call being one where an issue or request should have been handled on the first call.
• An estimated 4.2% of the total incoming calls were unnecessarily transferred. An unnecessary transfer being a call that should have been handled by the first agent.

"This may be a problem for companies, but imagine how customers feel," said Emily Yellin, a consultant and author of Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us. "When customers have a problem, we only call the company as a last resort. So if we can't get what we need the first time around and have to call back, we remember the frustration and lost time and are more likely to go elsewhere the next time we need to buy whatever that company is selling."

Customer Service Costs Defined
Enkata triangulated the data based on research from industry research firm Contact Babel, independent analyst Emily Yellin, and Enkata's in-house aggregated data across a Fortune 500 client set.

                                                   Cost to Service Providers
Enkata Customer Journey Index

Total calls in North America*                                 45,000,000,000
Average cost per call**                                               $7.50
Average dollar impact of a call transfer ***                          $1.50
Percentage of unnecessary repeat calls***                               5.1%
Percentage of unnecessary transferred calls***                          4.2%

Aggregate estimate of unnecessary repeat calls                 2,295,000,000
Dollars spent North America on unnecessary repeat
calls                                                        $17,212,500,000

Aggregate estimate of unnecessary transferred
calls                                                          1,890,000,000
Dollars spent North America on unnecessary
transferred calls                                             $2,835,000,000

Total North America dollars spent on unnecessary
repeat calls and transfers                                   $20,047,500,000

*Based on Contact Babel data
**Based on Emily Yellin data
***Based on Enkata's aggregated data

More information
For more information, please visit: http://www.enkata.com/

About Enkata
Enkata is a leader and innovator in cloud-based workforce analytics and workforce optimization solutions. Customers achieve impressive gains in customer service industry rankings while reducing the cost to service each account. Enkata's Customer Interaction Cloud is a set of analytics-powered solutions that capture unstructured data from voice and desktop sources used to improve operational process and employee performance. Fortune 100 companies trust Enkata to examine millions of customer interactions each day ensuring that each is delivering value to their customers. For more information, please visit www.enkata.com.

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