August 16, 2007

84% OF AUSSIES WANT AUSTRALIAN CONTACT CENTRES, ACCORDING TO BUDGET DIRECT POLL

A new poll released today from leading car insurance provider Budget Direct reports that 84% of Australians want their Car Insurer's contact centres to be located exclusively within Australia.

Director of Contact Centre Operations Gerry O'Shaughnessy said the Budget Direct poll findings confirmed the company's experience that customers want to be able to speak to contact centre agents that can demonstrate a level of local knowledge when handling customer enquiries.

"Customers want to deal with people that drive the same types of cars and deal with the same types of conditions that they encounter on a daily basis, and struggling with the semantics of a language can be frustrating when consumers need information about a product.

"Any company not ensuring their contact centre is delivering customer satisfaction rather than frustration is taking a huge risk with its customer asset," Mr O'Shaughnessy said.

He said the call centre industry is a significant employer in Australia referring to recent statistics from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) that showed jobs in the call centre sector increasing 11.2% in the past five years.

Since launching in 1999 all of Budget Direct's contact centre operations have been based exclusively in Australia. He said the poll confirmed Budget Direct's decision to continue this commitment with its recent $20 million investment in two new contact centres in Queensland.

The Budget Direct poll surveyed 4,389 respondents across Australia.