Serif Call Centre Named as One of UK’s Top 50 Call Centres

September 29, 2010 – A customer service centre in Wilford, Nottingham, has been named as one of the top 50 call centres in the country. Serif, the award-winning design, publishing and creative software developer, was rated highly for its customer care following the UK’s largest mystery shopping exercise.

The research was conducted by market research specialists GfK NOP on behalf of the ‘UK’s Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service’, a programme organised by Call Centre Focus magazine. Each organisation that took part in the Top 50 benchmarking received 200 calls and 100 emails as part of the exercise. The standards have increased each year and Serif was up against some of the biggest brands such as Tesco, Thomas Cook, Aviva and American Express.

“We aim to inspire our customers – not only with our creative software but also with our positive attitude, exceptional service and simple honesty,” says Alex Loach, Head of Customer Services at Serif. “Our team is dedicated to delivering consistent high quality customer care, so it is fantastic to be recognised as one of the top 50 call centres in the UK.”

In the last 12 months, Serif has taken a number of measures to improve the customer experience. This includes an increase in auditing its service staff, removing telephone menus, introducing remote access as well as launching Exceeding Service Awards to incentivise staff. There has also been a focus on the speed of calls picked up – on average first line support staff answer calls in less than 30 seconds.

“The mystery shopping exercise has provided us with an opportunity to find out what we are doing right, what we need to improve, and how we compare with other leading call centres. This information will be invaluable in continuing to improve the level of service we can provide to our customers.”

Researchers made thousands of mystery shopping enquiries to call centres in five sectors including Financial Services, Entertainment, Leisure & Travel, Telecoms & Utilities, Retail & Distribution and Public Services. Each call centre was rated across key service areas: ease of use, reliability, timeliness, staff knowledge and personalised service. A customer service rating in percentage terms was also awarded.

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Note to Editors:

For more information, contact Clare Homer at Serif at chomer@serif.com or on 0115 914 9042. Follow @Serif_Clare on Twitter

About Serif

Serif is the publisher of the award-winning software range that includes PagePlus^®, PhotoPlus^®, DrawPlus^®, WebPlus^®, AlbumPlus^®, MoviePlus^®, PanoramaPlus^® and Digital Scrapbook Artist^® and more. Founded in 1987 with the aim to develop low-cost alternatives to high-end publishing and graphics packages, Serif as been repeatedly praised for its powerful yet easy-to-use software which has put professional effects and demanding publishing tasks within the reach of ordinary PC users round the world. Now with over 6 million customers worldwide, Serif has over 230 employees at its head office, development and European sales centre in Nottingham, UK and its North American sales operation in New Hampshire, US.