What is the ultimate prize for the competitive call center? Customer loyalty. Indeed,
the call center, in its mission to win loyalty, exercises technical resources and
persuasive powers with such aplomb that even so expert a gadgeteer and persuader as James
Bond would be impressed.
Why bring up James Bond in a discussion of call center technology? The parallels are
more telling than you might guess. For example, the call center agent, like the secret
agent, is often "out in the cold," performing solo in hostile territory,
attempting to win over any possible allies, one person at a time. Granted, call center
agents attempt to win over customers, whereas James Bond attempts to win over informants,
but the overall dynamic is much the same.
Moreover, call center agents and secret agents both do a lot of dirty work, and not for
any recognition, mind you. They are, by and large, unsung heroes, whether they work on
behalf of a corporation (which is the case with call center agents) or a government (which
is the case with secret agents). It seems the least we could do is provide them the
equipment they need to get their jobs done as expeditiously as possible.
Whether we are talking about call center agents or secret agents, the most critical
equipment is communications gear, particularly the gear they use to win over their
"sources." In the case of call center agents, this gear must facilitate the
agent/customer interaction by accommodating the customer, by allowing the customer to
communicate with the agent by whatever means the customer prefers. And, increasingly,
customers are looking for ways to communicate via the Internet and the World Wide Web -
which explains why many call centers are working to communicate with customers via e-mail,
Internet telephony, and Web callback.
BRIEFINGS AND DEBRIEFINGS
Before we concentrate our attention on the front lines, that is, on customer/agent
interactions, we should take a quick look at some of the mechanics of intelligence
handling, call center style. Basically, intelligence handling in call centers is a matter
of interacting with databases.
Call center agents interact with databases in various ways. Perhaps the simplest was is
via good old data entry, a form of debriefing, if you will. On the briefing side of
things, call center agents may access the information they need "on the fly,"
via screen pops.
Screen pops improve customer service and efficiency by quickly pulling up a customer's
record, which may include a complete history (dossier?), onto the agent's screen. Screen
pops reduce agent error, and save time for the agent, who doesn't need to type the
caller's name or customer number to query the database. Over a span of hundreds or
thousands of calls, phone charges may be substantially reduced.
Customers may interact with databases as well, without agent intervention. For example,
a customer can take advantage of interactive voice response (IVR) to provide the
information the call center needs to route calls or retrieve data, and to do so
automatically. Similarly, fax-on-demand automates the faxing of common documents, thereby
freeing agents to perform other, more complex tasks.
THE MISSION
For the secret agent in the field or for the call center agent in the marketplace, the
main challenge is to win over people who are indifferent (at best) or who may even be
hostile (at worst). Who, do you suppose, has an easier time of it, James Bond or the
average call center agent? All things considered, I'd say Bond has it much easier.
Bond merely enacts a Hollywood fantasy, seducing gorgeous, willing women. Since Bond's
entire world is a Hollywood creation, he invariably succeeds. The call center agent,
however, lives in the real world. The call center agent encounters the real Dr. No's, and
must somehow convince them to become Dr. Yes's.
NOT ENTIRELY OUT IN THE COLD
Fortunately, many call center agents have the benefit of managerial and technological
support. One manifestation of managerial support is workforce management software, which
has grown tremendously in sophistication thanks to the continuing maturity of the CTI
industry and the development of several third-party CTI solutions. (See the article in
this issue by Chris Donner, "What You Might Overlook When
Deploying Workforce Management Software.")
The new workflow management systems are much more powerful and user-friendly than their
old terminal emulation counterparts, but they are also more complex, requiring intelligent
and well-trained agents. Developing such agents, and establishing effective working
relationships with them, is a challenge that Bond's handler, M, would have found familiar.
(While M was often exasperated by the irreverent, irrepressible Bond, he also valued
Bond's resourcefulness, which might have suffered had Bond been subjected to an excess of
discipline.)
So much for managerial support. What about the technological side? Well, it would be
hard to say who was the better equipped - Bond, who has the benefit of Q's gadgets, or the
call center agent, who has access to all manner of communications gear.
Granted, James Bond travels the world in exotic cars, which might, at the press of a
button, erupt with hood-mounted rockets or spew forth oil slicks - all of which looks
terribly exciting, especially in contrast to a sedentary call center agent. There are,
however, CTI solutions that create "virtual agents," that is, agents who are
free to move from location to location. Such solutions include MCK's EXTender and
Teltone's OfficeLink 2000.
Further, in the old James Bond movies, tracing a villain's phone number took several
minutes, and the villain usually hung up just before Bond traced the call. Today's call
center agents not only know the caller's phone number, but the caller's name, buying
habits, last purchase, social security number, birth date, mother's maiden name, address,
and other vital information - all in less than a few seconds!
And that's not all. Call center agents may be equipped with hands-free headsets (with
echo cancellation), ergonomic furniture, and video cameras. You might say this technology
corresponds with Bond's miniature wiretap (bug), aerodynamic sports vehicles, and
miniature hidden cameras. Finally, Bond may have had the ability to remotely control
miniature planes from a short distance, but call center agents can actually push Web pages
to a customer across the globe and control what the customer is seeing.
BEYOND GADGETS
While it has been fun playing with the James Bond analogy (at least for me), it's time to
get serious. A successful call center, no less than a successful intelligence operation,
has to do more than dabble with a lot of fancy gadgets. A call center has to integrate all
the technological bits and pieces into a coherent, workable whole.
What really enables the call center is CTI. Without CTI, the call center might spend a
fortune on technology, yet fail to improve operations or move any closer toward
accomplishing business goals. Without CTI, technology investments might even signal waste
and disarray, of the sort you might see the day after Christmas, when you might survey all
manner of pricey toys scattered about the floor, utterly neglected. (Ah, if only I had
held onto my die-cast Austin-Martin, a Christmas gift I received years ago. What might it
be worth today?)
Many pieces of both computer and telephony technology need to interact and work
together to function effectively - from database connectivity for screenpops, to
IVRs/auto-attendants, fax servers, predictive dialers, and other equipment. All of these
need to be integrated with other systems in some fashion. Thankfully, standards such as
ODBC, TAPI, DDE, and others have aided integration. And, while some may look askance at
integration, it is still necessity to do the work of integrating computer and telephony
equipment. Furthermore, CTI, in one form or another, will always be with us. (See next
month's CC: column on the necessity for the "I" in CTI).
Companies are spending millions of dollars implementing all sorts of CTI solutions to
automate their call centers. Many call centers have moved or will be moving to a
client/server environment, and are updating their systems to be Y2K (Year 2000) compliant.
However, in my opinion, the call center will need to spend millions more to overhaul the
way they handle customers.
A customer is no longer content with relying exclusively on making phone calls.
Customers want multiple ways of communicating with companies to purchase products or to
make inquiries. In addition to using the phone, customers will expect and demand that call
centers implement three technologies to stay on the leading edge and to maintain customer
satisfaction. These technologies include e-mail routing, Internet telephony, and Web
callback (Table 1).
CONCLUSION
In the United States alone, there are over 70,000 call centers. Clearly, the call center
market is big, and it's growing still larger, despite this year's worldwide economic
downturn. What is fueling this remarkable growth is technology, particularly the Web and
CTI technologies, which make the call center more efficient.
Technological advances and open standards in computing and telephony will continue to
help grow the market. And MIS personnel, resellers, VARs, and interconnects will continue
to face many challenges in implementing integrated CTI solutions, for today's call center
technology encompasses VoIP, Web callback, e-mail routing, and other CTI technologies.
The complexity of voice and data integration, as well as the difficulty of enabling
customer/agent interactions of all kinds, shouldn't be apparent to the customer. Instead,
the customer should feel the call center is free to concentrate on what is important to
the customer. That way, the customer will feel the call center - or, rather, the company -
really cares. And, in the end, whether the customer feels the company cares will depend on
whether the company takes advantage of CTI technology.
Tom Keating is the Executive Technology Editor for TMC Labs. He welcomes your
comments and suggestions. You can e-mail him at Tom Keating .
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