Since 1982, when this publication (formerly known as Telemarketing
magazine) laid the foundation for what is now the multibillion-dollar call center
industry, you have trusted our judgment and the credibility of our unbiased, noncommercial
editorial. Indeed, in the '80s, Alex Fraser, marketing manager of Hewlett-Packard,
referred to our publication as, "The only credible source of information on the
industry." I am happy to report that I was talking to Alex Fraser during the first
week of November 1998, and he reaffirmed our leadership position by proclaiming, "C@LL
CENTER Solutions is still the only credible source of information on the call
center industry." While we are delighted by the respect we have earned in the
marketplace, we do not take our leadership position in the call center industry lightly.
We exercise the utmost integrity in the quality of our editorial, which, over the years,
has earned the respect of our readers around the globe by offering them sound purchasing
advice and practical solutions to their call center problems and needs.
This year has been no exception, although this year we have worked even harder to bring
you the advice of Technology Marketing Corporation's respected editors of its
publications, C@LL CENTER Solutions, CTI and INTERNET
TELEPHONY magazines, and TMCnet online
magazine, as well as the engineers of TMC Labs, all of whom we consider to be the
most genuinely qualified experts in the industry.
In this editorial, which represents the views of acknowledged industry leaders, you
will find guidelines for selecting products and services. As you know, given the myriad
products and services available, it is no easy task to select what you need for your call
center. In the following pages:
- We address such issues as using technology to increase customer retention and what is
now known as customer management, how to reduce costs, and how to buy technologies that
pay for themselves in a relatively short time while significantly improving the bottom
line;
- We provide you with ideas that should help you do more with less through sensible
automation and application of CTI and Internet telephony in your call center, not to
mention, how to benefit from and incorporate e-commerce into your call center;
- We try to guide you to avoid pitfalls and stop wasting money by buying irrelevant,
unnecessary and/or incompatible technologies;
- We try to help you avoid customer dissatisfaction and customer loss;
- We try to guide you to that all-important outsourcing option and how to make proper
selection of your marketing partner; and
- We also offer our opinions regarding proper convergence of CTI, Internet telephony and
traditional call center technologies.
In all cases, please make an informed decision with an eye toward the future. Please
note that in the growing interaction between customers and companies using Web-enabled
technologies to conduct e-commerce, call centers will be playing a pivotal role in this
area. You need to prepare your call center accordingly by selecting the right outsourcing
partner as well as technology partners to guide you in these most difficult times in
shopping for the right products and services.
Our Purchasing Guidelines:
Start Out Simply
The majority (up to 70 percent) of costs for call centers is for personnel, so any
technology you can implement that automates routine tasks and saves time for your agents,
even though it may seem to have a large upfront cost, will pay for itself in the long run
by freeing up your agents to concentrate on providing the best possible service they can.
As we all know, providing superior service leads to happier customers and better customer
retention.
A basic technology for handling inbound calls is the automatic call distributor (ACD).
ACDs queue inbound calls and provide even distribution to available agents, thus improving
service levels. During busy periods, ACDs can play recorded messages for delayed callers
and automatically overflow calls to a secondary group if they are delayed too long. ACDs
can also provide skills-based routing, which allows you to rate your agents' various
knowledge skills and route a call to the agent who is best-equipped to handle a particular
call.
One of the obvious examples of automating the outbound side of your call center
includes putting in place predictive dialing technology, which not only eliminates the
time lost manually dialing numbers, but also recognizes fax numbers, answering machines
and no answers, and only routes "live" calls to the agent, thus increasing the
contact per hour rates.
Another mainstream technology is workforce management software, which allows for more
efficient scheduling of agents, which leads to less idle time by the agents. Inevitably
there will be call troughs, so look for blended inbound/outbound systems that allow
outbound agents, without logging out of the outbound system and logging into the inbound
system, to take themselves out of outbound calling queues to handle an influx of more
pressing inbound calls or, conversely, allow inbound agents to make outbound calls during
lulls on inbound calls.
Another simple way to increase productivity and decrease costs is to invest in
ergonomic products. Although you may balk initially at buying, for example, a more
expensive, ergonomically designed chair, keep in mind that it will increase productivity
through reducing fatigue, and also help to prevent costly repetitive stress injuries that
cost you money not only in lost workdays by agents but also in worker's compensation fees
when the agents are seeing doctors about that pain in their backs. And keep in mind that
something as simple as a headset not only frees up an agent's hands for keyboarding, it
also helps to reduce neck injuries.
When upgrading your call center systems, look to purchase technologies that will fit in
with and improve your business processes, improve the public's perception of your company
and will increase your company's bottom line. Also, we do not advocate totally eliminating
the human touch. Your staff is your most valuable asset - use them intelligently and where
they will make their greatest contribution: in informed, personal contact with your
customers. Use technology to streamline your internal operations and give your staff the
knowledge and tools they need to perform at their best, for there are times that the
growing trend of self-service, no matter how well thought out, is no substitute for a
reassuring voice that can turn a potential customer into an actual customer.
To keep your staff performing at their best, it cannot be overstated that there is no
substitute for training. Use results from logging and monitoring reports to train your
agents not only on what they are doing wrong but, more important, on what they are doing
right. In this Buyer's Guide you can find numerous consultants and training products that
can help you teach your agents how to properly handle calls and how to keep them
motivated.
Streamline Your Internal Operations
By streamlining internal operations, we mean implement the same kind of automated
processing to all transactions, regardless of how they are initiated, whether by phone,
e-mail, fax, Web call through, whatever. (Indeed, many vendors are offering omnibus
solutions that turn call centers into so-called contact centers.) Also, be aware of
opportunities to build and exploit your databases.
The kind of technology you purchase should be driven by your business goals. This
consideration should be foremost in your mind: the quality of service your company is able
to provide to its customers will soon become a major competitive advantage (if it isn't
already).
The automation of transactions alone, of whatever nature (sales/service/support), does
not necessarily ensure that your internal operations will be "streamlined" or
that you're delivering quality service to your customers. For example, you could have a
great IVR front-end to your call center, but if the IVR menu is poorly designed, has dead
ends or customers get stuck in loops and can't get the information they want, you've
deployed a poor self-service solution that results in high customer dissatisfaction and
probably increased 800-number traffic as customers call in to speak with live agents --
more costly in the long run for all concerned.
What will help streamline internal operations, as well as externally visible functions
like sales/service/support, is the application of consistent business processes across all
transactions and media types -- fax, phone, e-mail, Web callthrough, etc. You can even
tailor your service delivery based on customer profile. For example, a bronze customer
might be automatically routed to an IVR first and only to a live agent if he/she requests
it, while a platinum customer's e-mail, for instance, might take priority in all queues
and get a virtually instant response. And if your systems are sufficiently integrated,
that platinum customer might receive an outbound phone call within minutes of having sent
the e-mail because there's a fairly good chance that that customer is still near the
phone.
With automated business processes, these kinds of decisions can be made instantly,
without human involvement. Can you imagine how pleased that customer would be having
received that kind of response! If you respond like that once, however, beware that you
may be changing your customers' expectations, and in so doing, you'd better be committed
to consistently delivering that kind of service.
The technologies you purchase and install now should solve immediate headaches, like
that e-mail deluge you're trying to dig out from under. It should also provide for enough
future flexibility so that a situation like I described above is the norm for your
company, rather than the exception.
This kind of personalized service is driven, in large part, by the amount and quality
of data your company possesses about its customers. Consider the proactive ways in which
to use the data you have to improve your company's image and perhaps, as an added bonus,
increase the amount of information you have about the preferences of individual customers.
For example, outbound calls/e-mail to customers who have just made a purchase to ensure
they're satisfied with the product and service received so far; or a call/e-mail to a
customer who, according to data mining analysis, makes large purchases at given times of
the year, perhaps associated with birthdays, anniversaries, etc., to offer a certain
discount given their "gold status" - these types of efforts will help to
distinguish your company from its competitors, increasing the chance that the customer
you're targeting will stay loyal to your brand, which increases that customer's lifetime
value to your organization.
You should also consider "unifying" your data - which actually means giving
the various departments within your company access to a single database that contains all
customer information possessed. Sales would love to know, prior to making a sales call,
that customer A has had nothing but problems with your company and its products, while
customer B is very satisfied. Product development would probably like to know what kinds
of problems or questions customers are having, perhaps enabling them to incorporate
sensible changes into future products. Marketing would like to know how a certain outbound
campaign is performing, in real-time preferably, so that they can adapt the message to
maximize positive results.
You'll notice that all of these scenarios focus on the call center - rather than a
contact/access/interaction center, the call center has become a nerve center serving the
entire company's needs with the relationships it develops and maintains with those
customers with whom it interacts.
The World Is Your Marketplace:
New Challenges For The Call Center Manager
Indeed, call centers of today are drastically different from those of the past. Certainly
technology has afforded the call center manager with an arsenal of products and services
whereby he/she can cut costs and overhead while drastically enhancing the capabilities of
the call center.
Here is a list of issues and opportunities that today's call center manager must deal
with. This is by no means a complete list, but does represent a good portion of items to
consider:
- The call center manager must tightly align him/herself with the voice/datacomm manager
in the company. This is perhaps the most important relationship that the call center
manager can forge in the company as without effective communication systems, the call
center is rendered vulnerable. The call center manager, together with the voice/datacomm
manager, must devise a plan to connect the call center to the outside world while making
sure there is sufficient capacity for growth and that all service plans are correctly
addressed. The call center manager should be knowledgeable enough to handle outages and
other problems, even in the absence of voice/datacomm staff.
- The communications plan for the call center should be separate from those of the rest of
the company. It is understood that call centers have different call requirements, volumes
and patterns, and therefore the average office communication plan may not be applicable to
the call center.
- If possible, call centers should use the same provider for voice and data. This ensures
a single point of contact for all problems, simplifies accounting, and will give the call
center manager more leverage in price negotiations.
- More and more call centers are going virtual. For example, many U.S.-based companies use
Australian call centers to fulfill night calls. Also, many agents are telecommuters
working from home. Orchestrating and managing such call centers is a monumental task, but
many products in the market can assist the call center manager to effectively bring these
disparate nodes under control. These products include: virtual skills-based routing,
virtual ACDs with call blending, and virtual circuit and agent load balancing.
- Logging and analyzing products for the call center can give the call center manager a
whole new perspective on more effectively running the call center.
- The Internet has become a ubiquitous tool the call center manager can utilize to achieve
better customer service while reducing the load on the call center. Many call center
products in the market today utilize the Internet to:
- Provide intelligent Web support to the customer using a sophisticated front-end with a
comprehensive and data-rich knowledge base at the back-end.
- Auto-respond to customers' e-mail requests by intelligently deciphering the question and
providing appropriate answers.
- Auto-route customers' e-mail requests to the correct agent for immediate service.
- Provide voice/video/chat capabilities for real-time interaction between customers and
agents.
- Allow agents to take over customers' PCs and guide them through steps.
- Provide continuous feedback (through e-mail) until the customer's issue is resolved.
- The latest explosive technology on the Internet horizon is none other than e-commerce.
An e-commerce solution can provide a customer with a soup-to-nuts method of interacting
with a company without even speaking to a single person. The realized income and savings
from e-commerce can be immense, but customer backlash could be just as immense if the
systems used are not designed properly. Here are some points about e-commerce to consider:
- Keep it simple. Realize that many potential customers are not tech savvy, so design with
simplicity in mind.
- Provide accurate and descriptive feedback every step of the way. Don't assume your
customers will read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) pages. Give them guidance on
every page.
- Provide security. Most people prefer secure sites when paying online.
- Provide real-time credit card transactions. This way the customer can receive immediate
feedback on whether or not his/her order was accepted. Accounting will also have less work
to do verifying credit card numbers.
- Give customers an easy method to check their order's status online.
- Always give customers the option to call the company at any point before, after or
during the transaction.
- Encourage Web and e-mail usage by promptly responding to customers' e-mail and other
requests. Many companies have good phone support but lousy Web and e-mail support. Web and
e-mail usage is a Pavlovian process for many people. The more they are rewarded by using
it, the more they will use it. Let them down once and they may never use the site again.
The Final Ingredient: Telephony Systems
PC-based telephony systems, including PC-PBXs (communication servers), PC-ACDs and IP-PBXs
are making waves in the call center industry. In particular, both PC-PBXs and PC-ACDs have
had some success penetrating the call center market, which traditionally has used
telephony systems from Lucent Technologies, Nortel, Rockwell or Aspect. One only need look
at Rockwell's PC-ACD called Transcend, and Interactive Intelligence's EIC comm server to
see that call centers are moving toward open telephony systems.
Why the recent rush to PC-based telephony systems? Three words: openness, flexibility
and manageability. PC-based telephony systems are more open, flexible and easier to manage
than their traditional "big iron" counterparts. Also, PC-based telephony systems
are based on a user-friendly operating system to which users are well accustomed, such as
Windows NT. Traditional telephony systems on the other hand are proprietary in nature and
often have complicated user interfaces.
Since these PC-based telephony systems are open in nature, they can add additional
functionality via a software upgrade. Traditionally, if you wanted to add IVR,
fax-on-demand, ACD, predictive dialing or other telephony functionality, you had to buy a
server adjunct and integrate it with your switch. With PC-based telephony systems, you can
get all of this functionality in one box. The advantages are a single integrated platform,
centralized administration, more meaningful and powerful reporting, as well as obvious
cost advantages.
Also, since these PC-based telephony systems are "PCs," they can be added to
a LAN, WAN or the Internet very easily just by installing a network card. Once on the
network, these PC-based telephony systems can easily perform Web-based callbacks, take
Internet telephony calls from customers, as well as perform load-balancing, intelligent
call-routing and crossover to a backup system in the event of a failure. All of these
functions are very important to the call center industry.
One final point that should be made is that these PC-based telephony systems allow you
to design your telephony systems (PBX, IVR, ACD, etc.) around your call center's business
rules and not the other way around, which is the way it has traditionally been done. Thus,
a call center no longer needs to change the way it works in order to utilize the limited
functionality of a closed/proprietary telephony system. Instead, using these customizable,
open PC-based telephony systems call centers can build significantly more complex business
rules that can be integrated much more easily, thus facilitating better customer service,
better agent productivity and lower operating costs.
We do not recommend buying technology for technology's sake. Don't buy a product simply
because it is the latest "cool" thing to come on the market. Look closely at
what features and benefits it offers your company.
Look To The Outsourcing Option
If, after reading this advice, you feel so overwhelmed you don't know where to start, or
you have a short time line to carry out a major marketing program, or you feel the best
option for your company is to concentrate on its core competencies and to leave all or
part of the call center operations to the experts, look to the outsourcing option.
Teleservices agencies can provide you with instant access to years of teleservices
experience. Among the many benefits of outsourcing are: the facilities teleservices
agencies have in place that allow you to reduce or eliminate the expense (both in time and
monetarily) of recruiting, training and maintaining call center staff (who are often
difficult to hire and have a propensity to be short-term employees); the elimination of
the need to establish or expand your physical site; the ability to eliminate or reduce
expenditures for technologies that are changing and advancing at breathtaking speed; the
expansion of your business hours through a teleservices agency's 24x7 operating schedule;
and the time to increase your productivity by concentrating on your core competency.
We have provided you with many tools (Teleservices Outsourcing Directories that were
supplements to our July 1998, November 1997 and June 1997 issues; a booklet, Telemarketing
Service Agencies - Everything You Always Needed To Know; the annual rankings of the
"Top 50 Teleservices Agencies";
the annual "Rising Stars:
The Fastest Growing Teleservices Agencies"; the annual "MVP Quality Awards"; numerous
"Publisher's Outlook" columns on the subject, e.g., the October 1998 column,
"A New Business Model
For In-House And Outsourced Teleservices"; as well as a monthly feature in C@LL
CENTER Solutions on teleservices outsourcing) to guide you in your selection of an
outsourcing partner. (To purchase copies of any of the above products, call 800-243-6002
or see www.tmcnet.com.)
The First And Last Step: Stay Informed
Finally, we must list the following provisos as a caveat emptor: thoroughly investigate
the company you are looking to purchase from; be wary of what a salesman may promise as he
may be pushing features that don't exist just to make a sale; don't take demos at face
value - ask if any companies are actually using the product and request references; and
always be vigilant and stay informed about all the vendors before making a purchase.
At TMC we take pride in providing you with the best tools - C@LL CENTER
Solutions, CTI, INTERNET TELEPHONY, CTI EXPO and
TMCnet.com - to stay informed on the latest technologies and strategies to keep your
business profitable. Remember: the purchase decisions you make today will determine your
company's profitability well into the future.
Good luck shopping and best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 1999. See you at
CTI EXPO Spring 1999 in Washington, D.C., May 24-26.
Sincerely,
Nadji Tehrani
Executive Group Publisher
Editor-in-Chief
ntehrani@tmcnet.com |