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Contact Centres

What is a Contact Centre?

A call centre is a centralised office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, product services, and debt collection are also made. In addition to a call centre, collective handling of letters, faxes, live chat, and e-mails at one location is known as a contact centre.

A call centre is often operated through an extensive open workspace for call centre agents, with work stations that include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the centre are linked through a set of new technologies called Computer Telephony Integration ( CTI).

Most major businesses use call centres to interact with their customers. Examples include utility companies, mail order catalog retailers, and customer support for computer hardware and software. Some businesses even service internal functions through call centres. Examples of this include help desks, retail financial support, and sales support.

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Should I use a Contact Centre solution?

If your customers email, fax or phone you, then you're already a contact centre. Using the right Contact Centre software can transform how you manage your customers which will increase your productivity and profitability no matter what size of your business.

As a result, we all know that businesses want to maintain a competitive edge and keep their names at the forefront of their customers' minds. Whilst advertising on T.V. is out of reach for many companies, it's easy to understand why a Call Centre would be required to answer inbound calls if an advert had just flashed up on a television screen.

But what about for us normal business people! How do we become as effective, without the £'000's price tag or attaining the mind control powers of a Jedi knight?

A bit of perspective

Let's face it, no one likes the thought of Call Centres. Rows of people, rows of desks and endless of dialogue. Call Centres often conjure up an image of a negative working environment as well as the perception that these "Centers" only relate to financial services or teleshopping.

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What’s more, most businesses are not interested in the technology because they think it's not relevant to their business - but they're wrong! Telecoms' manufacturers have created new methods of "contactability" which benefit all areas of customer activity. These areas include calls in and calls out (obviously, but the difference is in the detail) and also encompass, email contact, web activity, SMS, chat and even fax (although it's not as popular nowadays). All activities are being viewed with equal importance.

So, these days is a telephone enquiry more important than an email enquiry?

What was once the preserve of the Call Centre industry and Internet-savvy business has now become available to everyone with a price to match as it's only software!

This Call or Contact Center technology enables a business to incorporate all forms of communication and apply a bespoke level of importance as to how and when the customer is responded to.

The simplest analogy is that of a funnel; as the various "contacts" with your customers flow in, your staff handle each enquiry in the order of priority you choose on the way out!

Consider this; how can your customers be "King" if you can't see them, let alone prioritise them?

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The Telephone System

Take a minute to think about this; if we all have 24 hours in a day and all businesses are equal when it comes to generating new business, why are some companies better at it than others? Perhaps they are optimising their systems where you are not.

It is highly likely that more functionality can be achieved from your existing telephone system without you being aware of it. With a little creative thought given to its programming you should be able to tap into your phone system's hidden potential.

It's also important to be aware that most telephone systems will support the connection of computers which run Contact Centre software. If you are unsure you can contact us to discuss this further; we will be able to tell you whether or not you can and how this can be achieved.

Chicken or the egg?

Which came first? In a business do you advertise and market your business heavily in the hope that the revenues generated will pay for a system to support your campaign? Or, do you implement the systems first and endeavour to generate the business to pay for it in the longer term? In any event, running a business without advertising or marketing is like a man winking at a girl in the dark, he knows what he's doing, but the girl doesn't!

So there may be a chicken and egg scenario. Without a structured and sustained marketing effort in whichever guise you deem fit, this technology is not for you - it would be a waste of time, effort and money. However, by applying simple marketing techniques (see Marketing Review) a Contact Centre maybe a highly attractive and beneficial addition to your business - and it is possible you are already some way there with your existing systems.

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Where to start looking

A good place to start is to get hold of a book "Contact Centres for Dummies" that has been published by Avaya which is very helpful, especially if you're beginning to think that this may be a sensible area to focus on. What’s more, it’s free. Go to http://www.avaya.co.uk

The "art" is being able to interpret the technology and features and put them into a constructive method of operation for your business. But it still boils down to the fact that a business must first be aware that the technology exists before it can have an affect their operations.

Reading the book will help.

Once you have decided that you want to handle more business, more efficiently there are few stages to be aware of.

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Stage One

Costs - This time, don’t consider it. To some companies taking on another member of staff is not given a second thought, especially when someone leaves or if you want to generate more business. This time concentrate on how much you can increase revenues by improving the process. Consider, if you let a member of staff “go”, their salary would pay for any new capital purchase in the first year.

By the second year you're already in front financially. If you lease any equipment it is all considered a revenue expense and therefore it can be offset on your balance sheet. Plus you get to keep the cash in the bank.

Stage Two

Based upon your ROI analysis, if you need to change your phone system – do it. You’re only adding components to your money-making entity. These are one-off purchases, tax deductable and can be financed, but more on that later.

Stage Three

Establish your business process and put in place a Technology Team to map out exactly how the equipment is to be structured and what your staff are supposed to do.

Stage Four

Marketing; KIS - keep it simple. Start by deciding what you want to focus on first; outbound or inbound contact? Set your goals and targets accordingly.