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What call centres are all about?
The definition of a call centre is continuously changing. Sometime called contact centre or customer interaction centre, basically “a call centre is a central place where customer and other telephone calls are handled by an organization, usually with some amount of computer automation.
Typically, a call centre has the ability to handle a considerable volume of calls at the same time, to screen calls and forward them to someone qualified to handle them, and to log calls,” reads Whatis.com. Maturing integration between web collaborative technologies and customer relations management (CRM) is resulting into a changing role of call centre but it necessarily remains a constant contact between any business and its customers’ base; benefiting both. And it is this convergence that has made it possible for businesses to convert call centre into a profit centre and beyond.
Further than just technology, CRM covers a lot of other vital business processes. Principally, CRM is a technology that helps a business to collect and sift variety of information relating to customers. As product or service differences are fading away and customer choices are increasing in the face of pure competition in the world market, one sure way to excel is through better customer care and proximity. CRM in this context is helping to tailor business operating strategies and methods, bringing them in line with the rapidly changing global market demands. Call centre and CRM technologies together are a key to monitoring and managing the change?
High end call centre solutions enable routing customers’ calls to pre-profiled experts from different parts of the country via networks and even allowing agents, technically, to be located anywhere in the world if they have access to a PC and a browser. This feature allows telecommuters and other mobile workers based at home or at a virtual desk to be integrated in the call centre. Routing calls based on the callers’ numbers and linking to computer systems so that PC based applications such as the automatic screen popping of customer records - which make it possible for the agent to identify the repeat callers or those whose profiles are already stored in the database. Call centre applications can also generate standard and real time activity reports which traditionally take much longer time. These features help any forward looking concern to serve customers better and economically. Which is why call centre is a leading business trend these days; elsewhere?
In Pakistan consumers are more familiar with call centres where automatic call distributor technology simply lines up telephone calls and put them through to available agents (telephone operators) as quickly and efficiently as possible. This may improve the service but minimizing the level of human interaction altogether my leave some customers dissatisfied instead. Most customer queries in Pakistan arrive only by telephone. I tried real time chat with one of the national call centre (PIA) but the site kept showing a message that “the request is being assessed by the agent.” Of course it never was processed.
Enterprises are seeking IT to meet their business objectives. Increasingly, this is leading them to subscribe to IT and telecom services such as call centres all over the world. Local and foreign business enterprises in Pakistan are also installing automated telephone support systems as a way to save money and workers’ time for other important tasks. Any concern can make use of call centre for efficient way to handle customers’ inquiries. Quick and efficient response will help the customers (and clients in case of business to business) to feel secure and taken care, which will increase loyalty of customer towards an organisation. Mansoor A. Sheikh, a call centre software developer says, “Call centre may give an edge to small companies and even traditional family businesses, which aim at excelling in individual attention, over larger ones.” Large or small, any business with market vision should be able to see how to deploy call centres for its particular needs and take advantage of the technology.
Call centres can be made engines of business growth by minimising costs, enhancing customer satisfaction; and out bound call centres for using to up sell and generate new revenues. This can be done at a reasonable cost by turning made to order call centre into an effective cross media contact point staffed by people equipped with the appropriate tools, knowledge, and skills to provide responsive answers to emails, faxes and calls requesting service and information. Once incorporated intelligently and effectively, the advanced call centre solutions available today can work magic with customer satisfaction and e-marketing. It is time for private sector organisations to seize initiative while it may take a little while for government to put public services or city governments in call centres.
Given the low tech corporate environment, a business may not be yet ready to replace machines for in person communications. Or tech-averse consumers’ base may not be willing to talk to machines in the first place. Call centre operators testify that some users insist on talking to a ‘person’ even if they can get the required information by pressing some keys on their telephone. “This only needs getting used to. People will get familiar with the new system with the passage of time,” thinks Saadat Hasan Kazmi, the Manager of bank having a call centre facility for its customers. And, “call centres can co-exist with existing traditional and trusted business models. They do not have to replace them,” says Mansoor A. Sheikh.
Talking about call centre conjures up another image: deployment of global concerns’ call centres in Pakistan. Also, Pakistan’s IT industry comes into focus while discussing employment of any web based solutions including call centres. Infrastructure, labour and government policies are three major factors that influence outsourcing through call centres. Outsourcing experts think, “Rapid telecommunication network, literate and technically skilled staff conversant with English language, and stable corporate atmosphere help decide any business taking its call centres overseas.”
Pakistan is a strong contender for deployment of global call centres. But one sees call centres from America, Britain and Europe going to India, China, Mexico, Philippines, Vietnam, and Russia whereas Pakistan with fairly developed IT industry and telecommunication infrastructure lags behind, government’s initiative like provision of rebates in bandwidth rates and marketing efforts at highest level notwithstanding. “India, Philippines and China are expected to enjoy a sharp rise in the number of call centre stations in 2004,” says the head of a Sydney-based industry Think-Tank on the basis of a survey of 824 organizations throughout the region representing call centres in India, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Pakistan does not still figure out as a lucrative destination for prospective call centres. May be software houses have the answer to this, or is it the government?
The writer
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