Go BackHow can today's call centre remain competitive in the face of offshoring?
Over the last few years there has been a lot of discussion on the subject of outsourced offshore contact centres and the potential cost savings and efficiencies they may bring. But moving a contact centre offshore is not the only way of making them more cost effective. Alex Donnelly, portfolio manager at Damovo UK, highlights how technology is helping the contact centre evolve - creating greater security and enabling agents to work remotely.
How can today's call centre remain competitive in the face of offshoring?
Technology can be a major competitive differentiator and increasingly companies are looking to implement voice over IP (VoIP) systems at their contact centres in the UK to enable cheaper and more flexible and efficient customer contact management.
Customer experience is gaining increasing importance in the success of the contact centre, with greater emphasis on service value to the customer, as lower-end functions are automated or offshored. Technologies are continuously improving and providing contact centre agents with enhanced capabilities, which in turn improves the customer experience.
What technologies are likely to play a key role?
Unified communications and presence are technologies that now play a big role in enabling agents to immediately see which 'subject matter experts' are available to communicate with in the back office. These technologies benefit the contact centre environment by offering the agent who initially takes the call the ability to view who is available through an instant messaging (IM) application or interface. This allows the agent to immediately see who is best placed to assist in answering the customer query. Through this interface the agent is also able to either conference in a colleague to the call or get a response via IM without handing over the call. This scenario has a number of benefits, it improves the chances of resolving the interaction at the 'first point of contact' as the agent always remains in control of the interaction, the relationship management and audit trail is updated by the agent - resulting in less frustration and a more seamless customer experience.
Can technology help with staff retention at contact centres?
Almost half of contact centres in the UK have problems with staff retention. The trend for outsourcing is also something that has affected the industry, in both public perception and staff attrition. Developments in contact centre technology means what we think of as the 'traditional' call centre is evolving, bringing with it benefits to existing clients, potential new customers and employees.
Will this mean an increase in remote working?
The 'virtual' contact centre is today playing a key role in enticing and retaining employees. This enables employees to work from a convenient location to them, offering greater flexibility and subsequently higher levels of productivity and job satisfaction. It can create a better work-life balance for employees, which in turn may lead to a reduction in staff-churn rates for UK contact centres.
Desk space is also becoming a premium across the business world, and as a result more and more companies are looking to offer remote working to their staff. Contact centre staff are being sent away from the office, not only as a cost saving tactic but also because of proven productivity gains and to offer a more flexible way of working to their employees.
Is remote working secure?
With increasing numbers of contact centre agents, it is important to ensure they are protected from abusive callers, both on site and remotely. Subsequently speech analytics are being used to better record and monitor calls for these purposes. The technology goes beyond word spotting, the ability to analyse stress levels enables agents experiencing difficulty to have calls automatically flagged to supervisors if necessary. With this technology in place, it enables employees to work in the comfort of their own homes, but still be secure.
How else can today's technology benefit today's contact centre agent?
Another tool being implemented by contact centres is web-based skills management and assessment to improve agents' contact handling performance. Employers can ensure their agents have a minimum level of skill and knowledge, identify the skills gap and implement the appropriate training as required. In this way, skills management can be integrated automatically into the skills matrix of the contact centre to provide more effective routing, empowering agents to monitor their own progress as well as improving motivation.
Over the years, contact centres have battled against a barrage of negative perceptions, including poor service and long waiting times. In order to improve services while making cost savings, some companies have resorted to outsourcing. With the introduction of new technologies, the increasing number of applications available, offer added value to the organisation. These benefits in turn are extended to both customers and employees, providing a more streamlined experience and improved career prospects through training, respectively.
