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"Zeacom, the leading provider of
Contact Center and Unified
Communications (UC) software and services."
Source : Zeacom
Building the Small Contact Center
Contact Centers is also known as :
Contact Center Application,
Contact Center Attrition,
Contact Center Business,
Contact Center Client,
Contact Center Companies,
Contact Center Consultant,
Contact Center Cost,
Contact Center Data,
Contact Center Definition,
Contact Center Directory,
Contact Center Features,
Contact Center Help,
Contact Center Industry,
Contact Center Information,
Contact Center Live,
Contact Center Management,
Contact Center Manager,
Contact Center Metrics,
Contact Center Monitoring,
Contact Center Network,
Contact Center Online,
Contact Center Operations,
Contact Center Outsourcing,
Contact Center Performance,
Contact Center Platform,
Contact Center Product,
Contact Center Professional,
Contact Center Providers,
Contact Center Publications,
Contact Center Quality,
Contact Center Reporting,
Contact Center Reports,
Contact Center Representative,
Contact Center Requirements,
Contact Center Resources,
Contact Center Sales,
Contact Center Service,
Contact Center Service Level,
Contact Center Software.
Overview
Until recently, customer interaction technologies were often considered too complex and costly for all
but the largest businesses to justify. But today that picture has changed. Encouraged by declining
technology costs, changing customer expectations and pressured by competition, small and mid-size
companies are investing in key customer service building blocks such as contact centers.
A leading contact center provider has described the contact center as "a physical entity where many
media (phone, email, fax, Web and more) contacts are placed and taken, using a combination of your
Ambassadors (Agents) and technology. The end result is an information exchange that adds value to
your products and/or services."
The key drivers are:
- Customer satisfaction and retention
- Increased operating efficiency
- Revenue generation and cross selling
- Better customer information
- To be more competitive
A well-run contact center thrives on a remarkable mix of positive human interaction, involving
customers, contact center agents and the technical systems that support them. Technology is an
essential enabler, but the focus is always on creating value for people by meeting their needs.
The sophisticated contact center/CRM capabilities that were too costly for most companies a short
time ago are now available in new systems designed for smaller firms. Small contact centers can route
high-value customers to top agents, help callers quickly reach the right department, provide a better
experience while callers wait in queue and let the customer leave a Callback request. Small contact
center systems can even mix live contacts, faxes, email messages and Web contacts, helping ensure
consistent contact handling no matter which medium the customer prefers.
Some small contact center systems are modular in design, so managers can start with a simple system,
and then add capabilities as the need develops. This approach helps avoid the "fork-lift upgrade" and
ensures that the initial system investment continues to provide value as the contact center expands and
becomes more sophisticated.
Using today's systems, most firms can readily set up small and informal contact centers that boost
customer loyalty, increase sales and generate a demonstrable return on investment.
Introduction
Challenging competition from large firms and, in some markets, Web-based companies and overseas
competitors have raised the stakes for smaller companies planning their customer relationship strategy.
Add a complex communications mix combined with the challenge of high customer expectations and
tough big-firm competition, and the need for all firms to invest in quality contact center solutions is
clear.
Today's customers have many new ways of contacting a business. Cell phones, email and the Internet
have joined the traditional phone, fax, mail and walk-in contact. No matter how they make contact,
customers expect consistent service. Most customers find unanswered email as unacceptable as an
unanswered phone.
Customers need and expect fast, high quality service - they want the companies that they do business
with to "know" them and smoothly deliver service that fits their needs. They expect smaller companies
to provide the same priced competitiveness and service quality as their larger competitors.
Smaller companies face significant competitive threats. In many markets, customers order from across
the nation as readily as from across the street. Only the smallest local firms can count on "corner store"
intimacy to ensure close customer relationships.
According to Chris Thompson, analyst at San Jose, Calif.-based Dataquest, "Companies that once didn't
have a strong customer-focused mindset now have to get very customer service-oriented as their
markets become more competitive."
Larger competitors use technology solutions to overcome size and distance and ensure customers
receive tailored care - for example,through special routing to expert agents. The company retains a
"memory" of customer interactions by bringing customer records together. For small and mid-size
business too, this kind of technology-aided customer management has become an essential tool. To
compete with these big players, smaller companies need similar systems - and now they're available.
Does Size matter?
Although managing the customer relationship affects almost every part of a business, it often finds its
focal point in the contact center. Whether located in a single room or distributed across multiple
locations, the contact center bears a primary responsibility for maintaining and enhancing the quality of
the customer's sales and service experience. For the purpose of this paper, we define the "small
contact center" as having 5 to 50 agents, in one or several locations.
The "informal contact center" is more complex to define. It can be a separate group within a larger
contact center assigned to deal with a subset of the larger center's operations - for instance, a group
of expert agents assigned to take over and resolve the most complex trouble contacts. The informal
center could also be made up of sales, service or technical support personnel diffused throughout the
organization who operate without close control by central management. Or it could be structured, but so
small that it doesn't benefit from technology coordinated with other units in the company: a
departmental contact center.
Other than size, what's the difference between large and small contact centers? Historically, the large
contact center has had significant financial and management resources available to invest in high-end
technology. Typically more than 75 per cent of the cost of operating a contact center is spent on
contact center agents. With large operations employing hundreds or even thousands of agents, it only
makes sense to leverage that workforce by investing in the most advanced technology available to keep
agents employed, happy and productive. Technology companies responded by developing their most
advanced solutions for the big clients who could afford it.
To the customer, however, the size of their supplier is less important than the service they deliver.
Customers (including suppliers and employees) won't stick with big firms that treat them poorly. Nor will
they give smaller companies a license to treat them carelessly just because they can't afford to look
after them properly. Fortunately, smaller companies can avoid this dilemma by using new contact center
systems designed, scaled and priced for their business.
Customer Needs and Expectations
Customers expect both large and small companies to deliver a competitive, positive customer
experience:
- Customers expect to be able to communicate the way they want, whether it's voice, email, Web
chat, fax or something else. And they expect a single high level of service, no matter which
medium they choose.
- Customers want every public face of the company to speak the same language. Web sites,
printed material, direct sales teams, 1-800 sales and service centers should look and
communicate as if they belong to one company.
- Customers expect companies to know and remember them. If a customer contacted for service
last week, they don't want to explain when, why and what happened when they contact again
this week. Indeed, maybe the customer should talk to the same agent. If they're big purchasers,
they should expect (and receive) red-carpet service.
- Customers want fast, accurate and conclusive service. In other words, they want to reach the
right person the first time they make contact. They don't want to be bounced from shipping to
repair to tech support just to order a spare part.
- Customers want options. If they don't have time to wait in queue, they should have the choice
to leave a message and request a return contact.
The bottom line is that customers want a good experience. When they make contact, they're giving a
business a golden opportunity to provide this good experience. If the customer is mishandled, they may
not provide another chance. The small contact center and its systems must be devoted to keeping
these customers coming back.
Business needs /
requirements
As a strategic business tool, the contact center/CRM system has value
beyond its ability to simply keep customers coming back. It can reward top
customers, increase sales, speed the processing of service contacts, help
attract and retain the best contact center agents and reduce costs. It can
even encourage high cost/low margin customers to buy more, or migrate to
the competition.
No matter what its capabilities, of course, no system will make business
sense unless it provides a positive return for the time and money invested in
it. Return on financial investment (ROI) is a must, especially for smaller firms.
In addition, contact center systems for smaller organizations must be easy
and straightforward to implement; they must build effectively on the
company's existing voice/data infrastructure and be reliable and easy to
administer, service and support.
The financial stakes are high. According to research by Purdue University,
the average cost of handling a single customer interaction via the contact
center can vary by industry from $7.01 in financial services to $8.16 in
consumer products to $17.10 for health care providers. Multiply such
figures by hundreds or thousands of interactions each day and it becomes clear why companies invest heavily in systems, agent recruitment and
training to make each interaction productive and profitable.
The Gartner Group in a May 2001 Research Note identified the average
costs to support different contacts as:
| Web self-service |
$ 0.24 (range of 0.05 to $0.50) |
| IVR self-service |
$ 0.45 |
| Email |
$5.00 (range of $2.50 to $10.00) |
| Web/Text Chat |
$7.00 (can be much less if short transactions) |
| Phone Call |
$5.50 (range of $2.00 to $12.00) |
Contact center providers and independent consultants can help companies
develop their contact center strategy and design and install their contact
center systems. They can also investigate the bottom line impact of a
proposed system by conducting a detailed ROI analysis.
Small Contact Center Capabilities
Using new generation systems, small and informal contact centers can now deploy contact handling
capabilities that until recently only large centers could use. Products such as Zeacom ContactCenter
software for smaller companies, offer powerful capabilities for customer contact management. Here is
a rundown of these capabilities and how they are used:
Advanced Automatic
Contact Distribution
Using incoming Calling line identification (CLID), the system determines
where the contact originated and searches the database for a match. If a
match is found, the customer and his or her records (for instance their
personal profile, sales history and record of previous contacts) can be
automatically placed into priority queues, or sent to the agent who last dealt
with the caller. One obvious contact-distributing possibility is to send "big
spenders", or other priority callers, to the front of the queue for faster
service. There are additional possibilities when the system matches caller
preferences with the agent's special skills.
Skills-based routing
Matching customers with the agents best equipped to help can increase
satisfaction for both parties. Customers receive better service and highly
skilled agents feel valued. Contacts can be routed to take advantage of a
wide range of agent abilities including:
- Special knowledge of a product or service
- Experience with the customer
- Special ability to close sales or resolve service problems
- Language ability
- Geographic location
A single agent may have multiple skills. Advanced routing systems enable
companies to write rules to manage the complex priorities involved when
customer satisfaction depends on the right mix of speed, skill and efficiency.
Interactive Voice
Response (IVR)
Used correctly, IVR can relieve live agents of routine work, increase
productivity and boost customer satisfaction. Today's systems even keep
callers in queue for a live agent while they explore the information available
through IVR. Used without care, however, IVR can cause problems. Anyone
who's been trapped as a recorded voice droned through an endless list of
prompts ("for customer service on version 3.1 in West Virginia, press 9")
knows the issue. Call Center Magazine advises that user-friendly IVR
systems should include no more than two menus, and a maximum of four
selections for each menu. And customers should be able to transfer at any
time to a live agent.
Web and Email
integration
The Internet has established itself as an important way for customers to
gather information and communicate with companies. Savvy Web-oriented
firms take orders over the Web and make it easy for customers to track
those orders as they progress through the system. And the Web can do
more.
The Web offers important communication options that smart companies will
include in their contact center systems. Center managers should ask
themselves these questions:
- Can your Web-surfing customers leave a request at your Web site
for a phone callback?
- Can they "click and contact" your contact center using Internet
Protocol telephony?
- Can they contact an agent for a live Web chat session?
- Will your customer's everyday email inquiry be handled as quickly
and carefully as a phone call?
The firm that can't say yes to all of these options - and most cannot - is
closing the doors on its customers. According to a survey by
supportindustry.com, 73 per cent of contact centers do not have an
integrated phone, Web and email system that treats all contacts with the
same priority. Another study reported that almost 80 per cent of companies
do not allow customers to reach their contact centers from the firm's web
site.
Remote agent (work
at home) capability
Although it relies on technology, the contact center has a human heart.
Agents represent 75 per cent of a contact center's expense, so attracting
and retaining the best agents is key to the center's success and absorbs a
large portion of the manager's energy.
As managers compete for top agents, the choice for agents to work and
take contacts at home can win the game. Using "soft phone" application
software that runs on the agent's personal computer and connects to the
company's corporate network ????gives remote agents access to a full range of
agent capabilities. These include "screen pops" of customer information,
contact center and personal statistics, access to corporate directories and
an integrated history of contacts the agent's made on their home PC.
Queue management
Taking good care of customers in queue (waiting for a company contact) is
the goal of several queue-management innovations available for small
contact centers.
On-hold announcements have been around a while. Nonetheless, they can
be highly effective at holding callers in queue when call traffic is high and
hold times are longer than optimum. In addition to providing sales and
service information, announcements can help customers gather needed
information (i.e., product serial number, copy of your bill) and even tell them
their expected hold time until answer, and their current position in queue.
Quality Control
During peak times when waits become prolonged, companies can give
callers the option of leaving a Callback message. The message retains its
position in queue and is delivered to the agent as if the caller was still on
the line, so the message, not the agent or the caller, does the waiting.
Companies that embrace the "many media" view of customer interaction will
extend their philosophy to queue management. That means including email
and voice messages, faxes, Web-initiated callback requests and Web chat
contacts in queue along with phone contacts.
Managing even a small contact center is a demanding and complex process.
It's a game of seconds, involving hundreds or thousands of players. Quality
contact center systems provide a host of reporting and management
features to help managers tackle both short-term and long-term
management challenges.
At any moment, dozens of agents may be handling calls, messages and
Web contacts involving a company's full range of products and services,
covering countless issues. The volume and nature of contacts can change
by the minute, and the contact center manager must respond. Even better,
the manager can anticipate and prepare.
In addition to dealing with these to short-term issues, contact center
management faces significant long-term questions.
be demanding. Speed and accuracy count, and agents must remain cheery
even when dealing with unhappy clients. Because of these pressures,
contact center turnover tends to be high, and replacing agents is expensive
and time consuming. Dr. Jon Anton at Purdue University says that on
average, contact centers interview seven applicants to hire one new agent,
and spend more than $6,000 in the process. Another study, by
benchmarkportal.com, reports that the cost to bring on a new agent can
range from $2,600 for a catalog agent to more than $15,000 for an agent
in financial services.
Management systems can ease the pressure on agents by helping
managers plan ahead to schedule enough agents to meet demand.
Managers can use contact vectoring systems to ensure customers reach
the right agent the first time, keeping both happy. And, by closely tracking
agent work and idle time, management systems can balance workloads and
identify agents who will benefit from additional training. Here are some of
the management tools available for small contact centers:
Contact Reporting System
These collect "cradle to grave" historical statistics on every facet of every
contact, from the time it arrives at the PBX through to completion.
Information can be provided on a per agent basis, enabling managers to
accurately and fairly assess individual agent performance against their peers
and their previous performance.
Reporting systems can gather volumes of helpful information on individual
and center-wide performance, such as service level, contact type, Callback
results, average speed to answer, average talk time per queue per agent,
abandoned calls per queue by time, queue traffic, agent availability, agent
break time, agent Wrapup codes and log in/log out time.
Call Monitoring Systems
These enable managers to listen in to agent activity, providing the
opportunity for real-time quality assessment and rapid feedback on the
agent's performance.
Manager Desktop Systems
These let managers distribute real-time information on queue and agent
performance to as many agent PCs on the local area network (LAN) as they
wish. They can control all aspects of the operation in real time and monitor
the status of each agent and queue from their desktop PC. By providing
true, real-time information, desktop monitor systems help managers make
the right decisions at the right time.
Converged
voice/data
networking
Contact Recording systems
These enable companies to record and retain the entire customer contact
experience. Such systems are useful for quality assurance and employee
training purposes. They also help resolve disputes and ensure the accuracy
of customer orders.
A trend that's enhancing system flexibility, encouraging innovation and
helping reduce costs is the move to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
communication. In VoIP systems, voice communication uses the same digital
Internet Protocol (Ethernet) LAN used by a company's data traffic.
Increasingly, companies are "converging" voice and data communication on
a single data network.
Because these systems are often developed using non-proprietary, open
standards, they encourage innovation from third-party software developers
who can create useful compatible applications. Using a single operating
system (typically Microsoft's Windows) such systems ease the job of making
multiple applications "talk" to each other. For instance, Zeacom
ContactCenter runs on a PC server using the Microsoft Windows operating
system.
In addition, by simplifying the company's network (one network instead of
two) converged systems can reduce the investment and administrative
overhead required to support a separate voice network.
Bottom Line:
Calculating return on a contact center investment
Contact centers (even the new systems designed and priced for small and mid-sized businesses) are
major investments. They should be planned and assessed carefully to ensure they contribute to the
company's financial performance. Call Center Magazine provides these guidelines for building an
environment where a new contact center can thrive:
- Create a strategic plan for customer care.Define the customers and prospects the company
will serve, determine how customers will make contact and most important; decide how the
contact center's role meshes with marketing, outside sales, service, information systems,
finance and other key functions.
- Build a culture of cooperationby aligning the contact center's goals and evaluation systems
with those used elsewhere in the company.
- Educate other parts of the companyabout the role of the contact center. This understanding
is a key to building support for the contact center.
- Make a long-term investment in staffing the contact center.Finance and marketing must
buy into the contact center's potential to build and sustain customer relationships and
contribute to the bottom line.
- Set goals and metrics that goes beyond the superficial measures.such as average hold
time and number of customers served, to assess the contact center's ability to increase
revenues and customer satisfaction.
Companies can find extensive support in assessing the payoff from a contact center investment from
contact center systems vendors and independent contact center consultants.
Summary
Customers are the lifeblood of every business, but only the very smallest business can manage each
customer relationships through direct personal contact. Larger firms need to organize and manage their
systems for enhancing customer relationships as carefully as they track inventory and audit their books.
They are filling this need by establishing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems based on
a company-side view of how customers should be attracted, retained and treated for maximum mutual
benefit. A key component of this strategy is the contact center, where meeting and serving customers is
a full-time job.
Advances in software, computers and telecommunications including computer/telephony convergence
have made sophisticated contact center systems both manageable and affordable for smaller
companies, enabling them to match large firms feature for feature as they compete for the heart of the
customer.
Zeacom Offices www.zeacom.com
California, USA Tel: +1 (949) 261 3580
Auckland, New Zealand Tel: +64 (9) 356 5555
Sydney, Australia Tel: +61 (2) 8270 7222
Melbourne, Australia Tel: +61 (3) 8616 8555
Table of Contents
- Overview
- Introduction
- Does size matter?
- Customer needs and expectations
- Buiesness needs/requirements
- Small Contact Center Capabilities
- Advanced Automatic Contact Distribution (ACD)
- Skills-based routing
- Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
- Web and Email integration
- Remote agent (work at home) capability
- Queue management
- Quality Control
- Contact Reporting Systems
- Call Monitoring Systems
- Manager Desktop systems
- Contact recording systems
- Converged voice/data networking
- Bottom Line: Calculating return on a contact center investment
- Summary
2005 Zeacom Limited. All copyright, other intellectual property and information in this material is the
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This material may be used by the recipient only, on a confidential basis and only for the purposes for
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disclosed to any third party without Zeacom Limited's prior written consent.