CALL CENTRES - A STRATEGIC ASSET FOR YOUR CU

According to William Durr, author of Navigating the Customer Contact Center in the 21st Century, call centers fall into several segments from a back office operation to a strategic asset. In credit unions, call centers start out as back office operations. These call centers ultimately emerge into a unit that supports a branch network, but often has no goals or metrics of its own. The organization may place more emphasis on the value of serving members via phone and eventually develop a more professional center. Professional centers look to manage caller wait time, measure call quality and improve member interaction. There is some limited measurement in a professional center, but no link between the call center and the rest of the organization. For example, the marketing department and call center may not coordinate activities. The final segment is the strategic asset segment. In this segment the strategy of the call center is completely aligned with the rest of the organization. According to Durr, strategic asset call centers imply that it is hard to imagine the company being successful without a call center operation.


A Call Center as a Strategic Asset
What makes a call center a strategic asset? According to Durr, call centers that are strategic assets at organizations do the following:


Create new business opportunities
Provide useful insights and information about the member
Support new ways of doing business
Are a unique, sustainable competitive difference

ING's call center representatives answer the phone with the phrase, "Thank you for calling ING, how can I help you save your money today." ING's call center helps extend the brand of the organization. Service Credit Union, a New Hampshire-based credit union with a field of membership that includes all U.S. military, operates call centers 7 days a week in both Europe and the U.S. to meet the needs of members that reside worldwide. American Eagle Federal Credit Union in Connecticut captures member comments and complaints through its call center. The call center interacts with thousands of members daily. American Eagle FCU's I-Sight solution allows the credit union to capture member comments and use them to impact the performance of the entire organization.

Measuring the Strategic Asset
High performing call centers that are aligned with the goals of the organization look at performance metrics in three areas: service performance, call quality and sales productivity. Service performance includes the operational metrics of the call center, quality measures the employee's interaction with the member and the usage of the core processing system to perform the transaction, while sales productivity highlights the impact the call center has on the growth of the credit union.

INFORMALL CALL CENTRES PROVIDES A VALUABLE SERVICE

Informal Call Centre receives calls coming into a contact group and distributes the calls among agents of the company assigned to that group.
Informal Call Centre provides a valuable service for those business customers who have a help desk, order entry department or any contact group, especially with variable or even seasonal call volume.

In place of lost calls, busy signals or expanding staff just because of peak periods the Informal Call Centre application handles incoming calls in an orderly and professional manner whether agents are immediately available or there is a period of call overflow.

The informal call centre receives calls coming into a contact group and distributes the calls among agents of the company assigned to that group, whether the agents are in the call centre or working from home or other remote location.



The ACD (automatic call distribution) capability helps especially with busy call periods to present a professional customer interface and to maximize caller satisfaction. ValueNet can easily configure multiple queues per customer, with custom choices, meeting customer needs while saving their customers from call centre capital expenditures

CALL CENTRE AGENT FAMILARITY A MAJOR TURN_OFF

CALL CENTRE AGENT FAMILARITY A MAJOR TURN-OFF :What's worse than a call centre agent ringing right at dinner time? A call centre agent ringing right at dinner time and then repeatedly calling you "Angus". The aim of that approach seems to be enforced familiarity, but it turns out that neither customers nor call centre workers enjoy the experience. Because most call centre staff are trained to use an ultra-social, North American approach, the whole thing quickly goes astray, according to a new Oxford University study. As researcher Dr Katrina Hultgren explained to the Daily Telegraph:


The problem is that agents are under pressure to process customers as quickly as possible, so they are inclined to opt for ways of creating rapport which can be done speedily. This tends to be by using the customer's name as it's quicker than engaging them in small talk. As a customer, we then have the impression of our name being overused and feel uncomfortable.

Aside from the intrusion, what gets your goat about call centre interactions? Share your experiences -- and tactics for getting rid of them -- in the comments. (I've sunk to hanging up without a word these days.) To improve your day-to-day interactions, check out our top 10 conversation hacks.

Call centre customers irritated by over-familiar American-style chat [Daily Telegraph]

THERE HAS BEEN HUGE MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE BPO SECTORS IN PAKISTAN IN RECENT YEARS

there has been a huge movement towards the BPO sector in Pakistan in recent years, as to boost its appeal as a high tech-hub, the Pakistani government has provided a 15 year tax exemption on software exports, eliminated duties on technology imports and streamlined the investment process, reiterates Iritani.

Though Pakistan has been slow to start off from this BPO revolution, it is vying a spot in the international market with efforts such as mentioned by Iritani, and also as Rafi-Uddin- Shikoh mentioned is his write up regarding PSEB and call center revolution in Pakistan, that Pakistan has already started offering regulatory incentives such as 100% foreign ownership, tex exemption till 2016, 7 years tax holiday for venture capital (VC) funds.

Primarily, purpose of this article is to highlight one of the basic ingredients of the contact / call center industry, which stands on strong grounds provided by a detailed infrastructure, efficient and effective support services including staff and hardware, and the front line customer interaction agents, which in clear and concise manner are called the Customer Services Representatives (CSRs) at least in Pakistan, as I have discovered.

Having worked with one of the very few, established and much celebrated BPO units in Islamabad, Touchstone Communications in both operations and supports functions I enjoy a comfort zone knowledge level regarding the CSRs, and their everyday life.

Life cycle of an average CSR starts from the point of his / her induction program, which I will base upon my experience in the call center industry, as to say when their appears an advertisement in the newspaper “Work in America without leaving your homeland”. Now how tempting would that be?

It all starts with an initial interaction with one of the HR personnel, who would after having a telephonic conversation, deem you fit enough for a personal interview. In doing so, you have actually made an impression of being able to carry out a confident telephonic conversation, a basic criterion for a call center agent. During your initial HR interview, you will management an agent has to undertake at relatively a young age, since average age of the agents varies hovers between 18-25. This also includes the in dependability of being self financed, not to be carried away with the fact that one is making as much as some seasoned government employee would be by the end of 12 years of his service. Within itself, it is a big statement, and enough to make anyone’s mind go on an ego flight.

Second factor as I mentioned a lot of peer pressure in regards to the social profile that an agent has, and alternatively wants to maintain, which normally do not match each other. The amount of peer pressure present in call centers industry is enough to make a raw soul turn into an established smoker, avid night-outer and stuff affiliated to it. But the hard fact of life is that anyone who has made up his mind to stick to work will able to make a profile for him, and will always be known for not succumbing to such force called “Peer Pressure”.

Working at a US based call center in heart of the Federal Capital, it is heartening to see development of agents from mere entry level telemarketers to positions such as Project Managers, Operations Directors, Human Resource Personnel, Training Coordinators, Accent Neutralization Coordinators. These are just the Initial settings of an agent’s strategic plans, if anyone has some, because it is just not a Phone Monkey that I wanted to be when I joined Touchstone Communication. Having a business degree under my belt, I wanted to progress through the ranks of a the front line staff, but after acquiring considerable knowledge about the system and set up, so wanted to be part of strategic marketing, and human resource plans, I had to actually get to know the basics, the tricks of the trade, as they say, “A thief knows what a thief does”.

For that matter I had to start & serve as that thief, before actually managing such or being responsible for such. As the call center industry expands, and takes it’s roots in Pakistan, there will be great emphasis on career building in call centers not just the best ones, but it’ll become a hallmark of call/contact center industry to provide professionals to business media, IT super dudes, Immaculate Sales staff, and extremely talented conversationalists. To see this industry as just a few hundred people sitting within their cubicles, and dialing to remote locations of the world would simply be a fool’s vision, because this is a start, where young professionals get hands on training and grueling working hours to ensure strength in mental and moral grounds.

As much debate as we want to get ourselves into, the hard fact is that Call Center or Contact Center Industry, according to Farukh Aslam, Vice President Touchstone Communications, Islamabad, is a $600 billion mega pie, And Pakistan’s share to this date is not even a meager $10 million. And to make sure we get not just that $10
Million share, but more than that, we will have to Ensure that our grass root strategies are aligned to actually support such ventures where Pakistan without a doubt out classes India in terms of the quality of its Contact Center Agents, and just with the right kind of Human Resources and policies to own such talents, Pakistan could well be in the hunt for this huge $600 billion pie, which currently India, Jamaica, & Sri Lanka are simply having fun with.

As the call center industry expands, and takes it’s roots in Pakistan, there will be great emphasis on career building in call centers not just the best ones, but it’ll become a hallmark of call/contact center industry to provide professionals to business media, IT super dudes, Immaculate Sales staff, and extremely talented conversationalists.

CALL CENTRES WILL BE PULLINGOUT ALL THE STOPS TO SUPPORT RED NOSE DAY

On Friday 13 March, hundreds of Call Centres across the UK will be pulling out all the stops to support Red Nose Day 2009. From taking tons of vital calls from the public when they ring in to donate, to getting up to all sorts of shenanigans to fundraise too, we couldn’t do it without them.


If you’re from one of these wonderful call centres, thank you! We hope you’ll have a great time on Red Nose Night and that you’ll get into the spirit of things with your colleagues to help thousands of poor, vulnerable or disadvantaged people, both across Africa and the UK.

And if you think it’s just about taking calls, think again! Call centre volunteers often send us testimonials highlighting all the fun, frolic and fundraising they’ve taken part in on the night helping to keep everyone motivated through to the early hours of the morning: If you want to join in the fun, why not get the local community involved? Here’s a few ideas to get you going:

Invite a local masseur to come and give volunteers neck and shoulder massages, so you’re relaxed and raring to take those calls.
Ask a local pizza place or supermarket to donate some food to keep those energy levels up!
Local magicians and Balloon artists will jump at the chance to come and entertain you while you work and play hard.
Call centres have contributed massively to the success of Red Nose Day over the years and we never forget that - so have fun and let us know what you got up to! If you’re one of our RND 09 centres, be ready to send us around 100 words and 3 or 4 photos and we’ll try to put them on our website.

"Call centre managers – if you want to be a part of our future campaigns, we’d love to hear from you! Contact Callcentres@comicrelief.com – after red nose day please!”

THE VALIBILITY OF ALTERNATIVE CALL CENTRE PRODUCTION MODELS

In this we outline three alternative production models and discuss their applicability to call centre management. These include the classic mass production model, the professional service model and the mass customisation model. We then develop a theoretical framework that identifies potential causal links between management practices, workers‘ affective and cognitive reactions, and performance outcomes. We use this framework to review literature on service workplaces in organisational behaviour and HR studies and to assess the empirical evidence regarding these causal explanations. Finally, we present two recent quantitative studies of call centre performance – one that examines affective explanations and one that explores cognitive explanations for the HRperformance link. We conclude with directions for future research

WEB INTEGRATED CALL CENTRES

The integration of the Internet and call centre will fuse two of the most potent direct customer access channels available. Effective use of the new operation has the potential to revolutionise customer facing operations and lead to real business benefit for online operations. Datamonitor's new report, 'Web Integrated Call Centres In Europe', examines the new approach to customer facing systems and it's impact on business functionality. Key questions that are answered include : What are the key business drivers for web enabled call centres, and how can they be harnessed for maximising online success? What are the key technologies for successful web integration, and what does this mean for the call centre architecture of the future? How will the web impact on call centre agent functions, and influence internal operations? Identification and analysis of key market drivers, pan-European web integrated call centre market sizing, in addition to vertical market product and activity suitability; What strategies should vendors, integrators and operators adopt to fully exploit the new opportunities

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN CALL CENTRES REPORTS

Overview: This report is about the human resource practices used in U.K. call centers. It is based on a survey of 142 call centers, nearly all CCA members. Senior Call Centre Managers completed the majority of questionnaires. It covered most sectors, but particularly financial services, local government, travel and retail. The average number of employees in each call centre was 130, and the total number of employees covered by the survey was 17,000.

PUBLIC SECTOR CALL CENTRES LAGGING BEHIND PRIVATE SECTOR

Public sector call centres lagging behind private sector
Woking (UK) - February 2009. Research carried out by Rostrvm Solutions has shown that public sector call centres are not making the most of technology such as Computer Telephone Integration (CTI).

In today's challenging environment, every organisation needs to be as efficient as possible. Rostrvm Solutions' research has shown that less than 20% of public sector contact centres take advantage of the technology compared with over 50% in the private sector

Ken Reid of Rostrvm Solutions commented "Public authorities need to look closely at the advantages brought about by CTI. With efficiency being a hot topic in the public sector at present with initiatives such as 'National Indicator 14: Reducing Avoidable Contact' and the efficiency agenda, it is essential that public bodies use the best available technology to streamline customer contact, consolidate business processes and deliver services as efficiently as possible. With all the advantages that CTI has to offer, public authorities can begin the move towards better efficiency in their contact centres."

Rostrvm's research also highlighted the large number of different software applications used by call centre agents to process calls - the numbers ranged from 1 to 20+. Call centre agents use an average of 4 software applications to process a call. Managing multiple applications is a large drain on resources that can be addressed with CTI technology

CALL CENTRES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN LESS FAVOURED REGIONS

Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies, Newcastle upon Tyne

This article considers the role of call centres in the economic development of less favoured regions (LFRs). It suggests that call centres represent a new form of mobile service work which these regions are increasingly seeking to attract. It considers the factors which are important in attracting this work. It then explores the policies adopted by two LFRs which have been reasonably successful in doing so. It suggests that there are a number of benefits from the attraction of call centres, particularly employment opportunities not otherwise available in such regions. It also strikes a note of caution, however, questioning, in particular, whether these jobs will last.

CUSTOMER SERVICES REPRESENTATIVES(CSRs)

Customer Services Representatives (CSRs), the key resource within a call centre, are front line employees that have direct knowledge of customers and often play a mission critical role in shaping customer perceptions of organisations. The role of the CSR is increasingly requiring a wide skill set e.g. oral, written, product knowledge, sales, pricing, and technology skills along with an ability to handle stressful situations when dealing with customers.
Call Centres are increasingly being accessed via the Internet and e-commerce is being used to simplify transactions and to provide 24/7 availability. Call Centres use automatic call distributors (ACDs) to route calls to the appropriate CSR. ACDs are computerised phone systems that respond to callers using voice menus and distribute calls evenly between agents. Blended Call Centres allow agents to both make, and receive, calls as demand or strategy dictates. Blended Call Centres often combine ACDs (for incoming calls) with predictive dialling (for outbound calls) thus enabling more efficient use of the agents. The systems may also be linked to computer databases, adding a further level of service by making connections based on a caller's previous history. Skills-based routing can be invoked to connect a caller, along with the appropriate database files, to the CSR having the appropriate skills required e.g. a foreign language. Some ACDs can also route e-mail, faxes, web-initiated calls and customer call-back requests