Why call centres

So, fast forward to the s, in the offices of major telephone companies. It was here that the first call centres were used to handle operator enquiries, and where the history of call centres starts its journey.

In the 70s and 80s, new technology meant that call centres were adopted into the mainstream by large businesses. They served primarily as a sales tool —the main role of call centre agents was calling consumers to sell a product or service. Call centres would now be taking and managing more inbound calls from customers responding to adverts and other marketing efforts.

A warning of things to come hit in the early 90s. Customer complaints led to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which restricted the activities of call centre agents. Not only were restrictions placed on the times that call centre agents could reach out to customers, but automated diallers and messages were prevented as well. The call centre continued its rise in spite of legislation. The new law was an annoyance, but it also pushed agents to provide a more human experience with their outreach calls — a component of customer service that has become the norm today.

The internet also played an in integral role in the history of call centres. This is down to the rapid rise of consumer internet access, and the ensuing popularity of email. The 90s, in fact, saw email become one of the most popular forms of communication amongst consumers. Businesses needed to follow suit. Email became a primary method of accessing support alongside the telephone, and found its place as a customer service channel within the slowly diversifying call centre.

But the 90s dot com boom was the real fuel feeding the fiery growth of call centres. So, businesses turned to call centres to provide that missing element of customer service.

When the bubble burst in , many call centres felt the sting. However, they continued to be a popular method of customer support for big companies, and those that survived the dot com crash. These technologies begin with websites, chat bots, and apps and extend to artificial-intelligence robots that simulate human conversations—redefining the way organizations interact with customers—as well as more tried-and-tested functionalities such as improved web, app, or self-service capabilities in interactive voice-response IVR systems.

And yet, despite this plethora of technology solutions, we see that calls are not going away and instead are catching call-center executives off guard in their efforts to reduce volumes. On the contrary, the proliferation of digital tools can awaken previously dormant customers, sparking new inquiries from an engaged customer base. Why are so many organizations struggling with reaping the full benefits from these investments?

In our experience, the answer often lies in two core areas. First, as companies turn to technology to address call-center volumes, they allow customer experience to take a back seat to digital technology in their operations, creating dissonance in direct customer interaction, where the objective is harmony and efficiency. Second, by counting on technology to solve their call-center issues, executives lose focus on core operations and upset the balance between human interaction and automation in an era of evolved customer service.

The good news is that it is possible to deconstruct the ways in which such problems emerge and to create responses to put call centers and their volumes in better balance. Our experience suggests three common and interrelated challenges and how to approach them. The call center is often the main branch through which customers interact with an organization. Organizations often overlook the reason a customer is calling in the first place; the root cause may reside somewhere outside the call center.

For instance, at a large federal agency, customers were calling in because they received information in the mail that contradicted what a call-center agent had recently conveyed. Meanwhile, the company had already invested in highly capable functionalities to handle all these inquiries online. In each of these instances, the organization had made recent customer-facing technology investments but saw calls continue to pour in.

What was missing was cross-functional coordination. This often left customers dissatisfied and with no recourse but to call. With business siloes firmly established, the call center had no authority or established forum through which to address upstream or downstream customer issues.

Sometimes the outcome can be severe. For example, one healthcare payor faced a surge of repeat callers inquiring about adverse credit-score outcomes they had experienced from delayed payments to providers. Both the customers and the call center were following stated policies, but a recurring glitch downstream in the claims-processing department led to a significant delay in processing. As a result, medical providers were not paid on time, and customers suffered the brunt of the impact in the form of negative effects on their credit scores.

And the calls kept coming. The solution begins with a comprehensive view of the customer that transcends these siloes. To isolate major failures, first examine the top reasons customers call. This is not a tall order. It is often the case that just a handful of reasons generate the majority of calls. Identifying these reasons through analytics and customer surveys allows for the focus to generate quick wins. Once the three to five main reasons are identified, the customer journey can be mapped out for each.

For instance, what information is being conveyed to customers well before they call? This could be through a visit to a local branch, an email, a letter they receive in the mail, or interaction with an app or website.

Subsequently, after their call-center interaction, how are customer issues being handled downstream? Exploring these questions can uncover and address inconsistencies, bottlenecks, or failures that consistently yield callbacks. The payoff comes from connecting the call-center touchpoint with upstream communication and interactions and a targeted downstream response. Advanced customer analytics can help identify why customers are calling and inform where failures lie and how to address them.

Seventy-seven percent of customer-care executives we surveyed felt that building their capabilities in customer-journey analytics is critical for the next five years. Many big data solutions can help companies understand patterns of how customers interact across channels to find the right mix.

A contact center is the central point from which all customer contacts are managed. This requires the coordination and integration of people, processes, and technology across the business. Contact center agents, for instance, need to be trained in the best practices of each channel for engaging customers. Performance metrics must also be adapted to each channel to account for different functions and capabilities.

This infographic provides an overview of 10 reasons your call center should become a digital first omnichannel contact center. Improvements in operational KPIs, increased productivity with intelligent automation, and empowering your associates with customer insights are just some of the advantages.

Here also are some results we have delivered for our clients:. New security safeguards were put in place to meet regulations, including automatic caller verification and account escalation protocols. We also worked on streamlining customer communication interactions. The solution provided callers precision queueing to reach the best possible associate for complex issues. Meanwhile, robust self-service options gave customers control over balance and credit availability inquiries, payments by phone, and even clearing credit holds in the case of suspected fraudulent transactions.

Improved outbound collections routing also let delinquent card holders make immediate payments without ever speaking to an associate.

Customers who wanted to speak with an associate could still call to get assistance. This allowed them to place orders, ask billing questions, perform order tracking, and be connected to in-store employees using micro-applications on the associate desktop. Both divisions offered courtesy callbacks, eliminating wait time physically spent on hold. Finally, associates could more easily access backend customer information through soft phones and screen pops, as well as with CRM integration.

The new system routed nearly two-thirds of inbound phone calls to the self-service IVR, with containment calls sent through the IVR not routed to an associate approaching the 65 percent mark. Custom reporting provided detailed information to enable contact center managers to optimize staff utilization. Businesses can reduce customer service costs by up to 30 percent by implementing conversational solutions like virtual associates and chatbots.

Automation can, for certain business processes, replace humans what usually is known as RPA or unattended automation. This is why enterprises that have blended automation with humans report that their customer service efforts are more effective at improving both customer satisfaction 61 percent and associate satisfaction 69 percent.

Engaging with customers across multiple channels, with the ability to see their behaviors across different touch points, requires organizations to adopt forward-thinking strategies. This is why we predict contact centers will evolve into more comprehensive, digital-first customer experience hubs.

Engage the omnichannel customer by providing employees with access to the right customer data, at the right time, all in one place and view. As a result, customer care teams will be able to engage customers at the time and via the channel that the customer prefers. This has an immense positive impact on customer satisfaction, customer retention, employee productivity, and overall company profitability. In the below video, we take a fun look at contact centers vs.

A more robust customer service contact center, with seamless omnichannel orchestration across all customer touchpoints, can provide improved CX and operational efficiency. When it comes to contact center vs call center, we hope this article has provided you a better understanding of how contact centers for customer service provide a more powerful omnichannel experience for both your customers and your employees.

To learn more about how our cloud based contact center software and contact center outsourcing solutions deliver best-in-class customer experiences, here are some additional resources.