CIOs better not switch off contact centres

PUNE, INDIA: Customer Service, as delivered through the contact center, currently suffers from an overall lack of commitment to the customer service representative (CSR) in the form of tools, training and compensation.

And companies need to redouble their efforts in this area and extend the customer Web site, add multiple communications channels, and plan carefully to improve agent performance through the introduction of new technologies.

These views extend the prognosis by IT research major Gartner on the future of contact centres in a CIO consideration list. It highlights that the customer service contact center is undervalued by most business leaders, and this lack of priority is reflected in underfunding of the customer service function and often results in an enterprise’s failure to remain competitive.

“Although still highly placed, customer service is receiving less emphasis than cost cutting,” said Michael Maoz, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Of course cost cutting is essential in the current economic climate, but knowing how to cut costs without damaging the customer experience is critical, and the role of the contact center is crucial to this.”

Customer service, as delivered through the contact center, currently suffers from an overall lack of commitment to the customer service representative (CSR) in the form of tools, training and compensation. Maoz adds that companies need to redouble their efforts in this area and extend the customer Web site, add multiple communications channels, and plan carefully to improve agent performance through the introduction of new technologies.

In another estimate by a Infonetics report, Sales of IP contact centers will grow in 2009, may be not as dramatically as they did in 2008. And within IP telephony, contact centers will do relatively well owing to the transition between TDM phone systems and IP phone systems which is still in progress, where IP contact centers ride that trend.

Also working as a driver as per the report's author would be improved efficiency and capability that IP contact centers can deliver promising a better bottom line for businesses that rely on the centers for sales and customer service by driving costs out of customer interactions.

Worldwide, businesses bought $851 million in IP contact center equipment, up 37 per cent from $622 million in 2007, based on the report, Unified Communications and IP Contact Center Market Share and Forecasts.

Gartner predicts that by 2012, managing Web interactions will be a core competency of the contact center, with customers expecting the contact center CSR to know their customers’ Web posts in relevant online communities at the time of a telephone interaction. This will mean that by 2014, it will be an accepted practice in 30 percent of contact centers to have two standard monitors on each agent’s desktop.

As per Gartner's Maoz, “Contact centers present the best chance to favorably impress customers, and yet organizations continue to drive customers away from interactions with people,” said Mr. Maoz. “With better processes and tools to support the system, an organization can demonstrate its competency and its knowledge of the customer’s needs.”