Call Centers: Catalysts for Corporate Change
Outsourcing non-core and IT
services has become the business strategy for growth in the new millennium.
Managers need no longer justify outsourcing; rather, they have to
justify work done internally that could be done better outside the
organization.
Call centers have thus become catalysts for business transformation:
freeing up businesses to focus on core activities.
What is a Call Center?
It can be one or all of these:
A call center is traditionally
defined as a physical location where calls are placed, or received,
in high volume for the purpose of:
In a study conducted by the WEFA Group for the Direct
Marketing Association, total sales generated by the telemarketing industry
in 1997 was estimated to be $289 billion.
One early definition described a call center as a
place of doing business by phone that combined a centralized database
with an automatic call distribution (ACD) system. However, call centers
have evolved to become sophisticated business enterprises providing
integrated services that are essential to the success of the corporations
they serve. They are also called "customer care centers",
"contact centers","interaction centers", "multimedia access centers"
and "service bureaus".
What's the difference between "agents"
and "seats"?
"Agents"
refer to the number of staff at a call center. Typically it is a 24x7
operation where people work in shifts. "Seats" refer
to the number of people who can work at a call center at any one time.
Does a call center have to be large?
Call centers began as huge establishments managing
a large volume of communications and traffic. Only large companies
had the financial muscle to invest in technology like the Automatic
Call Distribution system that allowed them to handle huge volumes.
More recently, with the development of LAN-based switches, internet-based
transaction processing, client/server software systems, and open phone
systems, any call center can have an advanced call handling and customer
management system, even down to ten agents or less. A call center
today could range from a micro-center with 5-10 seats, to a huge set-up
with 500-2,000 seats.
How many call centers are there?
According to the Call Center News Service, this
is a hard question to answer, because definitions of a call center
vary widely. Would you define them by technology or by function? Also,
some call centers are hidden within organizations that don't talk
about them. The widest definition would include micro-centers of five
to ten people. These centers also have to provide customers the same
quality of service as their larger counterparts.
An educated guess would put the number of call centers
at around 140,000 in the US and Canada with perhaps 20,000 more scattered
around the world. (67,000 call centers are known to exist using a
particular type of technology).
Other estimates say that presently, there are more
than 100,000 call centers and 2 million agent positions across the
globe. The demand for agent positions is growing at the rate of
approximately 23 to 25%.
What technology is needed for a call center?
Call centers are generally set up as large rooms,
with workstations that include a computer, a telephone set (or headset)
hooked into a large telecom switch and one or more supervisor stations.
The center may stand by itself, or be linked with other centers. It
may also be linked to a corporate data network, including mainframes,
microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways
into the center are linked through a set of new technologies called
CTI, or computer-telephony integration.
The multimedia call center
Today's call center encompasses not just phone
support, but Internet web sites and electronic commerce as well. By
leveraging voice, video, and data, information can be delivered in
a variety of compelling ways that encourage customer self-service
and enhance the user experience. Convergence — the merging
of data, voice, and video communications over a common network infrastructure
- has made this possible. It interconnects the public telephone with
the internet and the corporate extranet.
Virtual support: extending the scope of the
call center
"Virtual agents" - employees whose primary role may encompass other responsibilities but whose expertise in certain areas is required for part-time call center support - will be able to provide call center support services from a remote office, manufacturing site, home, or on the road. With
advanced connectivity and intelligent call routing, they will be able
to work outside the central call center location, leveraging their
support services.
Which industries are using call centers?
Any business which has to interact with customers and manage large volumes of information effectively can use a call center to improve productivity, sales, delivery and
customer satisfaction.
Businesses include:
How important is a call center to a company's
business?
Companies have learned that service is
the key to attracting and maintaining customers (and hence,
revenue). In a service business like airlines and hospitality,
a call center is the difference between being in business and
not being in business. In other industries, call centers help companies
quickly overhaul service and improve their image. In fact, a call
center is a strategic asset that companies can use to strengthen customer
relationships, learn more about customers and therefore serve them
better. This improves the bottom line. Thus call centers have evolved
from being cost centers to profit centers.
Thompson Financial Publishing conducted an instant
poll of user companies sought to determine their plans to use call
centers in the near future. Their responses were as follows:
|
Currently
using a call center
|
33%
|
|
Planning
to use a call center within the next 12 months
|
23%
|
|
Going
to establish a call center in 12-24 months
|
14%
|
|
Not
currently planning to establish a call center
|
22%
|
|
Dead
set against EVER having a call center
|
6%
|
Call centers in India
In order to meet the growing international demand
for cost-effective, customer-oriented call centers, many organizations
worldwide are outsourcing these services from locations like India.
India has intrinsic strengths which can make it a major success as
an outsource destination:
One
company in India proposes to harness the high-quality technical support
available here by hiring 300 Ph.D.'s to provide very high-end consulting
through videoconferencing/telephone. Given these advantages, India could
build a $17 billion industry by 2008 according to the NASSCOM McKinsey
Report.
How large is the call center
industry in India?
There are 25 CTI-enabled call centers and 300-500 non-CTI call centers
in India. British Airways' subsidiary employs about 750 people and
is expected to hire 800 more, while GE has 1000 personnel at its Gugaon
facility.
IT-Enabled Services Include:
Product Specific Solutions
Include:
Business Solutions focuses on three areas:
Make a strategic decision to outsource your business
processes through call centers in India. GE, British Airways and Yahoo
have seen it work to their competitive advantage. Why not you?.
