Customer Services & The Contact Centre

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1 Customer Services & The Contact Centre?

2 Does your customer service department need to become a contact centre? In the current economic climate the value of retaining existing customers versus the cost of generating new ones has never been more important. Establishing a professional contact centre for customers could make all the difference, but before embarking on the journey, there are a few things you should consider first. 1. What type of number are you going to publish for customers to call? 0800 Free for landline customers to call, but unfortunately mobile network operators will often charge customers for this type of call. There is also a cost to you for each call you receive Calls are charged at a local rate irrespective of where they originate from, but many landline customers become frustrated because non-geographic numbers are not included in their monthly service fee Calls are charged at a national rate. Again these may not be included in a customer s monthly service fee, but some network operators will offer the contact centre a share of the revenue generated from the call, which may be relevant to the service provided. 09 Premium rate calls. A revenue generator for the call centre operator, often used by companies offering significant value to a customer on a call by call basis e.g. emergency technical assistance. Geographic numbers have the benefit of being included in most service fees, but unless you use a modern IP communications provider, they are tied to your actual physical location. IP based services however allow an operator to select the number range that gives the right impression, e.g. an Edinburgh number (0131) for Scottish customers. 2. What are your hours of operation? If you are not open 24 hours a day 365 days a year, what do you need to do when a customer calls and there is nobody there? Modern call centre systems will allow customers to leave a voic , some will allow a person to request a call back when open. You may even want to re-direct to a different time zone or outsourced message taking service. What message do you play when? Closed for the evening? Closed for the weekend? Closed for Christmas? Would you want to personalise these messages or change them frequently. It sounds trivial, but playing the wrong message at the wrong time can seriously damage your credibility. 1

3 3. Can you provide an element of self-care via the Telephony system, even when closed? If a customer is calling you to pay their bill, why would you make them wait or have to call back? With the right facility, there is no reason why the customer cannot use the telephone keypad and voice recognition to give you all the information you need to process the transaction even when closed. Obviously you need to ensure such systems are PCI compliant. 4. How many calls do you expect and when do you expect to receive them? Do you have a strategy for call queuing beyond music on hold? Do you want Calling Line Identity (CLI) recognition for VIPs, so they can queue jump? Do you want to offer a scheduled call-back? 5. Do your calls need to be recorded? Some regulatory authorities insist on this and it is a fantastic way to coach your team for superior performance. Reviewing calls and highlighting the best points and how conversations may be improved is invaluable. But when storing customer information there are data protection issues and potentially with PCI compliance considerations depending on the information recorded. Storage and retrieval is also a significant consideration. 6. Is the use of IVR menus for your benefit or your customers? Customers appreciate being routed to the right person with the right skills to answer their query, but we have all been victims of interminable IVR menus designed to get customers lost and frustrated. Skills based routing is very useful, but used to enhance customer service, not for the convenience of the operator. 7. Measurement and reporting Are you interesting in agent productivity and customer satisfaction? What gets measured, gets managed, but there is a big difference between a metric and a key performance indicator. Modern call centre solutions can expose hundreds of measurable transactions related to calls. But just because the metrics are available doesn t mean they are useful. Focus on the measures that enhance your customer experience and keep your contact centre efficient. 2

4 8. Where do your agents work? Are they remote, all in one office or location independent? Today the contact centre can be a logical rather than physical term. The era of location independent working is truly upon us. With the latest IP based services it makes little difference where a contact centre worker is physically based. UK or the Philippines, the office or at home. This can really enhance customer service levels and disruptions like the travel chaos predicted during the Olympics. 9. How dynamic does the customer interface need to be? Do you constantly have to re-record promo messages? Do you want the ability to record your own messaging or do you need a third party to manage it? Some level of independence will be greatly appreciated. The ability to change a welcome message on your IVR to inform customers of a service disruption, or timely news will not minimise the number of customers joining call queues at busy times. However acknowledging an issue early in the customer call can reduce call sizes and be appreciated by customers as open and proactive communication. 10. On premises or in the cloud? Do you really need that piece of equipment sitting in your own server room. The development of Cloud services means that you can rent all of this functionality and have it managed by people who are experts. The soft costs associated with buying platforms and running them internally should not be under-estimated and can be saved by using a company that can host your contact centre application in the Cloud. Building an effective contact centre can greatly enhance your business by increasing customer satisfaction and reducing churn. However it is not a trivial undertaking and should be considered carefully. Choose a platform that can provide what you need and a partner that understands your business. Why foehn? We believe in challenging the status quo and thinking differently to help your business become more agile, reduce your costs and become more competitive. The way we do this is by providing tailored, contact centre solutions, using our experts of Asterisk Technology. This can enable you to respond to business challenges faster and more effectively. We have implemented contact centre solutions based on Asterisk systems for nearly 10 years. We are the UK Select Partner for Digium and have deployed both Asterisk and Switchvox systems into contact centres of many different sizes Asterisk has the potential to transform the way a company engages its customers and can significantly reduce operating costs. Foehn are the Asterisk experts and has the experience to realise that potential. 3

5 Some of our customers For more information To learn more about Foehn, please call or us at or visit 4