It’s your call: the facts about call centres

Kevin Lucas of AMR Research, which monitors developments in customer relationship management, is writing a report on the future of call centres. ‘The call centre as a concept is dated and being replaced by Contact Centres where the telephone is not the only means of communication. We’re seeing a growth in highly skilled operators dealing with queries by email, SMS, WAP phones, chat or even ‘browser sharing’. This is where the person assisting you takes over your browser and clicks you through.’

His findings have shown that employers are realising that restricting the length of time operators spend talking to a customer may be counterproductive. ‘It’s easy to measure call duration but harder to measure customer satisfaction and the value that call has added to your business. Employers are becoming more aware of this and dropping the sweatshop approach.’ Lucas also believes that as self-help systems on the web become better able to deal with simple queries, fewer people will use telephone helplines to get the easy answers. ‘This means the volume of calls decreases but their complexity increases. With adequate training and support it has the potential to turn a routine operator’s job into the much more satisfying role of problem solving.’

Good practice

Kevin Tasker, director of customer services at Vartec, doesn’t measure call duration. Staff are encouraged to talk for as long as it takes to get the job done. This multinational company selling low cost phone calls employs 149 people in Northampton. He expects them to spend 80% of their time on the phone. ‘The rest is for breathing, having a drink or something to eat. We make drinks, fresh fruit and cakes freely available to keep energy levels high. Breaks and lunch are on top of this. There are times when it does get hectic and people work harder, but if they know it’s temporary they accept it. When it gets really busy the management join in and help out by answering calls too.’

Next page: making it work