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As a result, we all know that businesses want to maintain a competitive edge and keep their names at the forefront of their customers' minds. Whilst advertising on T.V. is out of reach for many companies, it's easy to understand why a Call Centre would be required to answer inbound calls if an advert had just flashed up on a television screen.

But what about for us normal business people! How do we become as effective, without the £'000's price tag or attaining the mind control powers of a Jedi knight?

A bit of perspective

Let's face it, no one likes the thought of Call Centres. Rows of people, rows of desks and endless of dialogue. Call Centres often conjure up an image of a negative working environment as well as the perception that these "Centres" only relate to financial services or teleshopping.

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What’s more, most businesses are not interested in the technology because they think it's not relevant to their business - but they're wrong! Telecoms' manufacturers have created new methods of "contactability" which benefit all areas of customer activity. These areas include calls in and calls out (obviously, but the difference is in the detail) and also encompass, email contact, web activity, SMS, chat and even fax (although it's not as popular nowadays). All activities are being viewed with equal importance.

So, these days is a telephone enquiry more important than an email enquiry?

What was once the preserve of the Call Centre industry and Internet-savvy business has now become available to everyone with a price to match as it's only software!

This Call or Contact Centre technology enables a business to incorporate all forms of communication and apply a bespoke level of importance as to how and when the customer is responded to.

The simplest analogy is that of a funnel; as the various "contacts" with your customers flow in, your staff handle each enquiry in the order of priority you choose on the way out!

Consider this; how can your customers be "King" if you can't see them, let alone prioritise them?

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The Telephone System

Take a minute to think about this; if we all have 24 hours in a day and all businesses are equal when it comes to generating new business, why are some companies better at it than others? Perhaps they are optimising their systems where you are not.

It is highly likely that more functionality can be achieved from your existing telephone system without you being aware of it. With a little creative thought given to its programming you should be able to tap into your phone system's hidden potential.

It's also important to be aware that most telephone systems will support the connection of computers which run Contact Centre software. If you are unsure you can contact us to discuss this further; we will be able to tell you whether or not you can and how this can be achieved.

Chicken or the egg?

Which came first? In a business do you advertise and market your business heavily in the hope that the revenues generated will pay for a system to support your campaign? Or, do you implement the systems first and endeavour to generate the business to pay for it in the longer term? In any event, running a business without advertising or marketing is like a man winking at a girl in the dark, he knows what he's doing, but the girl doesn't!

So there may be a chicken and egg scenario. Without a structured and sustained marketing effort in whichever guise you deem fit, this technology is not for you - it would be a waste of time, effort and money. However, by applying simple marketing techniques (see Marketing Review) a Contact Centre maybe a highly attractive and beneficial addition to your business - and it is possible you are already some way there with your existing systems.

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Where to start looking

A good place to start is to get hold of a book "Contact Centres for Dummies" that has been published by Avaya which is very helpful, especially if you're beginning to think that this may be a sensible area to focus on. What’s more, it’s free. Go to http://www.avaya.co.uk

The "art" is being able to interpret the technology and features and put them into a constructive method of operation for your business. But it still boils down to the fact that a business must first be aware that the technology exists before it can have an affect their operations.

Reading the book will help.

Once you have decided that you want to handle more business, more efficiently there are few stages to be aware of.

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Stage One

Costs - This time, don’t consider it. To some companies taking on another member of staff is not given a second thought, especially when someone leaves or if you want to generate more business. This time concentrate on how much you can increase revenues by improving the process. Consider, if you let a member of staff “go”, their salary would pay for any new capital purchase in the first year.

By the second year you're already in front financially. If you lease any equipment it is all considered a revenue expense and therefore it can be offset on your balance sheet. Plus you get to keep the cash in the bank.

Stage Two

Based upon your ROI analysis, if you need to change your phone system – do it. You’re only adding components to your money-making entity. These are one-off purchases, tax deductable and can be financed, but more on that later.

Stage Three

Establish your business process and put in place a Technology Team to map out exactly how the equipment is to be structured and what your staff are supposed to do.

Stage Four

Marketing; KIS - keep it simple. Start by deciding what you want to focus on first; outbound or inbound contact? Set your goals and targets accordingly.

Action

If you are not sure about the capabilities of your existing telephone system please contact us on 0800 970 9751 or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Are you a formal or informal Contact Centre?  Competitive forces are pushing every business, regardless of industry, to look for new methods of growing clients and expanding relationships and offerings, whilst at the same time managing operational costs.

Software solutions are now available which offer enhanced customer communication and management information tools to address major business needs. Whether you have a departmental workgroup with extensions or a contact centre with agents at a single location or dispersed locations, products are now available that offer a wide range of customer relationship tools that are suitable for any business type.

The objective is to empower staff with real-time and historical reporting tools, whilst using your existing databases to intelligently route calls and e-mails to specific departments. It is possible to verify transactions by recording or logging calls and visibly manage individual and team performance right from the desktop.

In this day and age, every business is a contact centre of one kind or another. We are forever fielding and managing e-mails, faxes, phone calls, and so on. Therefore, whether we like it or not we are running a contact centre already.

Whilst this may not come as a surprise, in order to determine which would be the most appropriate structure for a company to install, it is important to first understand the flow of traffic in and out of an office.

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If your company's focus is making outbound calls, then the technology previously described would possibly suit your company. This type of operation could be classified as an outbound Call Centre or contact centre.

If on the other hand, you receive a significant number of inbound telephone calls or emails, then an alternative product would be required to assist staff (agents) receiving calls. This would be described as an inbound contact centre.

Non-Call Centres

All businesses need to deal with calls, regardless of whether they use a call centre or not. Such businesses can benefit from using Call Management as well as historical call reporting. If more advanced features are required products can be upgraded when required.

Informal Call Centres

An informal call centre, where a dedicated team handles customer enquiries, would benefit equally from call management and reporting tools. Team members could apply the features as mentioned above to aid call handling, whilst managers could apply the advanced reporting capabilities to monitor call traffic.

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Formal Call & Contact Centres

A formal call or contact centre, where agents log in to one or more groups, would benefit from the advanced call reporting capabilities. Such an environment may also require a comprehensive multi-media routing mechanism, such as Web Chat and email routing as well as the ability to screen-pop and dial from bespoke or specialist applications such as GoldMine, Act! or Microsoft CRM.

Typically, the technology available includes wall boards, which indicate the number of calls waiting, calls answered, longest waiting call, and how many unreturned lost calls have been received and so on.

The contact centre's main objective is to facilitate the answering of customers’ enquiries and it is imperative that customers encounter a satisfactory experience when contacting your company.

Enquiries could be received in any of the following formats:

• SMS
• Telephone call
• e-mail
• Fax

There is also the aspect of self-service to consider. Could your organisation implement a structure whereby the caller can enter digits on their telephone handset in order to acquire new information, in a similar way to banks in the UK providing access to customer’s accounts through telephone banking services?

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It may transpire that speech-enabled products would be better suited to your type of business. That seems pretty elementary and straightforward, however, in reality it is difficult for businesses to determine the most appropriate structure to implement, simply because of their lack of knowledge of associated systems and software.

Again these questions can only be answered through discussion and by establishing the most effective solution to implement specifically relating to your business.

Inbound Phone Calls

However the telephone call arrives at your telephone system, the speed and efficiency with which it is handled is paramount.

Routing the call:

Only the speed to answer counts. There are four methods of inbound ringing; longest idle, hunting, group, and strict cycle order. You have to decide which method is most effective.

Skills based routing:

If numbers are structured to point to departments it is possible to create overflow groups to ensure that the correct personnel handle the call.

For example, if a call to the sales department goes unanswered, but a member of customer service is fully aware of the sales process, it makes sense to include this member of staff in an overflow group if the sales team are busy or not available.

The same principle applies to all departments. Simply because the department is busy does not mean that a call should go unanswered. In simple terms, the call is routed to the next best person.

Action

If you would like help in deciding the best option for your business please contact us on 0800 970 9751 or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it