South Africa compares favourably with First World countries in using call or contact centres to conduct business and provide services, says Mark Payne, MD for the sub-Saharan Africa operations of Genesys.
Payne says he has found local enterprises quick to adopt and integrate media technologies such as SMS, MMS and e-mail with voice.
"While they [companies] don`t have the volumes of many of their overseas counterparts, they certainly have the same level of complexity and have recognised and taken advantage of the potential of multimedia technology to overcome customer service and contact centre challenges."
However, he finds the concept of customer service and satisfaction is largely foreign to monopoly utility service providers in SA. "They appear not to think about how they can improve customer services."
Skills levels are good, but Payne says the corporate culture has to change if there is to be significant progress in customer experience at monopoly service provider contact centres.
"On the other hand, the keen competition in the mobile telephone industry in SA is ensuring that customer satisfaction is taken very seriously and, sooner rather than later, one hopes this will rub off on the monopoly operations," he says.
Providing a basic level of service at a low cost is no longer acceptable, as businesses recognise the strategic worth of contact centres as the focal point for customer interactions, sales initiatives and profit generation, Payne adds.
"As a result, contact centres are coming under intense scrutiny as businesses have higher expectations," says Payne. "Customer expectations are skyrocketing too and their tolerance of inefficiency in the contact centre environment is dwindling rapidly."
Share