Contact centres are the prime customer interactive point of any organisation around the world. But, to be able to successfully maximise profits while minimising costs, call centre managers need to realise that reaching the customer is not a destination, but a journey.
This was the key message put forward by leading industry experts on the first day of the Dimension Data Customer Interactive Solutions (CIS) forum 2003, held last week. The event was co-sponsored by Avaya, Genesis and NICE.
Speakers at the annual conference detailed ways in which organisations can reduce costs, improve service and increase revenues from their call centres.
Allan Cawood, Dimension Data South Africa CEO, says the contact centre industry - or service industry as it has more often been referred to - has reached a stage when growing the business and becoming increasingly passionate about service provision is imperative.
"We have approximately 100 000 call centre seats in SA at present, whereas Ireland has only half that. The primary focus in all instances is on service centre business process outsourcing initiatives. Every one of these countries is increasingly looking to provide an outsource contact centre service globally using customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, which allow them to minimise costs and increase revenues.
"Our goal is to make SA a value destination for organisations around the world looking to outsource their contact centre services, and not merely to promote SA as a cost-effective destination," he says.
Indeed, says Cawood, local contact centre operators should try to ensure that the entire local industry is quality-driven. "In the wine-making industry, competitors discuss the issues that will allow them to improve standards and ensure a quality product. The same should apply in the call centre industry.
"In fact, with this information each operator could identify a niche within the industry, thereby improving the scope as well as the quality of the service offered."
Dimension Data CIS has managed to achieve its goals of making SA a value destination for countries looking to outsource their services through a number of deals globally. The most recent deal in the US is a R500 million project with Premier Farnel where 90% of the solutions provided have been developed in SA.
Cawood reveals that another deal - for an estimated 800 to 1 000-seat South African-based contact centre - for a US company is imminent.
"This particular company preferred the South African call centre agent`s accent and found it to be `more trusting` than any other. In this instance, it`s all about providing value to the customer through the use of South African-based solutions," he concludes.
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Dimension Data Holdings plc (LSE: DDT) is a leading global technology company. The group provides solutions and services that optimise and manage the performance of IT infrastructures to enable business to build competitive advantage. To achieve this, the group delivers solutions using its proprietary `Application Network` architectural framework and its expertise in networking, application integration and managed services.
Dimension Data, founded in 1983, had revenues of $2.1 billion in 2002 and operates in 30+ countries with over 9 000 employees.
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