Carefully consider CTI solutions for improved ROI

As more corporations adopt computer telephony integration (CTI) solutions As part of their customer service initiatives, more solutions are becoming available that promise to improve as well as simplify the integration of the enterprise and telephony technology.

The theoretical applicability and effectiveness of CTI solutions is unquestionable for corporations looking to improve customer relations while keeping call centre costs down to reasonable levels, says Ian Goss-Ross, GM of Interaxion, JSE-listed Ixchange`s CTI division. "There are, however, a few issues businesses should consider to ensure the integration of their CTI technology, business goals and customer interaction centre technologies Are successful," adds Goss-Ross.

"First and foremost, companies must evaluate their business reasons for wanting CTI. Do they want to reduce costs by cutting agents` time on the phone; improve customer service; or consolidate customer interaction centres?

"Once the business drivers have been established, the next step is to ensure that the solution chosen is flexible and upgradeable. The CTI solution needs to be designed with the future growth of the organisation in mind," adds Goss-Ross. "The company may want to expand its customer interaction centre offering to include any of the technologies available today, including using the Web or setting up e-mail response centres in addition to the phone-in centre."

Technologies like IVR and the Web may help customers to reduce the number Of telephone calls agents need to handle, but may also have some other effects.

Agents will need to be capable of handling more complex queries, resulting in longer calls, better informed agents and subsequently increased costs. All these issues need to be incorporated into staff training to ensure That the complexity of the process is not increased.

Most importantly, management should make it standard policy that staff become involved in the technology decisions as to what solutions fit the company`s needs, as they will be on the frontline and will need to use the technology on a daily basis. "To this end, the company will need to appoint a person with both computer and telephony technology knowledge to oversee and recommend appropriate technologies," notes Goss-Ross.

CTI can enhance, improve and lower the costs involved in customer interaction centres if the solutions chosen are flexible enough to fit in with the corporation`s current customer interaction centre architectures and have been designed to run on industry standard systems. By choosing systems with these criteria, overall costs will be reduced, customers will receive better service and the overall control of the whole customer interaction centre exercise will be improved.