High-accuracy SSA software improves customer service at call centres

If a customer contacts a call centre with nothing to help the operator locate his or her details other than a name or address, no matter how friendly the welcome script, the operator will need to find that customer`s record accurately and in real time. This must happen despite the variations that may exist between the caller`s details and the details on file.

If the customer`s data is spread around different systems, a central customer repository will be a necessity. Whether or not this central database forms part of the CRM (Customer Relationship Marketing) system or data warehouse, the matching technology required to bring the disparate records together must be able to cope with data of varying quality and form.

"This unified customer view must be accurate if the organisation is to provide top notch service and take advantage of cross-selling opportunities," says Sam Selmer-Olsen, a director of Bateleur Software Solutions, the recently appointed exclusive agents for SearchSoftware America (SSA) identification software products in South Africa.

"Marketing lists often form the basis of call centre telemarketing campaigns," Selmer-Olsen continues. "However, if the lists are not properly verified against the customer data, the resulting calls can mean wasted time and money, as well as customer dissatisfaction, rather than a selling opportunity.

"Error and variation are unavoidable, and not easily `cleanable`. Spelling, typing and phonetic error, nick-names and synonyms, Anglicisation and foreign versions of names, truncation and abbreviation, missing words - these are just some examples of differences that can be encountered.

SAA`s intelligent searching and matching technology addresses the issues of unavoidable error and variances in the data, and allows the call centre to access customer records quickly and reliably while the customer is on the phone. In addition, the technology improves the effectiveness of telemarketing campaigns by reducing the likelihood of duplicated or wasted calls.

"SSA is the acknowledged world leader in this field," states Selmer-Olsen. "Its robust, high performance SSA-Name3 search and matching algorithms allow names and addresses within the call centre`s scope to be intelligently indexed and searched. Both on-line and batch accesses are allowed, by name or address, despite variation in the spoken or written word. A major plus is that SSA-Name3 algorithms can be applied to unformatted, unscrubbed data and data from any country."

With SSA`s Data Clustering Engine (DCE), intelligent matching of external marketing lists to internal marketing and customer files is possible. In addition, there can be matches to other files such as `do not call` or `do not do business` files. The DCE is also used to create the central customer repository from the source customer systems.

The power of SSA-Name3 and the DCE is extended by SSA`s Identity Systems (IDS). These provide out-of-the-box on-line and batch searching and matching for systems built around Oracle and DB2/UDB. IDS also provides high quality searching, matching and duplicate discovery for all forms of identification data, without programming.

Selmer-Olsen concludes: "Customers expect their details to be found quickly and accurately, just as businesses expect to know as much as possible about their customers when communicating with them. The problem is that names and addresses of customers vary, of greatly, from systems to system and even from encounter to encounter.

"SSA technology is used around the world by organisations serious about total identification of the customer to address the issues encountered by call centres and thereby help ensure lasting, high quality relationships."