Leading call centre and communications expert Inter-Active Technologies continues to play a leading role as an industry trendsetter, following a number of new innovations launched by the company in recent years.
Among these cutting-edge innovations is the 'HomeWorker Agents' initiative. Inter-Active Technologies' Director of Operations, Gerald Terblanche, explains that the programme provides the company's top performing agents with the opportunity to work from home.
"Access from the agent's home location is achieved through mobile technology and portable computing. A virtual private network (VPN) solution ensures calls and data are delivered via means of ADSL or high-speed Internet connectivity available within that location," he says.
According to Terblanche, Inter-Active Technologies is able to incentivise its agents towards higher performance levels through this programme. "A direct benefit is that the employee is able to operate in an environment that provides more flexible working hours, with a significant reduction in the time spent commuting to the office, thereby creating more personal time in the process."
Terblanche notes that, since its initial pilot launch in 2010, the HomeWorker Agent solution has grown from strength to strength, and is currently recognised by Inter-Active Technologies' management and employees as the most effective incentive system, due to the fact that only a limited number of HomeWorker positions are available.
"As a result, only the top performing agents are afforded the opportunity to participate in the programme. As long as the agents retain their status as a top performer, they remain a HomeWorker agent. This ensures not only active competition within the environment, but also ensures that performance from a remote and largely unsupervised location is of the highest level," he adds.
Another innovative Inter-Active Technologies solution aimed at benefiting both clients and employees is the 'RoadCrew Agents' scheme, which enables the company to place the best call centre operators within its outsourced operations, in order to offer an off-the-shelf managed solution onsite for clients. Terblanche continues: "Our RoadCrew Agents ensure that any of the potential pitfalls associated with flexi-staff contracts do not burden our clients, while ensuring our star performers benefit from a new dimension in their personal career development."
Terblanche believes this strategy has provided Inter-Active Technologies' clients with the flexibility that they require from a flexi-staff solution, while eliminating the risk of costly associated challenges, such as higher attrition rates, lower attendance rates and inconsistent performance. "Through our RoadCrew Agents, performance is guaranteed, as our billing model is purely performance-based."
INTERact Social Media Monitor is another innovation introduced to the local market by Inter-Active Technologies in 2011. Terblanche points out that it is designed to assist clients in tracking the sentiment of their customers towards their own brand, while comparing the same sentiment offered by the customers towards competitor brands.
"INTERact Social Media Monitor is based on real-time analytics of mentions made relating to an organisation's brand and product. In fact, any keyword associated with the organisation can be used in an automated trawl of the most popular social media network services. It will then return an assessment of the number of positive versus negative comments, before comparing this to competitors within the same industry," he explains.
Expansion beyond the borders of South Africa
Inter-Active Technologies officially launched its Zambian operation in October 2011. The main focus was initially centred on outbound activity specific to certain customer retention and education campaigns, specifically within the financial services and telco spaces.
However, through clients that boast a multinational presence, Terblanche notes that the company has been able to successfully deploy a number of its clients' interaction management solutions across numerous sub-Saharan countries. He adds: "In addition to a physical presence and 'in-the-field' experience within Africa, we service a number of African countries through the inbound voice channel from our Johannesburg offices and cover English, French and Portuguese languages."
Despite the company's successful expansion across Africa, Terblanche does admit that a number of challenges still need to be overcome. "Infrastructure and connectivity are the two biggest challenges in sub-Saharan Africa. We have also experienced logistical challenges with regards to the configuring and shipping of pre-customised solutions from South Africa into Africa, as a result of export and import policies," he continues.
Although the resultant time delays have posed a challenge to Inter-Active Technologies, Terblanche stresses that the company is able to overcome these through comprehensive deployment planning strategies. "As far as our partners are concerned, great effort is taken to ensure that we set the correct expectations with regards to timeframes and go-live dates."
While Inter-Active Technologies maintains the greater proportion of its activities as a call centre outsourcer, Terblanche indicates that the company also offers a comprehensive range of solutions that enable organisations to manage their customer interactions, regardless of the channel the customer chooses to interact through. "We are seeing increased demand from clients wanting to offer a single interaction management hub, which allows organisations to track and manage customer interactions coming in via e-mail, Web chat, social media and even video chat sessions."
Terblanche points out that the knowledge gathered within the contact centres can easily be compiled for use by the client through various mediums, such as its Web site or via the auto-resolution of e-mail through the analysis of keywords presented by the customer's query. "By making resolutions to common queries more readily available to customers without having to engage a contact centre, customers are able to experience useful self-service options, while valuable resources can be deployed to focus on more complex and potentially higher-value activities."
Bearing this in mind, Terblanche concludes by adding that Inter-Active Technologies places a high priority on assisting its clients in delivering their customer service strategies at a higher rate of efficiency and with improved levels of customer satisfaction. "The experience should always be positive and meet, if not exceed, the customer's expectations - regardless of the medium chosen."
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