More than 80% of call centre agents' time is spent on administrative tasks, such as dialling, redialling, accessing client data and making admin decisions, instead of money-making tasks such as speaking to the client.
This is according to Paul Fick, MD of Spescom DataFusion, who argues that manual dialling is possibly one of the most inefficient processes in any industry. He says in the call centre industry, this is still the 'modus operandi', and while hugely inefficient, it also represents an opportunity for massive productivity gains.
The inefficiencies in manual dialling include time wasted on administration, error introduction, and an inability to optimise contact centre efficiency, notes Fick. "In terms of wasted time, there is the typically 45-second decision delay while the agent picks a name off a contact list and decides which of the prospective customers' phone numbers to use.
“Then there is the manual dialling step. If the telephone numbers are valid, it takes an average 2.5 attempts (each taking approximately 15 seconds) to contact the targeted person,” he continues.
"In addition, a balance needs to be struck in terms of time spent on a lead - give up too soon and the lead is wasted. Call centres usually put a 'three-try per number' policy in place. This comprises trying to contact a person three times per available number, making three dialling attempts on each occasion.”
The reality, however, is that only half the contacts on a list are generally contactable. This amounts to nine wasted dial attempts, highlights Fick.
He offers two alternatives to manual dialling: preview dialling and power dialling. Preview dialling offers a compromise between a completely automated solution and a manual solution, notes Fick.
Preview dialling automatically chooses the next contact to dial, presenting the customer information and then automatically initiating the dial after a set amount of time has elapsed, he explains. In this way the 'decide to dial' step is taken away from the agent.
The time saving pushes up productivity in terms of the agent actually speaking to a live contact by approximately 20%. However, Fick notes: "While any improvement is welcome, transforming the process with power dialling will deliver a far more significant and sustainable improvement."
Power dialling automates almost all administrative work, he states. "The dialler dials all the contacts. Where there is a failure to connect, the dialler classifies this as such and moves on. Where a contact is made, the live contact is transferred to an available agent.
“Agents now spend the majority of their time on the work they are trained for - speaking to the client to make a sale or collect on a debt. This results in higher productivity and profitability levels," he explains. With power dialling, call centres can expect 90% overall improvement, he notes.
“And with 90% rather than 20% improvements in productivity, the question becomes 'can the agents be supplied with sufficient work?',” says Fick.
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