The biggest initial investment in setting up a call centre is the technology. That technology should be geared to getting the caller to the right agent to address his request in the shortest space of time, says Frank Mullen, COO of Itec Enterprise Solutions.
“Depending on the nature of the business, that technology may need to be very sophisticated in terms of call routing and interactive voice response capabilities. In the end, however, the caller ends up talking to or interacting with a call centre agent,” offers Mullen.
He argues that the level of skill of that agent then becomes the pivot in the caller's relationship with the company. ”So, having invested in technology that automates arriving at the agent as cost-effectively as possible, your big cost now becomes your agents,” continues Mullen.
To keep your agent costs down, technology is needed to take over from as much of the agent's routine work as possible, explains Mullen. This will enable the agent to spend his time adding value to the customer relationship, he continues.
“But, in order to know how much routine work is involved and, therefore, what type of technology to deploy to automate it, you need to know how productive your agent is being.”
Technology must be used to measure and report on the types of calls, time taken to pick up the call, time taken to resolve the call, and customer satisfaction regarding the call, he adds.
Mullen says this implies a more management-intensive cycle, of which the first phase is using technology to monitor the human component, the agent. The second phase, he states, is the refinement of the balance between the call centre's technology and the agent, so that companies never have more or less agents than needed to achieve the desired service level.
“If you take the trouble to, first, understand how the call centre can work ideally for you and set your service levels accordingly, then you will make the correct choice of the technology you need to achieve those service levels. And your agent allocations will be optimised.”
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