ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008 - (Page 33)

EXPERT’S ANGLE Effect of Virtual Contact Center Commercial Advantage Larger pool of skills available More likely to be able to match the call to the customer effectively. This improves first-call resolution and customer satisfaction and also improves agent morale, as agents are able to help more customers the first time they call. It also means that businesses can route calls based on more detailed criteria than previously possible, as the available pool of skills is greater (e.g., if there are five contact centers, but only one person in each contact center speaks a specific language, then it only becomes feasible to offer this as a routable skill once the contact centers are linked together to create a virtual language team). In a standalone multiple contact center environment, there is a very real risk that agents in one contact center will be overworked (leading to stress and increased queue times), whereas those in another may be underused yet unable to help their colleagues. The ability to overflow calls between physical locations is a key advantage of virtual contact centers, which can improve both customer and agent experience. Virtual contact centers can look at agent skills and competencies with a view to scheduling staff and routing calls accordingly. This allows the emergence of very specific virtual teams that would otherwise be unfeasible. Where many contact centers are treated as a single entity, work can be shared across sites as the contact centers are viewed as a single resource. Viewing the operations and skills available as one entity makes scheduling easier and more flexible. The resource pool is much deeper, allowing customers to be offered more skills, and the time and cost of scheduling is greatly reduced. For global businesses that have contact centers spanning distant time zones, the opportunity exists to create a follow-the-sun contact center, where the customer can be served 24/7, without the need to increase headcount or bear the costs and inconvenience to staff of working antisocial hours. Virtualization makes it easier to improve and standardize the functionality available to agents in separate locations, if solutions that allow remote upgrades are in place. Making the same functionality available to each agent regardless of their location means that a consistent level of customer service and agent experience can be achieved. More balanced work across contact center locations Skills may be widely deployed and managed Forecast and schedule only once Increase global coverage Deploy applications in a standardized way Offer 24/7 availability and Agents who work from home or small offices allow the business to expand dynamically, use more flexible and offering 24/7 coverage without the cost of keeping the major contact center operation open. imaginative agent resourcing Virtual contact center technology also allows businesses to reach out to new labor pools such as the housebound and other nontraditional sources. Allows dynamic choice of outsourcers If a company uses multiple outsourcers, these outsourcers can bid dynamically for the work available; e.g., the company does 80 percent of the work with its own people, but outsources the overflow as needed. concept that is always in the minds of people making decisions about the future of their multisite, multiplatform operations. Key report findings around virtual contact centers include: > 56 percent of U.S. contact centers are part of a multisite operation, with those in the outsourcing and transportation and travel sectors most likely to have multiple U.S. sites. > Of these multisite contact centers, 63 percent were run as a single virtual contact center operation. > 22 percent of respondents used homeworking, with 3.2 percent of agents in the survey based at their own homes. Respondents with virtual contact | JANUARY 2008 money to integrate that it would be better to leave them alone. Using a single open platform, this investment becomes much lower and leaves the way open for businesses to add locations, channels and applications without having to concern themselves unduly with the technical feasibility. The single open platform should be a icmi’s insight www.icmi.com 33 http://www.icmi.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008

ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008 Contents Customer Care Technologies Ad Index Editor's Page Contact Center Spotlight People: Prehire Tests In The Center Strategy: Video Contact Centers Show Preview Operations: Knowledge Management Industry Research Contact Centers Face Today's Realities: A Case for Consolidation 2.0 Is Your Agent Training Process Evolving with the Role? The Key to Innovation Is Maintaining Your Strengths Becoming Strategic: Using Customer Contact Analytics to Empower the Contact Center's Role

ICMI's Customer Management Insight - January 2008

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