The telephone has long been used tactically to handle customer enquiries, take orders and reservations, qualify leads, provide technical assistance, and conduct market research.

It is more recently, however, that marketers have begun to think of their call centres as a key part of their marketing strategy.

There are a couple of reasons for this. Although many marketers have maintained customer databases for a decade or more, they are now actively mining those databases for marketing opportunities – and what better way to capitalize on those opportunities than by using the phone.

As well, developments in database software and phone system technology have made it both practical and cost effective for companies to link their database to the phone.

In this special report, we look at how Delta, Xerox and CIBC have upgraded their call centre operations in an effort to drive profits and increase efficiency.

The report includes a preview of this year’s TelEvolution show.

Also in this report:

– Comprehensive effort for Delta: Page 18

– TelEvolution show highlights state-of-the-art call centres: page 19

– CIBC creates ‘virtual’ national centre: New Halifax, Regina call centres to replace Toronto operation: page 20

By routing all of its customer service calls to one centralized location, Xerox Canada was able to dramatically improve customer satisfaction, reduce staff, and significantly improve efficiency, according to a company executive.

Steven Robbins, director of integrated customer service, says Xerox set up its national call centre in Saint John, n.b. in response to customer complaints about the difficulties getting proper customer assistance from a dozen satellite offices.

Robbins says the move was an attempt ‘to give one face to the company.’

Before the creation of the national call centre, Xerox, a supplier of document management products and services, had centres in every major city in Canada handling calls from customers requiring technical service.

‘Often [customers] would have to make two or three calls where one would have sufficed,’ Robbins says.

‘We had to reduce the number of times we handed off customers from one place to another,’ he says.

‘We wanted to make [the call centre a] multi-functional point of contact where a customer can transact any number of pieces of business, with one call to one person.’

Xerox opted to connect customers to a live agent as opposed to an interactive voice response (ivr) unit, in order to build a relationship with its customers and differentiate itself from its competitors.

To do this, the company had to adopt a system in which four distinct 1-800 numbers are used for different types of calls.

For example, the centre handles incoming and outgoing customer service calls from 1-800-93-XEROX, while callers dial 1-800-ASK-XEROX for general information.

Technical assistance has been the main function of the centre since it opened in February 1995.

Customers call in to report their problem, agents in Saint John inform a technician in the appropriate city through the click of a button, technicians service the problem and call the centre back to inform the company of the details (time spent, materials used, and so on.)

Agents then update the client’s file.

Technical support is another function that the call centre serves.

The agent is able to transfer these calls directly to a specialist who helps the customer with a solution.

Xerox’s call centre agents have access to a wealth of information about Xerox’s services, as well as the ability to pull up data on a caller.

The computer recognizes the caller’s telephone number and displays the customer’s file before the telephone is even answered.

In addition to basic caller identification, details such as when the client was last serviced, when they placed their last order, and even what language they prefer to speak in, are all available on the agent’s computer.

Robbins says this computer telephony integration (cti) technology is essential to effective call centre operation.

Recently, the call centre began to take on other functions, including supplies telemarketing, and generating leads for Xerox’s salespeople.

Right now, these calls account for one-third of the calls, with the other two-thirds being service-related.

As more technology is adopted by the company, the number of these revenue-generating calls will increase.

Xerox is also working on increasing the efficiency of communication between the customer service representative, or technician, and the central database.

Currently, reps use diagnostic tools on their laptop to zero in on the problem, after which they call in an order for parts.

Soon, according to Robbins, ‘the technicians will be able to access and update the database directly from their laptop by ordering the parts themselves, eliminating the need to call the centre and tie up an agent.’

Though the call centre is not set up for administrative enquiries, occasionally a client will have an invoice-related question in addition to a technical inquiry.

In such cases, Robbins says, the customer is ‘hot-keyed’ into an administration group in another city.

Future plans include routing these calls directly to the call centre.

Networking with the u.s. operation, so that the two entities can support each other, is also a future consideration.

Robbins says that Saint John was a logical choice for the location of the centralized call centre because of the high levels of employee bilingualism, education and company loyalty.

He says the strength of the telecommunications infrastructure was also a major factor, ‘especially the innovative thinking of NB Tel.’

The Xerox call centre employs about 170 full- and part-time employees.

Of those, 98 are dedicated to handling service calls, a job that previously took 128 employees in the 12 separate centres across the country.

The centre is staffed according to peak calling periods, which, according to Robbins, are fairly easy to predict.

Robbins says the centre handles up to 15,000 calls per day.