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
– Xerox aims for ‘one face’: Centralization improves efficiency, reduces staff: Page 22
cibc will soon radically expand its telephone banking operation with the opening of two state-of-the-art call centres in Regina and Halifax.
The centres, which are scheduled to open in Halifax in April, and a few months later in Regina, will eventually replace the bank’s national call centre in Toronto, which is likely to close at the end of 1996.
The two centres will be linked, meaning they will be able to operate as a ‘virtual’ national call centre, when customers anywhere in Canada dial 1-800-465-CIBC.
Tom Mellish, vice-president of telephone banking at cibc, says the opening of the new centres is evidence of the bank’s decision to treat telephone banking as a strategic investment.
Mellish says at the root of the decision is the fact that consumers have redefined their notion of ‘convenience.
‘Convenience is no longer defined by the consumer in physical terms,’ he says.
‘It is defined more in terms of hours of business, how easy it is to access the bank, how current is the information that is being provided, and how quickly the bank responds.’
Mellish says, within that context, telephone banking is a natural fit, since call centres operate seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and the telephone is ubiquitous and easy to use.
What began in 1985 as a simple operation to provide general product information and answer customer enquiries regarding locations and hours of business has evolved to the point where the bank’s customers can now fulfill almost all of their banking requirements – pay bills, transfer money between accounts, buy gics, make contributions to their rsps, obtain loans, mortgages and lines of credit, make balance enquiries, and request copies of cheques that have cleared accounts, among other things.
Mellish says three-quarters of the calls received are straightforward transactions, which are handled entirely by the system’s Interactive Voice Response (ivr) unit, with the remaining calls – split evenly between loan/mortgage enquiries, investments and requests for information – transferred to an agent.
Currently, almost all of the call centre’s business is initiated by the caller.
Once the new centres open, however, Mellish says agents will start making outbound calls to existing customers in an attempt to sell them new products, as well as cross-selling and upselling on inbound calls.
‘We want to make [the call centre] a fully functional sales and service location,’ Mellish says.
The only products not dealt with by the telephone banking operation will be securities and insurance, which the bank is required by law to sell separately, and Visa, which operates as a discrete unit.
As a result of the call centre’s emphasis on ‘one-stop telephone banking,’ Mellish says cibc invests heavily in upfront training, with agents attending an intensive eight-week training course comprising classroom instruction, computer-based simulation and role-playing.
Agents also keep up-to-date with the bank’s direct marketing programs, since many of the calls coming into the centre are as a result of direct mail offers.
Mellish says although telephone banking technology has been around for a decade or more, it is only recently that customers of Canada’s financial institutions have accepted the idea.
When the bank introduced its ivr service, in the early ’90s, for example, only about 20,000 customers had signed up. At the end of 1995, this figure had increased to more than 400,000.
‘Customers continue to be amazed by how much they can actually do over the phone and how quickly it can all happen,’ says Mellish, adding the bank is making every effort – through direct mail and at the point of sale – to advise customers of telephone banking options.
Asked what has been the biggest development to date in the evolution of the bank’s call centre, Mellish says it was the introduction in September 1995 of computer telephony integration (cti), linking the telephone system to the bank’s customer database.
The technology can dramatically improve the efficiency of a call centre operation.
If a customer using the ivr system were to be transferred to an agent, for example, the agent would know what the person was trying to accomplish and where they were in the process, provided the customer had, at some point, keyed in his or her bank card number.
‘The information would arrive at the agent’s desk, along with the call, so the agent would know who you were, that you were trying to do a mortgage enquiry, and would have the mortgage data there,’ Mellish says.
‘The customer would not have to re-explain what they were trying to do,’ he says.
According to Mellish, the next step is the installation of predictive diallers, a device that can dial a customer’s phone number, and upon reaching a live connection, transfer the call and the customer’s file to an agent.
While Mellish describes the branch system as the bank’s primary relationship building opportunity, he says the telephone banking option appeals to ‘middle-to-upper income, time-impoverished customers – people who are determined to have more choice in how and when they bank.’
As for results, Mellish says they are measured in a number of ways, with a growing emphasis on the ‘quality’ of the interaction.
‘In a lot of call centres, talk time has been measured very rigidly, because it is an important element in the cost mix,’ he says.
‘But you need to make sure that measures are struck so that you are actually achieving your objectives.
‘If it takes a little longer to satisfy the customer’s requirements, but, at the end, the customer is more satisfied, then the equation is worth it.’
Mellish expects that at maturity – some two to three years down the road – each of the centres will employ about 500 people, up from the current 210 at the Toronto call centre.
