Imagine driving on a road where there are virtually no rules. Lights, lanes, and signposts are non-existent. Traffic moves haphazardly in every direction. And nobody knows exactly where they’re going, or how to get there.
For companies looking to gain business advantage by traveling the Information Highway, that’s pretty much the state of affairs these days.
Call centre operations are among the latest to join this throng. In the last couple of years, the industry has been abuzz with speculation about the potential benefits of linking call centres to the Internet.
Though there’s little consensus yet about the impact that Internet integration will have on the call centre business, or on the extent to which it will transform conventional approaches to customer service, few would deny that immense possibilities exist.
Those possibilities, however, would appear to be a long way from realization.
‘When the rubber meets the road, nobody really seems to have an application for it today,’ says Stephen Gross, vice-president of Toronto-based Phonettix Intelecom. ‘Or a burning need to implement it.’
That said, many of the larger call centre service agencies such as Phonettix are currently scrambling to make Internet-integrated service available to customers.
As Michael Sachter, president of Toronto-based TMS Response Technologies observes, the early adopters can leverage this capability as a point of differentiation – even if there’s not much client demand for it yet.
‘Many [of these] call centres aren’t actually using it to any great extent,’ he says. ‘Just enough to say that they’re in the game – more as a comfort to clients.’
That’s not to suggest that Sachter dismisses the concept of Internet-call centre integration. Quite the contrary: He expects it to fast become a crucial line of contact between a company and its customers.
‘[The technology] will have to scale pretty quickly to support the needs of customers, and to handle what will eventually become greater and greater volumes,’ he says.
So what, exactly, does linking a call centre to the Internet make possible? Well, if visitors to a company’s Web site need help making a purchase, or have questions and comments, they can simply click on an icon to reach a customer service representative in the call centre. While this connection could be made in a number of ways, including e-mail and call-back, the general trend in the industry is toward enabling on-line conversation with a live agent.
The combination of multimedia with the capability of live interaction could offer powerful enticements for customers to contact businesses via the Internet. A travel agency’s customer service representatives, for example, could actually show clients images of a particular resort or destination on-line, rather than try to describe it over the telephone.
To some extent, the benefits of implementing an Internet call centre will vary by industry. Fred Gallagher, president of Toronto-based TKM Communications, says there are certain sectors in which it simply makes more sense. High-tech companies, for example, are likely to be early adopters because many of their customers would naturally prefer to be able to interact with them through the Web. In other businesses, however, customers will probably tend to stick with the tried-and-true telephone.
While unanimity among call centre professionals on this whole issue is difficult to find, there does seem to be at least one point of agreement – namely, that the major advantage of Internet integration is offering the customer another option for inbound communication.
Tom Laird, president of Regina-based provider SaskTel Call Centres, says this is the main reason his organization decided to develop an Internet solution.
‘We realize that there are customers who [prefer to] visit a Web site at their leisure, and pick and choose the information they want,’ he says. ‘We’re trying to step up to being here for them, electronically.’
In the end, it’s all about customer service, says Mark Skapinker, ceo of Balisoft Technologies, a Toronto-based software firm that has developed an Internet call centre application called LiveContact. Customer service is the raison d’etre of the modern call centre – and providing an additional communication channel is simply another means for a company to enhance the level of customer service that it provides.
One way to differentiate yourself,’ he says. ‘is by having buttons [on your Web site] to connect people to human beings with whom they can actually speak.’
All of which begs the question: Why haven’t more call centre operations moved rapidly to adopt the technology?
For the most part, it comes down to demand. Customers aren’t clamoring for it, so there are few call centre operations – particularly smaller ones – that feel any urgent need to rush out and begin the task of Internet integration.
Fletcher Keating, president of TelePartners Call Center in Toronto says he’s content to observe the proceedings from a distance, until integration proves itself to be a viable option.
‘Whether it turns into something that is high-volume and desirable – time will tell,’ he says. ‘But at this stage, it seems that most of the links that have been provided between the Internet and the call centre are experimental.’
Technological challenges pose a further hindrance. While the cost of integrating the Internet into a call centre setup isn’t overwhelming – after all, the basic infrastructure and network should already be in place – there is still a need for some investment in hardware and software. Staff must also be properly trained to handle the unique demands of servicing Internet customers.
According to Sachter, however, the biggest challenge isn’t so much implementing the technology, as actually learning to apply it.
‘Like [running] a call centre, it’s hard to do well,’ he says.
And then there’s the question of consumer education. Dorothy Millman, president of Phonettix, says that the majority of Net surfers still aren’t sophisticated users. It will be a while before they evolve beyond simply using the Internet for research, and begin engaging in true on-line interaction.
‘It’s one step that the public has not yet reached,’ she says. ‘It will happen; it’s just going to take a little bit of time.’
So, will Internet integration ultimately transform the contemporary call centre? Sachter, for one, thinks so.
‘It has to,’ he says. ‘With businesses increasingly using the Internet for purchasing and communications, and with people having greater install rates, it’s not a question of ‘if’ – it’s a question of ‘how.”
Stephen Gross of Phonettix is also optimistic about the future of Internet-linked call centres, although he does voice some caveats.
‘It will have a huge impact, in that it’s a whole new medium that is being introduced to the call centre,’ he says. ‘Will it account for the majority of activity within the call centre? No, it will not. It will still represent a minority of what’s being done over the next few years.’
According to current projections, Gross continues, Internet-based activities are expected to account for a relatively modest share of call centre industry revenues by the year 2000 – less than 20%, in fact. But the Internet will nevertheless be one of the factors fuelling the rapid growth of the industry.
Skapinker, for his part, says that the impact of the Internet on the call centre industry will depend to a large extent on whether Internet electronic commerce goes mainstream. The more common it becomes to make transactions over the Internet, the more consumers will demand higher levels of service on-line – such as the opportunity to interact with a real live human being, if necessary.
Ultimately, many in the industry see Internet integration as a crucial stage in the evolution of the business – part of the process by which call centres shed the negative connotations associated with telemarketing, and become recognized finally as full-service ‘communication centres.’
Also in this report:
– Integration the next step in e-commerce evolution, p.D14
– Smaller players weigh call centre option p.D16
