The Company With The Best Data Wins

February 21, 2006

Laguna Hills, CA to Bangalore, India

In the call center industry, each client has a set of calculated objectives that they wish to achieve in its operations.  Time and time again organizations take a intentional, cost-focused approach to customer service, instead of developing a strategy that serves to build approval and new sales opportunities while keeping expenses in line.  Whether the objectives involve efficiency or growth, they are more readily achieved when call centers have stronger capability and resources.

In the past, call centers have been focused on processes, software, training, and management that creates inbound calls and cost efficiencies.  However, companies are starting to recognize that the call center can’t only be about answering the call and providing responses in the quickest way possible.  A continually shrinking world created by technical improvement has given rise to increased competition and slanted the scale dramatically in favor of the customer.  Their options have grown widely and they are constantly bombarded with messages encouraging them to test different options whether outsourcing or setting up in-house.  This atmosphere is giving call centers a new level of respect and responsibility within businesses of all kinds.

The importance of new business acquisition, cross selling, customer satisfaction, data-collection, market research, customer loyalty, catastrophic loss back up and exceptions to rules on call time limits has long been understood by savvy call center managers.  This understanding is now beginning to find its way into the spreadsheets, budgets, and priorities of senior executives.  Data mining is playing a key role in identifying specific metrics regarding customer value that provides justification for increased operating costs in return for creating and retaining high-value customers.  Call centers are recognized as strategic business divisions/units influencing customer behavior, instead of just a necessary evil.

This past year marked a energetic one for the call center industry.  There was rapid deployment of technology, continued growth opportunities from an increasingly global economy, and an emphasis on third party organizations to provide call center support.

Technology isn’t Everywhere

Call centers became full adopters of technology to support a more cost-effective environment in 2005.  For example, workforce management (Client Relational Management Software) tools are being utilized to ensure productivity, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems and VRUs (Voice Response Units) are being utilized to not only direct traffic, but to conduct customer satisfaction surveys and calls. Digital recording solutions (Wave files) are being utilized to ensure compliance and training via the internet and telephone.  This is rapidly being adopted from a customer service aspect in addition to compliance. If your business or the call center that you have contracted on is not utilizing this type of technology it will have an impact on the speed of your growth.

The Collision of Globalization

The same trends that have increased the power of customers provide businesses with resources to cost-effectively improve customer service.  Globalization has provided a significant reduction in the cost of staffing call centers with highly educated employees using up to date technology to meet customer requirements.  Offshore call centers cost only a fraction (from 30 percent to 50 percent) of onshore costs depending on the specialty.  As a result, companies can grow customer service resources and infrastructure, even when they are faced with shrinking budgets.  Astute call centers are open for business both on a domestic and offshore basis letting the customer make the choice depending on their philosophy and financial situation.  In some cases certain tasks or campaigns can be blended between the offshore and domestic call center to keep the customers cost in line and take advantage of a much higher intellectual person/capital.

Many companies have taken advantage of the cost reductions made possible by outsourcing whether offshore, domestic or in-house.   However, throwing money and time at call center for a lower cost has not always solved the biggest challenge - creating quality user/customer experiences.  Sometimes we think we know what we don’t know.

Quality Tools and People

Quality is determined through a neutral, objective, unbiased set of eyes.  Companies are turning to firms to prevent biased in-house quality evaluations.  People have a normal desire to be liked and this will forever affect the ability for call center management to achieve results in quality with the data mining methodology used.  In other words garbage in garbage out.  Across all industries, internal sources struggle to maintain tight calibration.  Many managers and vendors may have a self fulfilling desire to protect a yard that needs to be upgraded with a newer landscape.  The upgrade could involve people, data, software, training or all four.

The call center has evolved over the past decade from an expense to a profit and the focus on service and efficiency has also shifted from vital to critical.  The quality of the customers is directly related to the quality data that is mined and groomed year after year.  Companies must take advantage of the depth of knowledge available from the call center and data providers combined.  The call center is the focal point that provides the organization with real-time data updating directly from customers and prospects.  This is where the voice of customers and prospects can be heard and reported quick and accurately to all parts of an organization.  The acting customer intelligence that the call center collects can be leveraged by all parts of the organization.

But you can’t measure quality once a year.  In fact, companies are realizing that if quality is as important as quantity, then they should be measuring a much larger sample size in order to have statistically valid results.  Compiled data or real time data blended and managed together is becoming a very powerful sales and marketing tool for top business leaders.

Broader access to information by customers and prospects combined with worldwide supply chain distribution has blurred corporate differentiation.  To compete in our evolving world of e-commerce, companies must be deliberate in how they balance transactional experience with the human touch.  At stake is what the business is all about the meaning of the brand, the speed of business growth, and the bottom line.

National Marketing Services is a property and casualty insurance data mining firm with two offices one in Southern California and the second location in Bangalor, India.  The firm provides custom data, market research, outbound telemarketing and back office work both in a domestic and offshore capacity. Contributing to this article are the executive principals of National Marketing Services.

Larry Neilson
CEO
Jeff Neilson
President
National Marketing Services (NMSdata)
Laguna Hills, CA
800-736-9741 Ext 3003
www.nationalmarketing.com