It's not the technology's fault
With call centres springing up like weeds on the lawn after the first spring rains, it’s disheartening to note that despite all the techno-hype and solution promises, the people who really care – the public – are starting to come out in their droves against the whole concept of call centre per se’.. Indeed, the parrot-fashion script reading; the seemingly endless waits in call queues listening to the strains of Vivaldi; the sheer disinterested responses from agents (when one actually gets through to one) and overall inefficiencies of many of these new generation sweat-shops, is taking its toll on the industry. And it’s happening on a global basis. Indeed, it is time to not only ask “Why?” but of greater importance, to look into the reasons why so many call centres are actually failing to deliver the so-called promises of dramatically increase levels of customer service and increased revenues.
There is an easy answer. Quite simply, many call centre users have been more than somewhat bamboozled by technology vendors into actually believing that contemporary technologies can virtually take over from humans; that given the ‘gifts’ of PBX, ACD, CTI, IVR, CRM, ERM and XYZ, who actually needs anything more than a bunch of neo-Neanderthal part-timers and just one under-paid and over-ambitious Captain Bligh to run a call centre? Seemingly, one can. If you want to call it a call centre!
The tragedy is that so many of these vendor-driven, so-called “solutions” are proliferating like the proverbial Triffids. And our industry takes the rap. Worse still …. The immense pressure of the consumer lobby can and will, soon enough manifest as more and more stringent legislative and other controls. Never mind the call centre and the IT industry, this kind of back-lash has a devastating effect on the economy as a whole. Just at a time when mankind should be optimising technologies to bring about dramatically increased business efficiencies and through this, increased benefits to all stakeholders, we seem to be shooting ourselves in the foot.
No. No. No. Technology alone will not do the job. Technology can and will only enhance and optimise well constructed, well-thought out business processes. Technology can only speed-up these processes. Technology can only provide agents and customers with information. Technology can only enable certain pre-determined work-flows. It’s a people business. People with passion. And there’s the starting point.
Any great call centre starts its life on paper. Dozens and dozens (if not hundreds) of sheets of flip-chart paper in room after room of real people. Management people. Sales rep people. Customer care people. Engineering people. Service people. Warehouse people. Yes, even the night-watchman kind of people. In other words, a true cross-section of the enterprise. And why does the enterprise exist in the first place? Let’s be honest-To make money. So, it makes good sense to put the entire organisation under the microscope and to analyse those business processes that have proved themselves in the past to do just that. To make money. There it is. Business processes.
At the very heart of the most profitable business process in just about every organisation, will be a true super salesperson. We all know them. The Tom’s the Dick’s and the Mary’s. They have incredible personalities. They’re tenacious. They have probably more amassed knowledge concerning the company’s history and its products than perhaps, even the CEO. And they know just how to use all of these assets in just about any face-to-face sales encounter. And they prepare themselves well for the battle out there on the high street. The battle to win the hearts, the minds and the wallets of their customers and prospective customers. Indeed they do. And they do win. Not with technology, but with the skills and the experience gained over time and their own ability to follow-through with their own, well-proven business processes. Call it “intuitive work-flow.”
But are these priceless skills taken into consideration when the organisation takes its giant step forward into the vaunted world of the call centre? Far, far too seldom.
There’s a global syndrome developing. “The Call Centre Lemming Rush”. It can start from an article in an in-flight magazine read by the managing director as he wings his way home (Business Class, of course!) from some or other meeting or conference in a far-off, exotic location. The article – assuming it has been written by one of the contemporary business guru’s – can well trigger the start of “Call Centre Armageddon” back at the home office.
Who’s the first person that the MD calls? The IT Director. “Build me a call centre”, says the MD. “Make it quick will you. Use the very latest technologies of course. Automate as much as possible and keep the headcount down to a bare minimum. And, oh yes, while you’re about it, use the cheapest labour you can lay your hands on. Better still, only employ temps. That way it’s easier to get rid of the malingerers. “ And the Lemming Rush is on. Did anyone ask “Why a call centre”? Why? “Well, the competition has one. Over 450 of the Fortune 500 companies have them. My golfing partner has one. And it says here (referring to said in-flight magazine) that ‘to survive and succeed in the new millennium, all businesses will need effective Customer Relationship Management processes and systems. That means a call centre. That’s why I want one and I want one NOW!” Yes Sir!
The Call Centre Lemming Rush is a sure-fire way to not only spend a fortune but simultaneously, to potentially destroy a business reputation. Customers are un-forgiving. Do it wrong and your business is dead.
So, how does an astute business go about planning and implementing the true strategic call centre; the call centre than dramatically enhances the business image; the call centre that delivers true customer service; the call centre that plays a vital role in preserving that ‘holy grail’ of all business – Customer Loyalty? Quite simply, by thinking through the business processes and the logic of Customer Relationship Marketing. Only when that has been done and the theoretical models tested and re-tested, will your business be ready to start thinking about and considering the most appropriate technologies to enable these processes. Only then will your organisation be on the long yet rewarding road to building a call centre to be proud of.
ByRod Jones
October 2009