UNIT II Contact centre BPO Types of call

UNIT- II

Contact centre BPO, Types of call centre-Technology-Case study-Intel Net Global.

B-Business P-Processing O-Outsourcing Business processing outsourcing is the contracting of a specific business task such as payroll, human resources or accounting, to the third service provider.

CALL CENTRE: �Introduction �Meaning �components �Types

A call centre is a centralized office used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. The majority of large companies use contact centers as a means of managing their customer interaction. The earliest call centers were created during the 1960’s, and were known as “Private Automated Business Exchanges”(PABX). The earliest example of a call centre was in the UK is at the Birmingham Press and Mail. It was installed in 1965.

A call centre refers to a centre that specifically handles ‘calls’ i. e. telephone based traffic. It is the kind of back up of a business solution to receive and process a call for another organization. A call centre is just a form of BPO wherein agents take calls or make calls in order to produce sales, to answer queries in customers services and telemarketing.

In brief we can say that……… � Call centre is a place where service is provided to clients via phone calls or electronic telecommunication devices. � Services offered by many call centers, companies increase business’s efficiency as well as help with marketing leads. � Call centre performs that part of a client’s business which involves handling telephone calls.

Components which should be integrated into the call centre operations: � Location, building and facilities � Customers � Technology � Process � People � Finance and business management A change in any one of the above components will have a direct or indirect impact on every other part.

� LOCATION, BUILDING ANDFACILITIES: Where a center is located is critical in terms of the cost of the building but more importantly the ability to recruit and retain employees to work in the center. The ease and cost to get to a centre is important for those employed in centre but also in the integration with the head office functions that the centre need to work with. � CUSTOMER: Customers can be anyone and the agent needs to have the skills to be able to adapt their style and vocabulary to suit different customer type. The agent talks to more customers in any one day that any other person in the organization.

� PROCESS: Every centre has a multitude of processes, but the biggest challenge that it faces is to understand the end to end process from the customer perspective. One very easy but critical way of looking at the customer journey is to mystery shop the centre and to see what it really feels like to be customer. � TECHNOLOGY: There are significant amounts of technology available and it is very easy to be bamboozled by it all.

� PEOPLE: People are the most critical asset in a call centre as it is they who really deliver the business performance. Unfortunately the investment and perception of staff may be rather poor. The people (agents) often have to deal with difficult situations when things have gone wrong in the organization. � FINANCE AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT: There will be more management information statistics in a call centre than in any other part of organization. One of the very challenging roles are the planning, measuring and reviewing of performance, so it plays a significant role.

TYPES Inbound call centers Outbound call centers International call centers Domestic call centers Classification based on who owns call centers Classification based on method of communication Classification based on size and magnitude of operations

Here is a complete list of the different types of call centers ……… �Inbound call centers �Outbound call centers �Domestic call centers �International call centers Apart from all these there are some call centers which are based on different categories. ……………cont.

1. Classification based on who owns call centre: In-house call centers � Outsourced call centers � Classification based on size and magnitude of operations: 2. Home based call centers � Small, medium and large call centers � Classification based on method of communication: 3. Web enabled call centers � Telephonic call centers �

A type of call centers that is designed to receive a large volume of requests or inbound calls from customers by telephone. These types of call centers have agents who receives incoming calls from people. The number of calls, that inbound call center agents receive is not fixed. The number can vary a lot and it depends on the inflow of calls i. e. how many customers are calling up the call center. On certain days the inflow of calls can be very high and on other days it could be less. Inbound call center is the place where clients will call and agents need to provide support to them.

POINTS TO PONDER: � An inbound call center deals with a majority of incoming calls. � Most of inbound call center are customer service focused. � Customers calls these types of call centers when they need assistance with the product or service they specialize in. EXAMPLES: Calls related to customer service, technical support(services), network support(services), telephone requests for products, accounts assistance, bills and other inquiries from customers.

� AUTOMATIC CALL DISTRIBUTOR: Automatic call distribution or ACD, is a tool commonly used in the telephony industry. ACD systems are commonly found in any office that handles a large volume of inbound calls. Automatic call distributor is to disperse incoming calls to contact center agents or employees with specific skills. � INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE : Interactive voice response or IVR software is a technology that allows computers to interact with humans through voice commands and key inputs. IVR systems give customers a self service option to complete steps on their own instead of waiting for an agent. IVR is especially important when call volumes are high or when agents are unable to field calls for some reason.

An outbound call center is a business activity where a collection of call center agents make outgoing calls to prospective or existing customers on behalf of a business or client. Most of the outbound call centers are sales focused. When agents are making phone calls out of the call center they’re focused on a list of customers that they’d like to get in touch with. Most of the time this means that they’re targeting them for a sale.

POINTS TO PONDER: � The job of call center agents in outbound call center is to make outgoing calls to a list of people. � Calls made from the center can include telemarketing, sales or fund rising calls, as well as calls for contact list updating, surveys or verification services. THE MOST COMMON USES OF OUTBOUND CALL CENTER: � Proactive customer service(e. g. informing of delay) � Sales call to new customer � Renewals � Cross selling or up selling sales calls(to existing cust. ) � Debt collection � Customer satisfaction surveys � Market research

(These are also called types of outbound dialing) � PREVIEW DIALER: once an agent has indicated that they are ready for a call, information about the call is presented to them. The number is then automatically dialed after a pre defined period; the agent is given time to preview the customer details before the call is launched. � PROGRESSIVE DIALER: once an agent has indicated that they are ready for a call, information about the call is presented to them. Then the number is dialed immediately. Call progress is monitored by the dialer technology. Software call control minimizes agent involvement in the dialing process and improves call-handling efficiency.

� PREDICTIVE DIALER: A predictive dialer is a telephone control system that automatically calls a list of telephone numbers in sequence, screening out no answering machines and disconnected numbers while predicting at what point a human caller will be able to handle the next call. � MANUAL DIALER: In call centers operator have to call a bunch of people. When agents dial numbers manually, they spend considerable time on receiving paper records, selecting the person to be called, finding the phone numbers, dialing the number, listening to rings, updating the records after each call etc. With manual dialing agents spend more time trying to find a prospect than talking.

These types of call centers make and receive calls from people from within the same country. This means that at a domestic call center in India, the agents will make or receive calls from people in India only. In a diverse country such as India, there is always a need for agents who can speak varied languages, based in states and regions. So, even people who don’t know English very well, can find jobs at domestic call centers, and can make and receive calls in their mother-tongues, be it any language such as Hindi, Marathi, Tamil or Bengali.

These call centers have international companies as their clients. So, if a call center is based in India, makes or receives international calls on behalf of an overseas client, then it is known as international call center. Apart from the usual process training, these kind of international call centers also usually provide accent and culture training to their agents, so that they can understand speak effectively with people from other countries.

Classification of call centers based on who owns them In-house call centers Outsourced call centers

There are two main types in this. � IN-HOUSE CALL CENTER: these are owned and operated by the company. The purpose can be to provide service to existing customers, or for making telemarketing calls to acquire new customers. � OUTSOURCED CALL CENTERS: this is the cheapest option used by many companies, who do not want to run their call center in-house. So, they outsource the calling activities to a professional call center companies. The outsourced call centers can be located within the same country or it can be situated overseas.

Classification based on size and magnitude of operations Home based or virtual call centers Small, medium and large call centers

There are two main types in this: � HOME BASED OR VIRTUAL CALL CENTERS: this type of call center is typically operated by a single person who works from home. It usually involves making outgoing calls to a list of people provided by the company, for the purpose of making service related calls on behalf of the company or for making telemarketing calls with the intention of selling products and services.

� SMALL, MEDIUM AND LARGE CALL CENTERS: call centers are also categorized as small, medium or large based on the number of call center agents that it has for making or receiving calls. The size is typically measured and judged based on the number of seats, which is how many agents can make simultaneous calls at a single point in time. SMALL: - which have just about 5 -10 agents. MEDIUM: - around 30 -50 seats. LARGE: - more than 500 agents working in day and night shifts.

Classification based on method of communication Web-enabled call centers Telephonic call centers

� WEB-ENABLED CALLS: A call center usually means a place where agents make or receive telephonic calls. But in these days of the internet, not all communications on the calls. It can also happen online. Call centers that are equipped with providing support over the internet are known as “web-enabled call centers”. � TELEPHONIC CALL CENTERS: the call centers which are not equipped with such a things while only speak on telephone lines are known as “telephonic call centers”.

Call center technology is constantly evolving, here are 10 call center technologies…… � Automatic Call Distributor � Predictive dialer � Issue tracking system � Knowledge base � Text analytics � Session initiation protocol � Rich presence � Email response management software � Computer telephony integration � Speech analytics

� AUTOMATIC CALL DISTRIBUTOR: An automatic call distributor(ACD) manages incoming calls to a call center and routes them to the appropriate party based on preestablished handling instructions. Many ACDs feature skill based routing technology that routes calls to the appropriate call center agent based on skill set. � PREDICTIVE DIALER: A predictive dialer automatically calls a list of telephone numbers in sequence, screening out busy signal, no answers and answering machines while at the same time predicting when a call agent will be available to handle a call.

� ISSUE TRACKING SYSTEM: An issue tracking system is commonly used in the call centre to record and follow the progress of a customer-related issue. The system captures all pertinent information relating to the issue and allows managers to see who is responsible for resolving it. � TEXT ANALYTICS: Text analytics applications are used to analyze text from customer service interactions. Text analytics applications mine data from test, helping organizations extract value from a large number of textbased customer interaction.

� SESSION INITIATION PROTOCOL: A Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) application is often used in call centers in conjunction with Internet Protocol(IP) technology. SIP determines the end system to be used for the session, the communication media and media parameters and the called party’s desire to engage in the communication. Once these are assumed, SIP establishes call parameters at either end of the communication, and handles call transfer and termination. � RICH PRESENCE: Rich presence is an application that locates and identifies a computing device regardless of its location as soon as the user connects to the network. It is an enhanced form of presence technology in that it allows users to not only know that another user is connected but also observe to some extent what they are doing.

� KNOWLEDGE BASE: A Knowledge base is a centralized repository of dynamic information and an important part of a knowledge management system. Knowledge bases are used in call center agents and customers easy access to a wealth of information. � EMAIL RESPONSE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE: It automatically handles email according to user defined rules. The software is used by many call centers to manage large volumes of email messages and can track and record the status of each message and follow up message.

� COMPUTER TELEPHONY INTEGRATION: CTI is the use of computers to manage telephone calls. Call center agents using CTI applications receive a “screen pop” on their computer screen when a customer calls in, providing detailed information about the customer on the line. � SPEECH ANALYTICS: Speech Analytics applications are used to screen customers interactions for the purpose of identifying customer needs. Speech analytics have the potential to detect cost saving and cost avoidance opportunities, identify ideas for new and improved products, pinpoint cross sell/upsell opportunities and determine the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

A contact center is a centralized office used for the purpose of selling and receiving large volumes of requests by telephone. A contact center is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, debt collection are also made. In addition to a call center, collective handling of letters, faxes, and e-mails at one location is known as contact center.

POINTS TO PONDER: � A contact center(also referred to as a customer interaction center or e-contact center) is a central point in an enterprise from which all customer contacts are managed. � A contact center is generally part of an enterprise’s overall customer relationship management (CRM). � The contact centers typically includes one or more online call centers but may include other types of customer contact as well, including e-mail newsletters, postal mail catalogs, website inquiries and chats, and the collection of information from customers during in store purchasing.

The main difference between a call center and a contact center is that while a call center is focused on incoming and outgoing voice calls, a contact center is able to manage customers with both voice calls and data applications like e-mail, web based chat/instant massaging, and in some case will include the capability to share web pages sent to and from the customer. The fully functional contact center takes advantage of customer needs for text and visual communications in addition to phone calls; typically a contact center also uses a “blended agent” who can manage multiple forms of voice and data-centric customers communications.

There are some criticisms related to contact centers: criticisms From callers From staff

� Incompetent or untrained operators incapable of processing customers requests effectively. � Overseas location, with language and accent problems. � Automated queuing system. This sometimes results in excessively long hold times. � Complaints that departments of companies do not engage in communication with one another.

� Low compensation(pay and bonuses) � Repetitive job task � Poor working conditions(e. g. poor facilities, poor maintenance and cleaning, cramped working conditions, management interference etc. ) � Restrictive working practices( some operators are required to follow a pre written script). � High stress: a common problem associated with front-end jobs where employees deal directly with customers.

�IVR(Interactive Voice Response) �CTI(Computer Telephony Integration) �ACD(Automatic Call Dialer) �CSR(Customer Satisfaction Research)