However, Knight cautions, “It is vital that resellers promote call centre applications that reflect the evolution of the consumer, those that purely offer telephone interaction will miss out.”
“There are two important points that need to be considered; the expectations of the consumer and the business processes in place to provide the best possible service to those consumers. The past twenty five years we have seen the introduction of mobile phones, the internet, electronic mail, and computers move into a consumer market not just a business environment. The education process promotes the use of technology to help with productivity and research and therefore, the expectation of those individuals can be very different to that of older generations.
In order to satisfy all the demands, companies need to provide access to their products and services in a way that their customers are comfortable with, but also being accessible at a time of day that works for them.
This means offering access via telephone, e-mail, SMS, Fax, Instant Messaging and Web. More importantly making sure that all communication received, is prioritised, and acted upon, by the most appropriately skilled individual in a timely manner.
This can only be achieved if the right processes and supporting technology is in place. IP has enabled traditional call centres to develop into multi-media contact centres presenting consumers with a range of communication methods to use such as fax, email, sms, instant messaging and even video, giving consumers the flexibility to choose their preferred method of communication. This diversity helps companies differentiate themselves in the market and increase customer loyalty.
The Mitel contact centre solution enables contact centre managers to keep track of the volume of incoming calls and assess how long the customer has been waiting. A level of priority can be set on the call so that urgent callers are dealt with more efficiently, and those with specialist queries can be routed to the handler who has the necessary skills to deal with the enquiry. Contact centre managers can also plan more effectively using the range of reports available to monitor agents performance and plan for busy and quiet periods. With the correct tools in place both the contact centre manager and agents know what is happening in real time and have the ability to make adjustments if necessary.
The Microsoft Live Communication Sever is a true multi-media application that can be integrated into the Mitel Contact Centre solution consisting of instant messaging, presence and video. For example, an agent may be on a call and doesn’t possess the knowledge to answer the customers question, they see that a colleague in a different department is online so the agent sends them an instant message and the customers question is answered. The multi-media application delivers first contact resolution for consumers and increased productivity and efficiency for agents.”