Call Center Technology

Pooling data from multiple channels. Many marketers have reaped satisfying returns on investment in products that link data from multiple channels, simplify communications among departments and make staff training more efficient and effective. As call centers morph into contact centers, where customers can reach companies via the telephone, Internet-based phone calls, email, and Web chat, savvy managers are using technology to gather customers' information onto a single infrastructure.

Sharing data among departments. Another group of applications enables call center managers to share data from their departments with other parts of their organizations, such as marketing. The application may analyze customers' purchase histories to determine what other products may interest them. This helps companies promote items customers are more likely to buy, boosting average order sizes and repeat business.

High-tech training. Many call centers are also using e-training tools to quickly boost the effectiveness of customer service representatives. Managers and trainers need a way to monitor their operators for quality assurance and to see where additional training is needed. Recording a phone call, transcribing it and personally following up with an agent (operator) could take a manager several hours. Software programs that automatically record calls allows managers to listen and then electronically forward comments to the customer service representative. When the operator opens the email, there will be an evaluation sheet from the manager and the operator can even play a tape of the call. Or a manager can send an agent two to three minute training videos on specific topics that will be helpful as they deal with customers.

Internet Telephony, or Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP). Essentially, this is sending voice calls over Internet lines. With VoIP, communication can be compressed, so that the same number of lines can carry more calls. In addition, both phone and Internet contacts travel on the same set of wires. As a result, VoIP can reduce phone and infrastructure costs.

VoIP also makes it easier to convert one form of communication, such as a Web chat, to another, such as a voice call.

Call center managers considering Internet telephony need to understand how their Information Technology (IT) architecture will support VoIP. Some Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) switches require third-party software to convert IP calls into a voice call. It also makes sense to determine if the network bandwidth can handle VoIP.

Applications using wireless devices are also slowly gaining acceptance in call centers. So far, however, these are being used primarily to help field personnel manage their customer contacts, rather than to allow customers to contact a firm via a wireless device.