| The Call Centre. A
Central Marketing Instrument |
| The Call Centre is a telephone
marketing centre with a variety of telephone agents and sales people
who: |
Telephone marketing is identified
as systematic marketing work using media of the telecommunication
(telephone, fax) |
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There is no typical Call Centre.
Call Centres vary in: |
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Take orders and answer questions from customers (passive
telephone marketing or inbound) or
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Size
Number of employees
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Acquire potential customers by telephone (active telephone
marketing or outbound).
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Organisational structures
Range of capabilities
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| Modern and high-performance
technology guarantees high attainability of customers without long
waiting times, even during peak times. |
Hours of operation |
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| Why Call Centres? |
| Call Centres increase the
service quality and customer proximity. |
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| Call Centres guarantee efficient
customer service. |
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| Call Centres deliver valuable
information. |
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| Call Centres contribute towards
a long-term customer relationship. |
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| Call Centres may increase sales
with only little cost. |
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| Assignments of Call
Centres |
| INBOUND |
OTHER ASSIGNMENTS |
| Advisory services and to take
orders by telephone. |
Call Centre conception and
implementation. |
| Customer service, help desk
and support services.
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Fulfilment: distribution of
products and information material, debt collecting. |
| OUTBOUND |
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| Address and sell to customers
by telephone (active approach). |
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| Analysis of target groups
and demands, customer survey, marketing research |
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| Call Centre Development and Trends |
| Telephone marketing is a growing
market - world wide |
Call Centres are developing
to communication centres |
| Just in Germany alone, the
number of telephone jobs will increase by about 30% per year. Currently
about 150,000 people work in more than 1,500 Call Centres.
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For communication interface,
besides the telephone Call Centre increase, the use of e-mail, internet
and fax server. |
| In-house or Outsourcing |
The trend is to virtual call
centre structures (flexible call-routing). |
| Depending on the workload,
many companies decide to operate their own Call Centre, others out-source
to telemarketing agents. |
Connection to several Call
Centres to one virtual Call Centre. |
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| Characteristics of
Successful Call Centre Quality Criteria |
| Attainability |
Friendliness and Competence |
| The Call Centre should be open
24 hours per day, 365 days per year. |
Specially trained and motivated
employees |
| Busy calls and lost calls should
be minimised |
About 50% of the telephone
agents are employed (not part-time). (This tendency is increasing.) |
| On average, all calls should
be answered within 10 seconds. |
Due to frequently changing projects, there
is a high demand for qualification.
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| Flexibility |
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| The ability to react quickly
to fluctuating calling volumes. |
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| Efficient personnel planning
and flexible working hours. |
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| Using Modern Technology |
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| High performance electronic
distribution systems connect calls to a free agent. |
Efficient connection of telecommunications
technology to customer databases |
| Distribution of calls under
the consideration of individual employee qualification (Skill Mapping). |
Automated dialling in outbound
(Preview Dialling, Power Dialling). |
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Use of modern voice identification
systems. |
| Employee orientated formation
of the working environment. |
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| The Working Environment
- A Strategic Factor To Success |
| The working environment of
a Call Centre has a direct influence to the quality of employee performance
and therefore to customer orientation |
Important aspects of the working
environment.
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| Telephone agents are employed
on a permanent basis. |
Interior architecture and layout of workstation. |
| Agents have direct customer
contact even though they are at a different location |
Acoustics, noise absorption. |
| A friendly environment results
in a positive mood and motivation of the telephone agents. |
Influence of light |
| Therefore, a friendly and healthy
working environment results in higher quality and customer orientation. |
Room atmosphere |
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Data processing systems. |
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Telephone systems/head sets |
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Flexible and ergonomic furniture |