The selection process – shared service centre

UNTIL RECENTLY, the traditional contact centre effectively acted as a switch for customer enquiries. The customer service representative would make notes and fill in a form or route the caller to another department.

Typically, the approach was low intelligence – repeating steps that the customer could have taken himself through using a selfservice mechanism.

We are now seeing a change in the nature of the contact centre workforce, moving away from the low-value, low-impact call centre operative unable to offer much added value beyond the ability to route the caller to someone who can actually help.

Replacing these individuals are new knowledge-based workers, experts on particular topics who can be brought in to provide help and advice as part of the virtual contact centre experience.

Two-thirds of contact is occurring through phone calls, with 54 per cent of customers prefering this method of communication. There is also a two-per cent drop in the number of people using calls as a means of contact and a three-per cent increase for chat as a method for contact.

Customer satisfaction with chat engagement dropped the least of all the communication methods.

The growth of the client base has resulted in different responses. Some are now offering domestic support at a premium cost. If you don’t want to pay the premium, you stay with the nearshore support. Others are leaving their back-office work and non-voice communications in the offshore centres and are bringing the voice calls back to the United States.

Still others are working to bring language skills and American culture to their offshore and nearshore contact centre agents to break down the perceived communication barriers.