The face of the Call Center business is changing

By Richard R. Logan
Posted Sunday, December 5, 2004

Conservative consumers, shifting economic conditions and increasingly competitive business conditions are making it easier than ever to get new customers. These factors are also making it harder than ever to keep your customers. Customer loyalty isn't something easily given, it is something that is earned.

The fight for customer loyalty is nothing new to contact center professionals, but the changing face of the contact center industry is. DialResults predictive dialer system has been designed for the next generation of contact centers, and the new breed of contact center professional. DialResults emerging technologies and evolving team management strategies will lead the industry into the next phase of contact center growth.

The driving force behind these changes is FTC Legislation also an expansion/revision in basic call center objectives. Measures of success in call center operations have changed dramatically in the last decade. While once only call completions or number of orders were the primary measure, depending on the call center function, customer centric measures are now the focus

Predictive dialing is changing almost as fast as traditional dialers bring screen pops to an agent's desktop. The US market, which is the leader in terms of installed systems, is in a period of transition. Predictive Dialing started off as a way to attract new customers and to sell new ideas, but that model does not fit well in today's marketplace. Instead, companies are implementing DialResults predictive dialers in innovative ways, calling airline consumers if their flights are late, alerting utility customers to power shortages, reminding drivers to get their annual checkup, and even notifying retail customers when a package will be shipped late. Does that mean that consumers can say goodbye to someone asking for "the man or woman of the house," or having someone stumble with a long last name? Probably not, but there will be a drastic change over the next five years in which dialers will migrate from being used for primarily outbound sales activity to being used for proactive outbound customer service.

Companies without call centers, though, will be at a distinct disadvantage if their competitors have them. DialResults Advanced technology is made for dealing with a customers base on a large scale or even a SMALL SCALE USING call center TECHNOLOGY from DialResults. The future of the call center is rather like its past-it will continue to be the focal point for corporate efforts to handle customer contact. It will also incrementally add technology to handle different kinds of contacts, like emails and web interactions. DialResults has already seen and recognized and implemented these transitions in our call center technology in the marketplace.

About the Author
I have over 15 years in the call center industry. I have both worked for the 8th largest call center in the world and have also worked in the Predictive Dialer arena