In today's service environment, the call centre is more than likely the only point of contact most consumers have with an organisation.
So says Karmy Padayachee, head of client services at Discovery Health, who notes that this makes contact centres vitally important to run highly-effective customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Padayachee is a speaker at the ITWeb CRM 2.0 Summit to be held at the Forum in Bryanston tomorrow. The event focuses on the latest contact centre trends and the impact of new technologies on enterprise CRM.
According to Padayachee, in a contact centre business, the introduction of central information repositories ensures that agents are aware of all changes that happen in the organisation on a real-time basis.
He also points out that quality, efficiency and planning, combined with multi-skilled agents, is what a successful contact centre needs to ensure that queries are resolved by a single agent on first contact.
CRM is critical in customer service and retention strategies, Padayachee says, adding that Discovery Health's contact centre has around 700 agents and handles 33 000 calls a day. “In a major enterprise such as Discovery, where critical healthcare queries are made and most customers interact only with the company's contact centre, effective CRM is essential,” he says.
“From a planning point of view, we have real-time monitoring and back up structures that allow us to control the environment and quickly predict call volumes and optimise the call centres daily.”
CRM is not just around sales and support but also customer service and support, Padayachee continues.
“I believe a successful call centre is one that is able to meet the needs of clients from both a quality and efficiency stand-point.
“Most people want their queries to be resolved quickly and accurately the first time. The servicing must portray the image of the company but the agents must be flexible enough in their approach to adapt to whom they are dealing with,” he says.
For more information about the ITWeb CRM 2.0 summit, click here.
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