The most intractable issues facing contact centres now, and for the foreseeable future, are labour and consumer legislation.
Because the contact centre floor is now defined as a workspace, there is no doubt that contact centre staff will soon have a union. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because it will eliminate suspect employment practices. But it will change the way agents are hired and fired, and it will create a significant education and training burden of responsibility for operators.
However, contact centre operators globally are already moving in this direction - without being pushed there by legislation.
The best option seems to be to position the contact centre as both the consumer's friend and the employer of choice.
Evan Jones is business development manager at Merchants.
Dimension Data's 2011 Benchmarking Report shows that, at 117 contact centres, 78% of agents were full-time permanent employees, as opposed to 10.6% part-time permanent employees, or 9.2% full-time contractors. So, all the rights and responsibilities that relate to full-time employment on the part of employees and employers apply anyway. Operators have begun to see they can give customers the best possible experience only if they have the best staff, and that having the best staff requires an investment by the operator in advanced recruitment, training, and retention strategies.
In the same context, operators in the Americas have a target of 47 months for agent length of service, figuring that, if one is to invest in training, then the best return on that investment is for one's agents to stay longer.
People on the outside
Theoretically, new legislation that focuses on consumer rights in terms of privacy, equality of treatment, choice, disclosure of information, responsible marketing, fair value, and accountability of suppliers will add cost to the contact centre. This is because processes and technology will have to be adjusted to make contact centre activity more rights-aligned. As these adjustments are made, performance will be impacted.
The South African legislative landscape and global trends in contact centres are in step with each other. The issue is not, therefore, what the financial cost will be of new technologies, a new approach to people, or new processes, or indeed, what the temporary brakes on performance will be. The issue is how to ensure the inevitable changes will have a positive impact on the contact centre's bottom line.
The best option seems to be to position the contact centre as both the consumer's friend and the employer of choice.
Spending the money
Both the new legislative environment and global contact centre trends are going to force operators to rewrite all contracts and terms - for consumers and providers. Also, the costs of marketing databases are going to increase because of, for instance, the regular removal of all newly registered consumers.
More intelligence, such as best time of day to contact, or the matching of consumers to agents, is going to be needed for contacting databases to avoid the burning of data.
The lifetime value of customers will need to be reconsidered because of higher customer churn and the consequent demand by companies for a lower cost of new customer acquisition.
In an attempt to mitigate the higher churn, companies will focus more on retention and loyalty strategies, creating a higher spend on the remaining customer base, and probably, introducing more products to 'tie in' rather than relying on rolling contracts.
And, there's the need to drive for customer satisfaction and customer experience while keeping the cost to serve as low as possible.
Making the money
The point is, however, that all of these tactical considerations are actually essential for growth in the contact centre industry. The fact that external factors, such as legislation, are forcing them early on to many operators that might not have been ready or able to undertake the changes just yet is uncomfortable.
Still, all these considerations make good business sense - and entrepreneurial operators are a long way down the road already.
How does one follow them - or get ahead of them?
Use a fresh approach for adopting technology, people, and process into the company's operations. Proactively plan a two-to-three-year strategy around South Africa's changing legislation. Create a positive working culture that encourages people to adapt. And integrate performance management practices more closely with strategic ones.
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