Call Centre Technology – Boosting capacity and ROI

Strategies to enhance customer service levels across peak response

How capable is your contact centre when it needs to deal with unexpected peaks in traffic or even the normal throughput of customer interactions? 

To a large extent the answer to that question will depend on the number of concurrent users the system can handle as defined by both the technology (and licensing) available and the number of staff on hand to take enquiries. And if the number of concurrent users is limited to say 50 an hour and number of customers seeking to contact the company amounts to more than that on a regular basis then you're going to have a problem in terms of customers left on hold or abandoning calls.

Clearly the way to solve the problem is to increase the number of concurrent users that the system can deal with but in the end it's a question of cost.  In a contact centre, you can increase capacity to some degree by taking action to reduce average call length but a more obvious course of action is to raise the headcount - a costly option. The key question then is will the business benefits justify the increase in staffing levels?

But there is a better way.  Rather than increasing call capacity organisations should be thinking of migrating voice call traffic to live engagement via messaging/chat.  It provides a means to improve concurrency without necessarily hiring more people.  Here's why.

• Voice calls tie-up staff

When an agent picks up the phone, his or her job is to achieve a sale or resolve the customer's issue, no matter how long it takes. That could mean just 60 seconds on the phone or it could require an hour's worth of the agent's time. During that period, the agent is tied up with one caller while others are waiting on the line. If all the agents are engaged, you get queues. 

• Messaging instantly increases capacity

In contrast, an agent working in the chat/messaging medium can handle several streams at once. For instance, let's say the agent picks up a chat and within a few seconds another customer needs help. The same agent can pick up that chat/message stream as well. For the customer there is no need to wait in a queue. Now project that simple doubling up over a 20-strong customer service team and you have a massive increase in capacity and the number of concurrent users that the system can cope with. In reality, well-trained agents can handle more than two customers at a time. 

• Tools to increase capacity further

Once agents are working with text rather than voice, various tools can be used to increase productivity further. For instance, if the role of the agent in a particular contact centre is to deal with calls asking for product information, then much of this can be imparted through pre-prepared scripts (served by the agent in answer to a specific question) or even by video walkthroughs.  Agents can also use pre-prepared text messages to speed up basic interactions. For instance, 'Hello, how are you. How can I help' could be prepared along with a range of other typical interactions. 

• Faster resolution

Text based communication is usually more succinct than voice conversation, enabling agents to resolve calls more quickly, again increasing capacity.

Messaging gives you more for less

These efficiencies allow you to serve more customers using either the same number or fewer staff. This builds slack into the contact centre operation, meaning that contact centres are better able to deal with peaks and troughs.

The result is that message-based contact centres can handle a greater number of concurrent users than their voice counterparts. That's good for the customer and in terms of the cost-efficiency of the operation, good for the bottom line.

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Thanks to Tony Heyworth for sharing his advice and opinions in this post. Tony is a Senior Marketing Director for LivePerson International and is responsible for marketing and business development across both EMEA and Asia Pacific. Tony and his team lead the strategy for growing LivePerson’s online engagement revenues and establishing the online channel as a critical force for new customer acquisition and customer service. With over 25 years experience in software and services marketing, and with a unique blend of finance, sales and online marketing experience, he has held various Marketing Director positions held for market leaders including Interwoven, Polycom and Business Objects. An authority in marketing strategy and planning to enabling LivePerson to understand the needs of the customer in a fast moving online, social and mobile world we live in. You can follow LivePerson on Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+.