Reducing costs for contact centres

Intuate introduces a new tool which improves contact centre assessment, saving time and money

In difficult economic times the contact centre is one of the first areas impacted negatively by budget constraints. In order to balance customers on the one side and financial pressures on the other, contact centre managers need to properly manage resources at their disposal.

Contact centres looking to improve service levels and reduce costs can visit YourCallCentre.com – a contact centre analysis and performance assessment tool available through technology solutions and people resources integrator Intuate Group.

Developed locally with the aim to reduce the consultation cycle, YourCallCentre.com provides swift answers to challenges and opportunities in a contact centre, or a business at large. Using carefully considered questions with regards to the performance of the contact centre it draws up a detailed report within three to four hours.

“A successful contact centre is based on how it is designed and how it is managed. However, putting together the building blocks is not that simple as every contact centre has unique requirements and goals” says Mark Edwards, Director: Products and Services at Intuate Group.

“First of all, the complexity of the contact centre needs to be assessed and defined. This will determine the required design, technology, staff count, service levels, management structures, training and recruitment processes as well as efficiency practices. Establishing the impact status of the contact centre – whether it is a luxury, or critical to the business and customer – is also key,” he states.

With YourCallCentre.com, Intuate Group assists organisations in determining where critical improvements can be made. In addition to assessing the complexity level and the impact of the contact centre on the business and the customer, it provides a call centre design outline indicating the optimal and sub-optimal areas. It also compares the contact centre to global best practices in order to identify areas where the contact centre can improve to reach its desired service levels.

The assessment tool further calculates the time it takes to see a return on recruitment spend, by assessing the productivity of new recruits and determining the success of recruitment, training and employee retention practices, and recommends an optimal headcount and employee structure.

A technology report is provided, detailing the technologies necessary for the contact centre to function optimally. An efficiencies report sets out the cost per call, call centre workload, performance expectation, potential business value per call and cost and value at risk from abandoned and dropped calls, as well as potential repeat call percentages.

Finally, a detailed report describes all the areas where improvements are necessary and what needs to be done practically to develop the contact centre.

“By fine-tuning a contact centre with YourCallCentre.com, you can increase your profitability. This technically advanced tool and process assists any organisation or contact centre to create a development roadmap and ultimately set a benchmark for future success,” Edwards concludes.