Real customer service in the future means today’s call centres need to evolve into multimedia contact centres, providing fast and efficient solutions to customer enquiries, wherever and however they originate.

With industry experts forecasting that by next year, 20% of all customer contacts will be via web/email, delegates at a recent call centre seminar were told that they needed to take action now to ensure they meet customer demands tomorrow.

Call centre guru, John Goodeve-Docker, joined forces with Pete Neville and Dave Burrows from customer service experts Interchange Group, to warn that customer service delivery within call centres needs to change to keep up with the demand for eServices.

Burrows, Interchange's Director of Research and Development, said: "Today's customers want one central point of contact - one universal way to do business - they don't want to have to go to lots of different departments to find what they want."

"Companies need integrated CRM systems and processes in place, backed up by fulfilment. They need a single view of every customer using single database technology which is available for all employees to access, no matter which department they sit in.

"Customers expect results, whether their contact is by phone, email or customer portal, and in turn, call centres need to maximise the use of new technologies to get the most out of their agents."

That means massive growth of e-fulfilment web-based access and fully integrated solutions which use a single database to access all the functionality and systems needed to serve customers simply, easily and quickly across all trading architectures.

The need to change to survive was underlined when Goodeve-Docker revealed that only 50% of call centres are currently delivering their full potential. A combination of poor systems and processes and a lack of strategic definition and staffing issues are key failure points and businesses needed to wake up to recognise the real capability they have under their roof.

“E-commerce and customer demand is pushing the drive towards the provision of eServices but the human touch is still critical and that means many call centres will only deliver their full potential by becoming multimedia contact centres,” he said.

As well as systems integration that means considering options such as self-service (artificial intelligence and speech recognition) and outsourcing to experts who really understand how customer service should be delivered.

With IT budgets constantly under the spotlight, Neville, Interchange’s Director of Business Strategy, said businesses need to consider issues such as needs and benefits analysis, change management, implementation and exploitation to ensure return on investment. 

Only by doing so will they start to understand the real quantified and deliverable business benefits that can be achieved from the implementation of the right IT systems.

Interchange’s own assure comprehensive risk management system, guarantees a real return on results and delivery against business goals and operational needs, while simultaneously delivering excellence in customer service.