Call centers are the communication nucleus of any business: create a nimble, reactive call center to gain an advantage.

What do they have in common? Both Fred and Ann are trying to find a way to retain qualified staff while cost-effectively meeting internal and/or external customer demands. Ensuring high-quality performance while minimizing risks and balancing the budget is not a simple task even for a multi-talented professional. The basic element both managers face is they need to find a way to do more work with the same or less personnel each year.

Cost is always an issue when evaluating calling needs. Whether you operate a call center inside a major corporation, run an independent call center or have a small center inside your business, there is always pressure to achieve more. A call center helps maximize profits. The trick is to ensure management views the call center as a profit arm and not an expense to control. Efficient handling of inbound service calls translates to a good reputation and brand enhancement. Effective outbound calling stimulates revenue.

The call received or taken often sets the tone of the customer's lifelong relationship with a company. The impression left can create a positive energy or a lasting negative spin. Even small efficiency gains can produce large results in the right operation. A company will spend millions of dollars on branding that can be wiped out in minutes with a bad call.

Like most entities, a call center evolves over time. They developed a process that addressed their initial needs, but then needed to adapt to meet new customer demands, regulatory changes or other moving targets that were not in place when the initial solution was designed. The center can become challenged by regulatory or technical changes or changing business needs. There are several potential obstacles a call center can encounter:

Legacy investments. These are locations where so much has been invested in the existing system that making a change is unthinkable. This is a trap many companies fall into. Sustaining a legacy may be important in some areas, but in business, the legacy should be the perpetual drive to improve profits.

The current solution is not fully depreciated. Why hold onto a solution, even if it is not fully depreciated, if it is holding you back from achieving mission-critical goals? Writing an old system off may make better financial sense if the solution replacing it can bring the productivity needed to achieve to day's financial metrics. Acquisitions and mergers. How does an organization integrate two or more call centers that may exist when an acquisition or merger occurs? Is selecting one of the two existing solutions the right choice or can benefits be gained for both call centers by choosing a new application to unify the new operation? The cost of modifications to either legacy system may be more than the cost of one new integrated solution suite.

Capacity-strained centers. Moving from one physical space to another is an expensive and time-consuming task that in the end results in a higher fixed commitment to rent. When a business hits a perceived physical capacity limit, it should step back and look to see if it can realize a 25 to 50 percent productivity gain by revisiting the current solution driving the center. Moving or expanding may not be what is needed to fix the increased demand for space.

Emerging entities. These groups often do not even know they are a call center. Calling is critical to what they do, but if they use manual dialers or some form of customer relationship or contact management system, are they really allowing callers to do their job properly? Are they still experiencing operator intercepts, busy signals or other "dialing"-related obstacles? Are incoming calls being appropriately routed by using an IVR to the proper first-level response agent?

Calling, whether it is inbound or outbound, is a money management decision. Call efficiency goes deeper than surface labor dollars. There are at least three major intangible items that affect every call center:

Customer retention. Whether you operate an inbound response center or outbound group, the goal is to have an efficient, productive call. You may be the internal support group for a company or contracted to sell or support another business's clients, but the target is to achieve a high satisfaction or sales rate. The call center solution can be the driver to make agents more productive, which can reduce employee turnover. Turnover increases hiring and training costs, affects employee morale and makes it harder to achieve goals. Every caller who leaves drains profits and creates emotional stress.

Caller effectiveness. Callers learn as they go. The more they are exposed to, the more potential they have to learn. In an outbound center, if an agent is experiencing 30 connects per hour and has the opportunity to make 60 connects per hour, that agent will exponentially refine his or her calling style, which should produce better results in a shorter time. Ideally, an outbound center would like to see the number of connections begin to drop in correlation with an increase in sales. Automation and tools create the proper setting to optimize calling results.

Risk. What is said, how it is said, the offer made, the words used and other factors all add to the potential risk in operating a call center. What level of call monitoring is conducted? Are calls being recorded to ensure employees are following procedures and to protect agents from being accused of something they did not say? Beyond FTC do-not-call concerns, there are other exposure areas that reside in a call center. In today's litigious society, the ability to monitor, train, record and intercept are good options to have and practices to deploy.

What is in place today is not as important as getting to where you need to be tomorrow. If you have an existing call center solution, it may seem difficult to consider replacing it, but you need to ask if you are getting the type and volume of responses needed? Look at the different types of call center challenges from above. Does a legacy system do what it needs to do today? The cost of personnel and client acquisition or satisfaction should far outweigh the decision to hold onto a solution that may not be achieving goals. Does the fact that an asset is not fully depreciated mean it should continue to be in use? In a merger, acquisition or space strained location will a new call center solution get you to the next level? Challenge the existing operation to see if better technology and fresh ideas can expand your resources.

To understand what benchmarking questions to ask related to your center, please call us. We find most call centers struggle to understand the alternative value points and ROI potential that exists because they are so deeply ingrained in their current applications. SCS is not the perfect fit for everyone, but we are always able to spend a few minutes helping anyone who calls us. You will talk with owners and key executives who live and breathe the issues of this industry and work with their sleeves rolled up alongside of their customers. Contact Mark Findahl, VP of Customer Support, to discuss your needs at 800-727-4155 or via e-mail at [e-mail].

Fred manages an outbound call center. His primary responsibility is to
ensure:

* Callers make qualified connections.
* He can control and monitor the performance of his representatives.
* FTC regulations are not violated.
* His goals are achieved.

Ann manages an inbound service center. She is concerned about:
* First-call completion rates.
* Skills-based routing calls.
* Doing more with the same or less personnel resources.
* Achieving her goals.