Contact Centre Crystal ball gazing for 2009
By Stewart White (Senior Consultant - Call
Centers)
For reprint permission please email
info@genroe.com.au
With 2009 only a few months away I thought that it was time to make some informed
predictions about what is likely to be happening in the Direct Marketing and Call
Centre Industry’s over the next year or so.
Firstly in review, this year has proven to be interesting particularly in regards
to the recent happenings with the American money market and in particular the flow
on effects to the Australian and New Zealand markets.
From my perspective this year I have seen many of my clients concentrating on consolidating
operations, looking for initiatives to keep increasing ROI values, and instigating
new up-sell, cross sell and bundling initiatives. Front of mind has also been retention
initiatives!
It’s also been a year where businesses have gained a fundamental understanding and
respect for the overall value that Direct Marketing and Call Centre operations can
bring to their business.
The following 5 topics are going to be the major challenges that many businesses
with Direct Marketing (DM) and Call Centre operations will face throughout 2009.
Staff resourcing
This is going to be a major challenge for companies in 2009: sourcing skilled DM
resources and Call Centre resources.
This year I have worked with quite a few clients who were having difficulty sourcing
the right people for their organisations in both DM and Call Centre fields.
In particular I have noticed that companies are having a fair bit of difficulty
acquiring skilled DM staff that have proven previous experience. Those people that
are on the market are being snapped up very quickly with extra benefits and strong
remuneration being offered for their services.
CC resources are also becoming more and more difficult to hire and retain.
Many companies are moving towards hiring staff that are both sales and customer
service focused. They are conscious that reducing customer attrition through over
sell/poor service is paramount to success.
Companies are also moving away from traditional resourcing models and moving to
more modern and dynamic options to procure and retain staff.
I’ve worked on a number of projects this year where I have helped companies to use
creative new models to help solve their resource problems; I see these types of
projects will be popping up again in 2009.
Increasing ROI values
Campaign performance will be on everyone’s radar next year with the pressure being
put on Marketing Managers and operational staff to really go the extra mile to squeeze
those extra response points out of every single campaign list or contact opportunity.
Companies that find themselves well established with good test and control metrics,
processes, creative offers and capable staff who can deliver conversions without
“overselling” will be the winners.
Retention initiatives will again be a focus throughout 2009 for a lot of companies
with many now understanding it’s more costly to gain new customers rather than keep
the current ones.
I believe that retention initiatives in 2009 will range anywhere from companies
who have outsourced their execution operations to foreign shores bringing them back
onshore to increase service levels; too simple initiatives like extended offers
of reduced charges for customers continued loyalty.
Efficiencies and effectiveness of operations
In 2008 I have spent a lot of my time with clients who were looking to increase
the effectiveness and efficiency of their call centre environments.
The Call Centre audit process, which many of our clients use, identifies many opportunities
within our client’s organisations and as a result has been a sort after service
this year.
2008 has seen companies taking the time out to have full independent evaluations
done on their operations to identify all of those possible opportunities, with Genroe
helping to implement many of the recommendations made in the content of the audit
findings.
In 2009 I believe that this trend will continue with companies engaging independent
evaluations of their operations with a view to increase effectiveness and efficiencies
of their operations.
Growing the profile of the Contact Centre Environment
This is a trend that I am particularly passionate and excited about!
Over the last 10 months I have dealt with 3 separate clients and helped them to
build and grow the profile of their call centre.
This was not necessarily as a direct result of a prescribed initiative but rather
as a result of another project I was working on with them.
It’s great to see Marketing, Contact Centre, and Operations Managers really push
to educate their CEO’s, CFO’’s and Directors about the power and value of their
call centre channel.
In all three cases it was extremely satisfying to see more funds (both Capex and
Operational) being directly assigned to the call centre areas as a result.
I’m confident 2009 will see a further increase in this trend with senior decision
makers being educated on the strong ROI of call centre operations and subsequently
assigning funds away from other areas of the business into their call centre environments.
Getting the right external supplier for your business
As I noted above there has been a trend in recent times for many companies to bring
their off shore call centre operations back onshore, to increase service levels,
and counter attrition problems in their customer base.
It’s also been a busy year for a lot of companies who have outsourced their call
centre work, with them changing vendors, bringing operations back onshore or setting
up their own call centres within their own businesses.
2009 will see the same trend continue with even more vigour.
My observations on this topic though are that companies that are going through these
exercises are now being very conscious of how they facilitate these processes and
are more likely to engage experts to help them.
Companies are now understanding how incredibly important it is to do the exercise
right first time and are engaging the Genroe's of the world to help them though
these processes.
It’s extremely pleasing to note though that companies are taking the assigning of
call centre operations more seriously and placing higher emphasis on the intended
outcomes. That’s a win for everyone!
Summary
2009 is going to be another challenging year for both direct marketing and call
centre operations. I also believe it will also be a positive year where operations
will gain higher profiles, and companies will be focusing on improving their operations.
Good luck for the New Year ahead!
P.S. I invite you to learn more about the services that Genroe can provide by simply
contacting me on swhite@genroe.com.au.
P.P.S. Don't forget to have a look at our
31 Point Diagnostic Tool, its free to download and fun to do, and you are
welcome you to share your results with me.
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