Many people equate call centres with neat rows of people equipped with headsets and large screens, answering phones, robotically.  That may have been the original concept back in the 1990s when Ireland attracted many international companies to establish call centres here.  At that point, call centres were typically departments within existing large organisations. They were designed to provide customer care, sales or technical support to the company’s direct customers.

Initially, call centres evolved from offering English language services during the standard working day to providing multiple language support, 24 x 7.  Some contact centres chose to separate the handling of customer contacts by medium.  For instance, one team might handle inbound calls while another is dedicated to outbound calls, and perhaps a third group handles email.  Similarly agents might be organised by customer profile – with groups assigned to handle large account style customers while other teams may handle more transactional one-off calls.  Some call centres especially smaller ones, opted to create “universal agents” who handled all contact types.  Universal call centre agents were typically created for reasons of efficiency and service. Many call centres found it easier to train agents in multiple communication methods rather than to train multiple agents in product or service information.

The increased number of centres located here inevitably led to a wider pool of experienced call centres agents. Industry bodies and award competitions were established. Slowly, higher and more consistent standards began to apply. Technology also helped drive transformational change. When call centres were originally established, the Internet was in its infancy. Typically customers communicated via phone and fax. The Internet revolutionised how people could communicate with one another and receive information. It facilitated email communication, remote support diagnostics and web chat services. In parallel, call centre technology improved dramatically, offering IVR functionality for automated call handling, virtual call centre capailities ie linking multiple call centres together, multiple reporting tools, advanced call quality monitoring and more.

The evolving call centre then handled phone calls, email, and online communication – including instant messaging. This signalled a change to the name – “contact centre” to denote the numerous ways of communicating with customers.

In the late 1990s, many companies recognised that running contact centres was not their core competency and decided to outsource. The dilemma typically was one of balancing cost versus customer expectations and satisfaction levels.  Many companies wanted to provide the best customer experience but knew they did not have the appropriate internal resources or skills. They wanted to reduce operating expenses without compromising quality of service. Initially many opted to outsource their customer services offshore in Eastern Europe or India, only to discover reduced levels of customer satisfaction to the extent that many are now opting to return the service, closer to home.

The dilemma however remains the same – how to reduce operating expenses and yet deliver a great customer service. Ironically, Ireland is emerging once again as a great location for higher value-add contact centres. Services now include more complex tasks like setting sales appointments, identifying key decision makers within target companies, advanced technical support and credit clearing. Many contact centres also provide value-add services such as auditing your customer satisfaction levels, providing advice on improvement techniques, establishing processes and sourcing IT professionals and even helping you design your own contact centre. Quality standards are high and many contact centres have embraced industry's best working practices and methodologies, such as ISO 9001:2000 and Six Sigma.

Outsourcing, whether to cut costs or avail of external expertise, has become a common trend. With a fast growing and ever more complex business environment, companies must carefully consider how to stay competitive.