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15 Nov 2011CONTACT CENTRES: The Key to Keeping Contact Centre Costs Under Control
Recent Gauteng Business News
âOur phone bill is a large part of our costs, so itâs crucial we keep on top of the best available solution,â says Fisher. âOur hosted contact centre from 1Stream offers us more effective call management as well as lower actual call costs.â
Sanclare Financial provides debt collection and credit control services for UK and South African clients from its Cape Town contact centre, with staff expected to manage 100 or more accounts a day.
âCalling in the most effective way is an important aspect of our business,â says Fisher. âWeâve previously used least-cost-routing to optimise call costs, but 1Stream offers greater savings as well as more flexible licensing.â
Mobile Phone Costs Key to Keeping Contact Centre Costs Under Control
Controlling the cost of calls to mobile phones is paramount, adds Fisher. âIn South Africa mobile phones are the main way to connect with people â and you arenât constrained by the time of day. So we use mobiles as our first point of contact. With the number of calls we make each month, shaving even half a cent per second off the costs starts to add up to significant savings.â
âDebt collection is all about outbound dialling,â says 1Stream director Jed Hewson. âThere are many ways to make the process more efficient, from predictive dialling to integration with backend systems so thereâs no wait for information to come on screen.â Hewson says the award-winning Interactive Intelligence platform on which 1Streamâs offering is based offers all the features needed for optimal outbound call management.
The Features Needed for Keeping Contact Centre Costs Under Control
âWe like the fact that itâs a hosted solution,â says Sanclareâs Fisher. âIf we want to add a dialler or automatic call distributor (ACD) thereâs no need to buy a piece of hardware â 1Stream just loads the software. We donât even need physical phones on the desk anymore â many of our agents just plug their headsets directly into their PCs.â
The same is true for adding a new user or extension, adds Fisher. âPreviously weâd have to get an engineer in and it might take days. Now itâs a matter of hours and 1Stream can do it remotely. Their ability to flexible and make changes quickly gives us a huge advantage.â This then allows us to really kepp an eye out and allow for us to keep our contact centre costs under control.
Business News Sector Tags: Call Centres|
