By: Michael Mejia
Call Centers have been for some time the poster child of CRM. Always more inclined to embrace emerging technologies that can help them achieve their goals more successfully, Call Canters have come a long way during the past two years, enjoying the painful privilege of pioneering not only technologies but also practices.
Let-s not forget that as touch-points integration started to take place easing the way that customer call centers conducted business, customer expectations raised the bar once again. Technologies not to long ago considered industry standard have now become satanized by angry customers reacting against not the use of such technologies, but the abuse of the same.
Having evolved from call centers, warehouse or depot of all customer interaction, into CRM Contact Centers, modern organizations take advantage of all existing technologies, making them available to the customers without forcing them down their throat. The coordination -from a business perspective- and the integration -from a technical perspective- of all of these "touch-points" (term I believe coined by Richard Earley, a recognized CRM authority) create a major challenge even to the most experienced organizations. We have lately seen organizations that struggled with these factors only a couple of years ago, now emerge as players offering solutions to peer organizations, Convergys Corporation being a good example.
The main challenges are not in the implementation of any single Call Center technology, but rather in setting up an architecture and environment that allows the peaceful coexistence of as many of these technologies as the organization deems appropriate.
Michael Mejia is the Managing Director of CLEARIS' CRM Practice. He can be contacted by email at:
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