The Global Association for Contact Center Best Practices & Networking

What has been the greatest challenge the contact centre industry has faced in the last 12 months and why?
The success of contact centres has been highly dependent on the recruitment, training and retention of quality staff. This has been even more critical as the Australian unemployment rate hits a low of 4.6%. As all sectors compete for skilled staff, there is rising competition for competent and committed individuals who value the career paths available within the contact centre industry. The industry has also not yet managed to overcome the negative images portrayed of call centres as “battery hen-style” workhouses by some sectors of the media.

In 2007, what do you think will be the top priorities for:
(a) Contact Center Managers

• Raising the profile of contact centre positions as long term careers opportunities and interesting places to work.

• Attracting staff to their organisation through profile raising events and industry participation.

• Retention of staff through best practise human resource management including training, incentives and flexible work practises.

(b) Company Executives?
Company executives will need to better incorporate and utilise the contact centre into their corporate strategy. Contact centres have an integral role in the maintenance of brand equity whether through customer service and acquisition. This is especially relevant as emphasis shifts to on-demand customer acquisition tactics through the Internet, ideally supported by contact centre operations in the form of live chat and inbound enquiry management.

What do you believe will have the biggest impact on the industry over the next 12 months?
In 2007, all Australian organizations conducting outbound calling to potential or existing customers will need to come to grips with the impact of the Do Not Call legislation. This will prohibit organisations from calling numbers that have been listed on a centralised register by the public. As yet, it is unclear as to how this legislation will work in practise.

Undoubtedly, the legislation will force all organizations to consider very carefully how they manage and procure customers without breaching the legislation and being subject to sizeable fines.

What impact have "external events" even had on your company, and how have you adapted your business, if at all?
Link:Q is an outsourced contact centre bureau with thousands of clients, many of which are government departments and emergency services. Australia is currently in the grips of drought conditions and this has had a flow on effect of making regional Australia extremely susceptible to bushfires. Link:Q has had to adapt to the unpredictable flow of incoming emergency calls through flexible rostering and cross-skilling of representatives.

Do you feel the service you personally get as a customer is better or worse than it was a year ago and why do you think it's so?
Personally, more service organizations I deal with are utilising voice recognition for their first level response. As a potential new customer to these organizations, I have found the experience to be frustrating and a sometimes impossible maze to navigate, so much so that a financial organizations where I was (pleasantly) surprised at being promptly answered by a live operator now enjoys my business. Product offerings of service organisations are increasingly becoming homogenised and quality live customer service is becoming a key differentiator and important decision making criteria. As I mentioned above, I strongly believe that organizations that choose to differentiate themselves through exceptional quality customer service will see a positive impact on their customer equity and ultimately bottom line.

About John Margelis:
John Margelis is responsible for the key account management of Link:Q's major customers. Recent successes include the extension of Link:Q’s existing agreement with Optus for the provision of Surepage and 124YES (Directory Assistance) services. Prior to joining Link:Q in 2000, John held several senior customer service and sales roles within Telstra's Mobile and Paging divisions.

About Link:Q:
Link:Q has over 40 years experience in outsourced contact centre services, directory assistance, call answering and messaging in Australia. With a strong customer base comprising in excess of 5,000 corporate, government and SME clients, Link:Q processes more than 1.7 million calls a month, in addition to millions of messages via e-mail, SMS and pagers.