Call centres, now popularly called "contact centres", will become
an increasingly lucrative market for IT staff to work in as new
technologies are adopted to meet the requirements of customers in
the financial services and retail sectors, writes Antony
Savvas.
Last year's survey of conditions and benefits by the
Telecommunications Managers Association (TMA) revealed that call
centre staff working in middle management positions are already top
of the pile when it comes to pay.
But new technologies, including Web-enabled services and access
to call centres via mobile phones and PDAs (personal digital
assistants), will mean even higher pay as the continuing skills
shortage kicks in, says call centre consultancy TC Group.
The overall staff turnover in call centres is currently running
at around 40%, says TC Group. This is the worst possible scenario
in light of the emerging technologies that the centres now have to
get to grips with. TC Group believes that unless the staff churn is
addressed, the whole sector "will plunge into chaos by 2003".
TC Group's concern is echoed by industry analyst Datamonitor,
which estimates that e-mail traffic - which is increasingly being
managed by call centres - will grow by 1,000% by 2003. At this
time, it is estimated that there will be 80,000 job vacancies left
unfilled in the new economy.
Gerry Moxham, TC Group senior consultant, says, "The
introduction of new channels of communication that require staff to
have a multiple skills set, means companies need to focus on
training, development and recruitment if they are to survive in the
long-term."
Digital TV, Wap (wireless application protocol), PDAs, e-mail,
and voice-recognition technologies are among the factors creating
more complicated systems for IT professionals to tackle in the
modern call centre.
While many people still do not like to make contact any other
way other than using a phone, many niche products and services
using contact centres are attracting younger customers and those
more willing to adopt new technologies.
The TC Group says one way to tackle the problem of a shortage of
technically able staff is to retrain existing employees. This
includes those who may currently only be answering the phones, but
who are at least showing some commitment to the business.
Moxham says, "Future problems should be addressed now by
empowering existing employees with clear career development plans,
including multi-skills training.
"The human resources department has to play a vital role in the
success of customer contact centres, with businesses having to
realise the worth of developing employees' careers and skills."