The financial services arm of car repair company Kwik
Fit has upgraded its call centre technology in a bid to grow its
business by 20% during 2005.
Kwik Fit Financial Services has installed Internet Protocol
(IP)-based technology from Avaya in a £2m upgrade.
Martin Oliver, managing director of Kwik Fit Financial Services,
said, "Most of the reasons for the upgrade have been productivity
driven. We want to get more from the same amount of operators."
"Half of our new business comes from phoning out to customers so
we need cutting edge technology to help us keep ahead of the game
and cross sell."
Kwik Fit has moved from an Avaya Definity server to an Avaya
Communication Manager running on Avaya S8700 media servers.
The National Outsourcing Association has predicted that many
services companies will this year start to scale back their call
centres because they are too expensive.
Martyn Hart, chairman of the NOA, which represents user and
supplier organisations, said, "Call centre operations are
notoriously expensive and are regarded by many companies as a
temporary customer service solution.
The NOA research has found that financial services companies in
particular are planning on implementing Customer Self Service (CSS)
systems, pushing customers to use the internet to solve problems
and post any queries they may have on their account."