Page 174 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Unit 6: Technology for Customer Relations

 With the advent of the Software as a service technology delivery model, the virtual call Notes
centre has emerged. In a virtual call centre model, the call centres operator does not own,
operate or host the equipment that the call centre runs on. Instead, they subscribe to a
service for a monthly or annual fee with a service provider that hosts the call centre
telephony equipment in their own data centre. Such a vendor may host many call centres
on their equipment. Agents connect to the vendor’s equipment through traditional PSTN
telephone lines, or over Voice over IP. Calls to and from prospects or contacts originate
from or terminate at the vendor’s data centre, rather than at the call centre operator’s
premise. The vendor’s telephony equipment then connects the calls to the call centre
operator’s agents.

 Virtual Call Centre Technology allows people to work from home, instead of in a traditional,
centralised, call centre location, which increasingly allows people with physical or other
disabilities that prevent them from leaving the house, to work. A predictive dialling
system running out of numbers to dial.
 Cloud computing for call centres extends cloud computing to Software as a service, or
hosted, on-demand call centres by providing application programming interfaces (APIs)
on the call centre cloud computing platform that allow call centre functionality to be
integrated with cloud-based Customer relationship management, such as Salesforce.com
or Oracle CRM and leads management and other applications.
 The APIs typically provide programmatic access to two key groups of features in the call
centre platform: Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) APIs provide developers with
access to basic telephony controls and sophisticated call handling on the call centre platform
from a separate application. Configuration APIs provide programmatic control of
administrative functions of the call centre platform which are typically accessed by a
human administrator through a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

6.5 Keywords

Inbound Contact Centre: Contact centres communicate with customers in a number of ways, but
who initiates the contact defines the type of contact centre. If the outside world initiates contact,
then the contact centre is said to be an inbound contact centre.

Job Analysis: Job analysis is the formal process of identifying the content of a job in terms
activities involved and attributes needed to perform the work and identifies major job
requirements.

Job Description: A job description is a list that a person might use for general tasks, or functions,
and responsibilities of a position.
Lodging: A room or rooms rented out to someone, usually in the same residence as the owner.

Outbound Contact Centre: If the contact centre itself is responsible for initiating contact; then
the contact centre is said to be an outbound contact centre.
Reservation: An arrangement whereby something, esp. a seat or room, is booked or reserved
for a particular person.
Text Chat: It can be an effective way to communicate with the customer. Text chat is like a
telephone call, but instead of talking, the two people are typing their dialog.
Training: The action of teaching a person or animal a particular skill or type of behaviour.

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