Aspect: Use contact centers as competitive edge

Companies should use contact centers to differentiate themselves from the competition, said James Foy, CEO of contact center solutions provider Aspect Software.

"It is absolutely imperative to have a strong contact center as a competitive factor," Foy told ZDNet Asia. Aspect Software completed its merger with Concerto Software in September last year in a deal worth US$1 billion, making it the largest company today that specializes in contact center products.

One big challenge that organizations face today is that there are more callers than there are agents, said Foy. "When you call a company with a support query, it's a much more satisfactory answer if the contact center lets you know how long you have to wait, or gives you a time to call back."

"This can create an opportunity for an inbound call to develop into an outbound call," he said. Call center services are generally broken down into two basic categories--inbound and outbound, he explained. Inbound calls are received by the call center on behalf of a client, while outbound calls are made by call center agents on behalf of the client.

Organizations can capitalize on current call center technologies to increase customer satisfaction, Foy said. For example, a customer who went to a store and bought a cellular phone, only to encounter problems when he tried it out at home. He then calls the support service center.

"The call center system recognizes who he is, and routes the call to the sales representative who sold him the phone," Foy said. "That's an example of a very good customer service--there's a personal touch to it." This specific tool exists today, he added.