Web Enabled Call Centers Are Here To Stay

Posted by Sanjay Poddar

While web-based businesses and online customer service continue to grow, several customers never make a purchase decision without prior participation in conversation with a live agent. Several market research studies reveal that more than 50 percent of online shoppers quit their shopping carts before completing a purchase. This is because online shopping portals are deprived of real-time customer support services to respond to queries or resolve problems.

This results in call center managers from across the globe to advocate the concept of integrating e-commerce websites with call centers. The purpose is to take advantage of agent pools who can help web customers, by deploying a 'Customer Service' tab on a web page that visitors can click for assistance. Now, it is time for big companies to invest more in upgrading their online customer-service capabilities than on any other information-technology endeavor for some time, with the large chunk of that investment going into front-end call-center systems, back-end Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications and website upgradation.

The implementation of web-enabled call centers is no more in its nascent stage and going towards the direction of holding a place in the mainstream. Online customers are likely to assume that web-enabled customer service will be only a click away, so the companies that meet this demand will take business away from those that do not.

The current business landscape demands established call centers to implement web-enabled customer service along with the existence of traditional time-division multiplexing (TDM) based technologies in order for improving customer service capability. Most call centers have already upgraded their operational systems by deploying VOIP technology without making compromises on the performance of TDM-based telecommunications. Those planning to set up a new call center will have an alternative - either installing traditional systems or this avant-garde and efficient technology. With years to come, more customer contact centers will move towards the latter.

Tags: web enabled call centers web enabled customer service