Its role is changing, too. According to the market research firm, organisations are now deploying call centre solutions as strategic initiatives to achieve cost elimination, proactive customer management and better operational efficiencies.
-Former call centres are now contact centres, where services can be delivered at a relatively lower cost via mail, email, fax, phone, Web site, VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and handheld devices," said Robin Giang, IDC senior analyst and one of the report authors, when contacted by email.
-Through these customer support 'hotlines', companies can up-sell and cross-sell to customers without incurring any additional sales expense," he said.
Giang believes that call centres today are most likely to adopt technologies in the areas of customer and call center applications--including online ordering, online order tracking and interactive customer service.
The emergence of online services has all but eliminated barriers such as geography, time and language, explained Giang. This makes it easier than ever for customers to find alternatives to what they are looking for. Consequently, customer contact points, such as a call centre, have become an essential part of a company's strategy to providing integrated, 24x7 support to their customers, he points out.
Out of 763 enterprises in Asia Pacific that responded to the report's survey, less than 7 percent are currently using call centre technology. Three times more companies said they expect to need the solution within the coming years.
As for implementing call centre applications, 11 percent of call centres surveyed are currently using some kind of call centre applications, 5 percent are in the process of implementing one and 54 percent are undergoing evaluation, the study found.
-The traditional call centre is currently evolving into what should more accurately be called a 'customer contact centre.' A combination of technological development and changing market needs is essentially changing call centers from a corporate operational cost center into a strategically significant revenue-generating business process," said Gary Koch, IDC's director of IT spending, in the report.
The adoption of call centre technology will not be even throughout the region, however, said Giang. China and India are likely to lead the growth owing to the internal needs of their respective markets.
