Outbound Call Center Featured Article

TMCnet Outbound Call Center Week in Review

By David Sims
TMCnet Contributing Editor

This past week, reporting on the outbound call center space, TMC’s (News - Alert) Tracey Schelmetic wrote that Cincinnati-based outsourced call center services provider Convergys (News - Alert) announced its intent to expand its operations in the Philippines.

The company, which has 70,000 employees in 68 facilities worldwide including one in Cebu, Philippines, says it plans to continue and broaden its relationship with that country, said Convergys president and CEO Jeffrey Fox said during a courtesy call with Philippine President Benigno Aquino III.

“I met with President Aquino to re-emphasize the partnership and growth opportunities that Convergys and the country of the Philippines have together and to confirm our long-term commitment to invest in the Philippines,” said Fox during the meeting with President Aquino at the Guggenheim Room of the Omni Berkshires Hotel, New York.

Fox indicated that Convergys plans to partner with the Philippine government in its advocacy to alleviate poverty, provide more jobs, and spur economic growth through its commitment to invest in the Philippines, reported the Manila-based news site Sun Star.

Fox thanked President Aquino for all the help he has provided to the BPO industry in the Philippines, and indicated that Convergys, in turn, plans to help the Filipino call center outsourcing industry flourish.

“We appreciate everything that the government does to make sure that we're good partners,” said Fox.

TMC’s Mimi Swamy noted that OnStar, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors (News - Alert), opened its sixth global call center and the second in the city of Xiamen, an indication of the rapid growth of the telematics market in China.

Jon Hyde, general manager of Shanghai OnStar, said, “OnStar advocates the highest quality of customer service for our customers’ safety, security, and peace of mind,” and added, “The Xiamen Call Center embodies this concept, and will – together with the Shanghai Call Center – help satisfy our Chinese customers’ needs and contribute to OnStar’s long-term growth in China.”

While Shanghai OnStar has attracted has nearly 370,000 active customers in China, its independent call center in Shanghai achieved a milestone in May 2011 when it answered one million calls in a single month for the first time.

The OnStar Xiamen Call Center currently has 200 advisors with the ability to expand further and to keep pace with demand. It is an additional capacity to accommodate 750 more advisors. Together, all OnStar's call centers serve more than six million customers and respond to more than four million OnStar calls for any of the company’s 45 services each month.

Also this past week, TMC wrote about how the need for an effective automated dialing technique that gives agents control over the call process becomes more imperative in the changing call center scenario. Realizing this, TCN, announced the release of its Preview Dialing functionality that enables agents to prioritize which contacts are to be made.

“In so many industries today businesses face a patchwork of local, state, and federal regulations,” stated Terrell Bird, CEO of TCN, and added, “Especially when businesses want to contact their customer via telephone. At TCN we listen to our clients' frustrations and implement technology solutions to alleviate them. Preview Dialing is a perfect example.”

The company said that Preview Dialing gives agents additional time as it allows them to read through notes or view the call history of the customer being dialed before the connection is made. The information displayed is customized for each client. If the agent does not wish to proceed with the call, the phone system can present another contact for the agent to review.