By its name alone, the common call centre traditionally offered no mystery. Inside, staff answered and made telephone calls, providing customer service expertise on behalf of companies large and small. However, the modern world has forced the call centre to change, and unsurprisingly, call centre technology in the UK has developed accordingly, leading by example in a highly competitive services sector.
This new media has, of course, changed the world for all of us. The days of looking for a public phone on the street are all but gone, with mobile phones now an established tool for modern living. Emails, sms messaging and live text chatting are other tools by which people communicate regularly today, with some of them now heavily relied upon. Reflecting this fact, call centres are now unifying communications systems so that ivr tools can work in unison with email response technology, for example, while speech recognition applications operate with other modes equally effectively.
The fact is that business is no longer confined to telephone calls and paper, with online and mobile communication essential. For the consumer, they can purchase items over the internet, not only on the high street, and also order goods, make enquiries and cancel transactions over the internet. In each case, consumers are effectively communicating with a company, and in tune with good business practice, that communication requires a response or confirmation of some kind.

Email Responses

Many businesses provide a help option on their website, with visitors encouraged to report a problem or seek advice. While a troubleshooting page may also be supplied in order to filter out the simple cases, any serious question needs to be responded too. The modern call centre provides staff to answer just such queries via email. An automated message is usually sent out immediately, to confirm that the initial email has been received, with a solution sent by an agent strictly within 24 hours.

SMS Responses

SMS has become so familiar that it is almost as preferable to use as a phone call. Its popularity rests on the fact that it generally costs less than a phone call, however, it is highly effective both in terms of contacting the public, for example for marketing purposes, and receiving responses from the public. SMS is a particularly common tool when it comes to voting, with many television talent shows seeking votes from the public via SMS rather than calls. These messages must be filtered and logged to ensure an accurate result, and in some cases the results are sent out to the public.

Instant Messaging

This is one of the most useful forms of direct contact with the consumer with, in essence, a live conversation occurring in text form. The chief advantage, of course, is that a customer does not have to wait to receive a solution to their problem, and also has the opportunity to explain in greater detail the particular problem that they might have. A sense of productive cooperation is established, in much the same way that direct phone contact can establish one between caller and agent. From the point of view of both involved, however, the costs are minimal.

The world of communication has changed dramatically in less than a decade, making it necessary for call centres to adapt their services and their technologies to meet consumer expectations. Because of the explosion of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, the development is continuing, which in turn means that call centre technology in the uk is continuing to evolve so as not to exclude customers that favour a particular mode of communication.
The fact is that ivr tools, though still essential, are no longer the only technology needed in order to run a modern call centre, or contact centre as it has become known. The need to supply services that are text based, and technology that can efficiently filter, route and respond immediately to the range of new media, is now a reality.
And while speech recognition applications will certainly remain as a set necessity, and will continue to evolve in their own right, the ability of all of the separate forms of media technology to work in one combined system is vital if UK centres are to continue to provide the type of efficient services for which they are already recognised.