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By Brad Cleveland, President, Incoming Calls Management Institute
CC News – November, 2000
Phone: (410) 267-0700, ext 958
Fax: (410) 267-0962
email: bradc@incoming.com
Bio: Brad Cleveland is President and CEO of Maryland (U.S.) based Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI), an independent think tank that provides call center management education, research and publications throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South Africa and the Pacific Rim. He has consulted to call centers in over 20 countries, and is co-author of the popular book, Call Center Management on Fast Forward: Succeeding in Today's Dynamic Inbound Environment, which is in use in colleges, universities and corporate training programs around the world. Brad can be reached at 410-267-0700 (ext. 958), bradc@incoming.com, at www.incoming.com.
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The Great Name Game
I read with interest that CC News will be using the term "contact center" instead of "call center" in the subtitle, to recognize "the trend toward multi-channel contact centers." As organizations everywhere transition telephone-centric centers into multichannel, e-enabled hubs of communication, many are rightfully questioning traditional terms. This is a healthy and necessary development and I applaud CC News' intention to nudge things forward.
However, there are some deep-seated reasons that the term call center has had such staying power An awareness of these issues is important; after all, our "industry's" reputation and level of recognition among the business community and general public will impact all of us, for better or worse.
Let me first point out the obvious: even as the call center has become an environment that handles many channels of communication -- e-mail, chat, video, Web-based transactions, fax, et. al. -- the term "call center" is currently enjoying worldwide usage. Numerous magazines, network groups, systems, books, articles, conferences and organizations use it routinely. Our fellow call center professionals who speak languages other than English often use the term with no translation into their native languages. If an election were held today, call center would win by a landslide, while contact center, customer interaction center, and other variations split the rest of the vote.
As call center has become generally recognized, it is having a positive, unifying affect. Like so many other terms, it has become part of the language we use. If we are going to make a worldwide effort to change terms, we may as well work on some of the other stinkers, e.g., "the telecommunications industry," "chief information officer," and the "human resources department."
Alternative Terms for Call Center:
- Customer contact center
- Customer interaction center
- Multichannel call center
- Connected call center
- Customer contact zone
- Web-enabled call center
- Customer care center
- Customer support center
- Customer communications center
- Customer services center
- Sales and service center
- Reservations center
- Technical support center
- Information desk
- Help desk
Further, when organizations use an alternative term, they often also throw in call center just to ensure people know what they are talking about. E.g, have you seen the usage "call/contact center"? This unintentionally devalues both terms by sending the message that contact center (or other alternative) is better than call center but still depends on the popularity of call center to attract a crowd.
As one industry observer put it to me recently, "It seems to me a bit problematic to change the name from call center at a time when that term has only recently, and after years of effort, entered the vocabularies of most consumers, journalists, stock analysts and politicians. I wonder if consumers think or care very much about whether their email is answered by the same people who answer their calls, or whether the call center truly has a center."
Indeed, those concerned with literal meaning are picking on the wrong word. Call means "visit." It is a term that's been around a lot longer than telephones, and we're calling on each other today via e-mail, chat, video, the Web and, of course, by telephone. "Center," on the other hand, should be more problematic to purists, given the many multi-site configurations. But nobody seems too worried about that. Perception, not literal definition, is driving this debate.
Which suggests that there are other motivations behind the name-change efforts. Many industry suppliers feel that a term perceived to be more all-encompassing would better advertise their breadth of services. Nothing inherently wrong with that. And some call center managers feel that a term suggesting more responsibility would earn them deserved respect among colleagues.
But will it? Until things pan out, that's yet to be seen. This past summer, USA Today ran a front page story on how companies are moving away from building their names around "dot-com" or anything that begins with an e or i ("What's In a Name? The Fading of Dot-com," July 3, 2000, pg. 1). What happened to Excellence? Reengineering? Quality circles? What will become of eCRM? Multimedia? New Economy?
Unfortunately, the overuse/abuse of contact center -- the kind that can turn otherwise good terms into fads -- seems to be underway. I recently ran across a conference brochure that advertised a session on "how to transition your contact center into a lasting customer care center." Oh please. (By the way, enter "contact center" into Yahoo, and among the listings you will find sites such as one in Amsterdam promising "hardcore adult entertainment, contact center, ..." Oops, another industry seems to have staked their claim.)
Here's a big caution. If we focus more on form than function, we risk creating cynics among customers and senior level managers. Consider, (Start PQ) while customer contact professionals have been fixated on customer relationship management (CRM), customer lifetime value, and turning cost centers into profit centers, it's been a miserable year for our customers.(End PQ) That's not the fault of these movements or associated terms, but some folks may make that connection. Forbes recently ran a cover story entitled "Wasting Your Time: The Companies that Do and Those That Don't" in which the author commended organizations that serve customers quickly and skewered those that don't (October 16, 2000); call center queues were the brunt of much of the discussion. Business Week (U.S.), The Economist (U.K.), Financial Post (Canada) and other influential publications from virtually every corner of the business world have run similar editorial on the problems.
Recent studies by E-satisfy, Incoming Calls Management Institute (ICMI) and others confirm that customer satisfaction with call center services have been on a downward trend. It's an interesting dichotomy. While the propensity of articles and conferences in this industry talk about the hip, the forward-thinking, our customers are saying, "bah humbug, do something about that blasted queue! And, while you're at it, respond to that email I sent ..."
In August 1996, our firm partnered with Angus Telemanagement Group to launch "Call Centers on the Internet" (CCOTI), the industry's first conference on Internet-enabled call centers (the event has since been acquired by Advanstar.) Ever since, through research projects, publications, Web-based seminars, in-person seminars and consulting projects, we have been pushing hard for a new breed of e-enabled, multichannel call centers. We want this to happen.
At the end of the day, we will all be judged on what we collectively contribute to our customers, our organizations and our economies. While a small percentage of organizations are pushing the envelop, overall progress has been slow. Far too few integrated e-commerce/call center applications exist. Far too many call centers are struggling to get the budgets they need. And, far too many upper level executives mistakenly believe that the contact center will assume a diminished role in the online, self-service-oriented new economy.
For the record, we often use the term "connected call center," which both preserves and updates the original term. (Start PQ) Let's just make sure we are being progressive where it counts: fundamentally upgrading skill sets, processes, pay, organizational structures, technology platforms and career paths. (End PQ) (These are ongoing subjects covered by this publication, and I tip my hat to CC News for its contribution.)
Call it what you will. It's time to get back to work.
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