Call centres will embrace the web

The Internet will not kill off call centres, but will transform them into 'contact centres' which handle an increasingly complex mix of multimedia messages.

In a report issued last week, researcher Ovum predicts that the centres will increasingly use self-service media such as the web.

'Simultaneous interactions using the web and the phone are as close as you can get to having the sales or support person face-to-face with the customer,' said David Bradshaw, call centre analyst and author of the report. The web is not the only technology being used: call centres are also using voice recognition technology.

Contact centre technologies are already being used effectively, says the Ovum report. A growing number of users are exploiting a multimedia technology Natural Language Integrated Voice Recognition (NL-IVR) successes, such as Odeon Cinemas in the UK.

Bill Burgar, managing director at Telephonetics, which implemented Odeon's call centre, said: 'The system allows Odeon to publish a single number for its 70 cinemas. Callers can access services and cinemas without having to perform operations via the usual touch-tone phone process.'

Telephonetics claims its speech recognition has accuracy rates in excess of 97%.

Ovum also details how computer telephony integration systems, which use an incoming caller's telephone number as a key into a database, are allowing call centres to unify transactions across multiple media.