Self-service technology has had little impact on call centre use

The prolific growth in smartphones and self-service web sites has done little to stop people using call centres.

A significant 90 per cent of smartphone owners still expect to use call centres in the future, according to research by BT and business communications company Avaya.

The research also found that extra demand is being placed on staff in call centres because calls are becoming more complicated. 

"For many consumers, calling the contact centre is the favoured way to resolve the most complicated queries. The vast majority of people have used the internet to do their own research first, so by the time they pick up the phone, the organisation they're calling is either close to a sale or close to a fail," said Andrew Small, global head of customer relationship management, BT Global Services.

"This survey shows how vital it is for contact centres to have a pool of highly-trained agents who are capable of solving complex issues."

Not surprisingly, Avaya says that this requires more complex communications systems.

"When there is a critical element to the contact - the 'sale or fail' scenarios - the customer's choice of communications channel is critical, and companies have to be ready to communicate with their customers via any channel they choose. This requires more complex communications systems, but by adopting a multi-channel communications strategy, organisations can easily tap relevant experts and bring them into complex/critical queries," Gary Bennett, BT account director, Avaya.