Call Center Design and setup

[smc3ron]

I have been asked to look at how the company that I work for has it's call center set up. The company that I work for is a software company and currently has two call centers. One call center takes customer support type calls example: where is my product, why am I being charged for this? etc. This call center also take low level sale calls.
The other call center take Technical support type calls example my software is not working what do I do? and other technical and problem solving type questions about the software that the company produces.
The company is looking at combine these two call centers into one larger call center. My question is, Is this a good idea to combine the two types of skill sets? Will the call large call center function properly? What are some of the best practices in this type of situation and what are some the industry standars for software companies and their call centers? How could this be handled? Would it be better to leave them seperate?

Thank You for your input

[mikael]

We should probably start by defining your terms a little more clearly. It looks like you have a customer *service* call centre and a customer _support_ call centre, and are considering combining the two into one. Correct?

As a consultant, I've done a number of assessments for software companies, and this question/scenario is a common one.

The starting point is to take a look at the categories of the calls coming into your customer _Support_ centre. What skills and knowledge is required in order to successfully handle the various call categories, and what volumes are you receiving in those different "buckets?"

If the majority of your incoming _Support_ calls are in the "Known Answer" category (a.k.a. Read The Manual calls, simple stuff, etc. that could be stored in a knowledgebase and delivered by people with relatively low levels of training), then it would probably make sense to combine the two teams in order to get greater efficiency and faster response for the customers. However, if the bulk of your _Support_ calls are -not- such that they could be handled by a relatively unskilled agent, then we need to take a closer look in order to answer your question.

The real drivers here are, or ought to be, long-term profitability and employee/customer satisfaction. Whenever you divide your incoming calls queue into multiple separate teams, you inevitably increase the inefficiency of the whole. You may have to do that in some circumstances, but it's definitely worth a careful look.

If you want to give me a call for a brief direct chat, I usually keep "Office Hours" between 10 AM and noon on Fridays, Pacific Time at (510) 865-4515 for such complimentary conversations.

[Dadi Bhote]

Combining these centers into one is merely a logistical issue. If you already have well defined seperate entities which you will be merging only logistically, it will be to your advantage in terms of lowering your infrastructure costs and operation costs.

You can continue operating seperate operational functions at the same center. The Dialler/ACD and CRM software should take care of the skill sets of each agent and what call is assigned to each individual.

I do not see any tech. issues in this.

Dadi