Linked closer to customers
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11/16/2001
China's World Trade Organization membership will lure more foreign enterprises. Many domestic enterprises have foreseen the competition, and have equipped themselves accordingly. It has been recognized by Chinese entrepreneurs, especially during the past few years, that customer retention and loyalty are fundamental to a firm's long-term profitability, according to Alex Yung, general manager for new business development of the HK-based PCCW Teleservices. He said enterprises need to provide service with a stronger human touch. With the rise in customer volume and frequency comes a commensurate need for a strong, multi-faceted service capability. "Customers do not care about your IT or business workflow - they decide whether you are a good company by the quality of your staff and service," he said. "Then comes salvation, the call centre. " He and his company have been helping domestic banks and companies set up their own call centres. Call centre function has emerged as an important strategic asset for enterprises throughout the world. In China, call centres have boomed since 1997. The first industry that used the call centre was the telecom industry. Soon it was acknowledged by leaders and specialists from most of the enterprises that application of the call centres had developed widely in organizations like banks, stock exchanges, power, airlines, insurance, real estate, travel, postal services, and manufacturing. Some of the telephone numbers are popular among the public and have become the brands of the enterprises. According to Wang Ning, vice-chairman of China Electronic Chamber of Commerce, the scope of China's call centre industry was $1 billion in 2000, with nearly 80,000 seats. The actual workload that these seats carry is smaller than this number, for some seats are not fully loaded. Wang said the call centre in China develops from a hotline that deals with consulting and complaints to the customer service centre with core customers. Most of China's call centres now provide 24-hour continuous service and provide voice IP, email, fax, text and video IP services. It has changed from a traditional call centre to a modern customer service centre. Not only has the technology improved, but the service conception has altered radically. Wang said: "It is the reform of enterprise management and managing service indeed. " His words were echoed by Xie Weiguo, director of computer division with the Bank of Communications Shanghai branch. The past few years have witnessed Bank of Communications developing its customer service in four steps: retail branches alone, a simple service hotline, telephone banking, and now, the call centre. His bank's call centre provides services like operation consultation, handling advice and ideas, account query, account trade, report loss and change password, and fax server. Ping'an Insurance launched its nationwide call centre in September to serve its 17 million clients. Now it handles about 10,000 callins every day. The call centre is one step of Ping'an's customer strategy to establish longterm customer loyalty and form the concept of 3A services - anytime, anywhere, and by any means. "After China joins the WTO, The monogeneity of the products and the same level of the charge will make the competition transit from product competition to service competition. The high quality of the product, scientific and systematic service will be important instruments in capturing the customer," explained Tian Xue, spokeswoman of Ping'an's call centre. Insiders point out that the call centre has not developed into a mature industry in China, and its position has not been developed as a career acknowledged by the public. The market value is 2 per cent of America's call centre industry, which has 1. 5 million seats. Regarding the application level, depth and range, China's call centre business is in its infancy. Every enterprise has training in communication skills, listening skills, question skills and amenity. The cost is very high. "There are no third evaluation authorities to be leaders setting the principles and criteria, providing the evaluation report and instructing customers for the China call centre. The level of data management, collection and analysis should be improved," said Alan Chang, general manager of enterprise call centre marketing for Huawei Technologies. Enterprise leaders call for the equipment provider, system integration provider, consulting organization, software developer, enterprises and forum organizer to enhance communication and standardize the industry.
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