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Research by Datamonitor, an IT consultancy practice, suggests that Western businesses typically save between 25% and 35% per transaction by using a call centre in an offshore location like India. However, a call serviced through speech automation costs approximately 15% to 25% of the cost of a call handled by an agent in India. Contact centre managers have to weigh up whether the personal touch adds its own value - and indeed whether outsourcing is appropriate in the banking and finance sector, where the person at the end of the phone may need skills and knowledge specific to the industry.

AXA Insurance Gulf receives around 10-11,000 calls per month to its sales call centre, which is staffed by between eight and 10 people.

"We believe we are one of the best call centres in the insurance industry, if not the best one," says Julien Audrerie, head of operations, personal lines, Axa Gulf. He says there are three concepts underpinning the success of a contact centre: maintaining an appropriate number of people to answer calls, ensuring they are well-trained and friendly, and making sure that processes are well-designed. Axa uses a customer relationship management (CRM) system developed in-house, which is designed to be quick and accurate.

"The CRM system very quickly gives you all the information you need, and almost immediately you'll be able to send an email and to do all the operations on the phone," says Audrerie. "Now, if the system is not well-designed and it takes 10 minutes... the agent can be nice, but she will still take 10 minutes and that could cause problems. How much time are you ready to spend on a quotation?"

Axa is also careful to keep the right number of call centre agents available: too few, and customers will have to wait on the line; too many, and overheads will be too high. Efficiency is behind the insurer's decision to open with an automated menu, rather than a human directing calls to different departments. "We would like the human touch, but it would need four people just to transfer the calls instead of the automated menu," Audrerie points out, adding that it would also be a fairly unsatisfying job. "Everything that's really boring, we try to outsource to the customer," he says.

The menu has also been restricted to English-only to keep things simple and efficient. "We could add Arabic but it adds another layer of menus," says Audrerie. "It was getting too long for customers. 80% of our clients speak English, so it's better for the 80%."

Mohamed Foad is COPC (Customer Operation Performance Centre) services manager at Xceed, a consultancy which runs courses showing ways to offer a better call centre experience.

Foad says there are three ways to measure first call resolution: by identifying which telephone numbers have dialled into the contact centre more than once within a specified time period; checking the CRM system to see whether a call has been resolved or whether the issue is still pending; and, more directly, to ask the customer next time they call.

However, there can still be miscommunication. "The most common reason is the agent thinking the problem is resolved, when the customer thinks it isn't," says Foad. "This could mean they deferred something, or they resolved it according to their process but it isn't really resolved."

He also says it is important to strike a difference between first call resolution and customer satisfaction, which may not be the same thing. For instance, a customer may be happy with the friendly contact centre agent they spoke to, but they may not be happy with the processes behind the scenes which caused their problems in the first place.

"It annoys me when people talk about customer satisfaction - and don't measure it," says Foad.

He points out that service levels and waiting times are fairly noticeable in a contact centre environment, but customer satisfaction levels can be overlooked if they are not actively measured.

RAKBANK, which regularly tops customer satisfaction surveys, has appointed systems integrator Al-Futtaim Technologies to implement an advanced contact centre solution and maintain customer satisfaction levels.

The 50 agent inbound Genesys solution will be installed at four state-of-the-art contact centres across the UAE; the main RAKBANK head office in Ras Al Khaimah, the Dubai main branch office in Ramool and two support sites.

Harvey Klyce, managing director, Al-Futtaim Technologies, says: "The integrated contact centre solution from Genesys has the ability to create value by building brand awareness, enhancing customer loyalty and generating increased revenues. High value customers will benefit from the delivery of specialised services and up-selling and cross-selling promotions can be tailored according to individual customer profiles."

The Genesys Customer Interaction Management Suite captures, routes, reports and analyses voice, email and other communications to ensure that RAKBANK customers are quickly connected to the best available resource. The solution from Al-Futtaim Technologies will improve response times and reduce the amount of time spent resolving customer inquiries by delivering customer information synchronised with each phone call.

Klyce adds: "RAKBANK is very focused on customer service. They wanted something that is seamlessly consistent and will enable them to better serve their customers." For instance, the suite has a ‘virtual hold' capability, allowing customers to opt for a scheduled callback rather than having to wait on the line, but still keep their place in the queue. At times when call volumes are unexpectedly high, calls can even be diverted to agents at home or to the company's back office.

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