Fokion Natsis is the territory manager – Africa for Interactive Intelligence.

Customer care is constantly reinventing itself as a result of advances in technology. IVR trees and directed dialogue applications are becoming increasingly popular, but in some cases, are doing far more harm than good to corporate brand reputation.

Advanced technology in the customer contact centre environment can be a double-edged sword, with the increasing ability to automate proving problematic for some customers, especially in the South African market.

Customer care, irrespective of the technology used to implement it, should aim to serve the end-user, and address their needs as expeditiously as possible. Automated technology can, if used correctly, greatly assist in facilitating this process.

The African market is particularly well known for its aversion to automation. The concept of voicemail has never taken off in any African states, with users preferring more personalised forms of interaction. Companies that implement especially complicated IVR menus are likely to alienate an audience that prefers human contact and interpersonal issue resolution.

Contact centre operations need to be aligned to the overall vision of the company, carefully taking into account the nature of the service offering and the needs of the target market. Ultimately, the contact centre is the voice of the brand, and should be operated in a manner that dovetails seamlessly with the overall brand personality. For instance, an online gaming Web site should be handling customer queries in a very different manner to that of a bank, as customers are inherently Web-based, and thus likely to look for answers in a similar environment.

In most instances, contact centre systems are implemented based solely on bottom line. South African contact centres are among the most expensive in the world to operate, with automated solutions reducing the cost of an individual query resolution from R9 to approximately 37c. As a result, many companies opt to implement generic solutions, pre-packaged without any specific end-user in mind and without considering the actual long-term business consequences.

This short-sighted approach to customer care can lead to disastrous results, with many end-users likely to take their business elsewhere as a result of a single negative experience. Rather than simply taking the cheapest possible route, corporate South Africa needs to adopt a more considered approach to customer care.