About the author: Siva Pather is Dimension Data’s national GM, Customer Interactive Solutions, Middle East & Africa

Traditional contact centres are set to be replaced by customer management centres, as more organisations focus on expanding contact services beyond telephony and e-mail offerings.

According to research results published in Dimension Data’s 2011 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report, of the 546 contact centres surveyed in 66 countries, 64% are already handling Internet, with 40% managing SMS interactions, and a quarter offering Web chat – all via the contact centre.

South African contact centres have less capability in this regard – with 62.3% handling Internet, only 15.9% offering SMS interactions, and 10.1% providing Web chat. Twenty percent of organisations are planning to provide SMS facilities in the next two years, and 37.7% have a plan for Web chat.

This year’s report also reveals that social media interactions are high on the agenda of contact centre businesses. Just over 18% of research participants reported they’re already managing these interactions, with 32% (including South African organisations) saying they’re planning to do so over the next two years.

The research results also show that this year’s top priority commercial driver for contact centres is improving service. Meanwhile, the top priority issue affecting contact centres across the globe is the drive to encourage customers to use these broader self-service channels. There is a new focus on customer lifetime value (CLTV) management, with a high number of respondents ranking it as the number one issue.

Ironically, although more South African than global organisations mentioned CLTV as their number one priority, their practical focus remains cost reduction rather than customer satisfaction improvement. Forty-four percent of respondents have a strong focus on increasing efficiency, putting pressure on cost.

Globally, however, the report indicates a significant increase in the number of infrastructure upgrades being planned across contact centres, as technologies become more affordable and advances in communications technologies continue to drive flexible change that makes CLTV easier.

Businesses are proactively responding to customer demand while recognising improved service as the top commercial driver. In turn, they’re using customer management centres as the vehicle to generate better service and revenue opportunities.