From a standing start ten years ago, the use of the telephone as a marketing tool has become one of the most fundamental and far-reaching changes yet seen in the way business is conducted.

The telephone remains the only mass market interactive medium in the UK today, with over 90% penetration into households, and 99% penetration into businesses. It will be some time before newer interactive media such as the Internet and digital television approach this level of penetration, but when they do, call centre technology will be ready to handle approaches through them too.

Despite having been a feature in the commercial world for over ten years, call centres are still something of an enigma, especially to more traditional organisations. Companies should be aware of a variety of issues before they rush to jump on the call centre band wagon, and CCM has developed a diagnostic process which assists companies to discover how using a call centre might benefit them.

The CCM process covers a number of areas ranging from fundamental concepts such as what the company wishes to achieve by using a call centre, to operational issues such as how this will affect its human resource pool, whether to outsource, and how to choose an appropriate location.

Call centres are places where groups of agents make and take telephone calls, supported by increasingly sophisticated call-handling software and client databases. They can be used to fulfil sales and servicing functions, to handle direct response television advertising, and can be in-house, or out-sourced.

Advances in technology have meant that an 'outbound' call centre (one which actively makes sales calls) can accurately select calls to telephone numbers which are likely to be answered, automatically eliminating answering machines, engaged tones, or 'no answer' calls. This pre-selection dramatically increases the time-efficiency of the telesales force agents.

As a result of new call-handling and switching devices, 'in-bound' calls (calls from customers requiring service, or wanting to buy an advertised product) can now be directed automatically to the correct call centre agent. This is done by prompting the caller at the outset to select (by pressing the appropriate button on his telephone key-pad) what type of service he needs. Alternatively, some systems can recognise the originating telephone number or the number dialled, and transfer the call to the appropriate department before voice contact is made.

For example, a customer's complaints can be handled promptly by someone who is trained to handle them, without any risk of irritating him further by putting him on hold at reception, or passing him from department to department. The marketing implications are significant. For hard-product and catalogue sales, the sale can be clinched, recorded, the goods paid for, picked, and instructions for dispatch given within minutes of the call. For service companies, the client's needs are met as quickly as possible by the correct agent.

Deciding whether you need a call centre requires a methodical approach, time to consider the implications in depth, and an ability to resist being seduced by technology for technology's sake. Is it worth it? CCM's diagnostic process will help you to decide.