Firms vet callers kept on hold

Call centres: Relying increasingly on technological, as well as human, power

Silence is proving golden indeed to firms using cutting-edge technology to handle customer phone lines.

Time spent waiting for a response - delays which to callers represent trial-by-empty-line or, worse, Greensleeves - give companies a chance to dig out information held on client records.

Using so-called customer relationship management (CRM) technology, firms can decide whether to pass callers on to a gold-star personalised service, to automated menus, or abandon them to the muzak-plagued void beyond "hold" buttons.

CRM has met a frosty response from some consumers concerned that it could allow firms to ditch less affluent callers, or those with complaints, in favour of prized clients.

Taking off

But the technology is taking industry by storm, with almost half of call centres replying to a survey by IT services firm Dimension Data saying they used systems for sorting customers by location, spending power or type of inquiry.

A further 19% of companies replying to the survey, sent to 350 firms, mainly in Britain, said they were planning to follow suit.

"At long last companies are beginning to segment their customers... to reveal which customer groups should be targeted and which 'deserve' first class attention," a statement from Dimension Data subsidiary Merchants said.

"For the first time personalisation of products/services offered to customers based on intelligence yielded from data mining and sophisticated CRM systems is now really starting to take off."

Privileged customers

More obvious methods of gaining information on callers include asking them to give their account number, typically by punching it into the telephone keypad.

But call centres can also use the telephone number rung from to identify callers, said Dimension Data director Martin Hill-Wilson.

Callers found to be better customers "might well enjoy some privilege in getting to the front of the queue," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme

"The underlining point is that [firms] cannot afford to serve all customers in the same way because they are simply not worth the same amount."

Warning

But he cautioned firms again ignoring unwelcome callers.

"If companies are trying to avoid customers, obviously at the end of the day they are going to lose," Mr Hill-Wilson said.

"I do not think companies are going to be actively going to be looking at getting rid of customers."

Firms which have installed CRM equipment include American Express, which is reported to have admitted that customers who reveal their account numbers are directed to different teams depending on which type of card they hold.