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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/retailandleisure/0,3800011842,39168020,00.htm

First Choice picks call centre monitoring system
Sales drive ahoy!

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Wednesday 01 August 2007

Tour operator First Choice has boosted customer service at its UK specialist holidays division 150-seat contact centre, based in Crawley, with a monitoring solution from Verint Systems.

The workforce optimisation software specialist is supplying First Choice with its Witness Actionable Solutions Impact 360 Quality Monitoring solution.

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The system will be used to train, monitor and reward call centre staff in an effort to drive new sales. All conversations are recorded by the system to be reviewed by training staff and managers.

The specialist holiday division supports premium customers who want a little more flexibility in their holiday arrangements and are prepared to pay for the privilege. According to First Choice UK Specialist Division IT and ecommerce director, Mark Thompson, there is an interaction with these customers that goes beyond just taking orders over the phone.

Call centre staff interactions with customers will be analysed using the system so that First Choice can illustrate best practice during training sessions. Call centre staff will be given bonuses, based on their interactions with customers, in addition to sales.

Thompson said: "We also deal with travel agents through the contact centre and the system helps us if disputes arise. It means we can go back and pull up the call to check what the original agreement was."

Along with bringing in outside agency sales training and restructuring the centre's bonus system, the monitoring system had been expected to reap a one per cent improvement in call conversion rates.

Thompson added: "We've already achieved far in excess of that. The sales margin attached to this increase is huge."