Former chair of the South African Market Research Association (SAMRA) and CEO of Consulta Research, Prof. Adré Schreuder, recently represented Consulta as the EMEA (European Middle East Africa) regional winner in the Innovator Award presented at the Interactions 2013 Conference in Indianapolis (USA).
The award is one of the many pay-offs from the team’s ground-breaking call centre system integration, which was developed in 2012. Much like other market research companies, Consulta Research was looking for a way to streamline processes and innovate in terms of how data was transferred from their busy contact centre to market research analysts and consultants.
“The goal was to replace the old system with something that integrated with all the other systems we use in order to create a unique, technologically-advanced and functional system that would change the way our contact centre operates. It’s truly a first-of-its-kind system integration that hasn’t been seen anywhere in the world yet,” explains Willie Fitzgerald, Executive – IT and Communications at Consulta Research.
Consulta’s CATI-centre dates back 2003, where the original system caused some difficulties, including technical reliability issues, inefficiencies among contact center agents, and excessive data capturing on completion of interviews.
The IT and Communications team set out to develop a system that would improve hit rates, and reduce survey and interview duration times whilst ultimately making the process more efficient and user friendly.
“We developed a new integrated environment, which includes integrating our online survey platform (Verint Vovici) with the telephony system (CIC from Interactive Intelligence) used in the contact centre,” commented Fitzgerald.
One of the most impressive aspects of the new system is a real-time performance dashboard, which, among all the other improvements, contributed largely to a productivity improvement of 28%.
“We wanted to see real changes in our contact centre’s functionality and effectiveness. Besides the significant productivity increase, our Telco costs have also been reduced, and we were also able to decrease agent resources while achieving the same output,” says Schreuder.
The succesful implementation of the new system lead to higher hit-rates and decreased time spent on surveys. The fact that the contact centre system is now integrated with Consulta’s main survey platforms also means that various types of research solutions (including telephonic interviews, online market research and face-to-face surveys) can be combined into a single platform, where the results are made available to users in real time via customised dashboards.
“The integrated Vovici-CIC system is not only a first for South Africa, it’s a first in the world – and it goes to show what can be achieved when you let capable people take a holistic approach to develop an innovative, sustainable solution,” says Schreuder.
Fitzgerald adds that future planned developments of the system include integrating the company’s text and sentiment analytical application (Clarabridge, of which Consulta Research is the sole distribution agent in South Africa) to analyse all the verbatim responses captured by contact center agents.
Being selected as an EMEA winner and finalist for the Innovator Award marks a first in South Africa for Interactive Intelligence, as well as Consulta. “As industry leaders in the field of market research, we’re thrilled to be a part of new innovations in our line of business,” concludes Fitzgerald.
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Author: Adrienne Brookbanks from Consulta Research. Originally distributed by MyPR.co.za.
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