Call Centers Doing Their Part To Make Every Day Earth Day

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10th April 2010, 08:30am - Views: 850





Business Company International Customer Management Institute (ICMI)/UBM Live 1 image

Business Company International Customer Management Institute (ICMI)/UBM Live 2 image










MEDIA RELEASE PR39081


Call Centers Doing Their Part To Make Every Day Earth Day


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Apr. 10 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --


          Article examines call center industry's opportunities to help

reduce corporations' carbon footprint by reducing energy and materials usage,

                         and vehicle miles traveled.


    Contact centers could be the key enabler in corporations' efforts to reduce the

environmental impact of business, according to the International Customer Management

Institute (ICMI), now in its 25th year.


    No doubt, green is red hot. Unfortunately, all the noise that individuals

and businesses are making about their half-hearted efforts to be

environmentally friendly is its own form of pollution. Going green seems to

be more about "look at me" than "look what we need to do." True, some

individuals and corporations do a lot in the way of conserving resources and

energy, and those efforts are deserving of some recognition; but the truth

is, all the measures that people and businesses are now taking - or, in many

cases, merely say they are taking - to reduce their carbon footprint are the

sort of measures that we should have been taking (and have been advised to

take by environmental experts) for decades.


    Experts agree that it's time to move beyond the politics and PR of

environmentalism, and get down to what can and needs to be done. As a contact

center professional, you may be thinking that a green initiative should be

led by C-level execs. Or perhaps you are thinking that since the contact

center doesn't pump out pollution or consume energy like manufacturing plants

do, going green doesn't really pertain to your area of the business. But

going green is everybody's responsibility, and there are myriad things a

contact center can do in that regard.


    ICMI's Community Services Manager, Greg Levin, offers best practices in

his latest article, "Going Green: Minimizing the Contact Center's Carbon

Footprint http://www.icmi.com/goinggreen." Among those best practices, which

some contact centers are already using, are:

    -- Implementing a home agent program.

    -- Embracing e-learning.

    -- Ramping up advanced self-service options.


    "E-learning is green learning. First off, it's paperless, and when you

are talking about large contact centers with upwards of 500-1,000 agents,

eliminating the need to continually print and distribute paper-based training

materials can save forests of trees, not to mention beaucoup bucks," writes

Levin, a 15-year veteran of following and reporting on best practices in

contact centers and customer service.


    "E-learning also cuts down dramatically on the amount of travel that

staff - particularly home agents - need to do to receive the training and

development they need. For example, at World Travel Holdings (WTH), the

contact center uses an internal e-learning site (WTHUniversity) and webcams

for coaching and training with it home agents, who represent roughly 40

percent of the center's workforce."


Business Company International Customer Management Institute (ICMI)/UBM Live 3 image

    Levin is also a long-time advocate of home agent programs. The benefits

of remote agents are numerous, but here, he focuses on the environmental

benefits of reducing vehicle miles traveled and real estate consumption.

"This is one of the greenest things a contact center - especially a large one

-

can do. Enabling agents to telecommute reduces not only air pollution,

greenhouse gases and gasoline consumption by cutting out the morning car or

bus commute for home-based employees, it cuts down significantly on the power

needed to heat, cool and light large buildings and operate IT equipment."


    Greg Levin is available to comment on this story

    Greg Levin has been researching and writing about call centers since he

joined ICMI in 1994. Today, Greg's feature articles and case studies appear

monthly on www.icmi.com. In addition, he has spoken on a diverse range of

customer contact topics at numerous industry conferences and other events.


    About ICMI

   

The International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), celebrating its

25th anniversary in 2010, is the leading global provider of comprehensive

resources for customer management professionals - from frontline agents to

executives - who wish to improve contact center operations, empower contact

center employees, and enhance customer loyalty. ICMI's experienced and

dedicated team of industry insiders, analysts, and consultants are committed

to providing uncompromised objectivity and results-oriented vision through

the organization's respected lineup of professional services including:

Training and Certification, Consulting, Events, and Informational Resources.

Founded in 1985, ICMI continues to serve as one of the most established and

respected organizations in the call center industry.


    ICMI is a part of UBM Live which provides leading integrated media

solutions and professional services across 20 different markets. Operating

across the globe, its events, training, publications, award programs, and

websites offer professionals in Interiors, Security, Venues, Customer

Management, Safety & Health and Facilities the ultimate experience in

learning, networking, and business development.


    For more information, visit http://www.icmi.com.



SOURCE: International Customer Management Institute (ICMI)/UBM Live


    CONTACT: Marta Baker of ICMI, International Customer Management

Institute, +1-719-785-5364, mbaker@icmi.com


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