Call Center Operations and the 800 Services Market 2004-2009

SUMMARY

In this comprehensive industry study, Insight investigates the most recent developments in call center operations and their impact on the 800 services marketplace. This report meticulously examines the use of 800 services for sales, customer service, and transaction processing applications, and provides an overview of how toll-free services are being implemented by various industries, including financial services, retail sales, travel services, and software support.

Consumers associate 800 services with convenience and ease-of-use, and now new technology is poised to take the customer service experience to an even higher level of convenience. Internet-driven applications?like updating account information, online ordering, Web-based order tracking, and Web chat?will transform the customer service experience. The promise of superior customer service at a lower per-unit cost is tantalizing, but only realistic when implemented correctly. Insightfs research reveals which firms are successfully implementing these new technologies, and explains what they are doing differently.

How are IP voice and Internet applications impacting traditional functionality of call center operations? Will 800-based calling patterns remain strong despite these new technologies? This report is essential to understand how these issues are changing the 800 services market by industry, by application, and by carrier segment.

Report Excerpt

AT&T initiated toll-free or 800 number service in 1967 as an inter-exchange service for its large-enterprise customer, and over the years the service has found a place among enterprises of every size and description?even as the underlying technology has been evolved to keep pace with changes in regulation and marketplace conditions. Call centers have traditionally been the biggest purchasers of toll-free services; call centers are specialized organizations within an enterprise or a type of service provider that makes extensive use of toll free for telemarketing or to provide customer service. Some observers looking at the growing use of online shopping and on-line customer care have suggested that toll free from call centers will suffer as a consequence of the growth of online service delivery; we do not agree. Our thesis is that the growth of on-line services and shopping will actually drive...

Market Segmentation

• Total Toll-Free Revenue, 1997-2009
• Toll-Free Revenues by Carrier Type, 2001-2009
• IXC Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009
• ILEC Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009
• CLEC Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009
• Toll Free Expenditures by Vertical Industry, 2003-2009
• Paging and Messaging Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009
• Prepaid Long Distance Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009
• Average Monthly Residential Telecommunications Spending
• Average Wireless MoU per Month
• Most Frequent Toll-Free Transaction, by Type
• Combined Calling Card and Prepaid Long-Distance Revenue
• Distribution of Toll Free by Establishment Size
• Toll-Free Lines per Employee (by Establishment Size)
• Average Number of Toll-Free Lines per Site (by Establishment Size)
• Call Center Toll-free usage by Transaction Type

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1 800 Number and Toll-Free Market Evolution

1.2 The Growth of Toll-Free Calling

1.3 Toll Free & Call Centers

1.4 Toll-Free Market Forecast

Chapter II TOLL-FREE SERVICES MARKET BACKGROUND

2.1 The Early History of Toll-Free Services

2.1.1 The Original Implementation: 1967

2.1.2 Customized Numbers: 1981

2.2 Toll Free & Divestiture

2.2.1 The NXX Plan: 1985

2.2.2 Number Portability-A National Database System: 1993

2.3 The Toll-Free Number Explosion: 1996

2.4 The RBOCS, Long Distance, and the 800 Database

2.5 Toll Free Features Today

2.5.1 Call Routing

2.5.2 Peak Management

2.5.3 Improving Customer Service

2.5.4 Reducing Agent Time per Call

2.5.5 Administration

Chapter III CALL CENTERS

3.1 Introduction and Definitions

3.1.1 Call Center Components

3.2 Customer Support in the Call Center

3.3 Call Center Technologies

3.3.1 ACD

3.3.2 CTI

3.3.3 IVR

3.3.4 ASR

3.4 Call Center Equipment Vendors

3.5 The Rise of the Contact Center

3.5.1 IP Telephony

3.5.2 Internet, Email, and Web Chat

3.5.3 Voice XML

3.5.4 Knowledge Management Systems

3.6 Call Center Integration and Industry Change

3.7 Outsourcers

3.8 The Relationship Between Call Center Costs and Customer Satisfaction

3.9 Toll Free Applications Beyond Call Centers

3.9.1 Paging

3.9.2 Personal Toll Free

3.9.3 Unified Messaging

Chapter IV MARKET TRENDS AND VERTICAL INDUSTRIES

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Wireless Substitution

4.3 Transaction Preferences

4.4 Migration to Web-Enabled Transactions

4.5 Calling Card and Prepaid Long Distance

4.6 Pricing

4.7 Do Not Call Registry

4.8 Toll-Free Services in Vertical Industries

4.8.1 Professional Services

4.8.2 Wholesale and Retail Trade

4.8.3 Financial Services

4.8.4 Communications

4.8.5 Transportation

4.8.6 Vertical Industry Toll-Free Usage Metrics

Chapter V TOLL FREE SERVICES MARKET FORECAST

5.1 Methodology

5.2 Market Analysis Definitions

5.3 Toll Free Total Market Estimate

5.3.1 Carrier Types

5.3.2 IXCs

5.3.3 ILECs

5.3.4 CLECs

5.3.5 Paging and Messaging

5.3.6 Prepaid Long Distance

5.4 Toll-free market Forecasts by Vertical Industry Segment

Appendix RESPONSIBLE ORGANIZATIONS

Appendix GLOSSARY

TABLE OF FIGURES

Chapter I

• I-1 Toll-Free Services Event Timeline, 1967-2004
• I-2 Spare Toll-Free Numbers, 1993-2002 (Numbers Millions)
• I-3 Total Toll-Free Revenue, 1997-2009 ($Billions)

Chapter II

• II-1 Toll-Free Services Event Timeline, 1967-1996
• II-2 Toll-free number Call Routing: 1967
• II-3 Routing with a Centralized Database: 1981
• II-4 The NXX PLAN: 1985
• II-5 SMS/800 Database: 1993
• II-6 SS#7 Switching and Database Elements
• II-7 Spare Toll-Free Numbers, 1993-2002 (Numbers Millions)
• II-8 Working Toll-free numbers, 1993-2002 (Numbers Millions)
• II-9 Toll-Free Revenues, 1993-2002 ($Billions)
• II-10 Hours of Operation

Chapter III

• III-1 Single Site Call Center Components
• III-2 Multi-Site Call Center Components
• III-3 Multi-Site Call Center Network Architecture
• III-4 Voice XML Diagram

Chapter IV

• IV-1 Average Monthly Residential Telecommunications Spending, 1995-2002
• IV-2 Average Wireless MoU per Month 1998-2002
• IV-3 Most Frequent Toll-Free Transaction, by Type
• IV-4 Willingness to Use Web
• IV-5 User Perceptions Toll-Free vs. Web-Enabled Transactions
• IV-6 Combined Calling Card and Prepaid Long-Distance Revenue, 1998-2003
• IV-7 Toll-Free Long-Distance Price per Minute Trends, 1992-2001
• IV-8 Industries Frequently Called Using Toll-Free Numbers
• IV-9 Toll-Free Usage by Vertical Industry
• IV-10 Toll Free Usage by Industry:800 Expense as Percent of Long-Distance
• IV-11 Distribution of Toll Free by Establishment Size (Percent of Lines)
• IV-12 Toll-Free Lines per Employee (by Establishment Size)
• IV-13 Average Number of Toll-Free Lines per Site (by Establishment Size)

Chapter V

• V-1 Total Toll-Free Revenue, 1997-2009 ($Billions)
• V-2 Toll-Free Revenues by Carrier Type, 2001-2009 ($Billions)
• V-3 IXC Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009 ($Millions)
• V-4 ILEC Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009 ($Millions)
• V-5 CLEC Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009 ($Millions)
• V-6 Paging and Messaging Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009
• V-7 Prepaid Long Distance Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009

TABLE OF TABLES

Chapter II

• II-1 SMS/800 Data Base Operating Consortium (Mid 1990s)
• II-2 Toll Free Features Feature Sets: Operational Advantages

Chapter III

• III-1 Call Center Toll-free usage by Transaction Type
• III-2 Aspect Communications
• III-3 Avaya
• III-4 Cisco Systems
• III-5 CosmoCom, Inc.
• III-6 Interactive Intelligence, Inc.
• III-7 NEC
• III-8 Nortel
• III-9 Rockwell

Chapter IV

• IV-1 Selected Vertical Industries: Workers and Establishments

Chapter V

• V-1 Total Toll-Free Revenue, 1997-2009 ($Billions)
• V-2 Toll-Free Revenues by Carrier Type, 2001-2009 ($Billions)
• V-3 IXC Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009 ($Millions)
• V-4 ILEC Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009 ($Millions)
• V-5 CLEC Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009 ($Millions)
• V-6 Paging and Messaging Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009 ($Millions)
• V-7 Prepaid Long Distance Toll-Free Services Revenue, 2001-2009 ($Millions)
• V-8 Toll Free Expenditures by Vertical Industry, 2003-2009 ($Billions)