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May 24, 2005

New CATI Business Models take Advantage of a Changing Labour Market

Contrary to what some conference-goers may believe, the research industry is a dynamic body, constantly changing as it is affected by both internal and external forces as agencies continually look for a competitive advantage to maintain profitability.

Increasing consolidation and globalisation of the marketplace, outsourcing, increasing European legislation, Do Not Call registries and changing attitudes towards working practices, place a greater pressure on employers to provide the opportunities for an improved work/life balance. In line with these changes, research agencies have had to become increasingly innovative in the ways in which they conduct their businesses.

Although every facet of the research industry has been affected by these challenges, the industry must look at the future opportunities for one increasingly beleaguered aspect of the research process and ask “What is in store for call centres?”

The role technology plays in the research industry has never been static. Since the industry’s inception, technology has developed in line with the current needs of the market, and, in many respects, has driven the future expectations of the market.

A technological advancement that has been around for some time, yet has only recently found favour in the research industry, may prove to be direction for the call centre. The call centre of the future may owe its survival to the application of Internet Protocol (IP) and voice over IP (essentially telephone calls over the internet). In simple terms, this technology combines traditional CATI software with the functionality and flexibility of the Internet.

Several software suppliers have their own versions of this web-assisted CATI technology, each with different names and attributes.

In the web-assisted CATI world, a telephone interviewer, using a browser interface to access a questionnaire, can operate and be supervised over the Internet. The interviewer simply accesses a secure questionnaire via a URL provided by the system. The software then supplies the interviewer (ideally through a dialer) with telephone numbers from a central sample source. This operation can take place in a traditional call centre but interviewers can be just as productive in an alternative location, such as a geographically remote call centre or even someone’s home.

Supervisors may remotely monitor study progress and interviewers online, via a browser, allowing them to monitor multiple studies and interviewers from one URL. Additionally, the audio portion of the calls themselves can be supervised using voice over IP.

Web-assisted CATI programs also facilitate large market and cross-border studies.  A project manager can field the study on a single, centrally held server. This eliminates the complexity of splitting sample and quota across multiple call centres, significantly reducing workload and the potential for human error. Interviewers from various locations simply log in to the study and start interviewing. The dialer, study server and interviewers can each be situated in different locations.

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In business terms, the centrally located and managed files approach solves several issues:

1. There is no longer the need to split telephone sample and quotas across multiple interviewing houses (i.e. there is now only one set of interviewing files that all interviewers access)
2. The software simplifies process of job sharing / overflow phone hours
3. It minimizes study management errors
4. It is no longer necessary to send out files or study updates to each site when a client needs extra phone room hours to complete a project, or when the client wants to alter their survey after it’s gone live.
5. It allows multiple languages to be run using a single specification

It can be seen that these programs allow telephone interviews to be conducted remotely while controlled centrally, lending itself to an industry undergoing a period of agency consolidation.  Consolidated agencies can ensure that projects are programmed and supervised centrally, but conducted locally, resulting in continuity – regardless of where the newly acquired partner is situated.

Call centres need not be thought of as buildings housing numerous staff members; a call centre can be “virtual,” consisting of interviewers working from different regions or countries.  With webCATI, companies now have the freedom to significantly reduce the physical size and cost of centres as more employees work from home. Or companies can relocate call centres to more economically viable sites, and remain in control of projects. Voice over IP technology means that costs of doing business can be minimised.

These software programs are addressing the changing structure of the labour market.  The freedom of interviewers to work remotely will result in an improved work/life balance (in line with the EU Working Time Directive) and the result could be lower rates of absenteeism, increased recruitment and retention of staff and improved motivation.

Stephen Hughes is the European Sales Director for CfMC, the leading research software provider.  More information on this topic and  CfMC products can be found at www.cfmc.com

This article was also published in the British Market Research Association’s MR Business magazine, the voice of UK Market Research.

About CfMC

CfMC has been a leading provider of marketing research software since 1967, when the company introduced the first computerized tabulation program.  CfMC offers Survent, the most widely used CATI and CAPI software; and webSurvent, a robust web survey tool.

Survent now enables remote interviewing (webCATI), enhanced supervisory controls, and full ODBC support.  WebSurvent features Web Project Manager (webPM), a GUI for creating web surveys, and webSurvent eMailer to manage invitations, reminders, and other research communications.  CfMC also offers Mentor, a full-featured tabulation and reporting system, and operates two service bureaus for web surveys, data entry, programming, coding, and tabulations.

CfMC has offices in San Francisco, Denver, New York, and London .  Its clients include Nielsen Media Research, The Gallup Organization, and Maritz Research.