Rethink Your (Web-Influenced) Call Center

By Liz Kislik

When catalogers and retailers first started to go multichannel, they believed Web-based self-service would be significantly more cost efficient than fielding a full operation of customer service reps at terminals. Over the long haul, they reasoned, humans are more expensive than machines.

But like the benefits of the paperless office, many call-center payroll reductions have been elusive.