How good your tech support is can make or break a deal. Agents at Xerox's call center in Irving answer calls from 7 am to 7 pm, Central time, Monday through Friday. The center in St. John's is open on weekdays from 8 am to 5 pm, Atlantic time, and Xerox's other call centers in North America are open on weekdays from 8 am to 5 pm within their local time zones. Mary Donato, a vice president who oversees Xerox's call centers, says that agents typically help customers with making their initial purchases, with renewing service contracts and with trading in old machines for new machines. We're able to sell more on the low and mid end, and allow our sales force to be stronger on the high end, she says.
All agents have four-year college degrees and previous sales experience.
Agents need to have good business savvy, a high energy level and understand the environment, says Donato. We want to capture a Web chat interaction transcript for quality improvement as well as for a historical record for archival purposes, trend analysis, data mining and lead generation, says Mark Laffin, manager and chief engineer of Xerox's call centers. Donato places great emphasis on offering on-line customer service. We used a telemarketing approach in the past, she recalls. In 1998, Xerox decided to become more productive and improve its coverage model.