Software evolves as a psychological tool at call centres
If you are a male between the age of 30 and 50, do not be surprised if a woman aged 20 to 40 answers the phone every time you call your bank.
Financial institutions, among other businesses which frequently deal with customers by telephone, are growing more sophisticated in how they match callers with customer representatives, sometimes basing parings on demographic or psychographic profiles.
The marketing staff of some banks, for example, have figured out that middle-aged males are more likely to buy a financial product when speaking to a younger member of the opposite sex.
It is all part of the evolution of software that runs call centre operations, according to James Brooks, Asia-Pacific senior vice-president at Genesys Telecommunications Labs.
'What we see some of our customers doing is taking [call centre software] to a demographic or psychographic level,' Mr Brooks said.
In the first phase, software can identify when a company's most important customers are on the line, matching the call with a firm's most experienced customer service reps. Calls from key clients are also pushed to the top of the queue.
In the second phase, the software is used to match customers with representatives experienced in specific fields, say a homeowner, with a specialist in mortgage refinancing.