QVC selects liverpool for European call center

Before QVC Inc. started its television shopping channel in

Britain three years ago, some skeptics viewed electronic retailing as strictly an American phenomenon that would translate about as well as liver pudding at a Fourth of July picnic.

Now, televisions across the United Kingdom and in parts of Europe offer a constant parade of health and beauty products, computer hardware, jewelry and electronic gadgets, and audiences haven't shown much British reserve when it comes to buying products from Britain's first and only shopping channel.

The London-based network's biggest challenge has been keeping pace with a flood of phone calls that are expected to reach a new peak of one million per month later this year.

QVC U.K., a partnership with Britain's BSkyB, broadcasts via satellite and cable. Since its debut in October 1993, it has grown steadily and is now available in more than 5 million homes. Its call

center has had to keep pace with a corresponding rise in calls.

At the start, the network decided to outsource all of its fulfillment activities to concentrate on getting the

television network operational quickly. It turned to British Telecommunications plc (BT) to provide a high-capacity phone link and automated call-routing system to handle hundreds of thou

sands of calls. McIntyre & King of Liverpool was hired to operate and staff QVC's call center.

Jack Smith, director of telecommunications, QVC Inc., said the outsourcing arrangement helped the start-up network meet an extremely tight deadline. "Getting the service going certainly was a daunting task, especially because we were launching it within a very short amount of time," Smith said.

QVC's decision to base the call center on Merseyside, the region surrounding Liverpool, was aided by BT. "We

looked at a number of cities in the U.K., but we felt Liverpool offered a lot of value to QVC because there's less competition for labor," said Ken McGinness, BT's vice president for International Business. "At the same time, the Merseyside area has a large number of welleducated young people, including many who are multilingual, and that is an important factor as QVC expands to other

countries. Wage levels and facility's costs also are lower in Merseyside than in some other areas of the U.K. Most of all, we knew QVC would be very wel

come there."

"Merseyside has a workforce and infrastructure that meet our requirements and has proven to be an ideal site for our call center," Smith said.

Today, as U.K. residents embrace television shopping,

QVC is quickly becoming part of the English landscape. To help answer the 30,000 calls per day it receives, the television network is building a L14 million, 50,000

square-foot call center and a 100,000-square-foot distribution facility in the town of Knowsley, nine miles from the Liverpool docks. It will have up to 350 oper

ators in place around the clock every day of the year except Christmas, a sharp increase from the 80 operators who were in place when QVC first went on the air.

Before starting construction in April 1996, QVC hired com

mercial real estate consultants to search the British Isles for the most suitable location. The search compared a number of options

All Radisson salespeople use laptops and are connected via e-mail to the hotels and all executives in the cornpany. We are exploring further technology applications for the whole Asia-Pacific region using mobile phones in connection with computers.

Australian business travelers are also highly acclimated to automation. When they check in to a hotel, they often use a calling card or they use their laptop computers to connect to e-mail They may also require a fax machine in their room or messaging service. Dual phone ports in the hotel rooms for phone and e-mail are becoming the norm--customers expect it.

Since business travelers expect sophisticated call center services, including the provision of one phone number to inquire about all products, no matter where the travelers are calling from or where their calls are received, our call center technology

combines toll-free reservations, travel agent bookings, inventory management and guest history interfaces. We believe it offers us a competitive advantage.

Radisson also believes the evolution of interactive technology for consumer reservations will provide exciting opportunities for the hotel industry. Radisson services are already available on the Internet. We are very interested in working with providers in the interactive technology area to make Radisson the first product available for consumers in their homes. I don't believe it will replace the need for reservation centers, as there are differences in technological maturity and consumer habits in each market. but the ability to make reservations electronically is attractive to many customers.

As communication. information and entertainment industries converge, we are happy to know that

Telstra is already well advanced in developing information services and multimedia services. The broadband infrastructure will allow for the provision of a wide range of advanced interactive services, such as electronic commerce and ready access to critical business information.

We are committed to a focus on technology and innovation. but the fundamental issue in the hospitality industry is still hospitality. Technological advances cannot replace the friendly smile of the front desk agent, getting your break-fast on time and the accuracy of the bill. We firmly believe service is still king.

Frederik Korallus is vice president of sales and marketing for the Radisson Hotel Group. Mr. Korallus is now with Brussels-based Radisson SAS Hotels Worldwide.

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Copyright Technology Marketing Corporation Oct 1996
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