EC Group is continuing to enhance its range of contact centre services by extending its e-mail and e-commerce solutions, and also expanding its print-on-demand service for online requests for brochures and leaflets.

The company has state-of-the-art customer contact centres in Hayes, Middlesex and Grays, Essex. Both centres offer multi-channel contact facilities, including live call handling, IVR, fax, e-mail and e-commerce solutions.

EC Group also has over three million cubic feet of secure storage space at its warehouse complexes in Hayes and Grays.

Chris Tillin, EC Group’s marketing manager, says: “The expansion of our e-commerce and digital print services is a recognition that more consumers and B2B customers are moving their purchasing or information request behaviour online.

“More of them are choosing to download information instead of talking directly to a real person.”

Tillin says these additional services reflect client companies’ growing requirements for a total contact centre package that includes more than just traditional call centre services.

“Clients are no longer just looking for stand-alone inbound or outbound support,” he says. “They want a call centre to be able to provide a full range of integrated direct marketing services instead of spreading these functions across different providers.”

Tillin also points to a shift towards multi-channel contact centre services – including live call handling, IVR, fax, e-mail and e-commerce solutions – as part of an integrated service proposition.

“In effect, we are now a one-stop shop acting as the customer facing side of a client’s business,” he says.

“This involves managing enquiries, providing information, and processing orders through to the back end of a client’s operations – such as warehousing, response handling, fulfilment and other outsourced direct marketing support services.”

He says EC Group can either provide outsourced support for just one or two elements of a direct marketing campaign, or handle the complete project management and delivery of the whole campaign.

“What we offer are the elements of direct marketing that are often too costly to manage in-house,” says Tillin. “Outsourcing them allows a client to focus their attention on what they do best.”