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Call Center 2.0 Applications
You have heard me talk about Call Center 2.0 and how it will embody AJAX and other Web 2.0 functions. Today, Jacada announced that Jacada WorkSpace 3.0, which became popular under it former brand, Jacada Fusion Agent Portal will take advantage of leading edge Web 2.0 tools such as AJAX. A note of disclosure –
Jacada’s products allow call center managers to unify applications in a single GUI allowing for less training and a more simplified front-end for agents.
The product excels in the teleservices agency/BPO space where the BPO agent can use a single interface regardless of the customer they are serving. In other words an agent can switch from a campaign taking calls for GE dishwasher repair to another for Red Cross donations. All the while the agent uses a similar if not the same looking screen to input data.
The amount of UI training can be reduced drastically with Jacada products and subsequently productivity increases while errors decrees.
To properly show the world what the future of contact centers will be don’t forget to mark your calendar for the world’s first Call Center 2.0 Conference Oct 10-13 in San Diego, CA!
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Call Center 2.0
The following is my High Priority Column in the April 2006 issue of Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine.
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The modern call center industry is about 25 years old, yet it remains on the forefront of customer interactions. Paradoxically, for many years, call centers have not been on the leading edge of technology or in the forefront of attention by corporate management. As markets become more competitive, it is essential that call centers embrace the latest technologies to ensure they not only keep their current customers, but are positioned to attract new ones.
This is not to say that call centers have shunned technology. Much to the contrary, in the past quarter of a century the call center has transformed from an industry that dealt with contacts on index cards to one in which the latest CRM software is used on state of the art servers.
Over the years, call centers embraced technology when automating their inbound calling functions using ACDs, skills based routing and predictive dialers.
In the last decade and a half call centers have used technologies like CTI to enable better integration between phone systems and computer systems. Screen pops are but a single example of how call centers embraced the merging computer and telephony realms to enable agents know who was calling before they even said hello.
In the late 1990s VoIP was born and was heralded as a technology that would transform services providers and enterprises as well as call centers. Massive investments took place by all of these sectors in VoIP. Most of these investments stopped after the financial markets took a hit in 2001.
It was at this point that the call center market stepped up and took a leadership role in VoIP deployment. The entire call center offshoring phenomenon has come about because call centers embraced VoIP for inexpensive calling. VoIP allowed corporations to locate agents wherever they made the most sense, regardless of geography.
In the last few years state-of-the-art technology has transformed the Web to Web 2.0, VoIP to VoIP 2.0 and now, naturally, the call center is able to leverage advances in its own core technologies to achieve what is known as Call Center 2.0.
For the past two decades many innovations have helped call centers become more productive and subsequently generate more savings and profit for corporations. In many cases, technology has had a dramatic increase in sales volume at today’s corporations.
We are now on the forefront of the evolution of call centers from where they are today to where we will be over the next decade.
This leap will be deemed call center 2.0 and it will be the biggest change the industry has ever seen.
In addition, this new way of thinking about call centers will help them evolve into the next-generation entity called the contact center, and help us realize that our customers are really groups of communities that can benefit from interacting with one another.
In addition, Call Center 2.0 heralds full integration into the corporate supply chain and drives forward the desire to integrate analytics into customer contact. Furthermore, it allows us to mine, archive and put to use the enormous amount of data available in our call centers so we may respond to customer needs more effectively and create true customer delight.
Furthermore, call center 2.0 will focus on integrating various departments in organizations using SOA or service oriented architectures. SOA-based applications will allow unprecedented amounts of information to flow between departments in order to answer customer questions in near real-time. It will also allow agents to make use of critical up to the minute data that can make the difference between a customer calling to buy an extended warranty and leaving the conversation deciding to buy a new car.
Video will play a huge part of call center 2.0. Call centers will video-enable themselves to increase the customer service of phone calls. In some cases conversations will be 2-way video enabled in other cases the benefits of having video calls will be so obvious that all call centers will scramble to show their agent’s faces.
Video kiosks will be an integral part of call center 2.0 allowing companies to put a virtual video call center anywhere they like. Sony can put such a kiosk in an electronics retailer, Weight Watchers can put one in a supermarket. Some ATMs will become video enabled allowing tellers in call centers to answer questions for customers around the clock.
Call centers will embrace client-based VoIP, striking deals with the likes of companies such as Skype, Vonage and others. Call centers will go up market with VoIP allowing their customers to speak with agents in higher fidelity with stereo and surround sound. VoIP will be come a service differentiator.
Call center 2.0 will be speech enabled allowing customers to use automation if they choose. They can seamlessly transfer to live agents if needed and back to automation again.
Call center 2.0 will use SIP endpoints allowing more flexibility and interoperability. In addition there will be enhanced presence use to determine when the best agents are available in your organization. SIP will allow all workers in a company to become call center agents.
Call center 2.0 will allow corporations to build vast virtual geographically distributes call centers around the globe using the best workers for the task at hand.
Call center 2.0 will allow callers to schedule callbacks with ease online and will alert callers to wait times online before they place a call.
Some of Call Center 2.0 technology exists today, and every company needs to explore and discover the combination of concepts and technologies that will help them continue to both exceed customer expectations and attract new customers. Technologies such as
PS:
Something I forgot to mention in the printed article is VoIP peering and how contact centers of the future will all peer with one another and with service providers, universities and enterprises. ENUM databases will be the way we check to see if a call can be transmitted via VoIP so it doesn’t have to traverse the PSTN.
In order to showcase the best and brightest in the call center 2.0 market be sure to come to the world’s only Call Center 2.0 conference October 10-13, 2006 in
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A Bad Day At The Airport
The events described below took place yesterday:
It all started out this morning with a flight that my wife and I were early for. Enter a call from a reporter for a French newspaper who wanted information on the Alcatel/Lucent merger. I love reporter calls, this one included. I loved the call so much in fact I decided to stay on it so I could make the reporter's deadline.
Consequently I missed my flight. Trying to leave
While trying to escape
I had lots of time to think as my wife and I were bumped time and time again until my wife (certainly the brains of this operation) suggested we split up. Wait a minute I thought, this is the same woman that just spied Paris Hilton in the airport and felt compelled to tell me the guy
Did she find a flight with Paris and her friend I thought? Nahh -- that was a few hours ago, by now Paris is probably long gone. So I agreed and my wife left on the next plane out of Miami.
The following plane was a few hours away and was delayed and then delayed and then guess what --- delayed. When I finally got to the gate (surprise!) they had a ticket already printed with my name on it.
So I got on the flight only to hear that we will be rerouted in mid-flight to avoid storms. New arrival time is now 12:30 am. Thankfully 30 minutes later we were re-re-routed and I think that means landing sooner than 12:00 am.
About 10 minutes ago the person across from me -- diagonally -- started to feel sick and they put him on oxygen and he was rubbing ice on his face. The flight attendants are calling for an MD but there doesn’t seem to be one. I believe a nurse came by already.
I am too awake to sleep and too out of it to write an article so I figured today's blog entry would just be my personal diary from the day. I guess I could read but I am almost done with Popular Science (do you know Porsche now makes a $150,000 watch??? -- the insanity) and have already read every newspaper around from the New York Times, USA Today and Miami Herald. There is a copy of the New Yorker Magazine around but I am way too unsophisticated to appreciate any of it. I kept skimming it wondering how people derive value from such a publication. No offense intended mind you I am just a news and tech junkie I suppose and I don't think I can learn to appreciate their level of journalism (which I do admire and respect but just don’t appreciate).
Earlier today I ran into two people in the airport -- one from Aspect -- Formerly Davox/Cellit/Concerto and one from NexTone. While I am thinking about it I also ran into Victor Bozzo from NexTone last week at the Voice Peering event. As Victor explains it their products are perfect for peering not only for service providers but for enterprise and call center customers. I am impressed with Victor, his enthusiasm for the job and what NexTone is up to. He is in sales but makes a great marketing person as well. Most sales people are ill-equipped to deal with media relations and I was surprised to hear he was in sales.
Oh, new problem, there is now a fight between the flight attendant and a passenger just two rows up.
It has been one of those days but I am very happy to be heading home and to see the kids for a day before I go to CTIA.
That reminds me that I got an e-mail from Ephraim Cohen -- if you remember a while back he told me that wages in India and China will rise over time and their competitive advantage over the US will lessen.
I also posted an entry a while back explaining that something similar happened in Japan. Remember we used to fear Japan as they started to take away more and more American jobs. Then their standard of living started to skyrocket making them less competitive.
Well there is a story in the New York Times today that echoes this sentiment and explains how more Chinese are going to college and skipping factory jobs. What this means is a shortage of factory workers. The remaining workers will likely receive better benefits and working conditions.
All of this comes with an increase in wages that will increase the costs we all pay for Chinese goods but the bright side is fewer jobs from other parts of the world will be lost to this booming country.
It seems that Vietnam is now taking the low paying jobs from China. A while back the same trend started with Indian call centers outsourcing their entry level jobs to the Philippines. Ephraim was right and the speed at which his predications have come true are amazing. I suppose they probably even surprise him.
Getting back to this flight, the one thing I am happy with is the fact I have taken so many flights on American Airlines in my life as this has no doubt helped me get out of Miami today. A few more days in Miami would not have been a bad thing but since my luggage and wife (not in order of importance mind you) are already waiting for me in New York, staying in Miami doesn’t sound too fun.
So I hope my travels to CTIA are less eventful and I hope I get there and back without a hitch. I love my job and my travel but am looking forward to spending quality time with the kids.
So if I am a bit unresponsive with e-mail for a week or so it isn't that I am ignoring you -- I will certainly get to your message as soon as I stay in one place long enough to download and upload my messages.
Until then, I hope all your standbys are successful and your connecting flights are always there for you. And remember not to fly standby in Miami on the weekend or Monday.
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