| Contact Center/CRM Views and Analysis

February 2005

You are browsing the archive for February 2005.

Step 1: Insert Goldfish Into Slot A Via Valve B

February 22, 2005

I bought a new goldfish tank today for my goldfish Skippy.

Perhaps I should offer some background. I bought Skippy nearly two years ago as a 12 cent feeder fish. He's been swimming happily on my desk at work since the spring of 2003, and has now grown rather large.

Customer Service E-mail as a Marketing Tool

February 18, 2005

Just wanted to call your attention to an article on TMCnet by our E-Mail Communications columnists Marilynne Rudick and Leslie O'Flanahan:

Customer Service E-Mail in a "Do Not Call" World 

It never ceases to amaze me that, with e-commerce 10 years old, companies still do an incredibly poor job of email customer service. Marilynne and Leslie make an additional point: In an environment where it's getting harder to get people to respond to email promotions, companies need to work extra hard to communicate well with those who actually want to hear from them.

AB -- 2/18/05

Welcome To America: Now Put Your Hands Up And Face The Wall

February 17, 2005

According to a story on CNN today, the number of foreign visitors to the U.S. is down 10 percent since the year 2000. Considering that foreign tourism to the U.S. is worth nearly 100 million dollars per year, this is cause for concern.

Phishing And Corporate Responsibility

February 16, 2005

If you use the Internet enough to read a blog, chances are you've also been targeted by phishing scams. You know the types...e-mails from "Citibank" that demand your account number, PIN and favorite pet's name or mother's maiden name. In the early days, they were so poorly constructed that all one could do was howl in laughter at the attempt. "Please uh...click like here to update your account information, or we'll like totally deleet yur account." We all wondered, "What kind of idiot falls for something that transparent?"

On-Line Technologies Releases Call Center Solution

February 16, 2005

Today I received a news release from On-Line Technologies about their new call center software solution. The release is posted on TMCnet at:

Portland, Maine, Company Launches New Call Center Software Product

This release had some added value and interest for me, as it included this screen shot of the user interface:

Does Nyah-Nyah Marketing Really Work?

February 9, 2005

I have to wonder whether this kind of marketing message really helps:

Salesforce.com Leads On-Demand Market with Nearly Eight Times as Many Subscribers as Siebel CRM OnDemand

In fact, I almost wonder whether it could backfire. I already know the Salesforce.com brand name pretty well, but this announcement has just reminded me that Siebel is in the on-demand space as well.

Al Bredenberg

Turning Banking Call Centers Into Relationship Centers

February 7, 2005

This news item appeared today:

S1 Enterprise Delivers Complete Solution for Transforming Banking Call Centers into Relationship Centers

I picked out this quote from the release -- seems to reflect an important truth in financial services:

"The call center was once a cost center to most financial institutions, but it is now seen as potentially a major profit center and as the point where service representatives have the greatest impact on customer satisfaction and retention."
-- Ross McKay, vice president of product management for retail banking at S1

Dictaphone: An Old Dog With Very New Tricks

February 1, 2005

If I put 1,000 business people into a room together, and asked them all what the most significant cost of doing business is, my guess is 999 of them would answer "labor." (Perhaps the one lone dissenter works in the Underworld, where "firing employees" literally involves the use of a flamethrower.)

Why is labor so expensive? It's not just the salaries, of course, though those are a large part...it's the turnover. From the moment an employee departs, the process of hiring a replacement involves a cash and resource outlay every step of the way. First, you've lost company human capital in that trained employee who has just departed.

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