July 2006 Archives

Every once in a while, I need to visit the comments section of this blog and clear it out. It seems I need to do it more often. I expect the proliferation of spam to the blog...that's easy to spot. Lots of companies selling mobile phones, SIM cards and accessories will spam. When those are deleted, these spammers get a tad smarter. They post something that tries to look like a real comment..."That's a great idea!" and then plaster their URLs all over the posting.

Don't get me wrong...I get a lot of great feedback to the blog. I've got a lot of postings from veterans sharing information about identity theft, a venting forum for bad Walmart customer service, a debate regarding whether China or India is the next best thing for outsourcing, a few Comcast customers who share my pain, a couple of disgruntled former call center workers expressing distaste for their previous employers, and regular commentary from someone named Sven Jørgensenjensen, which is the alter-ego of a slightly warped friend of mine.

But then there's the weird ones.

I recenty had someone confessing to a regular Walmart shoplifting habit. I've had posters asking for money. Many posters seem to believe I have the ability to give them a job. (I don't, but I leave their requests up there, in case HR personnel from BPO companies are looking to hire.) I've received some odd personal comments from strangers. I once received a marriage proposal.

I'm starting to know how priests in a confessional feel. Nineteen normal penitents or chatters, followed by one who hovers slightly outside the ionosphere. It's the nature of blogs.

TES

CRM, salesforce automation, knowledge management and quality management all exist for a very good reason: to avoid creating nightmare scenarios like the one the U.S. government and the call centers it has contracted have made over the Medicare Plan D.

This article reveals that calls to different call centers about the Medicare Plan will garner radically different and conflicting responses, and not a single call center tested has been able to offer correct answers much more than half of the time.

No wonder today's seniors are confused over the Medicare Plan. It's hard not to become confused when you aren't starting with the correct information to begin with.

Below is the official U.S. government Web site for information about Medicare Plan D. Let's hope it's a tad more accurate than the call centers covering the issue.

http://www.medicare.gov/pdphome.asp

TES

An article in Time magazine this week speculates that AOL may soon decide to ditch its once-but-no-longer popular subscription method in favor of an ad-based model, such as that followed by Yahoo! and others.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1214959,00.html

It seems that AOL is becoming exhausted trying to re-fill its leaky bucket, and the water level of customers keeps dropping at alarming rates. I've always wondered why anyone in his or her right mind would pay for broadband Internet and then pay for an AOL subscription on top of that broadband bill. It seems a lot of AOL's customers wondered that, too.

TES

There is a good article in Time this week speculating that AOL may ditch its once-but-no-longer profitable subscription model for an ad-drive model:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1214959,00.html

Makes sense. There's only so long they can keep plugging all the leaks in their bucket, and the waterline is sinking rapidly.

TES

Analytics provider Verint Systems announced today that it is acquiring call recording and performance evaluation vendor Mercom for $35 million. The goal is the well-established presence that Mercom enjoys in the SMB market.

“We believe that there is growing demand for analytical solutions that can help drive operational effectiveness in the small-to-midsize enterprise market,” said Dan Bodner, President and CEO of Verint Systems. “The Mercom team has a strong track record in this growing market and we look forward to providing our combined global channels with an expanded portfolio of value-added analytical solutions.”

TES

I was just on the Web site of eMicrophones, Inc., a reseller of headsets, and saw something that made me happy. Under the contact information, it says:

Phone: 914-556-8286

Fax: Faxing is Old Technology. Please write message below (into Web form).

Couldn't have said it any better myself. Faxing needs to go the way of the dodo.

TES

Rest in peace, Syd Barrett.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5169344.stm

The July issue of Customer Interaction Solutions magazine will cover the winner of the IP Contact Center Technology Pioneer Awards. For a sneak preview of who the best of the best are in this marketplace, visit

http://www.tmcnet.com/call-center/0706/mngmnt-scope-the-ip-contact-center-technology-pioneer-awards.htm

Congratulations to the winners!

TES