Sounds like an episode of "Fawlty Towers," doesn't it?
A recent survey conducted by GMI and commissioned by European IP communications provider Wicom Communications found cultural differences in end user attitudes towards and experiences with call centers in the UK and Germany. The survey was conducted this month (February, 2007) among 1,000 end users in Germany and the UK.
When asked for the motive/reasons behind calls to customer support centers, answers across both countries were consistent. Around 73 percent of respondents in both countries contacted a call center typically for general inquiries. "It may be a cliché, however the results reflect some of the cultural differences between the two countries. On average Germans tend to grab the phone more often to complain while Brits are more hesitant," commented Stephan Bahr, Sales Director of Wicom Communications for Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Only 36 percent of British said they called a call center to raise a complaint while almost half of all respondents in Germany frequently called to complain.
The conclusions could be taken in a number of snarky directions, but in the interest of international peace and harmony, I won't go there. Won't! Go! There!
For more info about the survey, visit www.wicom.com.
TES
Think about it...MySpace and YouTube. Not "OurSpace" and "WeTube". Me, me, me.
A study that has been regularly conducted by San Diego State University has found that in 2006, college students are more narcissistic and self-involved than every before...two-thirds of them think they're wonderful and the world ought to revolve around them.
While the study shows media such as MySpace and YouTube to be a symptom, not a cause, of the problem, it is indicative that somewhere along the way, the "Free To Be You and Me" movement of the 60s and 70s that was meant to build self-esteem in children has over time morphed into an alarming overdose in self-esteem and a rise in a "F*ck You, I'm Special And You're Not" generation.
But think about the technologies...iPods mean we can pick the music we want to listen to and never have to be exposed to anything we don't...in the way listening to the radio or sharing a family stereo meant you had to put up with other people's musical choices for part of the time. The vast array of Internet news (and increasingly polarized network news) means we can listen to current affairs information skewed in the political direction of our choice without ever having to be bothered by views from the other side or uncomfortable realities we don't like. Web chat means we can communicate anonymously, never having to look at another person's expression if we say something hurtful. Internet message boards mean we can insult other's opinions without the uncomfortable social necessity of face-to-face interaction and social sensitivity, both of which rouse empathy. Wikipedia means we can reinforce our opinions with, let's face it...pseudo-research that was put onto the site by who-knows-who with who-knows-what credibility. Blogs mean we can post our hopes, desires and dreams on the Internet daily and pretend there are a lot of people out there who care (frankly, there aren't).
I suspect the phenomenon isn't limited to young people. I can see it in young, middle aged and older people nowadays...just observing the way they drive.
I won't pretend I have an answer to the issue. But it's worrying just the same.
TES
CRM provider Entellium announced today that it was among the select group of companies that Forrester Research invited to participate in its Q1 2007 Forrester Wave report, Midmarket CRM Suites. In this review, Entellium was recognized as a strong performer, offering small and midsized businesses “ready-to-use, affordable CRM.”
Forrester evaluated several midmarket CRM vendors using nearly 500 criteria grouped into three main categories: current offering, strategy and market presence. Entellium earned the highest scores for cost and time-to-value, as well as one of the top three scores for product strategy, corporate strategy and usability.
To read more about Entellium, visit www.entellium.com.
TES
To tech editors, mid-to-late February becomes fodder for a horror movie. The phone never stops ringing, the e-mails pour in, and the briefing requests come in faster than our Outlook calendars (or editors' brains) can handle them.
Contrast this to mid-January: this is a time when tech editors are desperately writing up and posting any news, no matter how slight ("CRM Software Provider Moves Location Of 'Open Here' Instructions On Product Packaging!") out of sheer desperation. Why is the news so slow then? Because no one is announcing any new products. They're preparing for the stampede of mid-February. Or late August/early September.
I'm not sure why there are no tech companies that have figured out that if they release products at "off" times (i.e., not in February and not in September), they'll have far more attention paid to their launches. It's like choosing to take your vacation in April or November, instead of during the summertime like every other vacationer on the planet ,and finding that you have tourist attractions to yourself, prices are low, availabilities are wide open and service levels are high.
When your company is one of 72 in your industry announcing a new product or product update between February 12th and 28th, you are merely a voice at the back of the room that adds to the cacophony. Choose to launch the second week in January, early December or in July, and you'll have our undivided attention and neverending appreciation.
Something to think about.
TES
The Red Tape Chronicles blog on MSNBC has an interesting piece about how online court forms have made it easy, cheap and quick for consumers to file lawsuits...and win settlements...against telemarketers violating elements of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. One of the most common grievances is against companies that fail to stop calling consumers after being specifically requested to do so.
The full article is here: http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/02/suing_telemarke.html
TES
Are you addicted to e-mail? Do you hit F-5 once a minute? Do you get the shakes if you've been away from your BlackBerry for longer than 10 minutes? Have you ever found yourself checking e-mail at movies, family dinners, in the middle of the night or during sex?
If so, it may be time to embark on the 12 steps, and the first step, as always, is to admit you have a problem.
See CNN's article today: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/02/20/email.addiction.reut/index.html
TES
Recently released research by Purdue University's BenchmarkPortal has revealed that call centers tend to prefer "all-in-one" contact center solutions that serve all (or most) of a call center's needs rather than a mix of point solutions from different vendors.
Integration was identified as the most critical condition behind this preference: all-in-one systems were preferred over point solutions based on their ability to support additional applications with virtually no modification or integration issues, and for their ability to "lower administrative costs by reducing support staff by a full 25 percent."
“Our findings show that, in general, all-in-one communications systems contain the same core ‘best-of-breed’ applications required by contact centers as their multi-point counterparts, and that they come with the advantages of fewer interfaces, lower support requirements, simplified management, and easier access to performance data across applications,” said BenchmarkPortal research analyst, Bruce Belfiore.
Another interesting result of the Benchmark Portal survey was that the three applications call centers are most likely to implement over the next year are post call surveys, Web chat and multimedia queuing.
To read more in-depth about the survey, visit www.benchmarkportal.com.
TES
Consultant organization Mintel has conducted a study that indicates that close to 70 percent of consumers surveyed are either "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" that their credit or debit card information will be stolen if they make purchases on the Internet (http://tinyurl.com/35fapm).
More than one third of respondents to Mintel's survey perceive the Internet as the medium most likely to result in ID theft. Twenty-eight percent who claim mail theft is most common and one fifth blame credit card receipts. In contrast with these perceptions, the 2006 Identity Fraud Survey Report released by the Council of Better Business Bureaus/Javelin revealed that more than 60 percent of fraud actually occurred at the hands of friends, family neighbors and through other means than Internet purchasing.
In other words, forget Amazon or eBay and take a good long look at your loser cousin Bob who was rifling through your garbage last week because he said he'd dropped a rare collector's beer cap in there.
TES
Analytics provider Verint and workforce optimization leader Witness this morning announced that the two companies will merge. The two companies have entered into a definitive agreement under which Verint will acquire Witness for $27.50 per share in cash. The convergence of Witness’ workforce optimization and Verint’s actionable intelligence will create a broad portfolio of contact center and enterprise performance solutions, delivering a compelling new vision for the customer-centric enterprise.
Stay tuned for more in-depth info later in the day.
TES
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