March 2008 Archives

Are you protecting your call center agents' backs? Sitting all day long can be hard on the back, and back problems are one of the most common causes of employees calling out sick.

Fellowes, in partnership with BackCare, a U.K.-based "charity for healthier backs," has launched Ergonomix, a nationwide (in the U.K.) month-long campaign aiming to help reduce the risk of RSI, back pain and other musculoskeletal disorders by raising awareness of workstation assessments and ergonomics in the workplace. To achieve this, the two organizations have set up a dedicated Web site, www.ergonomix.info, with detailed information on how companies can protect their workforces by conducting regular workstation assessments and providing ergonomic products.

TES

A recent article posted by CBC news, recognizing the danger in the devalued U.S. dollar to the Canadian call center market, has postulated that the Canadian call center industry needs to refocus itself and concentrate on high-value customer care (financial services) rather than business that concentrates on low-value transactions.

"Economists are warning that global competition, the high value of the Canadian dollar and the tight labour market are reshaping the future of the call centre business, especially in the Maritimes. David Campbell, an independent economic consultant in Moncton, N.B., says New Brunswick should take a page from Nova Scotia's business plan and put more emphasis on attracting financial service and hedge fund centres, which pay bigger salaries."

TES

This week's TIME magazine has on its cover "10 Ideas That Are Changing The World." Number one on the list is "common wealth": sustainable development, ecologically sound industry, population stabilization. The number two world-changing idea? The end of customer service, thanks to both increasingly sophisticated self-service technologies and increased customer willingness to use these technologies.

Read "The End Of Customer Service" here.

TES

Twice in my life have I become teary over the death of people whom I had never met. The first was over George Harrison, as I was a fan of the "Quiet Beatle." The second time was yesterday, upon hearing of the death of Arthur C. Clarke.

It was in eighth grade...Ms. Wheeler's English class...that I was obliged to read the book "2001: A Space Odyssey." Most of my classmates approached it with dread. It had a boring cover. It had lots of science terms on the synopsis. But I was a good student, and it had been assigned, so I read it.

It began a love affair with science fiction that has lasted 26 years. Though I have branched far and wide in science fiction, from the classics -- Bradbury, Heinlen, Asimov -- to the admittedly somewhat schlocky, I held Clarke nearest and dearest to my heart. There has seldom been written a more prophetic science fiction novel than "Childhood's End" (in which Clarke predicted communication via fax and e-mail...in 1953) or a more perfect sci-fi book than "Rendezvous With Rama." My personal favorite, however, remains "The City And The Stars," a novel that takes place a billion years into Earth's future and theorizes what may come of both human technology and human social interaction.

But we have a lot more to thank Clarke for than his science fiction, as worthy a contribution as it was. It was Clarke, who was also a physicist and a mathematician, who popularized the idea via a 1945 essay entitled "Extra Terrestrial Relays" in Wireless World magazine that satellites in geostationary orbit (an orbit that allows the satellite to remain above a specific point on earth at all times) would be perfect for carrying telecommunications traffic. To this day, the orbit that telecom satellites travel in, geostationary orbit, is also known as the "Clarke orbit."

Clarke never patented the idea of the telecommunications satellite, primarily because his lawyer thought the idea was so outlandish...communication relayed to space and back to earth again...that the lawyer felt it would have been a waste of time. Clarke later recounted the error in an essay entitled, "A Short Pre-History of Comsats, Or: How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time."

Rest in peace, Sir Arthur Clarke. I, for one, will go home today and drag out my old copies of your books and be inspired.

TES

Good news for those of us who live and work in the contact center industry. The global call center market is expected to reach $195 billion by 2010 according to industry analysts Global Industry Analysts, Inc. This conclusion appears in a report titled, "Call Centers: A Global Strategic Business Report." The study analyzed past, current and future market data and analytics over the period 2000-2010 and long-term projections (2011-2015) for regions including the North America, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and others.

For specifics and a break-down of numbers, visit the summary on the company's Web site.

We've noted, via various news reports recently, that several large American call center operators are shutting down Canadian call center operations because the weakness of the American dollar against the Canadian dollar means there is no longer a cost savings to locate a call center "nearshore" in Canada.

West Corp. is the most recent company to fold up a Canadian call center. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company plans to shut down a call center in British Columbia by summer, putting 450 workers out of a job.

New article about the shut-down can be found here.

TES

Outsourced call center services provider Sykes this week posted better-than-expected financial results (revenue of $197.7M was ahead of the consensus $189.9M estimate, and OPM of 7.7 percent was above the 7.2 percent consensus estimate). Analyst group Stifel Nicolaus Business Services (www.stifel.com) has chalked it up to the fact that the company is experiencing "sustained, broad-based demand (across all verticals including financial services) from both new and existing clients, and the company plans to add 3,000-4,000 additional seats over 2008 and into 2009 to meet this demand."

This demand, according to the Stifen Nicolaus report, is good news for the outsourced contact center service provider market as a whole, and indicates that "clients continue to spend on customer service work despite broader economic issues."

TES

I got my online version of the ASRNews and was interested to read about two cable giants: Charter and Comcast, and the fact that ASRNews tested their IVRs and found that the data customers feed in to the system is not used for CTI screen-pop purposes. Basically, Charter and Comcast are using their IVRS merely to annoy customers at the front end.

Said the newsletter, "This month we tested Charter Communications.  No CTI.  They gather ID information from the caller and then throw it away. Comcast does the same thing. These folks should either implement CTI of get rid of their IVR that is doing nothing other than irritating callers."

More high-quality customer service from the cable companies. How could it get any worse? They play a eardrum-shattering screech tone into customers' ears as payback for daring to try and get in touch with customer service?

You can find ASRNews' online newsletter at http://www.asrnews.com/asrnews/backissue/asrn0208.htm 

TES

First-call resolution, as a call center principle, gets a lot of attention, and for very good reason. While 10 different call centers may not agree on their management, hiring, training and technology approaches, all 10 will probably agree that first-call resolution is far and away the most important metric to master. Why? It's a realistic way to achieve increased customer satisfaction at lower operating costs. It cuts out "waste" and gets customer issues resolved quickly. It also improves employee job satisfaction and lowers turnover, for it reduces agent frustration.

It is, however, a complex, multifaceted topic. I recently had a chance to speak with Rob McDougall, president of call center solutions provider Upstream Works (www.upstreamworks.com). Our conversation about implementing first-call resolution in the contact center is available here as a podcast

Happy listening!

TES

Gary Gygax, co-creator with Dave Arneson of the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons died this (Tuesday) morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin at age 69.

Read CNN's brief obituary here.

Crandall Associates, a company that does executive recruitment for the direct marketing and telesales industries, has released its "2008 National Salary Guide, Direct and Interactive Marketing."

The guide keeps tracks of salaries (high and low ranges, sub-divided by years of experience) nationwide for job titles such as:

Internet Marketing Manager
Market Research Director
Media Planner/Analyst
VP of Marketing
Customer Service Managers and Directors

The full report can be ordered online at www.crandallassociates.com.

TES

Next time you're getting heated with a call center agent, calm yourself down by thinking about this story: a man telephones a call center for a routine address change. While on the phone, he suffers a massive brain hemorrhage. The call center agent, recognizing the threat, calls emergency services and provides them with the caller's home address (which she has on her computer screen). Emergency services saves the man's life.

OK...maybe it's not a COMMON scenario, but it happened recently.

TES