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So what happens when a political party promises the creation of call center jobs, then loses control of the government? The incoming government says, "Nah, nah, we didn't promise them. The previous guys did. Sorry!"

Something like this happened in Australia. I guess that's the price you pay for assuming "government" is all one entity...like "The Borg" from Star Trek.

Resistance IS futile.

TES

Here's a customer service pet peeve that I've developed recently. If you have tried to return anything recently, you may have noticed that retailers have fairly seriously tightened up their return policies. I realize that the point is to catch "serial returners" who buy merchandise regularly knowing they are going to return it. But in my opinion, when the "net" starts to catch consumers with legitimate issues, it has been cast too wide.

According to the National Retail Federation, about 40 percent of retailers have tightened their policies.

My most recent aggravation? Baby Gap refusing to take back a baby gift...with a gift receipt...after 90 days. Baby presents are often purchased before...well before...a child is born (for showers, etc.), so the 90 day return rule is not only insufficient, is fails to recognize the fact that among the priorities of new parents in the first three months or less of a baby's birth is NOT returning gifts that don't fit or otherwise don't suit. It seems to me that the Gap is well aware of this and is merely seeking to halt returns.

Here's a recent article from USA Today about the trend if you'd like to read more.

TES

You may have read that his week, Congress addressed two bills, H.R. 2601 and H. R. 3541, which will affect the future of the federal Do-No-Call Registry.  Currently, there are approximately 150 million people who have listed their phone numbers on the DNC Registry, and there has been a large political effort to ensure that consumer’s information will not be purged from this list.

The American Teleservices Association (ATA) came out this week in support of making the list, which was supposed to have been purged and "rebuilt" after five years to ensure list accuracy, permanent.

ATA CEO Tim Searcy said, "We are in support of a permanent Registry, but would like the assurance that it is being appropriately updated.  We would encourage the FTC or Congress to require phone companies to provide a record of all disconnected numbers so they can be removed from the DNC – making the list more accurate.”  Searcy continued, “Until that happens, we support the extension of the current list.”

TES

Outsourcing consultancy TPI keeps track of outsourcing trends across the globe and releases results on a quarterly basis.

This year's wrap-up for 2007 revealed a couple of interesting trends...with mixed results.

The fourth quarter of 2007 was the best since 2005 for number and annualized contract value of mega-relationships; however, the momentum insufficient to overcome early year softness; there were fewer total contracts and lower total contract value in 2007 compared with 2006. Interestingly, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) outsourcing surpassed the Americas for the first time in number and value of outsourcing contracts.

To view the presentation of the results for 2007, click here.

I often get questions about outbound telemarketing calls to places of business, and how companies can stop them. (Here's a piece from the Raleigh News & Observer on the topic.) The answer is, you probably can't, unless you ask each solicitor to list you on their internal do-not-call list. The Federal Do-Not-Call Registry is for personal, home phone numbers, not places of business.

Many companies hesitate to put their business numbers on any do-not-call lists, mindful of the fact that it could affect legitimate incoming business calls. They have a point: business-to-business direct marketing/telemarketing is a legitimate and effective method of conducting business.

There's no excuse, however, for companies targeting individuals where they work with non-business-related calls in a simple attempt to circumvent the law and missed opportunities from being able to call people at home.

TES

If you have been a call center agent for any length of time, there are probably some calls that you will never forget. Calls during which you started to wonder who was trying to upsell whom. Calls during which you felt more like a therapist than a customer service rep. Even calls that were so weird, you became convinced you were being filmed for a new "Candid Camera" reality show.

Interactive Intelligence wants to hear about them. For this purpose, they have launched a site called OutrageousInteractions.com, and they are accepting submissions until next June. What's in it for you? Aside from the ability to share your fun stories with the rest of the call center world, you could just win a trip to Hawaii.

So pull together your best "I-can't-believe-it" story and visit OutrageousInteractions.com to share.

TES

When the topic of customer data privacy comes up, there is a lot to talk about. Encryption, standards, firewalls, software, monitoring...and it's all great.

The problem is, most of it fails to address the most common origination of customer identity theft: the call center agent who walks out the door at the end of his shift with a list of social security and/or credit card numbers.

As you'll see in this story, a former TeleTech employee was recently convicted of using customer information to open accounts in others' names and changing the address to his own, allowing him to have merchandise sent to himself.

Many companies nowadays are trying to combat this kind of identity theft by allowing no paper whatsoever in the call center (notepads can be used to jot down customer information), and allowing agents no access to personal e-mail so they cannot cut and paste information into an e-mail and send it to themselves.

Some companies are even offering solutions for call centers who take credit card information over the phone: the agent is required to transfer the customer into an IVR, which takes the credit card information and processes it automatically. The agent never hears the credit card information.

One doesn't like to think one's employees could be thieves, but let's face it: there are thieves in every profession, and pretending that you have none in your organization is wishful thinking.

TES

According to holiday numbers for 2006/2007 (not this previous holiday season) released by the National Retail Federation, brick and mortar holiday retail growth was just three percent. Online sales, however, grew 19 percent.

According to researchers the e-tailing group, which recently released its 10th Annual Mystery Shopping Study and measured over 200 metrics on 100 consumer e-commerce sites in the fourth quarter of 2007, there has been both an increased presence and better execution of features that either deliver a richer, more robust experience and technologies that enable faster, more efficient shopping.

As more and more people who have never lived before the Internet age become consumers with good disposable income, shoppers' expectations for sterling online shopping experience is going to rise. This means well-designed Web sites with Web 2.0 technologies are a MUST, as is multichannel customer service that makes shoppers think, "Wow."

Are you ready?

TES

 

InfoCision Management Corp.'s VP Steve Brubaker wrote to me this morning letting me know about a piece he'd seen on MSNBC this morning about offshore call center work coming back to U.S. shores for quality reasons.

Steve wrote, "We are experiencing the same as several new high profile Fortune 100 clients are now using InfoCision to handle their calls in USA with high quality results.  These companies have told us they have become disillusioned with the offshore model as the expected ROI has not materialized and poor quality has significantly hurt their customer satisfaction rates."

Unfortunately, I missed the piece. Does anyone know if it's archived anywhere? If so, please let me know.

TES

OK, you may have noticed that I write about home agents. A lot. You're probably thinking, "Sounds great, but does anyone actually do it, aside from a few high-profile companies?"

I was starting to wonder the same thing myself.

You see, every year, I am responsible for tabulating the Customer Interaction Solutions Top 50 Teleservices Agencies Rankings. On the application, we ask about the number of home agents a company has.

For the past several years, while I was busy extolling the virtues of the home agent model, the number of companies acknowledging home agents was depressingly small.

Though I have no final numbers yet, I'm happy to report that THIS year, the numbers appear to be WAY up. In fact, some traditionally brick and mortar call center companies are reporting more home agents than call center-based agents.

The time has come! Will keep you posted when I finalize the stats.

TES