The Readerboard http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Contact Center/CRM Views and Analysis en-us Copyright 2008 2008-08-01T13:42:46-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 Canada's Do Not Call http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/canadas-do-not-call.asp 37074@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ In just less than two months from now, Canada's new Do Not Call registry will go live. This new regulation, and others, will have at last some enforcement teeth in the way of steep fines. These methods will help clean up the telemarketing industry that unfortunately like any other field has a few bad actors, poor managers, and greedy companies. Telemarketers will also benefit by using the DNC to generate a higher lead/sale per prospect ratio by not calling people who clearly don't want to buy by phone.

Canada has of course the benefit of learning from over 10 years of US experience, at the state and national levels, with blanket DNC registries. And as such there are some key differences between them, two of which is that the Canadian DNC has a three year time limit--it is up to consumers to renew their listings--and that there is only one government level and agency, the federal CRTC, responsible for telemarketing regulations rather than two, as in the US, and the provinces are not involved, unlike individual states, whose added rules make compliance a headache.

(Yes, the states serve as the 'incubators' of US federalism--they did take the lead on formulating the blanket DNC list--but once the creatures are hatched they should be put under the wing of the national government to make sure everyone flies together well)

There is a great synopsis of key aspect of the Canadian regs in the Outbound Call Center Community section on TMCnet.com. The September issue of Customer Interaction Solutions will have a more in-depth discussion on Canadian telemarketing regulations.

There are also many similarities between the Canadian and American Do Not Call lists. One of the ones not mentioned in the online article is the tussle between telemarketers who want less restrictions and consumer advocates who want more. The media reports frequently cite the latter's familiar litany of too many DNC exemptions, such as for political parties, charities, and newspapers. Yet there have not been too many squawks from the former, namely because the Canadian Marketing Association has been astutely much more savvy in approaching such hot issues than its US counterparts.

The CMA, as is typical in Canadian business and political practices, is more behind the scenes, less willing to go to the barricades as was the ATA in the US. It saw which way the tide was going. Its method is not trying to mimic King Canute by telling the tide what to do, but instead veer the flow so that it would minimize the damage to its members. For example it had the most controversial of the Canadian legislation's original requirements, i.e. allowing businesses to also register on the DNC, removed from the regulations, by pointing out that only a minority of businesses wanted it and that it is difficult in business conversation to know when telemarketing starts or ends.

Canada will no doubt continue to refine its new telemarketing rules, going forward as the US has done. One suggestion both governments should look at to resolve the exemption issue is prohibit solicitation calling to unpublished numbers unless there is express consent i.e. treat them like cell and fax numbers. People who go out of their way and expense to get their number unlisted clearly don't want to be called, for any reason, so don't bug them. That will leave a smaller but more willing universe of consumers who may be happy that you called.

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]]> Call Center CRM call center contact center do not call telemarketing contact center do not call Canadian canadian telemarketing canada Canada regulations 2008-08-01T13:42:46-05:00 End of the Line for Toll-Free Numbers? http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/end-of-the-line-for-toll-free-numbers.asp 37046@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Today is the 'last run' for the toll-free number connecting New Jersey Transit, the third largest transit agency in the US, with its customers.

Could this be the beginning of the end for toll-free numbers in North America?

NJ Transit has since June been switching callers from 800-772-2222 to 973-275-5555. When you call the toll free number today you will get a recorded message asking you to call the 973 number And according to an opinion piece in the July 22 Cherry Hill (NJ) Courier-Post, after July 31, there will no longer be any message at the 1-800 number.

NJ Transit abandoned toll-free to cut costs. The high gas prices have attracted more riders but have also increased the costs of diesel fuel used on its buses and many of its commuter trains: the agency also has an electrified commuter rail and light rail network.

The technology environment is finally right for ending toll-free service. NJ Transit, like many public agencies along with private companies, has been diverting calls away from live agents through the Internet, including a mobile-enabled site, and with proactive means such as automated outbound text alerts.

New Jersey residents, like many others across North America, have been switching from TDM to IP, which makes long distance charges irrelevant. My son, who lives in the central part of the state, bought IP with a package from his cable company. Also, North Americans are becoming used to paying per contact, as their counterparts in other parts of the world have long done, through their text messaging rates.

By dropping toll-free, NJ Transit could be blazing a trail for other companies and organizations to follow. The move saves money without cutting customer care, allowing scarce resources to be more efficiently deployed elsewhere.

There has been so far some cries against the move, such as the aforementioned newspaper editorial (see below), because it does increase the costs and hassle of information access from especially poorer customers. Yet the screams have not been loud enough at this point to get the agency to change its mind.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080722/OPINION/807220303/1046

Who will be the next to follow in NJT's path? Do I hear any roar from the airlines?


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]]> Call Center CRM E-Business VoIP cable company call center contact center Internet IP mobile commerce toll-free contact center IP toll free transit Transit number north costs North 2008-07-31T09:42:41-05:00 Bell Dings http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/bell-dings.asp 37003@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
Communications giant Bell Canada does not get often get much praise by consumers, telco professionals, and the media in its "home and native land".

This traditional of the traditional telcos has plodded behind the cable companies and others in offering competitive pricing and new services like residential IP and sometimes indifferent service. Not surprisingly, more consumers have let the old TDM-carrying copper wires go dead and instead are plugging into coaxial cable or go wireless altogether--including with firms other than Bell.

Bell, and some of its other communications counterparts have been ripped into by consumer advocates for their decision to charge for inbound text messages, including spam. Two Quebec residents, one a Bell customer, and the other a Telus subscriber, have just launched a lawsuit against the two carriers.

Yet Bell deserves some applause for its decision to let go old-line executives and managers rather line staff as part of its reorganization and cost cutting as part of its recent and record-breaking $35 billion+ leveraged buyout.

More surprisingly for jaded observers it is reportedly increasing its customer-facing staff: who are usually but shortsightedly canned when such deals take place.

Could this mean that Bell will emerge as a truly competitive, dynamic carrier, one that will provide leading-edge price-savvy services to back its customer care, to contact centers, other businesses, and to consumers, and win back those it has been attriting to other companies?

Bell has the network, and the resources to win, and not just by default. The service and pricing of some of its competitors is not exactly great, in absolute terms. It could also probably show the equally 'loved' US carriers a few things too.

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]]> Call Center CRM VoIP Bell Canada cable company Canadian IP telco wireless Bell Canada telco Canadian consumers customer 2008-07-28T16:54:04-05:00 After-Hours Calls: the Next Speech Rec Killer App Opportunity? http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/after-hours-calls-the-next-speech-rec-killer-app-opportunity.asp 36963@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
Speech recognition-enabled automated voice solutions work best with heavily scripted interactions that leave little room for interpretation e.g. finding the right service, obtaining credit card balances, and ordering a movie.

For that reason more of these kinds of basic transactions are going automated with speech rec because they are relatively easy to do while permitting operating cost savings.

There are now so many firms and organizations that have deployed speech rec on their customer interaction front ends that these applications have taught us how to speak to the computers i.e. slowly, clearly, with little inflection.

And we all thought speech rec was about 'teaching' the machines to 'speak' to us...were we ever wrong...

For all the speech-rec current and in-the-pipeline candidate transactions there is one category that appears to be ready-made for this technology--but so far ignored--and that are the after-hours calls, such as for doctors, lawyers, plumbers, fuel oil dealers and furnace repairs now handled by answering services.

These contacts are ideal for speech rec because they are heavily scripted. These transactions have to be. The answering service agents (still called operators) can do little more than take or forward messages, or warm transfer calls to on-call staff, and page/dispatch professionally-trained personnel based on very strict procedures.

The agents themselves do not have medical or legal expertise, unless for 'dial-a-nurse' or other and more expense applications. And there may be unfunny consequences all around should these individuals attempt to give information that could be construed by callers as advice.

Which means these nice people can't fix your boo-boo, bail you out of the joint, or counteract the latest attempt of your 2 year old to turn your toilet into a one-size-fits-all alternate garbage disposal.

The real benefit of having live agents at all on such calls is the living, breathing, and reassuring presence of human beings. Yet at what price when they really cannot do much more, in many instances, than voicemail; a price that is included in the typically eye-opening bills that you get from these professionals and contractors.

I had a conversation some time ago with a friend who works for a contact center solutions vendor. He had twisted his ankle; he called up his doctor's office and then got the answering service. While the person at the other end was nice he couldn't even get an appointment set up. What help was that?

So that got me to thinking: could a standardized speech solution be developed for these professions and businesses? One that would deliver the same as or superior service while keeping costs--and bills--down?

And given how many of these professions and businesses with offices that are out there this could be the next speech rec killer app...

Here are some of the features this speech rec app could have:

--Customizable package scripting for each type of application (doctor, lawyer, contractor)

--Menu options including a link to an automated appointment scheduler application that would inform the caller the next available opening, and give that person the option of taking it, and if not the next one, and down the line

--Self-dispatch option with identifiers for existing customers, and intaking addresses for new customers, with the further choice of credit card prepayment or authorization

--Confirmation e-mails, texts, or automated voice messages

Now the one reason why I see this not being done to date is that speech rec apps are too expensive as currently delivered whether premises-based or hosted by outsourcers or developers for those businesses and offices who rely on answering services.

Yet if a savvy speech rec developer targets the communications providers (TDM, IP, wireless) that can offer these apps as a value-add to centralized voicemail, the market may be big enough to make the price affordable...with the added kicker of customer retention and increased lifetime customer value to the comm firms.

After all, if a client has contracted for a speech rec system, has customized it, and their customers are used to it, why change it?

This speech rec app could be killer in another way; it could do in those answering services that haven't made the transition to offering contact center services like customer care, which many of them did when voicemail pummeled their core message taking business.

How about it? Is this app in the realm of being doable? Is someone beta-ing one?

I'm all ears...

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]]> Call Center CRM E-Business answering service contact center speech rec telco voicemail speech recognition voicemail contact center answering services speech answering service calls automated 2008-07-24T14:06:45-05:00 IT Expo West--and IP--is Hot! http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/it-expo-west--and-ip--is-hot.asp 36924@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Forget about the economic cooldown: the IP solutions market is hot!

As proof, Rich Tehrani reports in his blog that over 90 percent of booth space at Internet Telephony Conference and Expo West (IT Expo) http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/, which is being held Sept.16-18 in Los Angeles is sold out.

http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/apple/itexpo-90-sold-out.html

Few other technologies have the ability to deliver both cost savings and quality service as the IP-enabled applications and tools, which now support nearly every facet of contact center operations: from routing to recording, to CRM, and to linking home-based agents.

If you are a contact center executive you will find a strong ROI from attending IT Expo even with higher airfares and gas costs, You will pick up insights from a great roster of speakers and from finding out firsthand about IP-enabled products and services from exhibitors.

What you will discover will help your operations grow customer bases and revenues and lower costs. For there is nothing like being at an event and a show to learn, network, and try out new ideas, make contacts, check out the latest solutions, and to find the answers that you are seeking.

If you are a solutions firm and have not yet made up your mind whether to exhibit I invite you to check out the value prop ASAP and sign up before the space is all sold out.

I've been covering and attending shows in this industry for nearly 13 years and it is rare that I've come across an event like this with such buzz. It goes to show that the future lies in developing and applying practical technologies like IP that can be profitably used throughout an entire organization.

IP is becoming part of our everyday existence. For example more and more people like myself have switched from TDM/PSTN to IP for our household wireline phones. The cable pipe that transmitted this blog entry is supporting one other computer, two phone lines and several e-mail, web, and SMS applications.

And as IP becomes the norm so will the need for solutions to run off it, thereby generating increasing demand for them from the best and brightest of our developers and entrepreneurs--whose products and services will be at IT Expo.

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]]> Call Center CRM VoIP contact center CRM IP IT Expo IP VoIP IT Expo contact centers CRM solutions 2008-07-21T17:05:43-05:00 A green contact center and CRM opportunity... http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/a-green-contact-center-and-crm-opportunity.asp 36912@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Want to 'drive' in more shoppers to your contact center and/or website? Get out the word that calling or going online saves gas (and saves the earth) compared with driving to the stores. Make sure you offer free shipping, and for added incentive, price your items less online or by phone.

The New York Times ran an excellent article July 19 on how high gas prices are turning in-store shoppers into virtual buyers. Partially as a result, online shopping is up, store shopping is down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/19/business/19shop.html?pagewanted=1&ref=technology

Along those lines consider making 'green' part of your CRM strategy where your top tier customers are enticed to come into the stores for truly personalized service, where they can check out the merchandise, and have it custom-fitted or built to their needs.

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]]> Call Center CRM E-Business call center contact center CRM e-commerce retail web commerce call center CRM contact center green strategies gas saving online 2008-07-21T13:19:09-05:00 The saga of Talisma's RR proposal http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/the-saga-of-talismas-rr-proposal.asp 36894@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ When companies want to influence public policy they generally do it behind the scenes, either one-on-one between execs and officials or through trade organizations, unless the matter is very important and directly impacts their economic interests.

So it is with surprise that last year that I discovered that CRM/contact center solutions vendor Talisma was involved, through its VP of Corporate and Channel marketing Jim O'Farrell, in an effort to save and revitalize a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad line on the east side of Lake Washington, on the west side of which is Seattle. Yes, this is Microsoft country...The rail line's last major customer was the Spirit of Washington wine/dine train.

BNSF had wanted to rip up the rail line and King County wanted to buy it to convert it to a bike trail that would not carry anywhere near the amount of commuters, nor could it accommodate those with packages, the aging, and the disabled and of course not carry freight.

Mr. O'Farrell partnered with rail advocacy group All Aboard Washington to make the case for this project, which was intended to relieve traffic congestion and reduce pollution from parallel I-405 by putting in self-propelled diesel-powered commuter trains and encouraging freight rail. Solutions that are especially timely given rising gas prices and greater awareness of the need to cut greenhouse gases.

http://www.allaboardwashington.org/cms/images/uploads/Green_Transportation_Now.pdf

I was interested and involved with this issue because at the time I was a director/VP of a Canadian transportation advocacy group, which supported retaining the rail line. I also used to live in the Seattle area.

I was not quite sure, however, of Talisma's motivation behind the project other than being a good corporate citizen as it isn't exactly a major employer in the region, at least not in comparison with others that need not be named. I could not identify any commercial interests (was Talisma interested in going into the rail and or rail-oriented property development business?) And my sources in Washington State tell me that there have been other parties interested in the rail line.

Then after months of activity, Mr. O'Farrell and Talisma went quiet. Then this May the company was acquired by nGenera.

So I contacted the firm's PR rep, Jessie Brumfiel, who told me that he left Talisma last December and she hadn't so far found anyone at nGenera who is familiar with the BNSF rail line project.

The BNSF rail line's future is still up in the air. Though it was later acquired by the Port of Seattle with the indication that passenger and freight rail service may be a possibility, King County still wants to rip it up for cyclists and walkers, but is being opposed by rail advocates and supporters including the Discovery Institute. Also Sound Transit, the region's transit agency may or may not be going to the polls this fall to get voter approval to finance a light rail line from downtown Seattle across Lake Washington to the eastside.

After writing a recent article on Seattle area transit funding (one of several over the past 17 years) my view is that the light rail extension, which was put on ice when voters defeated a similar ballot measure last year should be deferred and BNSF commuter rail should go ahead, along with an aggressive program to encourage teleworking.

http://www.metro-magazine.com/Article/Story/2008/07/Transit-Projects-Seek-Voter-Approval-for-Financial-Support.aspx

There has been no enthusiasm from elected officials for the light rail, which is also facing some 'interesting' technical questions, like how to build it on floating bridges which are the only practical means of crossing the lake; the plan is to fit it on one of two floating highway spans.

So where are you, Mr. O'Farrell, and what is your stance, nGenera?

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]]> Call Center CRM CRM nGenera Talisma nGenera Talisma Talisma talisma Washington seattle Seattle washington 2008-07-18T09:40:37-05:00 Convergys and Intervoice: Blurring The Lines? http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/convergys-and-intervoice-blurring-the-lines.asp 36875@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
Having worked for a teleservices firm as well as having covered/covering this industry I completely understand the rationale behind Convergys's acquisition of Intervoice. The app/platform firm provides a great and innovative set of solutions, a strong customer base, and revenues. There is also, as Reuters cites Oppenheimer analyst Shaul Eyal, 'marginal overlap of products and customers.'

This last rationale is key. To survive outsourcing firms need new revenue streams because the margins on providing contact center services, which have always been tight, are being corseted even further.

Increasingly sophisticated voice and web-enabled self-service solutions are eating away the low end of their business. At the same time more of the top end work from clients is going in-house to improve customer satisfaction, which one longtime contact center executive told me "is becoming the enterprises' only differentiator in the marketplace." Clients that once relied on outsourcers to have the latest and greatest technologies to support these calls are now bringing those tools in-house as well.

Outsourcing firms, therefore, "risk becoming nothing more than temp agencies" i.e. being there for overflow, the after-hours, the short-term, and the emergencies rather than as full fledged partners handling contacts on an equal basis.

There is nothing wrong with that, provided that's your business model. Answering services, which were the first teleservices outsourcers through answering after-hours calls for family doctors, and many of which have reinvented themselves as full-service contact centers in the wake of devastating competition from voicemail, have long operated on that basis.

Not surprisingly outsourcers have been buying/entering their way into app hosting, billing, HR, market research, and consulting markets. All of which makes sense because there are, when implemented right, strong synergies with their core contact center functions.

Yet is buying an app/platform firm, one whose type of product and services are no doubt used by other outsourcers, going a little too far? Isn't it blurring the lines between solutions and services? If I was responsible for technology with a teleservices firm I'd think twice about buying a product/service from a company owned by one of my biggest competitors.

I could be wrong here. But I could not help thinking what's next...Teleperformance buying Siemens???

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]]> Call Center CRM Convergys Intervoice outsource teleservices Convergys Intervoice contact center buying outsourcers services contact teleservices 2008-07-16T17:42:08-05:00 There's No Place Like Home For Contact Centers http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/theres-no-place-like-home-for-contact-centers.asp 36860@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ There really is no better place than home, and that goes for contact centers, defined as the functions they provide rather than the employer-provided physical spaces they occupy.

Home-based agents are where contact centers are going. They provide a high-quality, very productive, and loyal workforce that is less costly to support than agents working in traditional offices. Home agents dovetail into CRM strategies by handling the more complex calls--the simpler ones had been taken care of by self-service solutions--and by serving your best customers.

With gas prices rising, cutting into incomes, bringing the work to the employees rather than the other way around increases your ability to attract and retain sufficient numbers of staff to maintain and improve service levels, and results.

Home agents are also the greenest way to travel, exerting energy while walking to their desks rather than consuming it and emitting pollutants incurred while driving or riding mass transit.

And when disaster strikes--something to remember as we enter hurricane-and-tornado-season, not to mention the ongoing threat of terrorism--home agents can help keep operations going because they are dispersed rather than concentrated at vulnerable locations.

There are now a range of technologies that support and enable home-based agents. The coming of age of IP telephony have made call handling by them affordable, along with supporting monitoring and recording. E-Learning and audio/web conferencing make remote training doable. New solutions such as West's patent-pending remote security environment where West takes over its West at Home agents' computers when they are working provides data and system protection.

To learn more about home-based agents I invite you to register for and participate in a webinar on this topic that is taking place Wednesday July 16 at 2pm ET that is being sponsored by VoltDelta and Transera.

http://www.tmcnet.com/webinar/volt-delta2/volt-delta-webinar-agent-at-home-solutions-revolutionary-change-for-the-contact-center.htm

Listen to the presenters, make notes, and ask questions to help you get the answers that you need to decide whether, and how best, to bring your agents home.

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]]> Call Center CRM contact center CRM data security disaster response home-based agents IP technology telework contact center telework webinar home-based agents based agents contact centers agents rather contact based 2008-07-15T15:41:08-05:00 Credit Card Practices Hearing Today http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/e-business/credit-card-practices-hearing-today.asp 36017@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), who is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, plans to introduce legislation todasy to improve credit card billing, marketing, and disclosure practices (and, presumably, put a curb on predatory practices of the credit card industry). Dodd's Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (the C.A.R.D. Act) is, according to the Senator, aimed at "stopping abusive credit card practices that drag consumers into staggering amounts of debt, and too often harm, rather than help, the ability of American families to move up the economic ladder."

Dodd plans to speak with reporters about the legislation at a press conference today, where he will be joined by Senate colleagues and consumer advocates.

TES

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]]> E-Business credit practices 2008-04-30T10:34:06-05:00 Performance Management Stats http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/performance-management-stats.asp 36009@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Performance management works, is the message of a report commissioned by performance management provider Enkata. The study, conducted by Precision Marketing Group, found that organizations leveraging performance management solutions are able to markedly improve customer satisfaction, service delivery and agent retention.

Highlights from the survey:

* Organizations using performance management systems to pinpoint coaching topics and automate coaching best practices are able to expect 65 percent more coaching time from their supervisors than organizations without a PM system.
* More than 70 percent of the respondents plan to focus on initiatives to better measure and impact customer satisfaction.
* Large organizations are moving more to sales-service operations. Of companies managing more than 1,000 agents in their operations, 80 percent expect agents to sell as well as provide service.

For more information, visit www.enkata.com/2008survey.

TES]]>
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]]> Call Center CRM performance management management performance organizations percent service 2008-04-29T15:49:21-05:00 IP Fairy Dust http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/wireless/ip-fairy-dust.asp 35986@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
When connecting to the public telephone network in the U.S., many VoIP and wireless telephone companies are essentially "riding for free," since they are not transmitting sufficient identification information to allow the traditional carriers to charge them. Apparently, this is particularly hard on rural telephone companies, which make up to 29 percent of their revenue from inter-carrier compensation (carrying traffic for another company).

One such rural provider disdains the process. Ramond Henagan, General Manager of Missouri's Rock Port Telephone, stated that some VoIP providers have refused to pay access fees by saying the FCC has "given them permission to use the networks for free because they're IP," Henagan said. "You and I both know these are regular voice calls, people talking to people. Because these companies have sprinkled IP fairy dust on them, they think they get a free ride."

You don't read the phrase "IP fairy dust" every day, do you?

Read the full piece at http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2008/04/23/3405677.htm.

TES]]>
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]]> Wireless telephone companies fairy 2008-04-24T15:49:52-05:00 Investment Alternatives http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/e-business/investment-alternatives.asp 35973@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ I received this e-mail just today. It made me laugh, because it's utterly true:

If you had purchased $1,000.00 of Delta Air Lines stock a few years ago, you would have $49.00 left.

With Enron, you would have had $16.50 left of your original $1,000.00.

With WorldCom, you would have had less than $5.00 left.

But, if you had purchased $1,000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all of the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling REFUND, you would have had $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.
It's called the 401-Keg.

TES

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]]> E-Business 2008-04-23T10:38:35-05:00 A NICE Summit http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/a-nice-summit.asp 35956@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ NICE Systems today announced its "menu" of breakout sessions for its NICE User Group Summit, which will take place July 28, 29 and 30th at the El Conquistador resort in Puerto Rico.

The breakout sessions will be:

Solutions for the Top AND Bottom Line.
Innovations in Infrastructure, Architecture and Applications.
Hands on.
Business strategy round tables.

For more information, visit http://www.nice.com/summit/worldwide2008/agenda.php

TES
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]]> Call Center CRM summit 2008-04-21T13:54:13-05:00 Microsoft Dynamics Unleashed http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/microsoft-dynamics-unleashed.asp 35932@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Unleashed" that is being positioned as a start-to-finish guide for planning, customizing, deploying, integrating and managing Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

According to the publisher, the book presents clear examples, proven best practices, and pitfalls to avoid in using every significant Microsoft Dynamics CRM capability.

TES
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]]> Call Center CRM microsoft dynamics Microsoft microsoft dynamics Dynamics 2008-04-17T11:57:29-05:00 500 Call Center Jobs In Arkansas http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/500-call-center-jobs-in-arkansas.asp 35909@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Arkansas Democrat Gazette. The company has signed a lease to open a 55,000-square-foot facility on the site of a former grocery store. The new center, like other StarTek facilities, will be handling inbound customer calls mostly for clients in the telephone, cable and satellite industries.

TES]]>
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]]> Call Center CRM center arkansas Arkansas 2008-04-15T15:42:36-05:00 Hosted Speech in the Call Center http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/hosted-speech-in-the-call-center.asp 35886@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Speech automation solutions used to be something only very large and technically sophisticated companies could afford, mostly due to the significant up-front capital expenditures required to purchase, deploy, maintain and troubleshoot the required (and very complex) infrastructure. Today, however, hosted speech solutions are allowing contact centers of all size to deploy and enjoy the many benefits of speech automation with less implementation time and investment .

Tomorrow (Tuesday, April 15th), I'll be moderating a Webinar at 2:00 pm EST entitled, "Deploying Speech Automation Using A Hosted Solution" that will discuss how a hosted solution puts speech within the reach of even modest-size contact centers.

Join myself and presenters from VoltDelta and Envox for this important Webinar. To register, click here.

TES
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]]> Call Center CRM speech automation speech hosted Speech automation 2008-04-14T14:55:17-05:00 Black Holes On The Internet http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/e-business/black-holes-on-the-internet.asp 35869@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
Read the MSNBC article entitled, "Scientists discover black holes on the Internet".

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]]> E-Business black holes holes internet black holes internet Internet 2008-04-11T16:30:54-05:00 Italian Call Center Doldrums http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/italian-call-center-doldrums.asp 35857@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
The protagonist is a young woman cannot find a suitable job upon graduation from university, so she turns to a call center job. The job itself, apparently, acts as a motif for hopelessness: a dead-end job for a dead-end life.

Ouch.

The plot, and the young woman's predicament, is intended to underscore the difficulties of modern life and employment for young people in Italy.

A review and a commentary of the film can be found here in the International Herald Tribune.

TES

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]]> Call Center CRM young center 2008-04-10T15:39:28-05:00 The ATA's Washington Summit http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/the-atas-washington-summit.asp 35833@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
  • Unveiling of ATA's SRO Online Assessment Tool
  • The States on Consumer Protection
  • ATA and DMA - In Cooperation for Our Future
  • Road to the White House: The 2008 Election
  • The How-To's on Building a Powerful PAC
  • The ATA is M.A.D. (Making a Difference)
The important summit will take place April 27th to 30th at Hyatt Regency Crystal City. For more information, visit www.ataconnect.org/washington

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]]> Call Center CRM summit washington 2008-04-08T15:52:35-05:00 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/microsoft-dynamics-crm-online.asp 35791@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Dynamics CRM Live to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The move, which is affecting the name only, is an attempt to avoid confusion between the SaaS CRM solution and Microsoft's other "Live" named solutions.

"Whereas the Live brand is focused on consumers and small businesses, the Online brand is fully aligned with our existing Dynamics CRM strategy of delivering outstanding solutions for small businesses, midsized companies and large enterprises," wrote Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

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]]> Call Center CRM microsoft dynamics Microsoft microsoft dynamics Dynamics Online 2008-04-02T09:15:09-05:00 Eliminating CRM Pain http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/eliminating-crm-pain.asp 35783@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ Hopefully, you're not one of those companies that discovered the problems of early CRM implementations through experience (if you are, my apologies). CRM is a highly complex business strategy/principle/philosophy/religion, depending on how you look at it, that needs to be approached with respect.

Tomorrow, I'm moderating a Webinar called "CRM Integration Best Practices, Taking The Pain Out Of The Call Center," along with AMC Technology's VP of Marketing Paul Nussbaum. The Webinar starts at 2:00 pm EST time and will cover all the topics you need to know about properly integrating CRM into your organization.

Visit http://www.tmcnet.com/webinar/amc-technology/ to register. I look forward to seeing you there.

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]]> Call Center CRM webinar 2008-04-01T13:06:35-05:00 Ergonomics For Call Center http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/ergonomics-for-call-center.asp 35723@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
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.

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]]> Call Center CRM 2008-03-26T16:18:18-05:00 Canadian Call Center Strategies http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/canadian-call-center-strategies.asp 35694@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ 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."

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]]> Call Center CRM Canadian canadian business value center 2008-03-24T15:13:13-05:00 The End Of Customer Service http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/the-end-of-customer-service.asp 35665@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
Read "The End Of Customer Service" here.

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]]> Call Center CRM customer service service customer 2008-03-20T14:24:49-05:00 Arthur C. Clarke http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/wireless/arthur-c-clarke.asp 35659@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
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.

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]]> Wireless science fiction Clarke clarke orbit science fiction 2008-03-19T16:55:10-05:00 Call Center Industry Growth http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/call-center-industry-growth.asp 35632@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/
For specifics and a break-down of numbers, visit the summary on the company's Web site.]]>
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]]> Call Center CRM industry center global 2008-03-17T15:24:21-05:00 Canadian Call Center Shut-Down http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/canadian-call-center-shutdown.asp 35594@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ 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.

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]]> Call Center CRM center Canadian canadian 2008-03-13T15:34:08-05:00 Better-Than-Expected Teleservices Financials http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/betterthanexpected-teleservices-financials.asp 35583@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ 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."

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]]> Call Center CRM call center outsource services provider Sykes demand services 2008-03-12T15:21:14-05:00 Cable Company IVR Crimes http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/call-center-crm/cable-company-ivr-crimes.asp 35545@http://blog.tmcnet.com/call-center-crm/ 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 

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]]> Call Center CRM ASRNews cable company call center CTI IVR asrnews Comcast cable charter customers comcast 2008-03-10T09:30:26-05:00