Interesting comments from Monica Norton recently on Salesforce.com’s Chatter Blog. She starts off with something she heard at the recent Confab content strategy conference: “Social media is not a strategy. It’s a tactic.”
If you had the same reaction she did, you think that sounds “obvious.” I mean, does your company sit around scheming about how to dominate social media, or planning how social media can fit in with your existing mission statement?
Fine so far. But Norton took it one step further, thinking about “the resistance to social media that many companies have.” This isn’t the “I don’t want anybody Facebooking on company time” deal, Norton’s talking about companies that avoid using Facebook, Twitter, and “even made-for-the-corporate-world social tools” as part of their overall business strategy.
Are the resisters right? Norton can see that they might could just possibly sort of have, you know, a point -- “maybe it’s just that no one has presented social media as a legitimate tactic to support their specific business goals. Dabbling in social media just because it’s there isn’t smart.”
Read more here.
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A recent blog post at EliteTele.com notes that with the advancement of Interactive Voice Response “at such a rate that small companies have grown into huge organizations,” the technology can be used worldwide.
One reason is because it does a good job spotting fraud. Police use it. The military uses it. As the blog post observes, “the successful elements behind IVR have become such an essential part of everyday activity that it has gone from being a mere application to boost productivity but a key factor in identifying fraudulent activity.”
Many businesses use biometrics such as fingerprinting and eye scans for identity checks, but at least as effective as these, and maybe more so when considering cost and time effectiveness, is voice recognition of the type that works well with IVR.
Look, when you buy something nowadays it’s more likely you’re buying over the phone or online, and eye scans or fingerprints aren’t exactly the most effective way of establishing identity in that situation, are they? But with an IVR system using voice recognition, as the blog post says, “not only does your business gain enhanced security but also cuts costs in workforce – saving time and money for both parties.”
Read more here.
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Ready for a radical alternation in the economics of call center technology? If a recent white paper from LiveVox, titled “The Cost Efficiency of Cloud” -- you’re liking it already -- is right, there’s a technology that will tilt things in favor of the buyer and “lead to broader adoption of cloud contact tools.”
Contact centers and telecom carriers are already moving in that direction, heading towards IP infrastructure, the paper says, ticking off such names as Verizon, Global Crossing and XO Communications who have already adopted Multi-Layer Protocol Label Switching to transport voice and data.
What MPLS does, basically, is send voice and data along the same secure, virtual pipe -- a much more cost-efficient way to contact customers than through the Public Switch Telephone Network.
In fact, the paper estimates that combining IP/MPLS with cloud contact technology “can lead to cost efficiency up to 50 percent compared to traditional call center hardware.”
Would cutting your costs 50 percent qualify as changing the game for you?
Read more here.
