Hosted call center solutions provider inContact has released an 'eBook' including a list of five IVR best practices, which they describe as "methods have been developed by call center experts with years of experience in the call center space." Here's a quick summary of the main points:
The IVR Road Map: One Internet service provider had big plans for their IVR. Instead of tackling everything at once, they prioritized what things could help them the most and tackled them one at a time. They started by implementing a simple IVR process that informed customers when there was an outage in their zip code. With that little piece of functionality, callers could quickly determine whether they simply needed to wait for a regional issue to be resolved or had a service issue that needed to be proactively addressed.
Keep it Simple: One inbound sales contact center tried to put their entire product inventory in their IVR system. They went to a lot of trouble, and actually got it working. However, after all that work, they discovered that the number of products and required IVR choices were very frustrating to callers. Without an agent to help, callers abandoned the effort and sales were lost.
Read more here.
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If you ever wondered what Ohio and Auckland, New Zealand have in common, other than the fact that neither one is in Morocco, here's your answer.
From Atlanta comes the news that Star2Billing, the commercial arm of A2Billing, and an open source Telecom Switch and Billing platform, has announced its fifth year anniversary in 2010.
And to celebrate, DIDX is offering all Star2Billing customers the option of special SIP DID of 1000 Ohio, USA DIDs and Auckland, New Zealand DID phone numbers.
So if you were looking for a way to make that crucial Cleveland-Auckland connection, well, this is your rather bizarrely-unexpected lucky day.
Read more here.
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Good news: Security really isn't your biggest concern for cloud computing anymore.
Bad news: There are four bigger concerns now.
But don't think security isn't a worry. No Jitter writes that cloud telephony and computing security can be divided into two parts or sets of assets - data and "processes, applications and functions."
The primary decision is to determine the risk associated with moving what functions to the cloud, No Jitter says, "security being a major consideration. For anyone considering moving functions to the cloud, the security issue will probably be the hardest to resolve."
But industry observer John Soat thinks security is probably about the fifth most compelling concern for cloud computing, actually. And the concerns more pressing than security aren't even all techie, he notes.
Performance comes in at #1 for Soat. "The recent problems with Twitter ("Fail Whale") and Steve Jobs' embarrassment at the network outage at the introduction of the new iPhone don't exactly impart warm fuzzy feelings about the Internet and network performance in general," he says. Indeed - as he says, an SLA can't guarantee performance; it can only punish bad performance.
Read more here.
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Graeme Foux, chief executive of Knexus, recently published a piece in the Financial Times noting that "Social CRM has emerged from the shifting balance of power between organizations and their customers."
He observed that "social networks, blogs and online communities have enabled people to connect easily and quickly with like-minded individuals and groups to share interests."
And Foux correctly diagnoses one effect of this: "The impact has been to cut organizations out of the loop, losing control of the customer relationship. Consumers have tasted freedom to connect, share and talk, benefiting from more timely, relevant and trusted interactions."
In other words, customers can now get together on their own. This sends chills down the spines of certain firms. As it probably well should.
Blogger Lauren from Radian6, identifies another critical function of social CRM - revitalizing your customers.
Read more here.
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Banned schmanned - Skype continues to "see growth opportunities in the Middle East" despite being banned in parts of the area, and thinks things are rosy in Asia overall.
"There are a couple of governments that officially banned Skype...but what we see in most of the developing world (is that) they are embracing Skype," Chief Executive Officer Josh Silverman told Dow Jones Newswires. "I would say we see growth in the Middle East in general."
Currently, Skype cannot be downloaded in Oman, the UAE and Kuwait, although the software can be used if it is previously installed on a computer, Dow Jones says. This, of course, is to force people to use the usually grossly-overpriced existing licensed (government revenue cash cow) telecom operators.
Channel News Asia reported that Skype "intends to have its Internet voice call software preloaded on 100 million personal computers in 2011." Silverman said the company has partnered Asian manufacturers to have the Skype software installed, Channel News Asia says.
Read more here.
