A recent appliance deployment video production from NEI explained how system integration and a dedicated partner can help maximize uptime and enhance customer service worldwide.
Technology vendors spend countless hours planning both their products and the appliance deployment strategies companies can take, said Jeff Hudgins, NEI Vice President of Marketing, in the video, including how to get their products to market, but “often overlook the importance of a comprehensive support and maintenance program.”
Of course, it’s not news to anybody that customer support is a key component of customer loyalty, and that customer loyalty is the goal, as it’s much cheaper to keep a current customer than it is to gain a new one. As Hudgins correctly notes, “failure to quickly and effectively resolve customer support issues will erode the brand you worked so hard to create.”
Read more here.
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Leonard Klie has written a hugely useful, detailed overview of ten practical steps you can take to rearchitect an underperforming contact center. It’s worth careful study by anybody contemplating such an undertaking.
Briefly summarized, the points Klie covers in (much) greater depth include:
Start with the staff. Happy employees lead to happier customers, but the work in a contact center is often viewed as being "a small step above convenience store clerk," according to Paul Stockford, chief analyst at Saddletree Research. It takes a special type of person to work and thrive in that kind of environment, and too often the agents that companies hire are not the right matches for the required work.
Try exposing potential employees to the contact center environment, painting a realistic picture, and letting them know what they can expect well before hiring them, and use performance management tools to track the success of the people who are ultimately hired, identify common traits among them, and recycle those characteristics back into the hiring.
Incent with a purpose. You're not going to make people care about you just because you gave them a little more money. Instead, provide agents with a clear career path and mobility and reward them for meeting or exceeding performance metrics.
Read more here.
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Often small and medium-sized businesses have trouble finding unified messaging products catering specifically to their situation. If you find yourself in that situation, you might want to take a look at OpenScape Office MX, offered through SoTel Systems reseller program.
Especially if, like most SMBs, you don’t have elaborate IT departments and like easy-to-install and maintain equipment.
As company officials say, yeah, it’s generally the case that open communication tools have been the preserve of big businesses. Resellers or distributors had no other recourse but to offer what amounted to bolt-on apps or traditional PBXes with only basic features and functions.
But now Siemens Enterprise Communications is featuring OpenScape Office MX, which company officials say is a native IP communications product with Internet voice technology designed and priced specifically for small and medium enterprises.
Read more here.
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If you were looking for a sector of the economy not as affected by the Christmas season as, say, toy stores, take a look at b2b marketing.
In fact, not only does the Christmas season have markedly less of an impact on b2b marketers, according to Sara Ezrin, senior director-strategic services at Experian CheetahMail, some choose to even ignore it.
Bah humbug, indeed. Scrooge would be proud.
Industry observer Karen J. Bannan spoke with Ezrin, writing that for b2b marketers, ignoring or downplaying the Christmas season could be a mistake. “It should be a time to put themselves in their customers' shoes and think about how, as a business, you can help them meet their end-of-year business goals,” Ezrin told Bannan, adding that “the holidays are a good time to engage with customers whether you are b2b or b-to-c.”
Read more here.
