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CRM + BPM: Raising the Customer Experience Bar October 16, 2009 
For decades, organizations have been dealing with the challenges of driving more effective customer service. Traditional CRM solutions have focused on presenting consolidated customer information, but they still rely heavily on employees to resolve customer issues. This means that the customer's experience can vary greatly depending on the manual processes and efficiency of the staff at any given organization.
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Employee-Customer-Employee: Closing the Feedback Loop October 09, 2009 
Organizations with the most loyal customers not only measure and monitor employee interactions with customers, but also share that feedback with employees. This creates a closed-feedback loop that allows customer-facing staff members to understand the impact of their interactions on customers, enabling them to improve those interactions over time.
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At Home in the Virtual Office September 10, 2009 
Today's volatile economy is pushing more companies to consider the merits of a virtual workplace for some or all of their employees. Often, however, the idea fails to go anywhere because neither managers nor their workers are sure how to get started. Also, attitudes among some old-school managers pose hurdles that block workers from pursuing virtual workplace opportunities.
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Beyond CRM: 5 Steps to Outfox Your Competitors September 03, 2009 
Imagine this all-too-common scenario: A customer needs to add a new line to his cellphone plan. He's had a number of reception and phone issues, and he will stay with his current company only if offered a very good deal. However, the agent -- unaware of the prolonged dissatisfaction and insensitive to the customer's tone -- suggests an expensive upgrade plan and rushes the customer to some type of decision.
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Assuring Quality in the Language E-Commerce Customers Speak August 27, 2009 
The last 10 years has brought sea changes to the customer service industry from both operations and technology standpoints. Organizations have moved away from traditional domestic live phone support toward new technologies and business models such as interactive voice response, intelligent scripting and offshoring.
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Don't Trade Customer Satisfaction for Call Center Efficiency July 24, 2009 
Increasing contact center efficiency has always been a clear path to cutting costs, regardless of economic conditions. Increasing productivity and doing more with existing resources are now more important than ever, but cutting call center costs does not have to result in poorer customer service.
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Toiling Away in 'White-Collar Sweatshops' - aka Call Centers June 09, 2009 
Sarah Betesh's career in customer service began in box office call centers at venues such as the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. She moved on to Tickets.com and
Vertical Alliance, at one point becoming a call center manager. However, in spite of her success, Betesh left her call center career behind in 2003.
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Outsource or Keep It Home? Have It Your Way: Q&A With Alpine Access CEO Chris Carrington June 08, 2009 
Not that long ago, the outsourcing of customer service to home-based agents was a small niche category, viewed as not quite on par with a bricks-and-mortar call center operation. For a number of reasons, that perception is changing -- starting with the lower costs involved and ending with the growing number of quality providers that have highly qualified staffs on hand.
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Outsource Your Processes, Keep Your Customers May 08, 2009 
Driven by the housing market landslide and seizure of the global credit markets, economies the world over have slipped into retrenchment and recession. Many organizations are tightening capital and expense budgets, closing locations, shortening hours or reducing staff. Still others are tempted to reduce the level of service and support they extend to customers.
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Moving as Fast as We Can: Q&A With inContact CEO Paul Jarman April 06, 2009 
Right now, about 2 percent of the contact center infrastructure market uses Software as a Service, said inContact CEO Paul Jarman, citing research by Gartner. That statistic seems reasonable, given that the contact center infrastructure space has traditionally been dominated by on-premise players -- but Jarman hopes to change that.
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Acquiring Outsourcing Companies: Not for the Squeamish February 24, 2009 
Shrinking client pools, lack of access to credit and competition from offshore destinations are squeezing some business process outsourcing service providers in the United States. With declining revenues come cheaper valuations. This creates opportunities for other entrepreneurs seeking to expand their outsourcing business quickly through acquisitions.
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We're Hiring: Q&A With Alpine CEO Christopher Carrington February 05, 2009 
The home-agent contact center model has undergone a metamorphosis in the last few years. A few short years ago, it was the refuge of small companies that couldn't afford to outsource operations to typical brick-and-mortar contact centers, said Alpine CEO Christopher Carrington. However, larger companies are increasingly drawn to the model.
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Best Practices in the Call Center: Make Every Contact Count January 23, 2009 
It's no secret that customers aren't buying much these days. The economic engines have locked and stalled, leaving businesses everywhere in freefall. While companies around the globe are jettisoning anything they can to slow the descent, none are ditching CRM. In fact, CRM may be the last remaining parachute: a fact realized during earlier turbulence.
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Emergency Communications Systems: 5 Do's and 5 Don'ts November 18, 2008 
What mistakes will cause emergency communication systems to undergo excessive stress or possibly fail in a disaster, and what steps should be taken to improve performance? One of the biggest challenges for emergency communication centers is the wide range of situations that require responses.
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Voiceprinting: Victrio's Fraud-Fighting Watchdog November 13, 2008 
Credit card fraudsters beware: Victrio might be tracking you. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company recently released a new system aimed at identifying, analyzing and storing the voiceprints of identity thieves. "We're building a nationwide database of bad guys' voiceprints," said Victrio's founder and CEO, Tony Rajakumar.
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Customer Chat Tricks of the Trade October 27, 2008 
Sure, Web-based chat applications on your site represent a leap in customer service and sales technology. But let's not forget that the brick-and-mortar standards still apply. If an end user is comfortable and finds your online rep trustworthy and predictive of his or her needs, the opportunities increase exponentially.
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