Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

Welcome to the first edition of the ContactCenterSolutions Contact Center Week in Review for 2008.

 

To start the year off, contact center-related news of new location openings and study findings made the top of this weeks headlines.

Comcast announced this week its plans for a new 92,000 square foot, 500 seat customer call center in Largo, Md.

Comcast has other regional facilities in Rockville, Md.; Silver Spring, Md.; Washington, DC and Manassas, Va.

The new Largo center will house customer service agents offering technical support for Comcast's High-Speed Internet and Digital Voice customers and will include an exercise center, auditorium, break rooms, training/meeting facilities and on-site parking.

“2007 was a milestone year for Comcast, and we are already gearing up for growth in 2008 across every product and service we offer,” commented Curt Pendleton, regional senior vice president for Comcast's Potomac Region. “Our new Largo call center will help us deliver an improved customer experience and we will be recruiting across the Region to expand our team with employees who share a passion for delivering great customer service.”

Also this week, outsourced contact center provider Convergys announced they will open a new call center facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

 

The call center, which will be Convergys second operation in New Mexico, is expected to operate seven days a week and will employ 500 employees in 2008.

 

The hourly wage range is expected to begin at approximately $9.50 to $12 per hour based on contact center experience

"We look forward to working with the city of Las Cruces and our community partners for the quick start-up time we need to meet the expanding needs of our global customer care client," said Marty DeGhetto, senior vice president of operations for Convergys.

 

And with the holidays now behind us, ContactCenterSolutions's Susan Campbell noted the ease call centers can find in the holiday load if they employ home-based agents in THIS ContactCenterSolutions article.

 

In the article Campbell notes how important it is for the contact center industry to pay attention to customer experience following the holidays

 

"This importance therefore increases the pressure that is put on these call centers and employees. In the retail sector, customer service demand is critical and during the Christmas season, more than 40 percent of annual turnover occurs in a matter of weeks."

 

"By implementing a home-based agent model, the call center can benefit from using an additional resource to assist with operations as required in real-time and operating as part of a Virtual Contact Center (VCC)."

 

On the topic of customer experiences, it looks as though "Customer Satisfaction Levels Are Once Again Down". According report from Dimension Data drops in first call resolution, customer satisfaction non phone interactions and other areas occurred this year.

 

For more details on the findings of The Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report Check out this ContactCenterSolutions article.

 

In more contact center-related news, Metro One, a provider of inbound and outbound contact center services and other telecom services, announced this week that they entered into multiple reseller agreements for directory assistance and contact center services to corporate enterprises and telecom service providers.

"We are committed to identifying new business opportunities and are especially excited about the potential level of new business our partners may provide. These partners bring to us regional and national coverage. Our suite of services combined with our partners' own service offerings provide each of us mutual benefits. For our partners, it allows them to reach beyond the traditional directory assistance footprint,” said Gary Henry, President and Chief Executive Officer of Metro One, in a Thursday statement.

That’s all for this week's contact center-related news highlights. As always, be sure to check back with ContactCenterSolutions for all the latest in contact center news as it happens.