TMCnet Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

As part of the Labor Day holiday celebration we thought we’d give you a slight jump on your review of the past week’s events relating to contact center solutions. I’d like to start with a pitch for two articles I contributed which are thought pieces on how we use language in marketing the industry. 

In the first one, Customer Experience, Contact Center Solutions and the Move to 'Constant Personal Attention', I do a little trend spotting. In fact, I am seeking your help in socializing the term “Constant Personal Attention," which I believe is a great way to look at the future of customer interactions and what the next phase of contact center solution transformation may entail.  

In the second, Thinking About How We Talk About the Customer Experience, my focus was on the fact that the industry needs to enhance the way it talks about “improving the customer experience,” because too often we overlook the importance of internal employees needs as being customers as well whom if not cared and fed properly cannot succeed in making interactions with external users compelling.  

News

Interestingly, the news had some items about trends that are worthy of note:

• TMCnet Contributor Tracey Schelmetic had a fascinating item on how the trend that involves call center re-shoring, is picking up steam. In a twist on the past, Indian call center outsourcing companies are bringing jobs to the U.S.
• Ms. Schelmetic also looked at the fact that the area around Kansas City, Missouri is rapidly becoming a contact center hub for a variety of important reasons including its central location, reasonable labor costs and available tool of skilled individuals.  

While not precisely trends, two items pointing out the intrinsic value of contact centers to average citizens, particularly in times of emergency. As might be expected, even prior to the landfall of Hurricane Isaac, contact centers in the states with significant exposure on the Gulf of Mexico were being flooded (please excuse the pun) with calls on what to do to get ready for the storm.    Assisting citizens was also the focus of an item on how SAP is tailoring what it calls “Citizen Contact Centers” for its government agency CRM customers —a large an influential market segment — to mimic the full functionality and experience they have with enterprises.

As with last week expansion was front and center this week.

• Credit Union of America, thanks to Interactive Intelligence, expanded its contact center and enhanced the capabilities it is able to offer its customers.
• Interactive Intelligence opened its new office in Rivonia, Johannesburg. 
• With the backing of local community leaders and the Alabama legislature, Walgreens rolled out plans for a $3.5 million expansion of its customer care center in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. 
• The conjunction of addiction care and call centers was highlighted in a recent move by the Miramar Health Center in Laguna Beach, Cali. to use call centers to assist with patient care.

There was also quite a bit of activity in terms of new solutions.

• Interactive Intelligence released an update of its IPA applications.
• Jack Henry & Associates announced the new jhaCall Center, a comprehensive telephone support and customer service solution aimed at financial institutions. 
• Eloqua (News - Alert), a provider of on-demand revenue performance management solutions, is ready to deploy LiveOps Platform, an advanced cloud customer interaction management solution developed by LiveOps, Inc. for its contact center.
• Noble Systems (News - Alert) released Noble Web Reports, a tool designed to free managers and supervisors from their desks and get them back on the floor where they can manage more effectively.
• Indosoft (News - Alert) revealed its capacity to set up themes within its call center software, known as Q-suite 5.7, to promote brand exclusivity. Call centers and channel associates can now utilize this feature of Q-Suite 5.7 to brand and integrate multi-tenant services at client levels.
• A new research brief from Saddletree Research cited Nexidia’s (News - Alert) speech and text analytics solution as a driver in contact center transformation. 

Finally on in the news came the announcement that the Interactive Intelligence Foundation is hosting its second annual dinner-auction gala in a bid to raise funds for charities that help improve the lives of at-risk youth. The primary mission of the Foundation is to use available resources and funding to foster life improvements for at-risk youth, and is representative of a number of initiatives at Interactive Intelligence that give back to the community. It demonstrates that companies can do well by doing good. 

Weekend browsing  

As always, if you have time this holiday, be sure to investigate everything the community has to offer, and check out the latest news on the community’s affiliated channels — Accounts Receivable Management, Business Process Automation, CaaS, Cloud-based Contact Centers and Insurance Technology. 

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.