The Contact Center Solutions Community once again this week showed the breadth and depth of why contact centers continue to grow in importance to enterprises and service providers around the world.
It seems an appropriate place to start with what I would characterize as host appreciation. Interactive Intelligence, as promised a few weeks ago when it released preliminary financial results, had not just a good quarter, but a good year, and is a trend setter in terms of how its business is shifting to the cloud.
The shift is giving the company significant market lift. Cloud-based orders for the fourth quarter were up 311 percent year-over-year, and 2012 cloud-based orders were up 123 percent year-over-year. The company also announced that it has recently named Avtex as its 2013 Platinum Elite Partner.
News
There are a few interesting categories for the rest of the industry news. In the first, two items regarding adding mobility to the mix for multichannel contact centers is not just about improving the customer experience by having them reach you, but as SoundBite’s use of the technology in the collections business, it is also about you getting better engagement and responses with out-reach programs. Plus, a study done for Amdocs by research firm Coleman Parkes, aimed at finding out more about the link between proactive care tools, customer satisfaction and call center traffic, found that customers do like well-designed mobile apps that facilitate self-service and let you talk with an agent when you desire.
In the area of customer interest and product announcements there was a flurry of activity. First the customer interest:
On the product side of things:
As has been the case for several weeks, the community also was not short of insights and advice. The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority contracted with Veolia Water North America to take over its management for one year. One aspect of the agency's business that has seen significant improvement has been customer service, and there are lessons to be learned here.
Also, you should pay attention to the latest research from Oracle conducted in conjunction with research company O'Keeffe & Company. It found that brands today may be losing up to 20 percent of revenue due to poor customer experiences. The study, "Global Insights on Succeeding in the Customer Experience Era," interviewed 1,342 senior-level executives from 18 countries in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
Weekend and snow storm reading suggestions
If you missed it, there’s no need to worry; you can download the archived version of the webinar, Key Contact Center Trends and Priorities for the Upcoming Year – How you can be ready. Please also avail yourself of all of the rich resources on the community which include a variety of extremely valuable white papers, demos, videos, etc., and review our affiliated channels — Accounts Receivable Management, Business Process Automation, CaaS, Cloud-based Contact Centers and Insurance Technology.