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ContactCenterSolutions Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

While there were quite a few industry developments this week in the Contact Center Solutions Community, studies and advice are places where attention over the weekend would be worth a read.

For example, I was intrigued by a new PwC report which advised that disruption in software sales models is creating urgency for software vendors to retool the customer experience. This goes not just for how ISV customers have their licenses managed, but also to how the software itself is developed to be more focused on how the customers use the software. There is good advice in here that is very relevant to contact centers. 

Another study of note was one done by American Express which found in a global survey that 55 percent of consumers who intended to make a purchase changed their minds and abandoned the buy because of poor customer service.   And, if that were not enough, these other reports are food for thought:

• The YouGov survey of 2,000 U.K. consumers found that 65 percent of them have experienced poor customer service online - either a matter of little effort on the part of the vendor or even downright rudeness -- with nearly as many of those (64 percent) stating they would not return to shop with a company that offered poor service. 
• ContactCenterSolutions Special Guest Corey Tolmasoff, Versadial Solutions Call Recording in commenting on the Amex report also cited the Parature Customer Service Blog which noted that poor customer service costs American Businesses $83 billion dollars a year in lost profits. The stats get even more sobering as you examine the devastating impact which poor customer service can have on your business, and that the RightNow Customer Experience Impact Report of 2011 revealed that 89 percent of consumers have done business with a competitor after a bad customer service experience. It also found that 86 percent of consumers were willing to pay more for a better customer service experience.

Community host Interactive Intelligence weighed in the advice area as well. ContactCenterSolutions Special GuestShaheen Haque, Territory Manager, Middle East & Turkey provided a checklist for CIOs so they can reap the full benefits of cloud-based contact center solutions. Interactive Intelligence also provided information on how to listen to its Interactive Intelligence to its discussion of Q1 2012 financial results which is always a good way to get a handle on industry health and contact center solutions cloud adoption. And, speaking of contact centers moving to the cloud, the company will be sponsoring what is shaping up as a terrific webinar, “Making the Business Case for Moving Your Contact Center to the Cloud” on April 30.

The industry showed no signs of innovation slackening. KANA debuted its Omni-Channel Customer Service Suiteworkforce optimization (WFO) suite. And, Globe Telecom launched two Lithium social customer experience platforms in the Philippines. . CallCopy launched a monthly subscription service to access its full-featured cc: Discover

In other industry news:

• Florida-based Inktel Contact Center Solutions, a provider of outsourced contact center solutions, will become the first partner to become the recipient of MonkeyMedia Software's MMS Catering Institute Industry Affiliation Program. 
• BenchmarkPortal is a company to become familiar with since is the world's largest database of contact center metrics. 

Finally I would like to recommend my colleague Tracey Schelmetic’s fine piece on how improperly stored call recordings are posing a huge security risk for contact centers.

Weekend reading  

Webinars are a great way to stay current and not only should you participate in the forthcoming one from Interactive Intelligence cited above, but also I continue to recommend the webinar, Key Contact Center Trends and Priorities for the Upcoming Year – How you can be ready. Plus, if you have not checked out all of the wonderful community resources you should. For example, click on the link that lets you take a test drive of the cloud. The recent “Ask the Experts” section has nice item on workforce optimization, and there are a wealth of white papers, demos, videos, etc.  And, for more information about areas of  interest, our affiliated channels — Accounts Receivable Management, Business Process Automation, CaaS, Cloud-based Contact Centers and Insurance Technology which are great places to visit as well.