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Contact Center Solutions Week in Review

This week the Contact Center Solutions community literally had a bit of everything – from new releases to customer implementations, recognition, subject matter insights and even a few novelty stories. That said, it was no novelty that community host Interactive Intelligence was given prestigious placement by Garter, which put the company in its prized Leaders Quadrant for contact center infrastructure for 2013. 

Recognition also works both ways as witnessed by the company’s Innovator Award that identifies the customer that demonstrates the most unique and forward-thinking application of the vendor's all-in-one IP communications software suite. This year it is Veterans United Home Loans which received the Innovator Award for large-scale cloud communications deployment and customized apps that result in streamlined operations, increased reliability, and improved customer service.

In the new products and solutions area, Headsets.com announced the release of DeskMate HSC 230 and DeskMate HSC 260 to address the cradling and comfort issues. The headset innovation area was also represented with the announcement by Sennheiser of its PRESENCE Mobile Series, which includes HD voice clarity. You also might wish to read about the release by SecureBuy of what it is calling a disruptive payment fraud solution for contact centers. 

In what for lack of a better term is the business of the business, news included:

• PlayVox signed a partnership agreement with the Colombian Association of Contact Centers and BPO to enable Colombian Contact Center service providers who are part of the association to adopt the best talent management practices through the PlayVox platform.
• Altitude Software, a provider of unified customer interaction products, and Teligent, a telecommunications solutions company, recently partnered up to bring Altitude Software's solutions into the Russian market via Teligent. 
• Scottish Friendly Assurance, a U.K.-based financial services company, has augmented its online customer service offering by launching a Web self-service and live chat solution with the help of Synthetix, a provider of multi-channel customer service software. 
• Ford dealerships have found that their On-Demand Agent Program is boosting response rates.

Industry recognition came in the form of: IVR vendor Verint System being awarded Asia Pacific Contact Center Applications Vendor of 2013 by Frost and Sullivan, and DHL Express Qatar won two awards at the EMEA Contact Center World 2013 conference. The company won the silver awards for 'Best Customer Service EMEA 2013 (less than 50 seats)' and 'Best Call Center in EMEA 2013 (less than 50 seats).' 

Insights and advice came from various quarters:

• Mindshare Technologies, which analyzes customer feedback, provides five tips on what to look for to really get the voice of the customer. 
• Aspect's CEO Stewart Bloom while in the Philippines said he has noticed a "big shift" in the contact center industry - one where "the landscape has gone from numbers to quality service."
• RnR Market Research has a new report out forecasting North America and APAC Social CRM growth.  
• There was advice in the Dimension Data Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report on how to transform your business with value-based outsourcing.

As noted at the top there was an eclectic collection of news that did not fit into any category. This included my colleague ContactCenterSolutions Rachael Ramsey’s interview with Covington Creative, itelligence and SAP at the recently concluded Call Center Week in Las Vegas on the challenges their collaboration is working on to help face today’s complex contact center challenges.

And, while I hate to conclude with not so good news, it is hard to ignore the last three items. 

• A recent report published by the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has uncovered some troubling mismanagement in the Veteran Employment Services Offices (VESO) regarding the group's use of call centers.  
• In a case of what might be worst practices, it turns out that interactions with Britain's Tax Authority are the No. 1 cause of British phone rage.
• Customer satisfaction related to e-business including portals and search engines, social media, and online news and information websites is the lowest it has been since 2003. This is according to a report by experience analytics firm ForeSee.

Weekend reading  

On a more cheery note, if you have some spare time this weekend check out the community resources. They are constantly being updated, with videos, white papers, access to demos etc. Plus, you might wish to save the date for Interactive Intelligence’s webinar on August 13, Delivering Social Customer Service – More than Just Having a Presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, “Customer Experience, Trends, and Staff Planning.”  

Finally, for more detail on areas of specific interest our affiliated channels — Accounts Receivable Management, Business Process Automation, CaaS, Cloud-based Contact Centers and Insurance Technology — are great places to visit.