11 January 2010 | Author:
The Ultimate Weapon Enhanced
20 years after the landmark book, Total Customer Service: The Ultimate Weapon, The 6 Laws of Customer Experience add new competitive weapons to the arsenal. More
Blog: Avaya Insights
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Posts by Category: Contact Centers
22 December 2009 | Author:
Inbound Interaction Management (IIM)
It’s no surprise that Direct Marketing response rates have dropped to a historic low with success rates in the low single digits. And further - that marketing organizations are becoming increasingly focused on Inbound Marketing (credit HubSpot for creating this term) which are a source of much higher response rates.More
12 November 2009 | Author:
Conquering the Hassle Quotient with Superior Customer Experiences
As a customer, I have found exceptional customer service experiences rare. One recent exception was an experience that redefined the company that I was doing business with in my eyes. They went from being a generic source of inexpensive consumer electronics to a company that has gained my loyalty. More
3 November 2009 | Author:
The Tipping Point and Your Contact Center
Back in the year 2000, Malcolm Gladwell published his landmark book called The Tipping Point. And little did he know 9 years later he would have set the stage for how many Contact Centers handle Social Media?More
23 October 2009 | Author:
SIP Carry-on: announcing on-time arrival of CTI data
Imagine checking in at an airline counter and the agent tells you that you’re prohibited from taking your bags, your wallet or any form of identification with you on the flight. All of those items must be checked at the counter and they will fly separately.More
6 October 2009 | Author:
A Reason to Beat Competitive Swords into Plowshares
Recently I had the great honor to work with a team of experts brought together to work on a problem that has an effect on anyone who owns, works for or does business with an enterprise-style organization. It was one of those all-too-rare opportunities to step out of the competitive posture and work with experts representing companies—both competitors and partners, on a problem the impacts many. More
25 August 2009 | Author:
Using Social Media to Deepen Customer Relations
An obvious win for companies looking to jump into Social Media is in the Customer Support area. As more and more customers voice their opinions online, the choice is not if you should be responding using Social Media, but when are you going to start responding. More
24 July 2009 | Author:
Answering the Call: Simplifying the Contact Centre for SMBs.
It is often said that a revolution now and then is not such a bad thing, to which many would reply; if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it. As a Libran, I can see the merits for both arguments (or is that each argument?). That’s how it was when it came time to take a fresh look at delivering a contact centre* solution for the popular (the marketing department tell me over 150,000 systems and counting) IP Office platform – Avaya’s global SMB offering.More
16 June 2009 | Author:
Social Network based Call Center Routing
Ok, let’s say you are searching the web for a new fishing rod. You find the right website but you are having trouble locating the right rod and reel combination. Frustrated you consider giving up but give it one last shot and decide to call the 800 number on the site. And instead of getting the usual IVR tree – you are prompted for your Facebook id. More
12 May 2009 | Author:
The Times they are a-Changing. And so is the Contact Centre.
It’s only when you get to engage directly with customers that you get to see first hand the effects that the current global economic situation is having on their businesses. A couple of weeks ago I met with the contact centre senior management team of a large financial services company. With financial services businesses hit hard in the last year I was interested in hearing how business had change and particularly how that had effected their contact centre operations. Changing call mix It turns out that this multimedia contact centre had experienced large changes in type of contact and the...More
31 March 2009 | Author:
What can you do with 47 seconds?
What if you can predict the future? How do you determine that a particular customer will remain in queue for 47 seconds? During their time in queue, do you play music or do you offer productive options? If you have enough information, why not complete 60% of the agent transaction during the hold time? Maybe you only have 20 seconds, why not offer them an option to enable automated SMS notifications of their billing statement? More
30 March 2009 | Author:
The Evolving Contact Center Architecture
So many things in our daily world have been changed by technology, and mostly for the positive. Advancements in radio technologies paved the way for the mobile telephone; research in compression technologies helped usher VoIP to our desktops and ultimately laptops; and now we have combined the best of each of these on the supercomputers we each carry in our pocket – the smart phone. "Why does this matter for the contact center?" you ask. More
24 September 2008 | Author:
Customer Experience in the Age of Engagement
Chatting to a few colleagues over coffee, we all agreed that the next competitive battleground for customers’ hearts and minds is going to be around customer experience.
Because of the internet and advances in product development processes, companies have become less able to differentiate themselves over the long term with unique products and access to specialised supply chains.More
2 July 2008 | Author:
The Power of Communications-Enabled Service
Relaxing on vacation in Spain a few months ago, I was struck by the way exceptional customer service still has the power to "Wow!" the customer. Now, this wow factor wasn't anything to do with the service provided by the hotel staff, although this was faultless, it had to do with the activities of an organisation based thousands of miles away, in a different time zone, in a different land.More