Voice of the Customer

Customer Service Cheers and Jeers

Moderated by: Elaine Cascio, Vanguard Communications

Jeers to FedEx who left my urgent overnight package at the bottom of the drop box and then asked “What do you want us to do with it?”

Cheers to Southwest Airlines who held the last connecting flight out of Midway for me – and the passengers who cheered when we boarded.

Jeers to Encantado Resort’s Terra restaurant in Sante Fe where our reservation was wrong, we were ignored by the bar staff, the table was wobbly, the frito misto was ice cold, and an umbrella blocked our view of the sunset.  And not a word of apology from the management.

Cheers to the jewelry designer who remembered my name despite four years between purchases.

And a questionable customer service award to Hyatt Place, which dresses employees in shades of rust and brown polyester in styles that are beyond matronly.  Think about making your employees look bright and current – it’ll make them, and your guests, feel so much better!

Nortel - Should It Stay or Should It Go?

Moderated by: Jason Alley, Vanguard Communications

According to a recent InformationWeek article, Nortel Intensifies Business Unit Breakup, that is the question Nortel executives are asking about different business units as they navigate through a dark chapter in the company’s history.  It will be interesting to see what fate Nortel’s enterprise business holds…  In the mean time, customers are also asking themselves the question, “Should I stay or should I go?”  If one were to complete the sentence, “Nobody will ever get fired for choosing _________,” it’s probably safe to say they wouldn’t write Nortel.  An end-user customer recently told me they would complete the sentence with “Cisco.”  It’s amazing how much change the enterprise telephony and contact center market has gone through over the past 10 years…

How would you complete the sentence above?  What are your thoughts in terms of safe bets for the future?

Google - Your Next Contact Center Voice Platform?

Moderated by: Jason Alley, Vanguard Communications

Well, probably not…  BUT, we all have to keep an eye on how Google moves their voice solutions forward in the enterprise.  In a recent Computerworld article, “Google Apps Businesses Should Love Google Voice,” Seth Weintraub provides a brief overview of Google’s enterprise voice play.  While I have a hard time thinking of Microsoft and IBM as slow-goers, and perhaps a bit too Google-istic, the article is definitely worth a read.  It’s kind of fun to think of a search engine vendor such as Google, an office productivity vendor such as Microsoft, and a data networking vendor such as Cisco all fighting for the enterprise voice business…definitely not something most folks envisioned ten years ago…

Why is this relevant to the contact center?  Well…history shows that once companies have success in the enterprise voice space they typically look to bolt on new applications, including one near and dear to our hearts - the contact center.  Google has already tiptoed in this area by forging a partnership with Salesforce.com.  Fun stuff!

Thoughts, reactions, predictions?

Remote Agents Remain a Hot Topic

A recent client call included some interesting dialogue around why someone would move forward with deploying remote/home agents.  Some see it as an opportunity to motivate existing agents - top agents being rewarded with the opportunity to work from home.  Others see it as an opportunity to gain access to an expanded pool of talent - companies in an area with high attrition or just the wrong resource base can hire agents from outside the area, including more highly educated people willing to take on variable, part-time work (e.g., stay-at-home parents).  Some see it as an opportunity to reduce costs by minimizing their real-estate footprint and/or gaining access to less costly talent.

Right Channel Your Apps to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Moderated by: Elaine Cascio, Vanguard Communications

Despite all the talk about customer experience, it surprises me that so many companies are still not looking across channels to understand where they can be delivering the best experience to their customers.  Most of the time, this is a result of internal silos where the IVR team doesn’t talk with the web team, or the contact center isn’t included in conversations that directly affect customers.  Communication is a whole other issue that I’ll think about for a future post.

In the meantime, here’s a simple exercise that can help everyone better understand how we’re dealing with our customers across channels and what are the most effective channels for customer interaction.  Come to think of it, it may create an opportunity to break down silos and get everyone talking, too.

Improve Customer Experience by Putting Your Customers Second

Moderated by: Linda Van Doren, Vanguard Communications

In these challenging economic times, everyone’s making sacrifices.  Headlines inform us that employees are taking voluntary time off, furloughs and pay cuts.  Overtime is a thing of the past.  Call centers especially have been impacted by these tough times.  Turnover is at its lowest in years, giving us a great opportunity to engage our employees.  There have been many studies linking job satisfaction to increased productivity – so the question is, how can we make our contact center employees happy and motivated, especially in these dour times?

A Peek at the Playbook

Moderated by: Anne Keefer, Vanguard Communications

There have been more than one or two posts about the importance of metrics and why they matter.  I would like to share three of my own real life experiences.   My experiences may give you insight that will lead to improvements in your own call center environment or help you find a new way of looking at an old problem.

Contact Center Sessions @ VoiceCon Orlando

VoiceCon, a key industry event, will be held next week in Orlando.  Allan Sulkin provides a useful historical perspectiveof the event in a recent NoJitter posting.  As Allan mentions, the focus of the show has morphed with the market.  Unified Communications is the main focus these days, with Cisco, IBM and Microsoft dueling it out with traditional telephony vendors for thought leadership.  It looks like Tuesday will be the day of the Contact Center, with the following two focused sessions listed on the program:

Then there were…?

Moderated by: David Powis, Vanguard Communications

The latest telecom news hit the online Wall Street Journal on March 12th; "Nortel Is in Talks to Sell Key Units to Rivals."  What nearly made me spill my breakfast tea was that one of the units being discussed “builds telecom systems for offices.”  Wow.  Then to top that, the entities reported to be in talks with Nortel are Siemens and Avaya. (The article reports that Cisco was not interested in the unit).

From a sheer market grabbing move, this would be big for the winner. Could Siemens catch up or overtake Avaya worldwide in marketshare?  If Avaya wins, they will have a huge number of large enterprise customers.

What do Open Source, Microsoft and On Demand Communications Have in Common?

Moderated by:  Jason Alley, Vanguard Communications

For years, often to the dismay of my family, my Dad (Bob Alley - former HP contact center visionary) and I have enjoyed rich conversations about the contact center and the greater communications market.  These lively conversations take place late at night on the phone, at family gatherings (yes, even at the Thanksgiving table - I know, what geeks!), while driving in the car, or via email - not our favorite channel, but every now and then something important gets printed that we have to share.  Well, this morning Dad emailed me a link to an Information Week article titled, “Open Source PBX’s Gain Momentum.”  Could it be true that Open Source PBXs account for 18% of the private branch market?  According to market research firm Eastern Management Group, that is indeed the case.  In a recent report posted on NoJitter, “Open Source PBX is 18% of North America Market,” John Malone of Eastern Management Group states, “Open Source PBXs are typically 40% or more below the cost of a conventional telephone system…Cost changes everything.  Competition, and the importance of cost as the buyers' key decision variable is mostly why PBX prices have and continue to drop 5-10 percent annually. And if nothing can touch the cost of an Open Source PBX, there's a big market people have just not been counting.”