Contact Centers

No matter what company I visit, I always come away with the same thing: They're not as efficient at converting sales as they could be. I get that knowledge the old fashioned way; I listen to calls in the call center, and I make a number of test calls externally. I also go to a client company's website and just order (or attempt to in some cases).

Kansas City, MO, March 29, 2010 - USA 800, the largest employee owned contact center in the U.S., recently won a contract with Boston Apparel Group servicing their two fashion brands, Chadwicks™ and metrostyle®. In 1983, Chadwicks™ was the first company to offer woman the innovative concept of a fashion catalog with the same high-quality…

USA 800 recently released a white paper on the ‘Keys to Success’ for sales effectiveness in the Contact Center.  In this economy, companies need to deliver better results with less (money and resources).

Mountain View, Calif. (February 23, 2010): eGain Communications Corporation (OTC BB: EGAN.OB), the leading provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software for on-site or on-demand deployment, reported that over 70% of leading North American enterprise businesses were rated "below average" or "poor" in multichannel customer service experience.

When catalogers and retailers first started to go multichannel, they believed Web-based self-service would be significantly more cost efficient than fielding a full operation of customer service reps at terminals. Over the long haul, they reasoned, humans are more expensive than machines. But like the benefits of the paperless office, many call-center payroll reductions have been elusive.

Like many entrepreneurs who launched catalog businesses in bygone eras, the late Eddie Smith, whom I had the pleasure of knowing during the ’90s and early 2000s, stuck firmly to a number of ironclad principles during his 50-plus years at the helm of the National Wholesale catalog.

I’ve always been a proponent of in-house call centers, especially as a former manager of one. But times are tough … and changing. Every company today is looking for ways to save money without hurting sales and customer service. As the pressure on businesses to dramatically reduce costs intensifies, look to domestic or offshore outsourcing of some or all call-center and data entry functions as a way to improve your bottom line. Companies can outsource these functions to avoid using capital for new order management and telephone systems. One of our clients recently outsourced 300,000 phone calls offshore, resulting in a substantial reduction in

In the final installment of this two-part series on tips to upgrade call-center customer service levels, we continue our coverage of a whitepaper, 7 Innovations to Reinvent Phone-Based Customer Service, from the multichannel customer service and knowledge management software provider eGain, by revealing the final three strategies from the list. (For part 1, and strategies one through four, click here.) 5. Phone-aided Web collaboration. This tactic, browsing the Web while speaking to customers on the phone simultaneously, enables call-center reps to help customers complete online transactions such as form filling and online shopping. At the same time, it trains reps on how to use

The rise of electronic communications between businesses and customers over the past decade-plus, albeit a productive one, has resulted in at least one negative side effect: Call-center customer service has suffered. With that in mind, a recent whitepaper from the multichannel customer service and knowledge management software provider eGain, 7 Innovations to Reinvent Phone-Based Customer Service, offers seven fresh approaches to optimizing performance in the call center. This week, in the first part of this two-part series, we’ll present the first four of these strategies. Then check back next week for the rest. 1. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The benefits of implementing VoIP

When times are tough, B-to-B marketers need to stay close to their customers via their call-center reps. On the front lines, reps hear customer objections, concerns and moods. Marketers will want to stay informed to develop sales tactics and offers that will incentivize that next purchase. As you stay close to your reps, you’ll inevitably discover that some are getting better results than others. Why?
Here are some common metrics you can use to evaluate your inbound call-center reps.
1. Paid time, time ready to receive calls and time on the phone. You’ll be surprised at how much of the paid time gets eaten