The Evolution of Call Centres #3

Welcome to The Evolution of Call Centres where I round up some of the more interesting and appealing news stories from the world of Call Centres, Cloud Computing and Hosted Contact Centres, sometimes adding a little commentary but always grouping the stories together in easy to digest snippets of information, knowledge, insight and ideas.

The Eagle Eyed amongst you will note that the name has changed. It was called Carnival, now it's called Evolution. I changed the name early (after just two other posts) because I feel this blog is becoming a record of how call centres are changing, adopting new tech and ultimately looking to ensure customer excellence is at the front of their operation. Over the years these approaches will change (look at the Social Media emphasis recently) so I wanted the title to reflect the content.

There's not been an amazing amount of news and things of interest dropping in to my radar this week, so I'll keep this posting quite short.

I'm going to kick off this weeks post with a fascinating little research piece on customer satisfaction and loyalty. According to research conducted by Accenture, they found that consumers are becoming increasingly expectant of great service, but at the same time, becoming less loyal. A truly interesting picture of customer excellence and customer service is unfolding in this research. It really is becoming increasingly important to offer an amazing customer experience over simply being the cheapest. Fascinating reading. Source : http://www.callcentre.co.uk

A really interesting idea from Cirrus Insight about bringing Salesforce data and context in to Google Mail (GMail). Beta trial starting soon, but looks like an good way to engage with Salesforce for those embracing GMail.

New Voice Media's Channel Director Charlie Cowan talks about some of the metrics Contact Centres are typically measuring.

A great roundup of the CRM Evolution 2011 conference in New York City (not jealous at all) by Lauren Carlson at Software Advice. Some great take-away points about how important the social channels could become to a business, but also looking at the ways social channels need to be included in the overall customer excellence strategy.

Great to also see NewVoiceMedia helping UK Digital Cameras maintain it's first class customer service. Good article here on Call Centre Helper.

Another great article from Call Centre Helper on the Power of One. An article focused around how each and every single agent can make a big difference, both positively and negatively to the overall customer experience.