Customer Interaction Solutions articles from March 2008

Customer Interaction Solutions archives from March 2008

26 years young and still growing.(Publisher's Outlook)
March 1, 2008... Since 1982, when this publication was launched as Telemarketing[R] magazine, it has always provided the most authoritative information about practically every aspect of the call center/CRM industries. Indeed, along the way, this publication was...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2008... In our December 2007 Buyer's Guide issue, InfoCision Management Corporation (www.infocision.com) was inadvertently excluded from the Products/Services Listings. InfoCision is an Akron-Ohio based teleservices provider that offers services...

End-to-end SIP in the contact center.(High Priority)(Interview)
March 1, 2008... I recently got a chance to speak with Avaya's Vice President and General Manager of its Customer Service Applications Division, Jim Smith, about Avaya's launch of their Communication Manager 5.0 solution, which the company has positioned as a...

www.tmcnet.com/1551.1: marketplace still receptive to Oracle Fusion.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... The Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG) has announced that a majority of Oracle-based enterprises intend to upgrade to Oracle's Fusion middleware infrastructure within the next two years. The purpose of the survey was to measure the...

www.tmcnet.com/1552.1: teleservices firm PRC LLC files for bankruptcy.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... PRC LLC, a Plantation, Florida-based provider of teleservices, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, January 23, 2008. The company operates several call centers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and four other Iowa cities. The company has...

www.tmcnet.com/1553.1: TuVox recruits new CEO, Chairman of the Board.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)(chief executive officer Mark Lazar and Sam Spadafora )(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Speech applications provider TuVox announced this week the appointment of two industry veterans: Mark Lazar as CEO and Sam Spadafora as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Both men were recruited, in part, for their experience building...

www.tmcnet.com/1561.1: Astute Solutions offering RealDialog Agent Assist.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Astute Solutions has announced the expansion of its RealDialog product family with the launch of RealDialog Agent Assist, which was designed to enable contact center agents to more quickly deliver consistent, accurate and personalized...

www.tmcnet.com/1555.1: CRM, enterprise vendor Epicor announces expanded support, capabilities.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Epicor|CRS, the Retail Solutions Division of Epicor Software, recently announced new capabilities and expanded support. CRS RetailStore, Epicor|CRS's point-of-sale product, now offers more capabilities to sell to retailers doing business...

www.tmcnet.com/1556.1: Active CRM releases latest version.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Active Modules has released the latest version of its customer relationship management application, Active CRM. Highlights of the improved features include sales and marketing enhancements, such as now giving invoices custom fields, and the...

www.tmcnet.com/1557.1: Tango Networks delivers Voice Call Continuity solution for enterprise market.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Tango Networks has announced that it has enhanced the functionality of its Abrazo product line with Voice Call Continuity (VCC) functionality, which facilitates seamless hand-off of voice calls between disparate networks, as well as seamless...

www.tmcnet.com/1558.1: ASC announces VoIP recording for Cisco.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... ASC, a provider of solutions to record, analyze and evaluate communications, has announced a new version of its VoIP recording solution, EVOip for Cisco. The company recently announced EVOip 8.0, a new VoIP recording solution with additional...

www.tmcnet.com/1559.1: Customer Relationship Metrics to launch second WFM study.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Contact center research company Customer Relationship Metrics, L.C., has announced that it is set to launch the second Workforce Management Practices Study endorsed by the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals. Several workforce...

www.tmcnet.com/1560.1: N.E.W. acquires ServiceBench.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... N.E.W. Customer Service Companies, a provider of extended service plans and buyer protection programs for consumer products, announced the acquisition of ServiceBench, a provider of Web-based service management solutions for U.S. retailers and...

www.tmcnet.com/1562.1: Selltis offers new version of its on-demand CRM solution.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... On-demand CRM provider Selltis, LLC has announced the launch of its next-generation version of the company's namesake CRM solution, Selltis Sales 5.0, which is delivered via a hosted, software-as-a-service business model. Expanding on the...

www.tmcnet.com1554.1: Loquendo improves speech recognition engine.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Speech recognition and text-to-speech provider Loquendo has announced the launch of its latest version of Loquendo ASR 7.5. The speech recognition engine now boasts a number of improvements and features to make it possible to more quickly and...

www.tmcnet.com/1685.1: Customer Effective, Inc. partners with SalesCentric.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Customer Effective, Inc., a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and value-added reseller of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, recently announced a partnership with SalesCentric to offer its customers Relationship Charts, an add-on for Microsoft Dynamics...

www.tmcnet.com/1686.1: Protech adopts MadCap Software for real-time customer feedback.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Multichannel content authoring software provider MadCap Software announced that Protech Associates has adopted MadCap Feedback Server. Protech is using the Web 2.0 capabilities of the Feedback Server to track use of its MadCap Flare-based...

www.tmcnet.com/1687.1: software as a service CRM for electronic records compliance.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... In another demonstration of how CRM can help industries outside the call center, Verticals onDemand, which provides pharmaceutical software-as-a-service CRM solutions, announced its VBioPharma Primary Care Edition CRM application for life...

www.tmcnet.com/1688.1: GroupWise Integration for SugarCRM available from Omni.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)(Omni Technology Solutions Inc.)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Riva GroupWise Integration for SugarCRM was announced recendy by Omni Technology Solutions, Inc., offering customers with SugarCRM's information on Blackberry, Web and desktop clients. With the Riva GroupWise Integration for SugarCRM, users are...

www.tmcnet.com/1689.1: Broadlook Technologies partners with InfusionCRM.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Marketing software provider Infusion Software has announced a new partnership that brings together their InfusionCRM software solution with Broadlook Technologies, a provider of lead generation and recruiting software solutions. InfusionCRM...

www.tmcnet.com/1690.1: Maximizer rounds out Maximizer CRM 10 suite with Entrepreneur Edition.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Maximizer Software Inc. has released the Entrepreneur Edition of Maximizer CRM 10--thus rounding out its CRM software suite with a new edition targeted at the small business. Maximizer CRM 10 already covered the SMB market with its Group,...

www.tmcnet.com/1691.1: Voxify receives $15 million in venture capital.
March 1, 2008... Voxify, which offers speech-enabled self-service solutions for the contact center industry, has received $15 million in venture capital which it will use to expand its portfolio of solutions as well as to boost its partner ecosystem. Leading...

www.tmcnet.com/1692.1: Vonage plus SaaS CRM equals high functionality for SMBs.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Software-as-a-service CRM provider CRM ASP has announced the availability of Vonage VoIP services fully integrated in the CRM platform. Available immediately, Vonage integration brings small businesses full integration with Free CRM and CRM ASP...

www.tmcnet.com/1694.1: Convergys to open new Philippines facility.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Teleservices giant Convergys Corporation announced that its new integrated contact center in Bacolod City, Philippines, will be operational in April. Construction is nearing completion on the site, a new build-to-suit facility that is located...

www.tmcnet.com/1695.1: Verizon Business offers Hosted IVR service in Europe.(CUSTOMER INTER@CTION NEWS)
March 1, 2008... Verizon Business recently announced that it has expanded the availability of its Hosted Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service to the European market. Targeted at organizations with large or geographically dispersed contact center operations,...

Callcentercomics.com.(Comic)(Cartoon)
March 1, 2008... I'M JUST CALLING TO LET YOU KNOW HOW WE FEEL ABOUT CUSTOMERS LIKE YOU.... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE TO BE THE DUMBEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!!!! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WOULD A $100 CREDIT TO YOUR ACCOUNT HELP YOU...

Industry leaders share their views regarding the growth and trends in the contact center/CRM industries.(CRM, BPO & Teleservices)(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... Once a year, the editorial staff of Customer Interaction Solutions conducts a roundtable interview of industry leaders as a way of assessing the growth and prospects of the call/contact, CRM and teleservices industries. This year, we asked...

International call center best-practices: a white paper.(CRM, BPO & Teleservices)
March 1, 2008... Here's a great anecdote: At one international call center, an agent was (after a time) discovered to be ending each customer call with the words "I love you." When his supervisor finally intervened and asked him for an explanation, he stated...

Top 10 outbound telemarketing campaign mistakes.(CRM, BPO & Teleservices)
March 1, 2008... Telemarketing services are growing in popularity; however, it is safe to say that there are more and more telemarketing programs that are also failing to meet expectations. Following are 10 (OK, maybe 12) of the most common reasons that...

PCI compliance: what it means to the call center industry.(CRM, BPO & Teleservices)(Payment Card Industry )
March 1, 2008... It seems we read about it on a daily basis. Large-scale security breaches have happened to some of the most well known companies in the world, and they can happen to you. Hackers are finding new ways to collect massive amounts of consumer data...

One bad apple: call center recording is essential for weeding out agents who harm the customer relationship.(WORKFORCE Optimization)
March 1, 2008... We often talk about the importance of recording calls in the call center to ensure that agents are properly following scripts, to measure customer satisfaction and to assist in proper coaching and training of call center agents. Additionally,...

The call center customer of the future.(CALL CENTER Technology)
March 1, 2008... We talk a lot about the call center/contact center of the future and what it might look like. Given that we sponsor a show called "Call Center 2.0," it's not surprising that we devote a lot of time to the topic. We regularly write about the...

Listening to a vision of speech in the future: a moment with Loquendo's new CEO.(CALL CENTER Technology)(Davide Franco )(Interview)
March 1, 2008... Loquendo, a Telecom Italia company headquartered in Turin, Italy, offers speech technologies as well as products for servers, desktops, PDAs and embedded environments. Their speech solutions are offered for integrators in 23 languages with 54...

The growth report for contact center applications.(CALL CENTER Technology)
March 1, 2008... Good news for the contact center market: North American contact center applications markets are poised for "significant growth" in the next few years, and growth rates are "expected to peak between 2008 and 2010," according to Frost & Sullivan...

A shake up of the enterprise market.(CALL CENTER Technology)(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... TouchStar is once again about to shake up the call center industry with the introduction of "TouchStar Enterprise 2008," its all-new, full-featured enterprise solution for outbound, inbound and blended communications. The new platform, which...

IP communications for the contact or call center.(Innovative SOLUTIONS)
March 1, 2008... Call centers are traditionally staffed with a labor force that requires training and performance monitoring. They often use interactive voice response, automatic call distributors and legacy PBXs. As business grows and call volume increases,...

Egypt: a rising star of an outsourcing destination.(Innovative SOLUTIONS)
March 1, 2008... "Egypt is a rising star of contact center offshore destinations. Comparative analysis has shown that it has good potential to become a location of choice for European companies, as well as an interesting alternative for companies based in the...

Contact centers that take millions of calls keep them short, make happy callers--and never go down.(Innovative SOLUTIONS)
March 1, 2008... Telephone service providers make billions in revenue on directory assistance calls each year. They keys to profitability in this business are to answer every call placed to directory assistance, automate as many as possible, keep the average...

Fewer headsets and fewer hassles: superior service and support enables contact centers to operate more smoothly and with a smaller inventory of headsets.(Innovative SOLUTIONS)
March 1, 2008... The numerous advantages of lightweight telecommunications headsets have made them indispensable tools in today's contact center. High-quality headsets improve operator productivity, increase customer satisfaction and reduce employee turnover....

Customer Interaction Solutions magazine's 23rd annual Top 50 outbound Teleservices Agency Ranking.(AWARDS & Recognition)
March 1, 2008... This is the twenty-third year Customer Interaction Solutions magazine brings you its "Top 50" Teleservices Agency Ranking. In this issue, we're presenting the "Top 50" outbound portion of the ranking. (The inbound ranking will be highlighted in...

The top five things your call center agents wish you'd taught them.(Insider's Report)
March 1, 2008... Rachel has just finished your agent orientation program and is ready to hit the phones. She's passed the product knowledge test with flying colors and seems to have better-than-average communications skills. She's actively using the new...

Irate customers and how to handle them.(Ask the EXPERTS: A Special Editorial Series Sponsored By Interactive Intelligence)
March 1, 2008... Q Is it just me, or are customers getting more irate and belligerent? How about some pointers for my agents on how to handle troublesome callers? A In the 17 years I've been in the call center industry, dealing with upset customers has...