How Mobile is Impacting Customer Interactions, and How Companies Can Respond

CUSTOMER INTER@CTION SOLUTIONS — April 2012

How Mobile is Impacting Customer Interactions, and How Companies Can Respond

As part of this month's cover story package about how mobility is changing customer interactions, CIS magazine provides this conversation with Dave King, executive vice president of Confirmit Mobile Solutions...

What's on the Cover

COVER STORY

2012 - The Year the Contact Center Dies
Mobile phones are predicted by Gartner to overtake PCs as the most common web access devices worldwide. Wi-Fi is so widely available in major metropolitan areas that most tablet users don't even need a wireless data plan. Tablet sales grew 264 percent in 2011 over the previous year; and this year, Yankee Group is predicting the sale of almost 25 million tablets in the U.S. Mobile devices are showing up in a range of locations and instances - mobile and Internet-equipped automobiles, smart meters to provide near instantaneous readings of actual energy usage, Wi-Fi-equipped flights and more.

How Mobile is Impacting Customer Interactions, and How Companies Can Respond
As part of this month's cover story package about how mobility is changing customer interactions, CIS magazine provides this conversation with Dave King, executive vice president of Confirmit Mobile Solutions.

Leveraging Mobile Apps for Call Center Efficiency
Call centers and smartphone are colliding in a big way. And now many companies, such as airlines, that already have their own mobile phone apps and also have large call centers are starting to realize they can leverage those smartphone apps to ask pre-call questions for more efficient call center operations and customer responsiveness.

Feature Articles

CALL CENTER TECHNOLOGY

Industry Veteran Genesys Has New Beginning
Genesys has long been a fixture in the communications space, and it's ownership over the years has not been unlike a game of musical chairs. Now Genesys is once again a stand-alone company, and the company's management and new owners say it is uniquely positioned in the customer interaction solutions space of today.

Next Generation 911: A Unique Vertical for Unified Communications
The National Emergency Number Association has described Next Generation 911 as having "the ability to support interactive text messaging, policy-based routing using location and several other factors, such as call type, target PSAP status, network status, and automatic acquisition of supportive data and its use within the system to control routing and other actions prior to delivery to the PSAP."

Invodo Promotes the Power of Video in Customer Interaction Solutions
The world has gone multimedia, and video is a growing part of that. But this goes much further than just video for entertainment or videoconferencing. As Invodo explains, more companies are now leveraging video to help educate and inform their customers, often increasing customer satisfaction in the process. Customer Interaction Solutions magazine recently interviewed Craig Wax, CEO of Invodo, about the power of video.

Avatars, Training Bring New Twist to Outsourced Call Center Solutions
Organizations that outsource their call centers to specialists in this realm can get the latest and greatest when it comes to things like agent training and interactive web responses.

OPERATIONS AND MANAGEMENT

Home Agent Programs Are a 'Win-Win'
InfoCision Management Corp.'s partnership with the Cleveland Sight Center, through which it employs sight-impaired individuals as part of its call center business, has been such a success that the center's new facility will house an InfoCision call center.

How to Use Customer Lifecycle Analysis to Build Loyalty
Your customer calls, tweets, or sends a web form about an issue with service or billing. How you deal with that customer at that moment affects whether that customer will recommend your business or plaster the web with negative reviews.

Driving Performance with Technology to Engage and Train the Agent
Managers in any field must understand how to engage, train and motivate their employees effectively. This challenge is none more important than in contact centers, where agents are measured against daily performance metrics while managers must make adjustments throughout the day to meet service goals.

CRM, BPO & TELESERVICES

BroadVision Expands Enterprise Social Networking Solution
BroadVision Inc. has expanded its enterprise social networking solution on a number of fronts. New are collaborative workspaces called Conduits, a social analytics module, and SharePoint integration. Conduits are virtual spaces within a Clearvale network where external users, such as suppliers, customers or partners, can interface with a business and conduct their interactions in total privacy

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Customer Interaction Solutions' 26th Annual Top 50 Inbound Teleservices Agencies Ranking
At the start of the second quarter of each year since 1986, Customer Interaction Solutions has delivered its Top 50 Teleservices Agency Ranking. True to form, for the 27th time, we present our rankings.

Columns

Publisher's Outlook

Vocalocity: One Cloud Provider's Path to Growth
Cloud computing providers are all the rage these days and cloud communications is no exception. Witness the growth of 8x8 as well as the M&A interest in the space evidenced by the recent acquisition of M5 Networks by ShoreTel, and the acquisition of Aptela by Vocalocity.

HIGH PRIORITY!

Being Something Special to Your Customers
All the social media monitoring and response isn't going to make up for negative impressions and low C-SAT. Monitoring will let you know it's out there, and will allow you the opportunity to make amends, but it doesn't change what has happened, especially when customers have had a less-than-satisfactory encounter. That's why it is paramount for customer service staff to be at their best from the moment an interaction is transferred to them.

Ask the Experts

A Realistic Look at Social Media and the Contact Center
Twitter and Facebook have given customers new ways to connect with businesses, get information, voice opinions - positive and negative - and generally assess and comment on companies and the products and service they provide. In enterprises wanting to make top-level service and support the standard for social consumers, integrating social media with the contact center is a practical way to do it.

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New Rules
There have been several significant developments of late related to regulation as it applies to the customer interactions solutions space - some good and some (if you're in this industry, anyway) not so good.