September 2000

Leaders MUST Lead! 

From Telemarketing to Customer Inter@ction Solutions, We provide leadership!

BY NADJI TEHRANI

The new name reflects our recognition of the fact that today, businesses interact with customers through this broad variety of media and across the enterprise in an effort to maintain positive customer relations. The past few years have seen tremendous changes in the way business is conducted. The Internet has provided a platform on which data can be immediately shared, collated and acted upon like never before in history. In this age of diminishing customer loyalties, often the only differentiator from one company to another is the service offered to customers. As a result, every customer interaction with an organization takes on a heightened importance across the entire enterprise. A few years ago, companies approached CRM from a reactive standpoint, where customer interaction meant coping with e-mail volume and routing calls. Businesses now have the tools available to be proactive and provide personalized, customer-centric products and services that will help retain customers as well as add new ones. As Figure 1 shows, there is little point in spending the time and energy to add new customers to your business when you don't have the means in place to retain your existing customers. Ideally, we want to help you make sure that customers flow into your organization and remain there for good! 

Businesses everywhere must ensure that each department that has contact with their customer bases is equipped to make every customer interaction positive. The call center is, of course, the heart of this mission; however, the call center cannot succeed in isolation. Field sales, e-sales and e-service, as well as traditional telephone contact, must work in concert with the call center for true customer relationship management (CRM). Developers of cutting-edge technologies recognize this fact and are introducing new products and services to facilitate this goal at a dizzying speed. The challenge for businesses in the 21st century will be to rein in the information and gain an understanding of the available solutions to their problems and needs, then decide when and how to implement them. Customer Inter@ction Solutions will be the ultimate source of guidance for all businesses concerned with CRM throughout the enterprise.

Readers will continue to find solid coverage of the topics they are accustomed to reading about in the pages of this magazine, plus additional coverage of technologies and applications related to field sales and e-businesses. We'll provide news of the latest and greatest products and services to enter the marketplace, staff-writen articles and cutting-edge editorial, rounded off by our own highly respected TMC Labs product reviews. Readers will benefit from the addition of a new section entitled, "Product And Services Selection Guide," a feature that will provide contact center managers and executives with a practical tool for one of the most challenging aspects of their jobs: determining which solutions are the best for their businesses and implementing those solutions.

While many magazines make the mistake of using merely a collection of trendy buzzwords as a title, and then not following up on their promises, we are renewing our vow to bring you the best and the brightest information available, as we have since the first issue of this publication 19 years ago. Leading the industry has a price and we are fully prepared to face that responsibility! We recognize that our readers' time is valuable, and don't think you should have to read a collection of different magazines that only touch on a few aspects of customer interaction. Our goal is to provide readers with a single source for all the information they will ever need to run a first-class customer contact operation. We spend a lot of time emphasizing that the customer must always be first. We're proud to practice what we preach by putting our customers -- our readers -- first.

We will never abandon our heritage of positioning the contact center as the prime touch point between customer and company, because we feel this will always be the case. New communications technologies and networks are now available to interconnect the contact center, field sales, marketing, the Web site and the traditional "back-office" functions.

As we move forward with our expanded coverage, our readers will continue to be treated to the most unbiased editorial coverage in the industry, a tradition we have perfected since 1982. Our goal, as always, remains to inform our readers so they can continue to expand their businesses and profitability in this thrilling new business climate. We feel our new name suits us better. We know you will, too.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Sincerely,

Nadji Tehrani
Executive Group Publisher
Editor-in-Chief

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It's hard to look anywhere in industry news lately and not notice that the incredible growth of e-commerce is slowing down and refining itself. It's no longer enough to put a "dot com" behind your name and expect to sit back and watch the cash to roll in. (Was this ever an option, though?) Companies are realizing that just setting up a Web-enabled call center is not going to improve their customer service unless they do the right things to ensure its efficiency and survival. Alarming reports have surfaced recently predicting the death of most dot coms in the next year or so. So, how do you make sure your Web-enabled organization or dot com company is not one of them? Listen to the professionals and heed their advice!

At Communications Solutions EXPO Fall 2000, which will be held at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas December 5th through 7th, industry experts will share the tips and advice you need for your organizations' survival in the Web-enabled world. Following are some highlights of the kinds of sessions you'll see at our show.

Profit Via The Dot.com/Internet Channel
Everyone knows the basic principles of running a business and turning a profit in the brick-and-mortar environment. With the Web, the rules change. Smart Web-based companies must learn how to adapt traditional marketing and merchandising principles to keep up with technological advances that e-commerce has brought to light. In the highly competitive e-sales and e-service world, e-tailers must successfully take on many challenges: attracting visitors to their sites, keeping them there and making sure shoppers don't abandon their transactions before they leave are the most vital goals. This session will discuss the ways and means for winning in the electronic marketplace.

The Thin Green Line: E-Commerce Security
There is a troublesome issue that has slowly but surely been causing in increasing number of headaches for e-tailers: security threats. Studies have shown that the average e-commerce Web site is so non-secure that a teenage hacker can collect financial, personal and credit card information in less time than it takes to make a purchase from the site. Technology is available to help make sites impenetrable, but thus far, many companies have not yet recognized the need for such protection. Attend this session and learn how to protect both your company and your customers. Don't learn the hard way!

Spinning A Sticky Web -- Self-Service By Design
You have spent a great deal of your resources making sure your company information is available on your Web site, but if the material is not presented in a user-friendly and comprehensible way, potential customers will either give up and call your toll-free number (which costs your company much more money) or, even worse, abandon your company for good. A well-designed Web site allows surfers to find all the information they need before they buy, allowing you to make a sale by offering a customer service method that costs your company very little. Find out first-hand how the most successful e-sales and e-service ventures help customers help themselves.

Sprinkle Pixel Dust On Your Web Site And Benefit From Chat And Instant Message Interactivity
Chat and instant messaging have been used by Web surfers for years for personal communications, but e-sales and e-service entrepreneurs are just now recognizing the commercial value of these familiar media. Properly implemented, chat and instant messaging capabilities can take the place of expensive toll-free calls, allowing your agents to service your customers better and cheaper. Learn about the available products and the features and functions served up by these essential e-service solutions.

As always, Communications Solutions EXPO is the hot spot to find out about the issues that are most important to your business...from CRM solutions to next-generation call centers, we offer you the most comprehensive, industry-leading and hands-on information and experiences. Don't miss out! Register online today!

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