| [View Past Issues] | May 18, 2010 |
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Many service organizations are required to quickly 'triage' a customer's issue, request or question and either resolve it on first contact or escalate it blindly to back-office resources. By focusing on what's important to your customer, such as speed and accuracy, you can drive operational efficiencies and increase customer satisfaction. This SupportIndustry.com webinar presents the business case for creating a customer-centric service delivery model. Attend this webinar to:
- Learn how you can optimize and automate your service delivery
capabilities, best practices and business processes. - Realize the benefits for a dynamic workload distribution intelligently routing any issue or request to the most qualified, available resource.
- Learn how with greater visibility you can now balance daily workload, resource allocation and SLA performance relative to established targets.
SupportIndustry.com 1-Minute Survey - Average Wait Time, Handle Time and Speed to Answer
SupportIndustry.com's latest 1-minute survey is on the topic of Average Wait Time, Handle Time and Speed to Answer. This survey is very brief and should take about a minute to complete. We do not require you to provide any contact info, and we will then make the results freely available. The more responses, the more valuable the data! In addition, you can provide your suggestions for questions to be addressed in future surveys. Click here to get started.
SAP to Acquire Sybase for $5.8 billion
SAP and Sybase, Inc., announced that SAP's subsidiary, SAP America, Inc., has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Sybase, Inc. Under the terms and conditions of the merger agreement, SAP America, Inc., will make an all cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Sybase common stock at $65.00 per share, representing an enterprise value of approximately $5.8 billion. The transaction that will bring the two information technology (IT) leaders together to enable companies to become better-run 'unwired enterprises.' As a result of this transaction, customers will be able to better harness today's explosion of data and deliver information and insight in real time to business consumers wherever they work so they can make faster, more informed decisions. Companies will benefit from greater productivity, speed and agility to help their businesses grow.
Citrix Unveils Open, Extensible, Turnkey Cloud Solutions
Citrix Systems, Inc. announced seven new turnkey solutions that make it easy for cloud providers to deliver practical business services to enterprise customers. The new solutions leverage core Citrix virtualization and networking technologies that are used daily to power the world’s largest and most demanding cloud and internet sites. Unlike proprietary solutions from other virtualization vendors, however, the new Citrix Cloud Solution portfolio is based on an open framework that allows cloud providers to add their own innovation to each solution, creating unique, differentiated services that address real business needs.
Harris Bank Selects Enterprise Workforce Optimization Solution Provider GMT
GMT Corp., a provider of enterprise workforce management and performance optimization solutions, announced that Harris selected GMT to satisfy its branch workforce optimization requirements. GMT’s Planet enterprise workforce optimization solution will provide capacity modeling and scheduling for all Harris branch employees working in the company’s branches throughout Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
SupportIndustry.com Research: 2010 Service and Leadership Trends in Customer Support
This groundbreaking survey assesses the state of customer service issues in the customer support industry: How our customers and agents are doing, how we are managing people and measuring performance, how effective our training and coaching is, and how we are using technology to get closer to customers. It is meant to be a snapshot of what we in the support industry fundamentally do and how well we do it.
Latest Wave of Communications and High-Tech Corporate Investments In Customer Service Falls Short During Downturn
New Accenture research has found that communications and high-tech companies -- many of which are falling short in their customer service delivery--need to direct their investments at new levers that enhance the customer experience. These levers include social customer relationship management tools.
The research, entitled "Lessons from the Recession: Where Customer Service and Support Investments Yield Superior Returns for Communications and High-Tech Companies," revealed that while more than half (60 percent) of the companies surveyed believe their recent actions to extend their offers and reduce costs had positively impacted the customer service experience they delivered, most of their business and residential customers receiving the service reported no visible or tangible improvements. The research also found that those customers who believe their service experience declined are more likely to stop or reduce the amount of business they do with their current vendors.
During such times, the research found, garnering customer loyalty is vital--but elusive. Ninety-two percent of enterprise customers and 81 percent of residential consumers who think the service and support they've received has improved said they are more likely to keep doing business with their current vendors. However, strong loyalty to communications and high-tech providers among all consumers is rare. Only 13 percent of residential consumers and 25 percent of enterprise customers said they were "very loyal" to their vendors.
In the investment arena, 61 percent of companies surveyed indicated they are making investments or acquisitions in the downturn to boost customer service capabilities. And they increased their customer service operating expenses by an average of 68 percent. The research also found that nearly 60 percent of consumers and enterprise customers who believe their service and support experience has declined are more likely to eliminate or reduce the amount of business they do with their current vendors.
Vast Majority Of Tech Leaders See Economic Recovery Building in 2010
As business and political leaders continue to speculate whether the global economy has entered a sustained recovery, the DLA Piper Technology Leaders Forecast Survey reports that the vast majority of technology leaders and VC's believe that such an economic recovery has begun and will sustain itself during 2010.
When DLA Piper last conducted its Technology Leaders Survey, in October 2008, the turbulent financial markets weighed on the minds of respondents, and two-thirds of them predicted a recession lasting until late 2009/early 2010. Today, those same leaders are optimistic about our economic future:
- 69 percent of technology leaders project that an economic recovery is at hand and that the recovery will be sustained in 2010.
- According to these same industry leaders, improving economic conditions will bring about a recovery in the US IPO market in 2010.
- However, almost a quarter (22 percent) of technology leaders have concerns about a relapse that would result in a double-dip recession.
- Furthermore, the strong majority of respondents have concerns about US competitiveness in the global tech market due to overhang issues from government debt as well as government regulation, particularly in the areas of banking and capital markets.
- The quality and costs of US higher education also continues to be a strong area of concern among technology leaders.
Survey: More Network Administrators See an Increase in IT Security Budgets Than a Decrease in 2010, a Reversal From the Previous Year
According to findings from the "What Keeps Network Administrators Up at Night" survey of 353 network administrators commissioned by VanDyke Software and executed by Amplitude Research, nearly one-third (30%) of the respondents reported that they are seeing an increase in their company's IT security budget for 2010 as compared to 2009 when only 15% were seeing an increase. Conversely, this year 20% were seeing a decrease in their IT security budget versus one-third (33%) in 2009 who reported a decrease.
More than half of this year's survey respondents (57%) felt that their organization has budgeted sufficiently to support current information security needs, a result similar to findings from 2009 (54%).
In terms of staffing, 17% were seeing an increase in the size of their IT security staff for 2010 as compared to 2009, while 12% were seeing a decrease. Among the 12% seeing a decrease in security staffing, nearly eight-in-ten (79%) attributed it to reductions in sales or profits, or economic uncertainty. More than half (57%) felt that their organization is sufficiently staffed to support current information security needs.
Integrate Your Call Center's Onboarding Process for Better Results
How you handle the critical period of onboarding for new-hires in your contact center is an indicator of how successful your employees, and your company, will be. Here's a checklist that will help you develop knowledgeable, productive and committed employees.
Full Article...
Top Five Strategic Planning Tips for Today's Contact Centers
Strategic planning supports enterprise-wide forecasting by projecting staffing needs down to the activity or position level. It looks out over longer horizons, taking into consideration activity levels spanning months or even years into the future. Even more importantly, it can make the difference between deciding how many more agents are required to handle seasonal spikes and determining if you need agents at all. In companies where customer care is a top priority, strategic planning can support corporate objectives as they adjust through tightened labor markets and service dominated economies. This article presents five key tips to keep in mind as you look to leverage strategic planning in your customer contact center.
Full Article...
The Tribal Experience
Customers don't turn to you for a link to your Web site where they can do all the work themselves. They come to you for solutions -- and a memory. The first question you should ask when designing your customer experience strategy is "What memory do you want to leave behind?" The customer completes a form, clicks out of the Web site, finishes reading a direct-mail piece, walks out of your retail store -- what memory does she take with her?
Full Article...
Outsourcing IT management: Is the time right?
Outsourcing some IT management functions can save money and free up resources to focus on more strategic initiatives, proponents say. But it is easy to get it wrong, detractors warn, in which case it will cost you more than you could have ever hoped to save, and you won't want to let any strategic stuff go.
Full Article...
People Metrics
Technology is often only as good as the people who manage it. Jim Haar, chief information officer at Blue Coat Systems, a maker of application delivery network infrastructure, talked with Forbes about why he's more focused on hiring the right people than tracking system outages.
Full Article...
10 Steps to Tech Employment
Perhaps you've been fortunate to have not lost a job in the past two years. Whether you have lost a job or not, odds are good that you know someone who has. Every professional needs a plan for finding employment and for staying employed.
Full Article...
Flip the Funnel: How to Use Existing Customers to Gain New Ones
by Joseph Jaffe
Using the new "flipped funnel" model, together with a set of new rules of customer service and a revolutionary customer referral and activation process, you'll learn how to transform your existing customers into your best salespeople. In addition, Jaffe will explain how to best introduce and combine both digital and social media tools to boost your loyalty arsenal, deploy "influencer marketing" and implement word-of-mouth strategies that inspire your loyal, opinionated, and most vocal customers to become credible, persuasive, and influential endorsers of your products and services.
View SupportIndustry.com Research Insights: First Contact Resolution and Cost per Call (Phone and E-mail)
Click here to get a full copy of the results.
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2010 Service and Support Technology Showcase Now Available
SupportIndustry.com has released the 2010 version of our Service & Support Technology Showcase. This in-depth buyer's guide features the latest tools and technologies in the support services industry that enable support operations to deliver superior customer service. To view the listings,click here...
Visit the SupportIndustry.com Blog
The SupportIndustry.com Blog is another way stay on top of the service and support industry. Our blog, updated at least once a week, is dedicated to covering the latest topics related to service and support, call center management, customer experience management, web-based support, help desks, workforce optimization and more.
Check it out today
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Carolyn Healey, Editor - chealey@supportindustry.com
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