White Paper: Using Web-based Support Tools to Improve Customer Service

Many service-centric organizations have already integrated their in-house service and support applications with Web interfaces, or deployed systems designed for the Web from the ground up. They’re better integrating channels through customer interaction platforms, greatly expanding self-service functionality, undertaking knowledge management initiatives, and extending their reach through remote support and maintenance tools.

This informative white paper from supportindustry.com and sponsored by LogMeInRescue and Parature, examines the latest trends and technologies in using Web-based support tools to improve customer service.

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Index ranks IT industries by nation
An IT competitiveness index has ranked more than 60 countries, based on factors such as business environment. The United States grabbed the top spot, followed by Japan, South Korea, England and Australia, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit of The Economist Group. The countries were scored on a scale of 1 to 100 for factors such as a country's business environment, IT infrastructure, and efforts in research and development. All but 4 out of the top 22 countries in the competitiveness index are also among the world's top countries in terms of IT labor productivity. Source: CNET

LiveTime delivers ITIL Service Management and Help Desk to the Enterprise via iPhone
LiveTime Software, a provider of ITIL certified Service Management, Help Desk and Support Software for the enterprise, announced LiveTime Service Manager and Help Desk is now available for the iPhone. LiveTime for the iPhone has been qualified for both version 4.0 and 5.0. Field technicians and customers can now manage support and change requests on the road using the iPhone. With 100% functionality on the iPhone, LiveTime can be customized with specific column views and provide true mobility for on site technicians and customers. With direct access to LiveTime's Configuration Management Database (CMDB), service desk staff can access the most up to date infrastructure information when working on support issues directly on the iPhone.

Userful Makes Green Computing a Reality
Userful Corporation, the worldwide leader in public computing, announced that in the last year its software that allows up to ten people to work from one PC has saved over 13,250 tons of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of taking 2,300 cars off the road. Modern desktop computers sit idle virtually the entire day while we read or type. DiscoverStation leverages this unused computing power to create an environmentally efficient alternative to traditional desktop computing. Multiple users can work on a single computer by simply attaching extra monitors, mice and keyboards. DiscoverStations have been deployed around the world with a typical configuration of 6 stations per computer.

“Strategies for Service Excellence”
Las Vegas, NV, November 5-7, 2007

Join us in Las Vegas for the Services Industry Summit - “Strategies for Service Excellence”, at the Paris Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, November 5-7, 2007. Network with industry leaders, who will share their strategies for delivering world-class service and support. Presentation topics include Service Excellence by Design, Mergers and Acquisitions - Strategies for Successful Integration, Strategies for Managing Staff Performance, Service Excellence and the Trusted Advisor, and more.

Don't miss this event! Click here for details.

According to a survey of 225 U.S.-based organizations, 66 percent of survey respondents projected some level of increase in IT staff for the next 12-month period (March 1, 2007 to February 29, 2008), up from 61 percent in 2006. At the same time, the survey also showed a 1 percent increase in employee-initiated turnover rate across the board compared with last year’s survey results. This is the third year in a row that there has been an increase in the employee-initiated turnover rate. Much of this increase appears to be occurring at the professional staff (individual contributor) level.

While the IT job market is becoming more active, Gartner doesn’t expect it to return to the same competitive level as in the late 1990s anytime soon. A slow, steady recovery is evident when looking at the relatively consistent value of average salary increase budgets reported for the past several years and what companies are budgeting for increases for the coming year. The median salary increase rate was between 3 percent and 4 percent for the surveyed period. This year’s survey results also show that companies are spending, on average, 40 percent of their 2007 budget in paying salaries, incentives and benefits to their IT workforce.

Work/life balance is cited as one of the top reasons for employee turnover in the survey. Offering programs that enable IT professionals to more-effectively manage work/life demands and to meet their personal and professional goals is a significant differentiator for employers. One of the most-powerful work/life programs is teleworking, however, only 1 percent to 18 percent of survey participants’ IT workforces have some type of telework arrangement.
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Seven Key Technologies for Effective First Contact Resolution
Sabio, a contact center services and solutions company, has highlighted what it believes are the seven key technologies that can help organisations implement an effective First Contact Resolution (FCR) strategy to improve overall customer service levels. However, before putting an FCR initiative into place, Sabio recommends that Customer Service Managers need to clearly define their own FCR definition, and set targets that are realistic from both a customer and an organizational perspective.

The Seven Key Technologies for Effective First Contact Resolution are as follows:

Workforce Optimization – an integrated WFO approach is essential for effective First Contact Resolution. Interaction Recording and Quality Monitoring mean you can measure the leading and lagging indications that are important to FCR, identify non-adherence, and schedule relevant eLearning where necessary. Workforce Management and Performance Monitoring can help ensure that contact centres are staffed with the right number of correctly-skilled agents, while WFO also embraces two key emerging technologies – Speech Analytics and Customer Feedback – that provide a real time overview of performance from a customer perspective

Speech Analytics – the latest phonetics-based and large vocabulary speech analytics tools now offer a cost-effective way to listen to every single customer call and pick out key words and phrases to identify unhappy customers who are likely to churn. By integrating speech analytics with WFO, organizations can now get these problem calls straight to the win-back team for immediate resolution

Customer Feedback – by capturing the voice of the customer and using automated speech survey techniques to deliver real time feedback, organizations can quickly identify customers with problems and immediately alert retention teams to resolve the issue

Streamlined Agent Desktops – composite, role-specific agent desktops can help agents access the information they need to handle calls quickly, with a focus on the customer rather than the screens in front of them. It also gives way to more time spent training agents on resolving customer queries than using the different applications.

Blended multi-channel support – to enable First Contact Resolution organizations need to take advantage of the latest Customer Interaction Management systems that combine with a streamlined agent desktop to create a true single view of each customer. A multi-channel approach ensures consistency across channels and that contacts are prioritized and routed in the same way.

When coupled with Intelligent Call Routing, organizations can identify an interaction when it first comes in – whether it’s a voice call, an email, a self-service transaction, a webchat or an SMS - and make sure that it is routed to an available agent with the right skillset

Voice Self-Service – using the latest IVR and speech technologies along with a caller-focused design approach means that organizations can implement solutions that can resolve customer queries quickly and efficiently.
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Managing Complexity Still Top Security Challenge, Prompting Increase in Security Spend, According to Security Survey
Managing the complexity of security continues to be the number one challenge for organizations around the globe, followed closely by preventing security breaches, enforcing security policies and spreading user awareness. These challenges have prompted plans for a significant increase in security spending in the coming year, according to a 2007 survey by Accenture and CMP Technology's InformationWeek.

The tenth annual survey of nearly 3,000 IT professionals from the U.S. and China also revealed that the security challenges, plans and priorities of Chinese companies are aligning more closely with U.S organizations. Chinese companies are taking a more sophisticated approach to their security posture -- in fact, they expect to spend an average of 19 percent of their IT budgets on security, compared to 12 percent for U.S. organizations.

Survey highlights and trends include:

• Security spending is expected to grow significantly this year. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents in the U.S. and 55 percent of the respondents in China expect security spending to increase this year compared with 2006.

• IT professionals in China perceive themselves to be more vulnerable than their counterparts in the U.S. Fifty-eight percent of respondents in China feel their organization is more vulnerable to malicious code attacks and security breaches than a year ago, versus 16 percent of respondents in the U.S. Vulnerability is attributed to increased sophistication of such threats as SQL injection, more ways to attack corporate networks, including wireless, and an increased volume of attacks.

• Assessing security risk and then modifying plans and budgets accordingly is problematic across the board. More than 20 percent of U.S. companies and nearly a quarter of Chinese companies do not regularly assess security risk and threats. Of those who do regularly assess risk, only 34 percent of U.S. companies and 39 percent of Chinese companies use the information strategically to drive budgets and planning.

• Measuring the value of security is difficult. Forty-three percent of U.S. companies measure value in terms of fewer worker hours spent on security-related issues. Twenty-four percent of respondents do not even attempt to measure the value of security investments.

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10 Good Reasons Not to Provide Free Tech Support
You may get what you pay for -- but it's also true that no good deed goes unpunished. When it comes to providing free tech support, many IT pros invariably find that it costs more time and effort than it's worth. Jeff Dray has 10 great reasons why you should walk away from the temptation of helping people with their computers off the clock (and off the payroll).
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Monitoring the Machine
While most contact centers claim that their quality assurance practices are highly customer-focused, many tend to monitor and gather feedback on only those contacts that involve an interaction with one of their agents – such as though traditional phone calls, email and chat. However, slighting self-service in your quality assurance program is risky business. After all, if customers who try to serve themselves have a negative experience, they are likely to return to the more expensive (for you) live-agent contact options, and when they do, they likely aren't going to be very happy campers.
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12 IT Skills That Employers Can't Say No To
The market for IT talent is hot, but only if you have the right skills. If you want to be part of the wave, take a look at what eight experts -- including recruiters, curriculum developers, computer science professors and other industry observers -- say are the hottest skills of the near future.
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Tangled Up in Tasks
According to Basex Inc., a knowledge-management research firm, work interruptions cost the U.S. economy at least $650 billion a year. Analysts Jonathan B. Spira and David M. Goldes reckon that 28 percent of the typical knowledge worker's day, or 2.1 hours, is consumed by unnecessary interruptions and recovery time. Their calculations are based on surveys and interviews conducted over the past three years. In fact, some observers suggest that multitasking and interruptions can almost drive us, well, nuts.
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Fast Cities 2007
Fast Company scoured the globe in search of the perfect place to transplant yourself and your business. From Chicago to Shanghai, they selected 30 urban centers that are shaping the future. These centers have creative-class meccas, R&D hot spots, even cities so fast they're scary. Plus, the world's slowest cities. Is your hometown on the list?
Full Article...

More Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers: 50 New Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes
by Brian Cole Miller

Most managers, supervisors, and team leaders realize the importance of team-building, but just can’t seem to find the time in their busy schedules. More Quick Team-Building Activities for Busy Managers provides the solution! The book contains 50 all-new exercises that can be conducted in 15 minutes or less, and which require no special facilities, big expense, or previous training experience. Each activity is presented in just a few short pages with all the relevant information including a list of materials needed, the purpose of the exercise, and handy tips for success, all highlighted for easy reference.

The book also includes special guidance for "virtual teams," whose members are in different locations but must work as a unit. For anyone charged with the task of bringing teams together, this book is the answer.

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Multichannel Service & Support Survey of Executives: Report of Findings
Supportindustry.com and eGain Communications Corp. recently conducted a survey of contact center, helpdesk and customer service managers and executives, focusing on multichannel customer service and support -- its importance, the current state of their multichannel capabilities and challenges in implementing and managing it.

To get a complimentary copy of the report, click here.

Editorial suggestions, feedback & comments:
Carolyn Healey, Editor - chealey@supportindustry.com

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