| [View Past Issues] | October 19, 2010 |
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Join industry expert Peter McGarahan and Mayur Anadkat, Product Marketing Manager at Genesys, as they discuss customer service techniques that personalize and enhance the customer experience, optimize Agents' capabilities and productivity, lower operational costs and deliver better business results.
In this webinar you will learn to:
1. Design a customer service strategy with the customer top-of-mind!
2. Better anticipate your customer's needs and intelligently route
them for maximum results.
3. Capture customer preferences to personalize the customer conversation / enhance customer experience.
4. Leverage self-service as a cost-effective tool for the lower-value, high volume transactions.
5. Improve Agent performance and productivity with intelligent workflow / routing and workload balancing capabilities.
Consona Releases Live Assistance v6.6 Solution for Customer Service and Support Agents
Consona Corporation, a provider of customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and services, announced the general availability of the Consona Live Assistance Version 6.6 (v6.6) solution. This assisted support solution consists of several agent tools which help provide multi-channel service consistency across web collaboration, e-mail, live chat, and phone support interfaces. In addition, via Consona Live Assistance's remote diagnostics and repair tools, agents can provide a personalized and differentiated support experience by resolving issues faster based on visibility into advanced diagnostics information about the customer's PC and environment, as well as the ability to deploy Support Actions (scripted one-click fixes) directly onto the customer's PC.
KeyMetric Call & Conversion Analytics Extends Reach to Customer Service & Support Call Centers
KeyMetric, a phone call and conversion analytics company, announced their service to assist customer service and support centers in reducing the number of inbound phone calls while improving online and self-help information and services. Currently KeyMetric powers hundreds of businesses, marketers, agencies, and call centers that depend on the company's flagship Call and Conversion Analytics software-as-a-service (SaaS) to track, measure, and maximize online and offline marketing investments. Now customer service and support call centers can benefit from the industry's most powerful call analytics technology to track inbound phone calls, emails, form submissions, and other call-to-actions to gain a deep understanding of how and where customers are searching for information before they make contact.
LiveTime and Novell partner for Novell Service Desk
LiveTime Software, a provider of Web, SaaS, and Cloud based ITIL 3 Service Management (ITSM) and Service Desk software, announced an agreement with Novell for worldwide distribution of LiveTime as Novell Service Desk. LiveTime has been able to transform organizations' customer service into agile, knowledge-based service delivery using ITIL v3 best practices. LiveTime is pre-integrated with Novell ZENworks Configuration Management (ZCM) 10 and 11, ZENworks Desktop Management 6.5 or later, ZENworks Asset Management 6.5 or later, as well as eDirectory and closed loop email management with Groupwise 6, 7, and 8.
SupportIndustry.com Research Results: Self-Service Support
SupportIndustry.com conducted a survey in September 2010 on the topic of self-service support, with 50 service executives participating. An overwhelmingly majority (85.7%) of respondents offer their customers self-service, but only half (51%) of respondents are able to confidently measure their customer's adoption of self-service. The full results of the research are available for free by clicking here.
White Paper: Facebook for Business: How to Engage and Support Your Customers Directly on Your Facebook Page
In the beginning, Facebook was viewed as a personal-focused networking tool. Now, with more than 500 million members - outnumbering the entire population of the United States - Facebook has evolved beyond 'just a social networking site' to one of the Web's most dominant customer communities. In fact, Facebook Pages are rapidly becoming the must-have, go-to destination for conversation, community, collaboration and relationship building. Clearly, Facebook can be a powerful tool for brands, businesses, and non-profits.
Facebook for Business: How to Engage and Support Your Customers Directly on Your Facebook Page discusses the "Facebook Effect," the importance of incorporating social media into your multi-channel customer service strategy, and provides insight to help you maximize your business to get the most out of being on Facebook.
Customers Will Pay Organization More For A Great Customer Experience
According to the fifth annual Customer Experience Report, a Harris Interactive study sponsored by RightNow Technologies, customer experience is playing a significant role in determining where consumers choose to shop and how much they are willing to spend. Results show that exceptional customer experience creates loyal customers and has the power to impact a company's top and bottom lines.
Nearly all consumers (85 percent) said they would be willing to pay more over the standard price of a good or service to ensure a superior customer experience. Of those consumers that said they would pay more for an excellent customer experience:
- 55 percent would pay 10 percent or more
- 27 percent would pay 15 percent or more
- 10 percent would pay 25 percent or more
This year's research also shows that a great customer service experience significantly impacts purchasing decisions:
- Nearly all consumers (82 percent) have stopped doing business with an organization as a result of negative experience and most (75 percent) do not return
- 55 percent of consumers became customers of a company based on its reputation for great customer service, and 40 percent of consumers have switched to a competitive brand simply because of its reputation for exceptional service
Consumers not only voice their customer experience preferences with their own wallets; they also influence their peers. According to the 2010 Customer Experience Report, customer advocacy should be a key focus for businesses because:
- Customer service is still the number one reason consumers recommend an organization, more than products or price
- Word of mouth is the number one influence on consumers' purchasing decisions (76 percent), followed by customer reviews and online feedback at 49 percent
- 79 percent of consumers that have had a negative experience with an organization told others about it, and 97 percent chose to share their experience via word of mouth
- 85 percent wanted to warn others about the pitfalls of doing business with that company and 66 percent wanted to discourage others from buying from that company
The 2010 report outlines why consumers stop doing business with a company:
- Rude staff (73 percent)
- Issues weren't resolved quickly (55 percent)
- Unknowledgeable staff (51 percent)
85% of Tech Leaders Optimistic on Economic Recovery, but Companies Project Employment to Remain Flat
On the heels of one of the most severe economic downturns of the last century, and amid a continued sluggish global economy, the DLA Piper Technology Leaders Forecast Survey found that industry leaders are confident of continued economic recovery and project moderately increased sales revenues for tech companies over the next six- to 12 months.
The survey, measuring the attitudes and perspectives of top executives within the technology industry, reveals that close to 85 percent of technology and venture capital executives believe the global economy is on a sustained path of economic recovery. This is a notable increase in confidence over the survey DLA Piper commissioned just six months ago, when 69 percent of technology leaders projected that an economic recovery was at hand.
Tech Companies Expect Sales Growth, But No Increases in Employment and R&D
Survey respondents indicated high levels of confidence for their own respective business plans and financial forecasts during the next six- to 12 months. Nearly 72 percent of respondents expect their firms to experience sales growth during that time period; more than 82 percent forecasted business demand will rise. Start-ups and mid-sized technology companies were slightly more optimistic about their sales growth prospects than were larger technology companies.
Still, in a clear illustration of the caution with which companies are proceeding in the current economic environment, 43 percent of companies reported they expect to keep staffing levels flat. The outlook is gloomier among large tech companies. For those companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue, nearly 60 percent expect flat or decreasing employment over the next six- to 12 months.
Weak IPO Market Permanently Altering Model for Tech Start-Ups
Respondents also widely agreed that the weakness in the IPO market will continue notwithstanding some improvement in 2010, with nearly 72 percent of respondents indicating that they no longer view an IPO as an optimal exit strategy. As a result, more than 59 percent of these executives believe the traditional venture capital model has been "permanently altered" -- and expect both fewer venture capital firms and fewer funded technology companies in the future.
Government Impact on Tech Sector
There was a mixed reaction to the expected debate and vote on the Bush-era tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of the year. A majority of the business executives responding to the survey (56 percent) believe that an expiration of the tax cuts would result in reduced investments in start-up tech companies and venture capital funds. However, 30 percent of tech executives believe the increased government revenues generated with the resulting tax increase would help reduce deficits and improve general economic confidence.
Tech leaders were more bullish on government investment and involvement in the CleanTech sector, with nearly 84 percent of respondents favoring tax incentives and other active involvement in that sector. CleanTech and Cloud Computing were seen as the tech industry's two most promising growth opportunities according to a ranking that appears in the survey.
Research Shows Increase in Average Starting Salaries for IT Professionals
Information technology (IT) professionals in the United States can expect starting salaries to increase an average of 3.4 percent in 2011, according to the just-released Robert Half Technology Salary Guide 2011. Larger increases in base compensation are expected in high-demand segments such as applications and web development, data security and enterprise resource planning (ERP).
According to the Salary Guide, web designers will see the greatest starting salary gains of any job classification in 2011, with base compensation expected to rise 5.5 percent, to between $50,750 and $83,000 annually.
Other key findings from the Robert Half Technology Salary Guide 2011 include:
- Base compensation for ERP technical developers -- who tailor ERP software for their organizations -- is projected to increase 5.2 percent next year, to a range of $79,250 to $109,500.
- Average starting salaries for business intelligence analysts will rise 5 percent, to the range of $82,500 to $116,250 annually.
- Data modelers can expect base compensation in the range of $80,750 to $111,250, a gain of 4.5 percent over 2010.
- Network managers will see average starting salaries rise 4.3 percent, to the range of $79,250 to $109,500 per year.
- Base compensation for IT auditors will increase 4.2 percent, with starting salaries of $77,750 to $108,000 annually, on average.
Industries forecasting particularly strong demand for IT professionals in 2011 include business services, transportation and healthcare.
The 5 Realities of Customer Retention
Today, every customer has the power to hurt or strengthen your brand through social media. Any news about your business -- the good, the bad, and the ugly -- now spreads like wildfire at the click of a button. Strong customer relationships translate to social media activity, which builds the kind of brand loyalty that drives new business. Here are five things you must do to retain customers and maximize the revenue potential they offer your business in today's increasingly collaborative world.
Full Article...
The "Right-Channel Mix" for Customer Service
Defining the right-channel mix requires a keen sense of the current customer service technology landscape. While, in theory, the right-channel mix ensures long-term profitability, in practice it is a complex optimization problem, which needs to consider issue type, issue frequency, channel costs, customer experience, and customer value, wherever necessary. Moreover, because consumers have become so used to an accelerated pace of technological change, the right-channel mix has to constantly evolve to fit consumer taste.
Full Article...
5 Trends to Watch in 2011
Would you recognize a significant IT business trend if you saw one? Over the years, many products, technologies and IT-related business trends have been hyped beyond their significance. But the killers are the ones that go unnoticed and wind up being transformational. It's difficult to know the difference, but there's an old journalism adage: Follow the money. With that in mind, here are five things to keep an eye on as we march toward 2011.
Full Article...
Social Media Integration Tips for Customer Contact Centers
As social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others become more and more ubiquitous, companies are faced with the challenge of how to best use these resources in their contact centers to communicate with customers and potential customers. Overlooking social networking tools in the contact center means lost opportunities to drive customer collaboration. This article details the top five things we believe customer contact center managers should keep in mind while developing a social media strategy.
Full Article...
Technical Impact: Making Your Information Technology Effective, And Keeping It That Way
by Al Kuebler
This book is intended for IT professionals and general managers who wish to make their IT management function more directly responsive to the businesses they serve, and will provide you with four things:
- Proven ways to make the contribution of the IT function as beneficial as possible to the business it serves;
- Proven ways to ensure that the IT function is fully recognized for the positive impact it has on business performance;
- Enough explicit examples to instill confidence that these approaches are doable in any IT organization; and,
- Advice on how to get started, even though you have no buy-in except your own.
View the latest free research reports from SupportIndustry.com
Are you looking for the latest research available (for free!) on the service and support industry? Then check out the research section of SupportIndustry.com. Some of the current offerings available to members are:
- Research Insight: Self-Service Support
- Research Insight: Average Speed to Answer, Wait Time and Handle Time
- 2010 Service and Leadership Trends in Customer Support
- Research Insight: Effectively Measuring Customer Loyalty
- Research Insight: Cost Per Contact (Phone & E-Mail)
- Research Insight: First Contact Resolution
- 2009 Service and Support Metrics Survey
All of these reports can be accessed by clicking below
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...
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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.
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