The Contact Center Blog

A Call for Help in Haiti

In light of the earthquake this week in Haiti, the importance of aid and emergency communication lines becomes a prevalent topic of conversation.

These are not your regular 911 calls I’m referring to, but calls in response to an emergency on such a vast scale that very few people can imagine the devastation.  It is times like these when help lines, donation lines, and phone lines for inquiry become important to aid in the relief of an entire country.

Campaigns have begun on Facebook and Twitter, text message lines set up, telephone numbers posted to donate, and much more. 

From a humanitarian perspective this tragedy is extremely devastating and it’s comforting to see the support of so many people through various donations.  From a contact center perspective, I give my thanks to those who are behind the social media campaigns, answering the calls, and organizing the emails and tweets.  This is the finest example of the ability of a contact center to ramp up on queue – and proof of the capabilities of great call centers.

* To learn more on how you can donate, visit the Mashable Social Media Guide blog at http://mashable.com, which has an extensive list of options including updates from participants.

IRCE 2010 Website is Live

Internet Retailer announced today that the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) website is now live with complete details of the event.

This years’ Conference & Exhibition will take place June 8 -11, 2010 at McCormick Place West in Chicago.  With 5000+ attendees, 375 exhibiting companies, and 175 speakers, this is definitely an event to attend, and the world’s largest e-commerce event.  Plus, if you register between now and January 15 you will receive a $100 cash rebate (presented to you when you pick up your pass at the show) in addition to the $200 early-bird discount!

Visit http://www.internetretailer.com/IRCE2010/ for more information and to register today!

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales Up - Are You Supporting These Sales?

The results are in, and online sales from Black Friday and Cyber Monday are up compared to one year ago. 

According to comScore, a company that monitors online consumer behavior, Black Friday experienced an 11% increase in sales to $595 million compared to the same day in 2008.  Meanwhile, Cyber Monday rose 5% from the same day in 2008, reaching $887 million and matching December 9, 2008 for online spend, which is the heaviest in record.

These statistics speak great for a recovering economy, and definitely shed an optimistic light on the upcoming holiday season.  But, before we get ahead of ourselves we need to explore the full scenario and ask ourselves – how are these sales going to be supported into the New  Year?

See, the sale doesn’t end when the credit card is processed online.  After this is complete, retailers must shift focus to the after-sale experience in which the customer uses the product and seeks help setting it up, trouble-shooting, exchanging for an upgrade, or simply making a return.  Each of these can have a further positive or negative impact on the customer’s experience.

Many businesses today rely on repeat customer purchases, and therefore building a good rapport and reputation for beyond-the-sale service amongst customers is critical.  This is where contact center services – done in-house or outsourced – will have a huge benefit to any company.  A 24 hour help line to trouble-shoot on Boxing Day can mean the difference between a happy child, and therefore happy customer, or a disgruntled individual who will go elsewhere for a purchase in the future. 

So, while the numbers stand to be beneficial to retailers right now, will you follow-through and support these sales in 2010?

As Twitter’s dominance continues, how will retailers and contact centers react?

Twitter has emerged as a dominant form of communication online.  It connects with your Facebook status, it can be updated by various different platforms on a cell phone, desktop or through a good-old web browser.

I was reading the paper this morning and was somewhat surprised to see that even the Berlin Wall has made it onto Twitter – quite literally.  The Berlin Twitter Wall went online Tuesday, inviting anyone to share their memories of the wall and its collapse on November 9, 1989.  This struck me as interesting – and really hit home how significantly Twitter and other social media impact our every day lives.

In reality though, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.  We are no longer in a world where we must seek out the news – with RSS feeds, following specific people on Twitter, Facebook Communities and the like – the news is coming to us.

So how are businesses using it?  How has Twitter changed the way we do business?  Businesses have begun to adopt live chat as a means of communicating with customers, however this cuts out the IVR greeting used to welcome  customers when they call for help – the automatic greeting that could,  for example, inform customers of new promotions or current problems with service.  I think that there is great potential for Twitter to pick up the slack here, and work simultaneously with live chat and email customer service.

The question is, have businesses really caught on to this idea yet?  And since it is in the realm of good customer service – how is this going to affect the contact center industry?

Texting the New Calling?

I’ve never been one for texting.  It’s effective for the quick message of where to meet and what time, but a full-on conversation texting has always seemed arduous to me – although maybe that’s because until a couple weeks ago I had an old cell phone with the traditional word pad.  Now with my BlackBerry, I see how efficient and easy it can be to type.

 

Having joined the new age of Smartphones, I now see just how easy it is to text and type into the device.  Maybe this is why I’m not surprised to hear that there is now a call center that is accepting text messages.

 

The center is located in Iowa, and the text messages are for 911 emergencies.  While this is a very specific and localized practice for the time being, it is also a huge leap forward in an ever-evolving world of communications.

 

You can email, Tweet, Facebook, MySpace and blog through your Smartphone.  You also have the option to call, chat or email companies today for assistance.  Therefore, it is a logical, progressional step to be able to text to receive help – especially from 911.

 

So, how long will it be until you can BBM or chat with a representative from your phone?  Only time will tell, but that time is coming. 

 

Tell us what you think – is texting in the near future to be included in call center services?

Will Internet Savvy Web 2.0'ers Lead to the Demise of the Traditional Call Center Model?

Recently, I have read that Twitter of all things is apparently the cause of significant call center layoffs. It was stated that more people than ever are taking advantage of corporate Twitter sites to ask customer service questions, which means less traditional phone call inquiries (you can read the article here ).

And what is this I am hearing about 'super users'? -people that enjoy products so much that they surf the web and online corporate communities, jumping at the chance to help their fellow users by answering customer service questions. From a recent tmcnet.com article:

Since last summer, Verizon has transferred much of the responsibility in certain divisions that require high levels of customer service to volunteers - people who have a passion for the wireless, Internet and TV technologies that Verizon peddles, and who like to feel useful. Sound strange? It is. But it's also true. They're called "super-users," and they work through online forums that are gradually developing into self-sustaining databases where customers can go to answer all their questions.

Does this all mean that the end of the traditional customer service call center is near?

I don’t think so.

Don’t get me wrong, there are great self-service companies out there like Bazaarvoiceand Lithium, and they have a place in this ecosystem, but I think people are forgetting to examine the other side of the spectrum and companies like Zappos.com- the reigning King of the customer service experience.

How does one explain Zappos.com’s success in this new self-help world? For gosh sakes they don't even set limits for how long their agents can talk to callers, and I believe the longest service call they ever had was over 5 hours.....

My current thought is that there is a middle ground, and that appropriate and tempered call deflection is the key to success.

What I mean by this is:

Companies should take advantage of these new technologies, incorporating items like robust self-help sections to their websites, and they should also use communication channels like Twitter, live chat and email (which are usually more cost effective than voice support to deploy because of concurrency). But as is the case with Zappos, there is no replacement for the service that can be achieved through voice support. The experience is unparalleled, and for more complicated support issues it is the only viable channel that can be used to adequately understand and address a customers needs.

Although a lot of startups are finding the initial cost savings of self-service tools appealing, as these companies mature, if they hope to develop a long term and re-occurring customer base they are going to have to invest in multi-channel customer service which is anchored by traditional phone support. Simply put, customer’s expectations are higher than ever, and consumers expect a multitude of contact options so they can interact in the way they feel most comfortable with a company.

To conclude, I think self-service is here to stay, and I think it works amazingly well for simple customer services issues. In these challenging economic times, the technologies discussed will also help businesses to reduce their overall customer service expenditures. With that being said, call deflection can only be taken so far. For companies that care about their brand and their overall customer experience, there will always be a need and a role for the kind and caring customer service representative who is available to speak with consumers by phone.                         

-Tim Peters

Google Latitude- New Mobile Phone Based Social Network

I installed Google Latitude today on my BlackBerry. This is a very impressive social networking application that integrates with Google Maps and lets you see the location of your friends and interact with them. Latitude looks to be a building block for more targeted location based mobile advertising. From MediaPost.com:

 “And while the service clearly aims to focus on social networking--connecting friends and family by sharing their whereabouts--the application could easily adopt mobile marketing applications that target users with special deals and ads at specific locations such as in front of Starbucks or McDonald's as they drive or walk down the street.”

I can definitely see a role for call centers to play with this new type of advertising. Anyone clicking on a mobile ad would clearly be a demographic a business would want to target and give the most attention possible.  A great feature would be to have a call center live chat agent discuss  promotions a store was having, and give a potential customer a call to action like an additional 10% off item x if they made their purchase within a certain time frame.

Read more here:  http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=99727

New Taxation Rules Looming for Online Retailers- What are the Implications for Call Centers?

With the economy slowing and tax revenues decreasing, all levels of U.S. Government are ramping up their efforts to get a piece of the e-commerce taxation pie. Forrester Research states an additional 3 billion dollars could be generated for government coffers if companies begin to collect taxes instead of relying on the buyer to self report and pay duties on Internet purchases. Generally speaking companies only have to collect taxes if the purchaser lives in a state where the business has a physical presence, but states like New York are suing companies like Amazon.com (has no offices in New York) in an attempt to force them to collect taxes on all shipments to the state. Amazon.com is currently complying and collecting taxes, but is also counter suing New York State arguing that this type of forced taxation is unconstitutional.

 Great coverage of this ordeal can be found at E-Commerce Times

BOTTOM LINE: What should call centers take away from this? If your organization is using a clients’ website to place orders, the affects of any changes should be minimal, with the onus for any shopping cart/taxation rule changes falling on your clients. But if your call center has setup an internal shopping cart to facilitate order taking or order gathering for some of your clients, there could very well be a lot of IT work needed to make all the changes required to cover any new taxation rules. For example: “Collecting online sales taxes is not as simple as it might sound. A nationwide Internet business faces thousands of tax-collecting jurisdictions — states, counties and cities — and tangled rules about how various products are taxed.(E-Commerce Times)”  

This is definitely something all of us who are in the industry need to keep our eyes on…