The Contact Center Blog

Discontinued Calling to LA Due to Hurricane

The Louisiana Public Service Commission just announced that due to the Hurricane Gustav, LA is in a state of emergency. During this time, no telephonic solicitor can engage in any form of telephonic solicitation. The state of emergency will extend from August 27th, 2008 to September 26th, 2008 unless terminated sooner.

Please note this new Regulatory advisory for any marketing campaigns requiring telemarketing to the state of Louisiana.

For more information contact the ATA Director of Government Affairs - Zachary Rice.

www.ataconnect.org

SOCAP Annual Conference

I received this email reagrding the upcoming SOCAP conference in Miami:

Don't Miss the AUGUST 8 Deadline!

Download the Annual Conference Brochure Today

Dear SOCAP Member:

AUGUST 8 is right around the corner, so don't miss your opportunity to register early for the SOCAP Annual Conference, October 5-8, in Miami, FL and sign up to attend our special social media workshop for FREE at the conference. You can also reserve your seat at the SOCAP golf tournament (fee is $145). Space will be limited at the golf tournament and the workshop, so act now!! Registration to the Annual Conference is required to participate in both activities.

In addition to these special events, don't miss the great conference activities planned for the SOCAP 2008 Annual Conference:

• Timely and relevant breakout sessions focused on these major consumer trends-Hispanic Marketing, Consumer Advocacy/Loyalty and Corporate Social Responsibility
• Powerful insights from amazing keynote speakers
• Special sessions on Professional Development to help you gain the work skills and competitive edge you need
• Spotlight Sessions on Generation Y and Hispanic Marketing
• Activities Highlighting SOCAP's 35^th Anniversary
• Presentation of SOCAP Chapter Awards
• Spectacular Social Finale

After August 8, the workshop fee will be $50. So register today for the SOCAP Annual Conference and save!

Lord & Taylor Merger Closes Gap in Canadian Retail Market

Big news for Canada's older retailer The Hudsons Bay Company (HBC) emerged this week.

NRDC Equity Partners and True North Retail Investment acquired HBC and consolidated its ownership of Lord & Taylor, Fortunoff, and Creative Design Studios (CDS) under a holding company called the Hudson’s Bay Trading Company (HBTC).

Combined, these companies comprise more than US$8 billion in retail sales, 75,000 employees, and 55 million square feet of stores in the United States and Canada. In future months, 10-15 Bay's will be converted to L&T stores to help fill a gap between lower end and very high end (Holt Renfrew) department store options in Canada.

Yahoo.com reports, "The acquisition of Hudson's Bay comes just three months after the death of Jerry Zucker, the South Carolina businessman who acquired the company in early 2006 for 1.1 billion dollars and took it private."

I believe this merger is inevitable as Canada's economy continues to flourish and consumer spending is on the rise. It creates a lot of potential in the Canadian retail marketplace.

Retailer Closes Doors - Steve & Barry's

RIS annouces tight credit marketings and a tough economy are the cause of closing down Steve and Barry's - 22 year fashion retailer. Yet they are not alone with other retailers closing thier doors such as Kmart and Walgreens. The trend continues for the retail sector. It is no wonder budgets are shifting to online channels to help reduce costs and compete in this tough US economy.

Read the story below; Christina Zarrello reports:

Cheap prices, trendy fashions and celebrity endorsements are a winning formula for apparel retail success. However, it wasn't enough for 22-year-old Steve and Barry's, which announced last week it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Four other retail chains announced closings, cutbacks and a bankruptcy.

Steve & Barry's built runaway success on selling $10 fashions and kept costs low by using minimal advertising, manufacturing its own clothes, and selling in large volume. In a December 2007 RIS cover story, Steve and Barry's executives described their growth curve as looking like, "a hockey stick." On the surface, the low-price fashion formula should have thrived in the current economic environment as shoppers trade down to less expensive products in tough economic times.

What went wrong? Read Full Story on RIS website...

IRCE 2008 Recap

My sales and marketing team just got back from Chicago last week after exhibiting at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition. It was another great show put on by InternetRetailer.com bringing together industry professionals and vendors to share ideas and business opportunities.

24-7 INtouch has been a exhibitor at this show when it first started in 2005, when it was held in a small room with only 40 exhibitors. Now this show has grown tremendously with over 400 booths and over 2000 attendees. To be honest, I was a little concerned that the show was growing too much and the intimacy we loved was being lost. Every other show I have been to this year has been a little disappointing due to the low traffic and having more exhibitors selling to us rather than speaking to real business prospects.

But, to my surprise, the attendance was fantastic and many eager attendees roamed the hall and ready to talk to the vendors. We did of course invest in a few promotions to encourage traffic to our booth which helped, but it was still great to have people interested and eager to talk. You can see how although the US economy is hurting right now, the online business world is more than alive and thriving. More reason for business to reduce costs and do more online. We definitely saw an increase in the number of retailers wanting to start using our Live Chat support.

Congratulations to Vertical Web Media for putting on a great event. Steve Rogers the Show Director did a fantastic job and really did everything he could to keep traffic driven into the exhibit hall. From an Exhibitor's point of view, it is nice to have the show management really understand our point of view and encourage attendees to walk the hall. They had many break sessions, free drinks and food for all, and of course the unique car giveaway which made people show up on the final day.

The show will be held in Boston next year which should be an interesting change in venue. I look forward to it!

- MK

Are You Ready for the US Hispanic Market?

Is your call center ready to service the growing US Hispanic market?

In a recent report by NACC (National Association of Call Centers) written by Tony Malaghan (CEO of Arial International), the US Census Bureau recently put the US Hispanic demographic at 14.4% of the total US population. This is 1 out of every 7 people in the US is of Hispanic decent. By 2050, this is estimate to grow to 1 in 4 or 25% of the total US population.

It is not a surprise that the growth rate of this population is increasing each year with 60% being native born. But what is the impact on business and what is the buying power of this population? Stated in the article, the economic impact of the Hispanic population has grown 307% from 1990 to 2007, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth (University of Georgia). By 2012, it is forecasted to be over $1.2 Trillion with a growth rate of 495% from 1990 - 2012. To put it in perspective, the non-Hispanic buying power is growing at a rate of 189% over the same period. Due to this quick growth, this population was forecasted to exceed the buying power of the US African American population over 2007.

So, why are not more call centers strategically serving this growing market?

The article states some distinct challenges many customer service managers may be facing. One is the fact the population is not homogeneous. Hispanic refers to people of Spanish speaking descent, despite where they are originally from - Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Latin America, etc. Also, although Hispanics share a common language, as with all languages there are regional differences in vocabulary, accents, and cultural traits. These challenges are good examples of risks that may impact the ability to successfully target this market. Even just the magnitude of the marketing investment alone can be a deterrent. Companies must create culturally relevant products and services, language specific marketing material, communication, websites, and also invest in bilingual agents and technology features (IVR), etc.

However, as the numbers continue to rise, businesses must make a strategic decision to research and service this market. They may even be first movers in their industry and able to gain loyalty with this customer base. However, with every new business initiative, there must be strong commitment and a reasonable budget allocated to make the initiative a success.

- MK

NCOF 08 - An Exhibitor's Perspective

The 24-7 INtouch team just got back from NCOF 2008 in Orlando last week and overall I think the show was pretty successful. We can never really define success from an ROI perspective until our sales team has the time to follow up on the leads generated from the show. But overall, here is my critique for the main elements we look for in a tradeshow (out of 5 star rating):

1) General Traffic -  2.5/5

The traffic in the exhibit hall was very low this year, which was surprising to us and also many of the other exhibitors. We definitely expected to see more people at the show which was a little disappointing. The attendee to exhibitor ratio seemed very low. There were several reasons that could explain the slow traffic, one being the American Airlines flight cancellations. AA canceled 3,300 flights over 5 days last week effecting travel for over a quarter million people. I guarantee some of those where destined to Orlando for the show. But a few things that could be controlled by the show management was the amount of breaks in the hall. There were very few traffic drivers into the hall (the "Food Factor" discussed in a previous posting) and also they closed the hall for 3 hours in the middle of the day! Last, the Exhibit hall was pretty far (downstairs) from the attendee tracks which made it easy for attendees to miss the hall.

2) Show Location - 4/5

The Gaylord Palms Resort was a very nice venue and since it was a little secluded it ensured many of the attendees would stay at the resort. This allowed for additional meetings with clients and also no one was in a rush to leave.

3) Attendees - 3.5/5

Out of the people we did speak to, many of them were very receptive of our services. They seemed interested and many were decision makers. Again, we have to wait for 6 months to see how interested they really were but, overall we were satisfied with who we were speaking to.

Those are my overall thoughts. I think I would give it a 3/5 using other shows we attend as a benchmark. We are attending next year again, so I still believe in the value of NCOF. If anyone would like to share their experience at the show I would love to hear from you! All comments welcome! Most of our competitors at the show were pretty forthcoming on how they thought the show was going, which is nice to see. There is nothing like a little friendly competition!

- MK

"On Hold" Video

Here's a great video from RightNow Technologies...

Top 50 Largest Call Centers

Technology Marketing Corporation’s (TMC®) just announced this week Customer Interaction Solutions® Magazine's 23rd annual Top 50 Inbound Teleservices Agencies Ranking.

This Top 50 Ranking recognizes the top inbound and outbound call center outsourcing agencies, both domestic and international, as well as interactive inbound and global aggregate ranking, as measured by the amount of billable teleservices minutes companies completed during the past year.

“The Top 50 Teleservices Agencies list offers our readers the most honest and reliable ranking of companies.  It is truly the benchmark for choosing large-size, large-capacity teleservices agencies,” said Nadji Tehrani, Executive Group Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Customer Interaction Solutions.

The list includes various large scale public call center outsources such as Convergys, Sitel, APAC, and Teleperformance, as well as medium size centers such as Hamilton, Archway, Telerx, OKS Ameridial, The Connection, and 24-7 INtouch contact centers. Click here to view the full list and rankings.

Congratulations to all of this year's winners!

- MK

February Call Center Absorption

Site Selection Group, LLC just released their February numbers for call center openings and closings for the month. The company researches the absorption of the call center and back office jobs across the world and releases the numbers on a monthly basis.

For February 2008, they report "Our research identified the creation of 12,285 call center jobs at 27 facilities and the displacement of 2,675 call center jobs at 14 facilities." The following table identifies the employers creating jobs during February of 2008: