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Moving Your Contact Center Forward By Brendan Read November 2, 2009 7:06AM     More customer interactions are being driven by written communications, social media such as Facebook and Twitter, and web chat. Yet most contact centers do not have agents who have the skills to handle written and voice interactions. Quality, response rates, and customer satisfaction becomes poor. Hiring separate agents is recommended.   Related Topics CRM Customer Service Contact Center Customer Care Unified Communications Latest News Plasma-TV Ban Could Be Costly Barnes & Noble Nook Is Delayed Flat PC Shipments Hurt Dell's Stock Ballmer Says Windows 7 Sales Good New Pogoplug 'Cloud' Gets Social Customer care can be compared to a vehicle. If so then customer relationship management is analogous to the engine, routing to the transmission, differential, and axles, and customer interaction management to the wheels. If customer care is to run smoothly all of these components must be integrated so that they work together automatically and in response to driver actions. Unfortunately the vehicle has not been running as well as it can be. There is poor integration at the routing or infrastructure level between voice and multichannel agents and between the CIM and CRM , reports Johan Jacobs, Gartner CRM eServices analyst. There is also a lack of connectivity between knowledge management systems and customer interaction histories for self-service and live agent service. This often results in customers receiving inaccurate and sometimes contradictory information and agents asking callers to explain what they did in self service. The price for this lack of integration from existing solutions is steep. Longer and unnecessary agent calls drive up expenses while firms risk losing revenues from annoyed customers. Jacobs estimates that to achieve effective contact center multichannel deployment, firms must pay up to 45 percent extra in consulting and custom application costs on top of the hardware and software license and standard installation expenses. Adding to the hassles each new product comes with their own CIM databases. You end up with multiple databases across the suite making analytics and interaction management extremely difficult. "If we lift the screen on some of the CRM systems' multichannel functionality out there it is actually very poor," says Jacobs. "The same goes for some of infrastructure vendors, some of whom still do not have chat/co-browse products while others do not have consolidated messaging for multichannel. There are only a few products out there that have an integrated multichannel suite to enable a true 360-degree view of the customers." Chris Mills, general manager of Servion, sees faint signs that this integration could happen. This is being driven by savvy, top-echelon enterprises who realize customers' behavior is affected by their interaction experiences and are investing in projects that show consumer behavior, drive higher loyalty, and increased wallet share. "The enlightened practitioners are now beginning to understand and believe that the power of each is enhanced by the other," says Mills. "For the simple reason that the only way a consumer experiences a vendor organization's CRM practice at the touch points is through the CIM layer. Once this understanding proliferates and acquires urgency we will see more and more intensity and effort being put into the integration." (continued...) 1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  Next Page >   © 2009 Customer Inter@ction Solutions under contract with MarketWatch. All rights reserved.   Advertisement  Software 1.   FAA Glitch Causes Air Travel Delays 2.   Call of Duty Is Setting Records 3.   MS Told To Stop Some Windows Sales 4.   Peer-to-Peer Software Ban Sought 5.   Better Maps, Made by Volunteers

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Network Security Spotlight

House Lawmakers Push Ban on Peer-to-Peer Software Stung by an embarrassing electronic leak revealing ethics investigations into dozens of lawmakers, Congress moved to prohibit federal employees from using the file-sharing software blamed for the disclosure.   GAO: Los Alamos Computer Security Has Weaknesses Security weaknesses uncovered in Los Alamos National Laboratory's computer network increase the risk of a classified-information breach, says the Government Accountability Office.   Computer Security Firm Fortinet Plans IPO This Week Fortinet plans to go public in an initial public offering, giving investors a chance to tap a network security provider with sales that are expected to grow. The IPO could be valued at $137.5 million or more.

Enterprise Hardware Spotlight

Flat Shipments Hurt Dell Despite Increased Earnings Dell's earnings are up and expectations are solid, but the company's stock still took a hit after analysts signaled the company isn't playing a key role in the PC market recovery.   New Pogoplug 'Personal Cloud' Does Social Networking Cloud Engines has released its newest version of the Pogoplug, a small "multimedia sharing device" that connects hard drives to the Internet and allows a user to access the files remotely.   Apple Tablet Rumored Delayed as Publisher Gears Up There have been so many rumors of an Apple tablet that it has taken on legendary status. But now the legend is being revised with reports of a delay and that a major publisher is getting ready.

Enterprise Technology Spotlight

Flat Shipments Hurt Dell Despite Increased Earnings Dell's earnings are up and expectations are solid, but the company's stock still took a hit after analysts signaled the company isn't playing a key role in the PC market recovery.   Smartphones: A Bigger Target for Security Threats Smartphones are increasingly prevalent and adept at handling more tasks, including trading stocks, paying bills, and buying stuff online. That makes them attractive to thieves and hackers.   FBI Says Hackers Targeting Law Firms, PR Companies Hackers are targeting law firms and public relations companies with a sophisticated e-mail scheme that breaks into their computer networks to steal sensitive data, often linked to large corporate clients.

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