Call Center Software | Virtues of Web 2.0 Technologies in Contact Centers | Envision
Feb 26, 2009

Virtues of Web 2.0 Technologies in Contact Centers
Posted by: Jim Shulkin

A recent article posted to tmcnet.com by Susan Campbell discusses recent assertions from industry analyst and research firm Datamonitor on the growing and impending utilization of various Web 2.0 and social networking tools within the contact center, as well as some of the benefits thereof. It’s an interesting read for those of you wondering how all of these relatively still new, and largely only thought of as “social sites,”  such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook and many others could be made useful and valuable to the mission and operations of the contact center.
 
Datamonitor is not alone, nor are they the first to suggest the evolution for Web 2.0 tools into the contact center will soon be upon us. It’s a topic that’s gained more and more steam in the past 6 months. In fact, if you’d like to hear more, we put on a Webinar with Paul Stockford from Saddletree Research on the very topic late last year. You can view the recorded webcast here.   
 
Virtues of Web 2.0 Technologies in Contact Centers - 12:00 AM | Call Center Best Practices | Add Comment (0) |
Feb 20, 2009

Critical Customer Information
Posted by: Jim Shulkin

In a recent article posted by Lora J Adrianse, she proposed some interesting questions regarding the profiling of customers. I thought many of them were particularly relevant, especially given the times we’re living in and how important it is to service and retain customers.
 
One of Envision’s core principles is to be “customer-centric,” and it’s fairly obvious, but a critical prerequisite to that is understanding your customers. In fact, we’ll have a new white paper authored by Dick Bucci published shortly on this very topic that better defines what “customer centricity” in the contact center really means and delivers some prescriptions on how to achieve and sustain it (it’s a great read, so we’ll definitely post when it’s available). There are some very direct correlations between some points made in the paper and some of the customer profiling questions Lora posed in her article, including those listed below.
 
What other customer profiling questions are important in your business?   
 
Customer Value - How much do they spend with you in a month or a year?

Top 10 or 20 Percent - Who are the top 10 or 20 percent of your most valuable customers? These are your "gold" customers. Know who they are and treat them accordingly.

Why They Choose You - Why do they keep doing business with you? If you're not sure about what you're doing right, how will you know what to keep doing? Ask them!

Where They Came From - How did they find you? If you know where they came from you can go back for more customers just like them.

Who They Brought With Them - What new business have they brought you? Who have they referred you to? Referrals are like automatic deposits in your bank account. Find out who is making the deposits.

How You Thanked Them – If you don't currently use a simple system to thank your customers, start now! Customers who feel appreciated are easier to retain, and better yet they will reciprocate with referrals.

Deal Breakers - This is the most overlooked bit of critical data. If you've lost customers or just haven't seen them in a while (and it happens to all of us), find out what's going on. Most customers will welcome the opportunity to tell you, especially if something went wrong. What you don't know can hurt you!
 
Lora Adrianse is a person of many talents who is passionate about inspiring and contributing to the growth and development in others. For more info visit: http://www.connectionscoach.com.
 
Critical Customer Information - 12:00 AM | Call Center Best Practices | Add Comment (0) |