cIndeed it's not, and there are too many horror stories out there we're all familiar with. As Welch says "complaints of impersonal, one-size-fits-all service still exist and agent turnover is high, which further exacerbates service problems."

She writes on what she calls "the latest foray in improving and personalizing the call center experience," or RAMP -- Real-Time Analytics Matching Platform. This uses "advanced analytics to match a caller with the best customer service representative in real time." Writing from her base in Atlanta, she tells of a local specialty insurance provider Assurant Solutions, which is part of Assurant, Inc., and "invented the techniques in 'back room efforts to problem-solve,' according to Cameron Hurst, vice president of Assurant’s Targeted Solutions of Assurant." 

In March TMC's Jayashree Adkoli wrote that IBM (News - Alert) announced the company’s new service, the “Real-Time Analytics Matching Platform” or “RAMP,” which uses "????advanced analytics to match a caller with the optimal customer service representative in real-time.

In addition, the company partnered with Assurant Solutions, a part of Assurant, Inc. and a specialty insurance provider, in order to reinvent call center experience by using analytics, Adkoli wrote at the time: "With the help of RAMP, Assurant Solutions call centers were able to increase customer retention, increase sales yields and decrease agent attrition."

How good is it? “It’s the eHarmony of business call centers,” Hurst told Welch. “You want to make the best match and you want to do it right the first time. The more real data you can get about both parties in real time, the better the match and the chance for success.”

Industry experts cited by Welch say RAMP helps "increase customer retention and satisfaction, boost sales, decreases agent attrition and increase profitability by using a combination of customer insight, agent profiles and real-time analytics."