Spring is just around the corner (though it may not feel like it in parts of the country), and many companies are ramping up to introduce new and revised products and announce partnerships and other activities in the call center services space. Some of the most important for this week include the following:
There is a lot to choose from in the contact center marketplace, and most IP contact centers offer different features sets and different benefits. Evaluating them can feel like comparing apples to oranges. What’s right for the organization will depend on what the company’s goals are for adopting an IP contact center solution, and Nemertes Research recently provided some intelligence to help budget-conscious contact centers choose.
Voice applications in British Telecom’s recorded information delivery equipment, or RIDE, system is powered by LumenVox automatic speech recognizer (ASR) solution. LumenVox (News - Alert) is a specialist in speech recognition software and solutions. The RIDE system is an in-network call termination platform that was supplied to BT by Teligent (News - Alert), which delivers voice service solutions to Tier 1 network operators in the UK.
The U.S. officially has a new call center outsourcing giant after Convergys Corporation reported that it has completed its acquisition of Stream Global Services, Inc. The $820 million merger was first announced in January. With the combination of the two companies under the Convergys umbrella, the resulting company will be the second largest call center services provider in the world, just after India’s Tata Consultancy (News - Alert) Services.
Symitar, a provider of core data processing and ancillary technology solutions for U.S. credit unions, announced it has chosen Adapt Telephony Services as its unified contact center partner serving credit unions. Adapt said that it is using the Interactive Intelligence Customer Interaction Center (CIC) all-in-one IP communications software in over 100 U.S. credit unions.
eLoyalty, a part of TeleTech (News - Alert)' s Customer Technology Services division, recently announced that Cisco has recognized the company with a Customer Satisfaction Excellence Gold Star for delivering outstanding customer service to customers in the United States.
Asurion, a company that provides technology protection services, recently announced that Microsoft (News - Alert) has named the company as the winner of the 2014 Productivity Award in Customer Care as part of the Microsoft Dynamics Customer Excellence Award.
A major state government agency has selected inContact to replace its on-premise systems with cloud contact center software, the company has announced. The new state government customer is seeking to improve citizen satisfaction and reliability for more than 100 agents in its service operations. As part of the pact, inContact will provide a 100 percent, end-to-end cloud solution that includes contact center routing plus workforce optimization (WFO), CRM integration and connectivity.
Even with a outsourced contact center services provider that is reputable and has offered other clients good experiences, that company might not be right for your business. It may not fit your corporate culture, or it may be unwilling to conform to your company’s established business practices, according to a recent paper published by outsourced contact center services provider Blue Ocean. For this reason, it’s critical that companies understand how to craft a request for proposal (RFP) that can determine if the company is a good fit.
In a report from Research and Markets titled "Opportunities in a Mature Contact Center Market," it was recently noted that contact center seats will shrink from 4.1 million in 2012 to four million by 2017, because demand for both inbound and outbound contact centers is expected to gradually decline in North America. But even so, it doesn’t hear alarm bells ringing.
Today's customers have many options when it comes to contacting call centers. This point was proven by a recent benchmarking report that found electronic messaging and smartphone applications are the preferred method of contact, with the telephone being the third most popular choice, being used only as a tool of last resort by Generation Y.
Not content to rest on the laurels of success with its previous call centers in Latin and Central America, StarTek, a major BPO player, has been strategizing to further expand its near-shore footprint. This time it chose the city of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, to add another center, the first one being in San Pedro Sula, also in that region.
That’s all for this week in call center services. See you again next week!