It’s the end of another busy week, and time to take a look at some of the top stories we’ve been following in the world of call center services.
At the start of the week, we learned the Mitel (News - Alert) had delivered an enhanced customer service contact center solution to the South Lakeland and Eden District Councils in Cumbria, England. The solution lets home-based employees connect with a Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync-based solution in the central office, giving them the same resources they’d have access to if they were working in the office.
One of the most important contact centers a person may have to deal with is the 911 system and similar emergency services throughout the world. With the proliferation of mobile devices, it’s important for 911 operators to be able to find callers. A study of Washington D.C. has found that that doesn’t always happen. The Washington Post reported that 90 percent of 911 calls lacked complete location data.
The demand for cloud-based contact center solutions continues to grow, according to a survey commissioned by Magnetic North. The survey found that customers wanted consistency across different channels, and a centralized cloud-based system seemed to be the best solution, as well as the cost savings that come from moving to the cloud.
There’s nothing more annoying than getting put on hold, but a study by ClickSoftware found that it costs money. The company claims that hold times cost the U.S. economy $108 billion in lost productivity.
Call center employees, particularly those working in fields like healthcare, often deal with sensitive information such as customer financial and health information. An accidental breach at Access Health in Connecticut shows the dangers. An employee simply walked out with some customer data in a backpack with customers addresses and Social Security numbers. Fortunately, the employee realized the mistake and returned the document before it could fall into the wrong hands.
Speaking of healthcare, inContact announced that it had a new customer in the market. It didn’t name the company, but said that it had more than 100 agents and fielded more than 5,000 interactions per day. It chose inContact to get more features while reducing its costs.
Be sure to follow Contact Center Services for all the latest news and to catch up on the news you might have missed.