Outbound Call Center Week In Review

By David Delony
Contributing Writer

It’s the end of another work week and time to take a look at some of the top stories in the world of outbound call centers.

Avaya announced that it was making changes to its Connect Channel Partner program. Avaya (News - Alert) will change the criteria for its Silver, Gold and Platinum levels, as well as establish new Solutions Experts designations, such as for unified communications and contact centers. The changes are intended to help channel partners distinguish based on their expertise.

Apple is also making changes to its AppleCare+ program, according to Apple (News - Alert) employees. Apple is understandably tight-lipped about its internal operations, but the changes are apparently in line with upcoming new products. One of the forthcoming changes is extending the support period from 30 to 60 days after purchase. The company will also apparently push AppleCare+ through the iTunes store. Apple will also introduce a screen-sharing support feature in an upcoming iOS version, similar to the Mayday feature on Amazon’s new Fire smartphone, which some people are saying is the future of customer service.

Five9 has been recognized in the industry for its Summer Release 2014 suite of native multichannel applications.

"The tendency of customers to gravitate towards complex multichannel interactions makes it more important than ever for service providers like Five9 to provide a clean, simple way for enterprises to manage those interactions,” said Keith Dawson, principal analyst with Ovum (News - Alert). “With Five9 Connect and the other enhancements in this release, Five9 is helping produce a seamless, easy customer experience."

Even though we cover outbound telemarketing extensively, it can be annoying to people on the other end, as anyone who’s fielded a call at an (invariably) inopportune time can tell. That’s why there are laws that govern what telemarketers can and can’t do. The Minnesota Department of Commerce has fined Variable Marketing $191,185 for fraudulent robocalls selling insurance to customers claiming to be from the DMV. A lot of the bad actors are smaller “fly-by-night” operations but the big fine is a reminder to stay on the right side of the law.

The rest of the world has gone mobile, and Helpshift has released an SDK to help outbound customer service providers do the same. The SDK helps developers embed customer service functions into mobile applications. The company already has 150 installations worldwide and has raised $10 million in funding.

Be sure to follow the Outbound Call Center Community for the latest news and catch up on the articles you might have missed.