Craig Borowski (Research Associate at Software Advice, that offers call center software comparisons) in his survey data outlines the reasons why should a company offer callback instead of making customers wait on phone impatiently. 63% of respondents prefer call back instead of waiting on phone. 43% of them expect a callback within half hour whereas 25% said it does not matter when the call was returned. Thus three measures to eradicate the problems are: Introducing an intelligent call back system such as Virtual Hold Technology (VHT). Allowing the use of applications like FastCustomer and help it to navigate the IVR. The best solution possibly would be to launch a new phone system altogether. If callback emerges as a growing technology it will eliminate the frustration among the customers of waiting long and increase customer satisfaction and call center productivity. Read more at : http://inovasolutions.com/blog/post/contact-center-callback-services-are-improving-customer-service.

The most recently developed modern call center has emerged with so much of technology usage from cloud to Customer Relationship Management and Integrated Voice Response with new phrases catching up on people’s minds. It can be compared to an Oxford dictionary which gets 1000 new words added almost every year. There is always a need of new word to describe an innovation, idea or technology. These new words lead to puzzling communication. Thus the need of the hour is a jargon busting guide. Some examples are COLO which stands for Colocation. It refers to the service where data can be stored by a host company in a third party data center. For access to the whole guide visit: http://www.newvoicemedia.com/blog/understanding-the-modern-call-centre-our-jargon-busting-guide/#colo

IVVR ( Interactive Voice And Video Response) which was once thought as a revolutionary technology has lost its grasp and nobody is interested in it anymore. Cloud telephony as well as hosted IVR services seems to have substituted it. Most of the Value Added Service providers are moving towards cloud telephony to provide corporate IVR services. But, in India it has to face a lot of difficulties. Till date, 3G technology has still not covered a majority of India and so even video calls are difficult leave alone IVVR. Also WhatsApp has become more popular and people prefer using it. Moreover, smart phones generally have a good quality camera but not speaker which makes it inefficient for IVVR. Hope that with the launch and greater spread of newly launched 4G IVR can gain its position back in India. Read more at: http://www.ivrsworld.com/ivvr-2/ivvr-failed-to-make-any-impact-in-india/#more-2372 http://www.ivrsworld.com/ivvr-2/ivvr-failed-to-make-any-impact-in-india/#more-2372

According to a survey, which polled more than 13000 customers across 33 countries and 10 industries, showed that contact centers undermine the importance of customer service and hence dissatisfy them. 91 percent of customers complain that they have to contact the company several times for the same problem. 90 percent do not like to be put on hold. 89 percent report being frustrated about having to repeat their problems several times. Companies should start providing best class customer service so that they do not have to face same pitfalls with customer retention every time. To avoid call waiting, a cloud router should be used for automatically transferring  call to the next agent. Companies should invest in real time reporting software so that they have full interaction history of a customer when they call. Read more at: at:http://www.callcentertimes.com/Articles/tabid/59/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/407/CategoryID/1/NewsID/783/Default.aspx 

Online chat is a better option compared to other customer service strategies like an email exchange or a personalized phone call. For live chat, some essential criteria have to be considered. First, it is important to ensure that the client or the user is registered on the company's website as all chat sessions would originate from the website of the company. Second, it is also important to know that whether inquiries being received are quick to answer or are detailed inquiries in order to continue with at least three chat sessions at a time. Third, the basic requirement is to have an operator during live chat sessions. Due to live chat sessions, a knowledge base of prepared responses gets build up which benefits in responding to customers faster and re-type the same answer, and thus there is a consistent communication between the company and customer. Read more at: http://managementhelp.org/blogs/customer-service/2010/06/04/customer-service-strategies-live-chat/ 

This is the 21st century and here everyone expects more from business interactions. Call center analytics is an efficient and quick way to gauge its overall approach to Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Earlier, call recordings were thought to be an approach for analyzing customer demands. But due to its shortcomings like delays in recording and transcribing, has open doors to new methods. Every company seeks for newer methods to differentiate their customer service experience and optimizing it to the fullest level. A recent example is of Amazon Mayday Functionality which promises help from a real person with prior knowledge of functionality and the service is delivered with high quality video experience. With visual demonstrations it is easier to resolve the problems sometimes in matter of seconds. The greatest contribution for this technology is made by WebRTC supported on desktops and even android phones. It has proved itself successful providing the customers with the best they deserve. Read more about this aspect in Ashley Unitt (founder of NewVoiceMedia)'s article link: http://www.mewvoicemedia.com/blog/contace-centre-innovations

There are three modes of services available for customers, namely e-mail, live chat, and phone. Each of them has their own positives and negatives. E-mails are cheapest,\ and extremely useful for connecting globally. If solutions are not required immediately this can be the best platform with clear and written solutions, which are transferable. Customers do not have to deal with foreign accents or “on hold” waiting. Customers feel their importance and in this way a number of customers can be handled simultaneously. On the other side phone calls are better for people who want immediate support and are less technological forward. They get the solutions immediately and feel that their business is being appreciated. A helpful voice can calm and assure customers. Internet connection is not required. The type of medium selected depends on the type of client one faces. Usually sue to the fact that there can be multiple types of customers providing different forms of consumer support mediums is usually the best solution. Read more at:http://ezinearticles.com/?Email,-Phone-Or-Live-Chat-Support---How-to-Best-Serve-Your-Customers&id=3518663

Customer satisfaction is an important necessity for any organization to retain customers. Few basic rules of customer service includes firstly, integrity, the service provider should be honest and commit to the mistakes and also communicate ideas to correct such follies and such mistakes in future. Secondly, there is response time. It is essential that the customer service provider is able to explain the mistakes of the company through one to one communication or through e-mails in case of large customer circle in an effective way. Thirdly, there is realistic expectation. It is necessary that the consumers are satisfied with company's promises and delivery to retain customers in the long run. Thus, under promise and over deliver is the best policy. Fourthly we have respect. For customer satisfaction it is very important to respect and appreciate them and uphold their point of view. Hence these basic rules should be followed by any business house. Read more at :http://managementhelp.org/blogs/customer-service/2010/04/12/customer-service-basics/  

Customer contact centers fulfil different functions according to the organization they serve and the industry that they function in. Regardless of their objectives, the focus should be on the customer - meeting expectations, enhancing service levels and improving satisfaction. Contact centers are finding it necessary to add more communication channels to their platforms in order to get in touch as easily as possible. Customer satisfaction and performance levels remain among the most important tenets of any call center and the market is changing to address customer communication needs. Technologies like unified communications will be playing a greater role in going forward.

 To know more about this aspect, read the article by Mike England, content director of Imago Techmedia, follow http://www.callcentrehelper.com/customers-driving-unified-communications-55759.htm

Outsourcing has turned up as the most competent business strategy for getting non-core business functions taken care of by experts. India has captured the position of unchallenged outsourcing hub of the world. Some of the reasons behind the increasing demand are:

1. Low cost solution

2. More profits for businesses

3. Availability of talented resources

4. Favourable government policies

To gather more insight on each of the reasons visit http://www.callcentersindia.com/displaynews.php?idnews=319_Why_Outsourcing_Call_Centers_To_India_Is_In_Demand

The benefits of cloud-based ERP systems are well known. These solutions involve far less upfront investment, can be implemented in weeks instead of months or years & can be treated as operating expenditure rather than capital expenditure. Scalability is another advantage of cloud based ERP systems. However, if cloud based ERP solutions had no snags, then premise-based solutions would have disappeared years ago. As this is not the case, it’s worth examining the drawbacks of the SaaS model in ERP, which translate to the strengths of the premise-based model.

For a detailed view on this debate, please visit Tracey Schelmetic’s article link as given below:

http://www.thomasnet.com/journals/techtrends/articles/enterprise-resource-planning-better-on-premise-or-cloud-based

Nowadays businesses are adopting cloud computing technology to enhance customer satisfaction in call centers. This technology helps the employees by providing updated information about the customers which allow them to easily manage customer needs. A cloud based call center also offers better return on investment. The employees can access the cloud from anywhere with an internet connection which helps in reducing costly on-site installations.
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For more information follow

https://www.fonality.com/industry-news/what-are-benefits-moving-call-center-cloud

Laura Noonan, Marketing team lead at CallFinder, talks about how important  it is to monitor the call center agents for providing customer satisfaction. She also emphasized that the companies must also provide equal priority to employees, ensuring the satisfaction with their role. She also speaks about the different advantages of monitoring calls between the customers and agents.

For more information follow

http://www.callcentertimes.com/Home/tabid/37/ctl/NewsArticle/mid/395/CategoryID/1/NewsID/723/Default.aspx

An article by Omar Zaibak, Head of Marketing at VoiceTrust specializing in B2B demand generation, talks about the latest trends of the call center industry which will help to improve customer experience. Some of them are – Social Media, Voice of the Customer, Cloud Migration, Voice Biometrics.

For more Information please follow

http://www.voicetrust.com/blog/top-10-call-center-trends-2014/

Outsourcing is an important dimension in this modern era of business, which is responsible for the execution and the handling of specific operational tasks. It allows an organization to allocate its full resources to its core area of interest, instead of deploying a substantial amount of resources in order to achieve specific operational tasks. Outsourcing provides strategic flexibility to an organization, apart from enabling it with a sense of concentrated focus towards its core playing field. 

With the Cloud services in offer, Globalization as its advantage, with competitive offerings from various outsourcing vendor organizations, Outsourcing is the taste of the time we are currently living in.

It is a bulls-eye strategy from an organizational perspective. 

Follow this link for a complete view on this aspect

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&ved=0CFAQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fast.umich.edu%2Fpdfs%2FWhat-is-shared-services-102811.pdf&ei=8ewMU4GJNYazrgfetIDICQ&usg=AFQjCNFMU-Vool8nS2YKrDuPULXGevM80w&bvm=bv.61965928,d.bmk