Requires Free Membership to View
The Real-Time Contact Center
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Written by: Donna Fluss
Published by: AMACOM
Practically speaking, all contact centers that handle live inquiries from customers, partners,
investors, or prospects are real-time organizations and always have been. However, a real-time
contact center is designed to take advantage of every customer-initiated transaction in real time
or nearreal time, either when the customer is on the line or immediately thereafter, within time
frames established by the customer, to ensure a great experience and complete satisfaction. It's a
service and sales environment where, after the initial customer inquiry or sales request has been
addressed, the agent or self-service system uses the information provided by the customer, in real
time, to extend the relationship.
READ AN EXCERPT
MORE ON THE CONTACT
CENTER
Succeeding with Open Source
Written by: Bernard Golden
Published by: Addison-Wesley Professional
Open source is software that has source code available to its users. It can be downloaded at will
and used or modified as desired, as long as its license requirements are observed. This differs
significantly from commercial, or proprietary, software, which is distributed only in binary format
to ensure that its intellectual property remains privately held by the software creators.
Commercial software is delivered in frozen form: It must be used as delivered.
Open source products are usually also available in binary form so that they can be used on
common operating systems without needing to be compiled first. Of course, not every operating
system will have a binary available, but the source code makes it possible for the product to be
compiled for any operating system that does not have a binary version available.
READ AN EXCERPT
MORE
ON EVALUATING CRM TECHNOLOGY
The CRM Handbook
Written by: Jill Dyche
Published by: Addison-Wesley Professional
Planning a CRM program can be as simple as building consensus over a series of meetings with key
stakeholders who all have a vested interest in keeping customers. Or it can be as complex as
launching a multi-month project to gather requirements from across the company, interview
stakeholders, and draft a game plan, working with staff members might not have ever heard of CRM.
Whatever its scope, planning a CRM program is rarely as straightforward as it first seems.
The fact is, CRM begets change, and change isn't just a by-product of CRM -- it's one of the
goals. Trouble is, many managers consider change to be a simple signature on a statement of work or
a simple "yes." But change is just more than a point-in-time approval or edict, it's an ongoing
sales job. There's a lot more to CRM planning than simply drafting a project plan.
READ AN EXCERPT
MORE
ON MEASURING CRM ROI
Return on Customer
Written by: Don Peppers and Martha Rogers
Published by: Currency
In their upcoming breakthrough book, noted authors Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, Ph.D., answer
today's foremost business question: What's the right balance between current profit and long-term
value? Excessive focus on the short term has led not only to a rash of business scandals, but also
to a culture of bad management and poor corporate governance. Nevertheless, current profit is still
important, and investing now to achieve long-term value is hard to reconcile with the need for
immediate results. Without doubt, answering this single question is each and every CEO's primary
responsibility.
READ AN EXCERPT
PURCHASE THIS
BOOK
MORE ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY AND MANAGEMENT
This was first published in August 2005
Join the conversationComment
Share
Comments
Results
Contribute to the conversation