tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4357903444261215192012-01-13T18:14:49.540-05:00A blog about contact center optimization, technology, operations, training, management and business development.Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.comBlogger381100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-56910199003658885632010-09-03T11:59:00.004-04:002010-09-03T12:11:14.853-04:00

Or so says Gallup in their description of world-class companies that utilize Customer Engagement (CE) strategies and measure their CE efforts. Furthermore, Gallup has developed an Engagement ratio that can provide companies with "a macro-level indicator of an organization's health that allows executives to track the proportion of fully engaged to actively disengaged customers".

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-77884592883373656582010-08-11T12:13:00.008-04:002010-08-13T09:05:36.270-04:00

You've surely heard about the Jet Blue flight attendant, Steve Slater, who recently quit his job in grand fashion after a bust-up with an apparently rude passenger. If you're unaware of this story, then you're living under a rock, or your tv is broken and your internet connection is down, or you have no friends, or you're not alive!As much as I can understand the humorous nature of the act, and

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-87678046253108462652010-08-11T11:28:00.003-04:002010-08-11T11:36:16.196-04:00

Every business owner needs to know these 23 facts about customer loyalty and customer satisfaction, as compiled and presented by Adele Somers at Return on Behavior Magazine.Organized in five categories, Somers provides compelling information that business owners need to keep in mind as they develop or enhance their customer engagement strategies.Facts about customer experiences and referralsFacts

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-15673285900736789182010-07-22T13:49:00.003-04:002010-07-22T14:02:02.034-04:00

Theo Papadakis, customer engagement consultant at cScape, London, UK, provides an overview of customer engagement definitions where he begins with definitions of CE created by companies and then offers definitions from "individual thinkers".While Theo and others define customer engagement as a concept, Interactive Softworks has developed software that enables customer engagement through direct

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-83939855137678319462010-07-16T13:44:00.006-04:002010-07-16T13:46:54.152-04:00

A new white paper from my company, Interactive Softworks, discusses a new model for customer engagement that is increasingly relevant for call centers of every size and focus.Download it.This white paper will discuss the six steps to effective customer engagement, including embracing a true multichannel strategy, having smarter conversations, delivering seamless experiences for delighted

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-51495082571754045282009-05-11T23:11:00.001-04:002009-05-11T23:12:07.550-04:00

Sorry folks - I have been swamped and simply haven't had the time to blog recently. Hopefully I can get back to it soon. Until then, all the best.Type rest of the post here

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-29503525637664192372009-01-08T15:54:00.002-05:002009-01-08T16:12:11.002-05:00

1. Expect more from your dialerFor companies that place a premium on outbound calls, a predictive dialer makes agents more productive by auto-dialing, detecting answering machines, and connecting live agents to the right party. And while many call centers already have some type of system to accomplish these tasks, they must resolve to ensure they are using a system that cost-effectively meets

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-46095161576799061462009-01-05T14:27:00.000-05:002009-01-08T14:42:01.984-05:00

Penny Reynolds of the Call Center School is one smart cookie. Even though her list of the Top 20 Contact Center Metrics was originally published waaaaay back in 2006, it still holds water today and is worth a refresher here in early January, 2009. 

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-43194400161514172472008-12-01T14:15:00.004-05:002008-12-01T14:36:36.955-05:00

I get a lot of "end of year deal" offers where software and services vendors offer specials if I conduct business with them before the end of the year. I'm sure you get these offers, too - this is not a new sales technique.But in a down economy there are real potential savings that can be obtained by taking-up such an offer from a vendor. Of course you have to go through the same vetting process

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-84722302423997856552008-10-16T12:00:00.008-04:002008-10-16T14:21:58.709-04:00

While at the American Teleservices Association's annual convention & expo, held this year in San Antonio, I couldn't help but notice that the crowd was much, much smaller than previous years. I'm sure the troubled US economy played a role in making it a leaner affair, not to mention the fact that SOCAP's annual convention was taking place at the same time! But I did hear quite a few conversations

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-2203135635762899562008-09-04T14:04:00.003-04:002008-09-04T14:13:45.676-04:00

Chrome, Google's new browser, has not delivered a very shiny performance for me so far. In fact, it doesn't work. At all!I eagerly installed Chrome as soon as it was available (after Google 'mistakenly' announced it a day ahead of its intended release), and all I have ever seen of it is the "Aw, snap!" error message.I expected a lot better from Google, and this is a major disappointment.

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-23181484659492043372008-07-28T16:58:00.003-04:002008-07-28T17:02:21.863-04:00

Everyone knows that Dialogic is the defacto standard for call processing technology. Their "ONE EVENT" - which will occur October 20 to 22, 2008, in San Diego, California - is a great opportunity for call center folks to network with Dialogic executives and product specialists to gain technical knowledge, to obtain insights into technology transitions, and more.Here are details for the event:

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-87234057103588076142008-07-28T16:50:00.005-04:002008-07-28T16:55:08.830-04:00

Hey kids! The Avaya PDS User's Group is gearing up for their training summit and vendor expo coming in September.My company will be there to inform Avaya PDS users how they can maximize their dialer and other technology investments through integration made possible by our software.Hopefully soon I'll get a chance to interview one of the Avaya PDS Users Group board members and will publish a

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-34573453986500962642008-06-26T09:00:00.000-04:002008-06-25T16:51:16.243-04:00

Contact centers are now beginning to realize the value of a single interface through which their various team members (agents, supervisors, executives, even IT) can do their jobs, or at least significant portions of their jobs. This single interface is known as the unified desktop, as I previously blogged.The difference between my initial post and this new one is that previously I was focusing on

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-74277103587087206822008-06-25T14:26:00.003-04:002008-06-25T15:37:49.876-04:00

CP Wire recently published an article outlining 10 trends in the contact center. They do a decent job of describing the activities of forward-thinking contact centers, and the ideas here are very similar to my own posts.

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-75840543414987332062008-05-27T12:33:00.007-04:002008-05-27T12:47:22.890-04:00

Along the lines of what I described in my recent posts, Collection Advisor Magazine's columnist Brian Cutler lists voice broadcasting (basically the same as outbound IVR) as one of the top three methods for cutting the cost of generating collections in this troubled economy. The article, "Cutting Costs of Collection Using Technology During Hard Times" is a PDF, so you'll be viewing it in a

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-59502228073559497182008-05-23T13:49:00.005-04:002008-05-23T13:54:07.746-04:00

I hosted my first podcast for The Evolving Contact Center. This episode (about 5 minutes total) is all about right party contact for the collections industry. I interviewed Rick Novak, a long-time contact center consultant, and he offers some great info about how companies use RPC as a strategy to collect more debt. He also talks about integration with Avaya PDS (predictive dialer) systems.

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-15030596855500640662008-05-12T15:30:00.003-04:002008-05-12T15:36:07.862-04:00

Here's an interesting idea for companies to notch-up customer service efforts using their existing call center investments: proactive customer service using outbound IVR. When you bring on a new customer account, send an automated outbound call with a pre-recorded "thank you" message, and give the customer a menu of options to further interact with your company. If one option is to speak with a

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-37117726131780943802008-05-12T14:53:00.012-04:002008-05-12T15:36:20.209-04:00

Times may be tough for many businesses in the current economic downturn, but collections agencies are thriving as delinquencies no doubt increase. And as debt collectors mobilize to collect from their delinquent accounts, the competition will be keen. Smart collections agencies can gain the competitive edge if they automate the collections process and adopt a Right Party Contact strategy.

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-91692281991215717072008-04-25T14:41:00.005-04:002008-04-25T15:48:06.456-04:00

...so, I've copied the text straight from Fred's blog, FredonTech.In effect, when a business organization is presented with a solution from their technology team which appears to be a proposal to build an entire infrastructure and not a proposal to start solving their business needs immediately, they need to be concerned about the total time to solution and the hidden costs associated with the

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-6761194405815773172008-04-24T16:50:00.010-04:002008-04-25T10:50:05.848-04:00

Honestly, I have no particular horse in the race when it comes to hosted vs. premise-based solutions. My recommendation of one over the other would come from evaluating the business need and making a decision based on that. But there seems to be a bias for this model as evidenced by pro-hosting articles and research like this one that only refer to the hosted option, and repeat, ad nauseam, the

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-37056370241223785862008-04-22T11:12:00.005-04:002008-04-22T11:19:07.798-04:00

In an article about hosted or on-premise call centers, Cindy Waxer at InsideCRM posed a handful of considerations for comparing the two methods.While Cindy does a decent job of laying out the pros for each type of call center solution, there are some additional advantages to a premise-based solution that are not mentioned in her article, and call center managers should seriously consider these

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-46309037579762685022008-04-22T11:02:00.003-04:002008-04-22T11:20:03.548-04:00

Business is about making money. But revenue cannot be generated, nor can profits be achieved, without interactions—the essential and diverse business interchanges that facilitate every aspect of the buying, selling and delivery of goods and services. So a truer statement would be to say that business is about having interactions which, when done correctly, result in the generation of revenue and

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-55379623375433166262008-02-28T16:41:00.005-05:002008-03-06T20:22:00.069-05:00

Raj Wadhwani, president of Contact Center World, and his team have launched International Contact Center Week – a week of celebration and appreciation of the contact center industry at all levels scheduled to occur September 1st thru 8th.According to the website and an email campaign from Wadwhani & Co., CCW launched International Contact Center Week to promote the hard work and commitment put

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-44486854049776518922008-01-10T12:17:00.001-05:002008-02-28T16:40:08.726-05:00

Happy New Year! (10 days late, admittedly, but a happy one to you nonetheless).In 2008, the ContactCenteRevolution resolves to post more often, with relevant and timely information that can truly help and inform you contact center professionals out there. We also resolve to update the blog and start using some multimedia capabilities to make it more interesting (we're in the process of creating

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-51144797184537315592007-12-03T11:35:00.000-05:002007-12-03T11:38:27.679-05:00

Here are but a few useful tips to consider when purchasing contact center software:Carefully consider the differences between hosted and on-premise solutions. Each has their own merits depending on the business need, but dig deeper than the prevailing hype. Conventional wisdom seems to be that hosted solutions are attractive due to the supposed low-cost, up-front investment. However, when

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-57483193100935226952007-11-21T11:59:00.000-05:002007-11-21T14:45:51.899-05:00

Software as a Service (SaaS) is all the rage these days mostly because of the purported cost-savings and scalability aspects of contact center technologies. In my opinion, there are several SaaS contact center solutions that make perfect sense for any size call center: speech analytics (Nexidia is first on my list) , CRM (think salesforce.com, Siebel et al) are a few that come to mind.But the

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-64564183750960584602007-09-04T14:45:00.000-04:002007-11-21T12:27:19.049-05:00

Would you buy a car if it provided everything you wanted—powerful engine, fuel efficiency, sleek body, slick paint job and a CD player with 6-disc changer—but that required you and the other passengers to sit on the roof?Probably not.Of course these are ridiculous examples, but they make an important point for contact center managers to consider: technology should work in the way you need it to,

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-32240835016105795622007-08-02T12:00:00.000-04:002007-08-02T12:46:05.796-04:00

In "The US Contact Center Operational Review", a free study of over 200 contact center operations carried out by ContactBabel in association with the American Teleservices Association (ATA), they report some interesting reasons why outsourcers are, or are not, adopting hosted vs. premise-based solutions.Drivers for adopting hosted solutionAccording to the report, the main drivers for adopting a

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-9092606523557020232007-07-24T11:02:00.000-04:002007-07-24T13:12:25.154-04:00

I recently outsourced a telesales campaign with an onshore outsourcer to set-up sales appointments. The winning outsourcer did a fine job and the results were better than we expected (good contact rates, the list was accurate, etc.). It was a fairly low-tech campaign: we simply provided a script and a list and they gave us back reports and data files on a daily basis. So, it worked and we were “

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-43854071751346111672007-07-13T10:30:00.001-04:002007-07-13T10:42:08.140-04:00

Over at the Evolving Contact Center, a podcast series that I produce for Interactive Softworks, we do a monthly segment with The Call Center School on topics like IVR menu design, staff management, and verbal makeovers.In the most recent episode, Penny Reynolds, one of the founders of the The Call Center School, offers some crafty ideas for maximizing contact center productivity. This is a good

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-44460585070452742832007-06-15T12:30:00.000-04:002007-07-13T10:29:04.828-04:00

Contact centers are subjected to constant change: clients are forever updating, modifying and changing scripts, adding new projects, and introducing new sources of data that must be accessed to make an interaction be successful.And while it might seem the IT team would be victimized by such continuous fluctuation, its the agent who may suffer the worst. Without a unified, or consolidated desktop,

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-3182024838684353102007-05-29T13:58:00.000-04:002007-05-29T14:03:02.714-04:00

I was recently speaking to a friend of mine who is an IT professional at an outsourcing firm. To protect his anonymity, I’ll call him “Steve.” Steve’s company has multiple contact center facilities here in the US, and each of those centers has different telephony platforms and a bouillabaisse of partner, legacy and proprietary applications to connect with.I wasn’t surprised when Steve told me

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-21052306968218132622007-05-21T11:47:00.000-04:002007-05-21T12:00:43.292-04:00

In this YouTube video featuring "Greg the Architect", played by a doll (distant cousin of Ken Doll fame, perhaps?), Greg is tasked with implementing an SOA solution by his oppressed boss who is literally under the foot of "The Big Guy". Overwhelmed by the complexity of SOA and not-so-professional vendors, Greg is belittled, confused and ultimately yaks "SOA" in the toilet. A cute video from

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-44602254542840215562007-05-03T14:01:00.000-04:002007-05-03T14:54:29.077-04:00

I'm pleased to announce that my colleague, Fred White, a super-sharp technologist and all-around good guy, has published his new blog, Fred on Tech. His blog will feature trends, analysis and the latest, most interesting topics in the world of enterprise-level technology.

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-64404082509584770592007-04-26T11:46:00.000-04:002007-04-26T11:51:36.517-04:00

Don't you love it when a plan comes together? I start the Contact CenteRevolution on a Wednesday night, and by Thursday morning there's already an excellent blog from a very smart guy, Joe McKendrick, who writes about the advice from a very smart company, Gartner, that SOA is definitely the way to go. While Joe is referring to any industry, I hope contact center pros will keep their operations in

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-52200318817175912362007-04-26T01:03:00.000-04:002007-04-26T01:24:19.268-04:00

Virtual contact centers, also known as hosted contact centers, are being considered by more and more companies these days - either as replacement systems, seasonal/overflow solutions, or as a temporary solution while migrating to an on-premise platform.Decision-makers are attracted to the hosted model for very good reasons, a few of which are described here.First and foremost, Hosted solutions

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-435790344426121519.post-62596890338367923702007-04-26T00:35:00.000-04:002007-04-26T15:43:02.734-04:00

Welcome to the ContactCenteRevolution. This blog is dedicated to exploring all aspects of contact center management, with a keen focus on technology and operations.My name is Robb Duke, and I've worked in the contact center industry for the last 10 years or so. I've seen enough to have compiled some ideas about contact center optimization that will hopefully, one day, help fully achieve the

Robb Dukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06385861335267429764noreply@blogger.com0