Contact Center Challenges And Priorities

In late 2015, we conducted a simple survey that received input from 277 respondents on two fronts: the biggest challenges today and top priorities for 2016. Participants could identify three of each, with no ranking. Input came primarily from contact center leaders (65%), along with support analysts (10%), IT (8%), supervisors (7%), consultants (4%), and […]

Hip To Be Squared

“Unlike the pens in a pocket protector, mobile devices have the potential to be incredibly helpful or horribly intrusive.” A long, long time ago (in the 1980s) and in a land far, far away (San Francisco), there was a band called Huey Lewis and the News. Huey (real name) was a harmonica player, like yours […]

Is Email Still A Viable Channel For Your Center?

Everywhere you turn, there is a new app or a new social media tool popping up on smartphones, tablets and laptops. In turn, customer service is becoming more about what you have done for me now, not in one hour, four hours or one business day. It is just not enough! Phone calls may still […]

Agent Attrition: Time For A Change

“WELL, YOU KNOW, IT IS A CALL CENTER.” That phrase always seems to be uttered at some point when discussing turnover at a contact center. It suggests a certain resignation to a situation that is not only problematic on its own, but symptomatic of bigger issues in an organization. Ironically, the same people who often […]

What Is A Smarter IVR?

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems are only as intelligent as the information that they’re provided. The deployment of a smart system is a blend of art and science. The primary trait of a smarter IVR is that it contains a vision versus a sequential confederation of features. Smart IVRs are never complete: Just as your […]

Adding Value Through Mobile

People are passionate about their mobile devices, as demonstrated by the long lines that Apple Stores draw days before the debut of a new iPhone or iPad. Regardless of the brand, the release of each new smartphone model and operating system brings more features and capabilities to support consumers’ on-the-go lifestyles. Mobile technology is advancing […]

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    The Agent Attrition Mission

    Baptism by fire. That pretty much sums up the experience of new contact center agents. From day one, agents are expected to understand a wide array of products and services. They’re asked to produce measurable results in an increasingly diverse market, all with little guidance. The pressure is even greater for contact center managers tasked […]

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    Upgrade The Self-Service Experience

    Customers increasingly turn first to self-service to answer questions or solve problems. When they do, they value quick, easy access to relevant and accurate content so that they can find the information they need and get on with their lives. “There is a massive focus in the industry to try to push customers toward digital, […]

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    “Wathba Stallions Boosts Customer Experience with Altitude-powered Contact Centre”

    The Wathba Stallions and the HH Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Global Arabian Horse Flat Racing Festival have announced the launch of a best-in-class contact centre in Abu Dhabi. A tie-up with Ibtekkar, a key Altitude channel partner in UAE, has resulted in the successful implementation of the Altitude uCI 8 contact centre solution […]

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    Teleopti and Expertflow pool their workforce management expertise to tap new opportunities

    Teleopti and ExpertFlow, two leaders in the contact center industry, are pleased to combine their know-how to offer their customers the necessary tools to run their contact center efficiently. Building on 25 years of combined experience, this partnership will further benefit the long list of satisfied customers both companies have in the region. This list […]

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    INSIGHTS Awards Night Recognizes Regional Call Centre Excellence

    The INSIGHTS Middle East Call Centre Awards ’16 competition reached its conclusion recently in a fun-filled Gala Dinner evening held in Dubai.  The INSIGHTS Awards competition is an annual event that is now in its eleventh year and has seen the competition grow from just 3 winners in 2006 to a multi-faceted format that distinguishes […]

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    Teleopti celebrates 10 years in the Middle East

    Teleopti is celebrating it’s tenth year anniversary operating in the MENA region. It was in 2006 that Teleopti management team understood the need to expand its business into this fast evolving region, and within a year a representative office was opened. The results quickly exceeded expectations. The company started with just a couple of employees […]

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    Workforce Optimization In The Cloud: Types, Advantages, Adoption

    Many organizations are taking advantage of the cloud for information technology and business operations benefits, and workforce optimization (WFO)—the portfolio of solutions that typically includes interaction recording, quality management and learning, workforce management, performance management and emerging tools like gamification and various types of analytics—is no exception. That said, the cloud means different things to […]

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    It’s (Time For) A New Day In Authentication And Routing

    The entry point to the contact center—identification and verification (aka authentication), along with routing—is a make-or-break moment for the customer experience. All too often it is unpleasant at best, and downright irritating at worst. It is high time to stand the old thinking on its head and implement new approaches. Today’s technology gives us the […]

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    Contact Center Omnichannel: Wouldn’t It Be Nice

    This is a universal truth: If I played you the first two measures of the song “California Girls,” you would be able to name that Beach Boys tune in those 16 notes regardless of the year of your birth. There’s something about Beach Boys music that transcends time. I have a DVD of the Beach […]

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    Accelerant For Growth: Analyzing The Complete Voice Of The Customer

    “By predefining and using search capabilities to scour speech and text data, the contact center can enable more thorough call compliance to mitigate risk, identify mentions of legal action, and implement tactics to prevent future exposure.” Every day, the contact center is charged with listening to the voice of the customer to provide the best […]

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    Contact Centre Outsourcing – Find The Answers & Partners You Need At MECC ’16

    In looking at the Outsourcing Service Providers (OSPs) participating at the MECC ’16 Exhibition and the Show pre-registration visitor’s list to date for interest in Outsourcing, it is clear that Contact Centre Outsourcing will be a major theme of the event, being held in Dubai on May 31 – June 1. The growth of Contact […]

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    CONFESSIONS OF AN ANALOG MAN IN A DIGITAL WORLD

    At one point in my life I had an epic collection of vinyl record albums. I even had the Beatles’ first album, “Meet the Beatles” that accidentally found its way from my dad’s record collection to mine. I had Nicolette Larson’s debut album, “Nicolette,” which reminds me to this day of her angelic voice and […]

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    SOME NICE NICHE TECHNOLOGIES

    Mainstream technologies get a lot of press. As the backbone of contact center operations, they’re on everyone’s radar and they need to function at peak efficiency. But we’d like to put the spotlight on a few niche technologies that we find intriguing. Here are a few of our favorites along with some key considerations and […]

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    PCCI Group appoints new HR Head

    PCCI Group, a leader in customer experience and operations outsourcing announced the appointment of David Olivier as its Chief Human Resources Officer. David comes into this role with diverse experience encompassing over 25 years. As a career diplomat, David has held foreign assignments in Cairo, establishing an Embassy from a zero base – the quintessential […]

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    Awards Deadline Day Has Passed But FLAGS Awards Still Available

    Everybody likes winning Awards but what do you do if you suddenly realize that you have left it too late to enter into the annual INSIGHTS Middle East Call Centre Awards event (as is now the case with March 31 being the submission deadline day this year) Well, some time ago, INSIGHTS introduced the FLAGS […]

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    Visiting MECC ’16 – Keep Up To Date With Industry Developments

    Here at INSIGHTS, we have just crossed a major milestone in the run-up to the annual Middle East Call Centre 2016 show (Summit, Exhibition & Awards event) and given the regional “downturn” (a term used generically to reflect the fall in oil revenues currently being experienced in the region), we were not quite sure what […]

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    Conversing Or Transacting?

    Contact centers come in all shapes and sizes. We have different ways to define them—sales vs. Service, virtual vs. brick and mortar, small vs. large, etc. To that list, I would like to add one more—conversational vs. transactional. “Visually, a transactional call looks like a straight line, while a conversational call has a number of […]

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    THE GAME IS AFOOT!

    “We balance probabilities and choose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination.” —SHERLOCK HOLMES, “The Hound of the Baskervilles” I doubt Sherlock Holmes would ever use the word “gamification,” even while under the influence of the seven percent solution of cocaine that he occasionally injects, as we discover in the story, […]

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