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10/6/05 - Why We Benchmark - Part II
Yesterday, I shared the first of two reasons why people benchmark. Today I will share the second reason. In review, the first reason people benchmark is to show management how well they are doing compared to other call centers. In a way, it's like saying, "I know customers might not like our service, but at least we are better than others."
The second reason people benchmark is to show they are operationally below benchmark comparisons in order to justify to management the need for additional investments. It is a way to say, "We could be as good as others if only we had additional resources."
In both cases, the primary objective of benchmarking is to sway management's view of the call center. It seems the focus is on comparisons to others rather than focusing on the expectations of their customers. And that bothers me. Obviously, it bothers many of you. The rest of this week I will begin sharing how your fellow readers feel about this subject. Stay tuned - much more to follow.
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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SafeHarbor announced its partnership with RightAnswers. Through this alliance, SafeHarbor clients and business partners will have access to RightAnswers' Knowledge-Pak libraries, which provide more than 120,000 answers to common problems faced by service and support personnel, help desk technicians and employees.
Genesys has been chosen by Banco Rió to transform the Banco Rió call center into a multimedia contact center. This investment will enable Banco Rió to offer current and potential customers more service options, including advanced customer self-service.
Pervasive Software announced a growing number of independent software vendors (ISVs) across Europe, notably IRIS Enterprise Software, have recently implemented Pervasive's embedded integration solutions for packaged application vendors to help them compete with a single turnkey solution to the entire range of data migration and integration challenges.
Financial Database Services (FDBS) has teamed up with Scherrer's Web Ally CRM offering for its front office, enterprise customer relationship management (eCRM) platform for its clients who are money managers, broker dealers, account managers, and assistants. This partnership and the added CRM functionality installation is part of the Financial Database Services (FDBS) continued expansion of its CAESAR System.
StayinFront announced an alliance with New Jersey-based BusinessEdge Solutions to provide life sciences companies with CRM services and solutions.
RightNow announced that businesses around the world used its on demand CRM solutions in more than one billion customer interactions since 2003.
Avaya announced that Allstate Insurance Company has deployed Avaya Internet protocol (IP) telephony solutions to new locations in the U.S. and Canada. Avaya's IP-based contact center applications, powered by the Avaya Customer Interaction Suite, are used by Allstate to manage customer calls and route them intelligently based on customer-entered criteria.
CRM Magazine has recognized FrontRange Solutions as a market leader in two categories in its 2005 CRM Leader Awards. FrontRange GoldMine software is honored in the "Small Business Suite CRM" category for its broad range of CRM functions and immense customer following. Editors also recognized GoldMine in the "Sales Force Automation" category, highlighting its ability to integrate with other business systems.
IEX was named the recipient of the Best of Show Award for its TotalView Workforce Management system. Best of Show Awards honor exhibitors and products with the greatest potential to change the future of the contact center industry.
ClientLogic announced that it has signed a business partnership with Visage Mobile to provide outsourced customer care to its Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). As Visage Mobile's preferred customer care provider, ClientLogic will provide customized and branded customer service to participating MVNOs to help them begin interacting with their wireless customers.
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 FEATURE WEBCAST (more) |
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"From Tactical to Strategic: The Workforce Optimization Maturity Model"
Bill Durr, Principal Solutions Consultant, Witness Systems
Asking about the maturity of a contact center is certainly a delicate matter. But it is a question that has to be asked. In this webcast, we explore a maturity model that gives you new insights into your own organization and explores how you can make your contact center a change agent for the entire business. What you will hear will help you move from a tactical to strategic way of thinking, especially in the area of workforce optimization. So if you are dealing with the unprecedented pressures brought on by the Internet, hyper-competition, and voice over IP along with the familiar demands of cost-cutting and employee retention, this webcast is for you. Register now to receive your complimentary copy of Witness' latest white papers: "Reinvention of Workforce Management" and "Reinvention of Quality Monitoring."
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 41.68 |  | -1.53% |
| Dow Jones | 10,317.36 | | -1.20% |
| Nasdaq | 2,103.02 | | -1.73% |
| S&P 500 | 1,196.39 | | -1.51% |
| Top Gainers |
| Sykes | 13.42 |  | 1.08 |
| Astea | 8.19 | | 0.69 |
| Teletech | 10.42 | | 0.49 |
| Top Losers |
| West Tel | 36.44 | | -1.17 |
| HP | 27.47 | | -1.08 |
| Verint | 38.26 | | -0.75 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 10/05/05 | |
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 Case Studies (more)
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Kronos Incorporated with Citrix GoToAssist - Citrix GoToAssist interfaces with Kronos' internal products and provides a strong support solution for Kronos. Key benifits that Kronos sees include reduced costs while improving quality of service, increased customer satisfaction and loyalty, improved first-call resolution, measured success with comprehensive reporting functionality, and Citrix can have someone up and running within 48 hours with no additional infrastruction needed.(Citrix Online)
|  | | Stellar Call Centres Improves Operational Effeciency - With Verint' ULTRA suite of Contact Center Actionable Intelligence Solutions, Stellar Call Centers increased the effectiveness of its quality management program, improved operational efficiency and enhanced the value of its offerings. This has translated into better service for customers and a sharper competitive advantage.(Verint Systems)
| | | Barrie Hydro Adds Energy to its Help Desk with LiveTime - The implementation of LiveTime Help Desk has allowed Barrie Hydro to benefit from built-in reporting.(LiveTime)
| | | Bank of America with IEX - Customer satisfaction scores have exceeded the bank associates goals as a result of using adherence scores as an incentive for identifying behavior that exceed team goals.(IEX Corporation, a Tekelec Company)
| | | Witness Helps 4 Wheel Parts - By deploying eQuality ContactStore for IP within its Cisco converged voice and data environment, 4 Wheel Parts has been able to achieve the following results * Increased agent monitoring efficiency by 30 percent * Increased sales and order volume by eight percent * Enhanced training and development program.(Witness Systems)
| | | MessageOne Improves Salesforce.com with InsideScoop - Sales users are no longer spending time to copy and paste date into Salesforce.com. Instead, they get all the research they need for companies and contacts right at their fingertips.(InsideScoop, Salesforce.com)
| | | LifeWay Improves Contact Center - Learn how the ULTRA suite of Contact Center Actionable Intelligence Solutions helped LifeWay improve agent performance, enhance customer experience, and increase revenue through cross-sell, up-sell and new products and services based on identified customer needs.(Verint Systems)
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"OUR TAKE"