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10/26/05 - Benchmarking - What Really Matters
One reader wrote, "Why worry about what everyone or competitors are doing in your industry? Your callers and customers are generally only concerned about YOUR performance. Is your performance improving? If your customers are happy with the service, then they are not likely to move because of service issues."
He goes on to say, "Therefore in order to protect your margin, volume and revenue provide good service and improve your service relative to your own past performance. In other words, use your own baseline as the measure of performance and improvement. Benchmarks are at best guides and directional, NOT definitive standards."
The one point I want to highlight in this response is that benchmarking may be a guideline but it is not a replacement for the diligent work of continual process improvement tied to the customer experience. Looking at your operations from the perspective of the customer is always going to be more rewarding than from the perspective of a collection of other call centers. Do you agree?
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
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TODAY'S NEWS (more)
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Spoke Software announced the general availability of a new release of its on-demand application, Spoke 3.0. The latest release delivers a number of innovative new capabilities for sales and marketing professionals, including the ability to more effectively manage highly-targeted prospect lists, which speed the process of pipeline development and lead generation.
New research by database marketing company Total DM, amongst senior marketers within the top 1000 UK companies, has found that approximately one third of UK Plcs are making their loyalty schemes deliver consistently across all channels of communication with the customer - allowing an increasing number of companies to segment their customers and discretely influence their purchasing behaviour.
Verint announced that Spain's MetroValencia is deploying Verint's Networked Video Solution to enhance passenger security for the city of Valencia's commuter rail system.
Convergys announced the addition of the Convergys SpeechPort Open Hosting Environment (OHE) to its portfolio of speech and multi-channel technology solutions. Convergys clients can take as much control as they want over the development and management of their speech recognition applications to automate customer interactions, while still enjoying the many benefits associated with a hosted services environment.
RightNow announced that it has been selected for the Avaya DeveloperConnection (DevConnect) program from Avaya.
APAC Customer Services announced that APAC began to provide customer contact support for three of Freedom's largest daily newspapers on October 1, 2005.
Envision Telephony announced that Lufthansa Global Telesales (LH GTS) has chosen Envision's integrated quality monitoring and coaching solution, Click2Coach, for its 1500 agents in nine sites around the globe.
MicroStrategy announced that PMSI-Tmesys has selected MicroStrategy to support its web portal that provides timely, self-service reporting capabilities for its clients. PMSI-Tmesys expects that more than 5,000 workers' compensation claims professional clients will use the web portal in the first year.
ATG reported its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2005. Total revenues for the third quarter of 2005 were $22.7 million, a 30 percent increase from $17.5 million in the third quarter of 2004 and a 12 percent increase from $20.3 million in the second quarter of 2005.
Jambo announced an agreement with InfoSpace. The agreement makes Jambo's Pay Per Call solution available to InfoSpace's lead generation properties and makes InfoSpace one of Jambo's Lead Network partners.
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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 | 42.72 |  | 0.08% |
| Dow Jones | 10,377.87 |  | -0.07% |
| Nasdaq | 2,109.45 | | -0.30% |
| S&P 500 | 1,196.54 | | -0.24% |
| Top Gainers |
| RightNow | 15.09 | | 1.44 |
| Witness | 20.5 | | 0.75 |
| NICE | 41.26 | | 0.38 |
| Top Losers |
| HP | 27.48 | | -0.77 |
| West Tel | 38.79 | | -0.46 |
| SAP | 43.52 | | -0.46 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 10/25/05 | |
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Nov 7-9, 2005: The Customer Contact Conference - Join the Customer Care & Services Forum (CCSF) and DCI at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort in Scottsdale, AZ, November 7-9, 2005, for the premiere of the Customer Contact Conference: Turning Strategy into Action.
|  | | November 17-18, 2005: Telecoms Churn Management & Customer Retention - ViB events' Churn Management and Customer Retention conference will arm you with the latest customer loyalty approaches, churn and customer marketing strategies, and methods of cementing brand identification among your customers so they want to stay with you rather than join your competitors. Two days of case studies and worked examples will allow you to benchmark your approaches, think of new solutions and create something truly unique, something that makes your customers want to keep their relationship with you.
| | February 27 - March 01, 2006: Linking Customer Feedback to Business Results - Looking for new ways to get more actionability out of your customer data? Interested in innovative ideas for responding to your customers to drive business improvement and profitability? Welcome to IIR's 10th annual Linking Customer Feedback to Business Results.
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"OUR TAKE"
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