Delivering High Value in Service and Support
The value proposition for help desks is changing. Instead of merely tactically responding to the unforeseen needs of IT end-users, the future is all about helping organisations get a better return for their IT and related investments. So where are the differences?
Provided by: FrontRange

Customer Relation Management: 10 Steps to Success
Customer Relationship Management, or as it is more commonly known 'CRM', is one of the most widely-used yet misunderstood terms in today's technology-enabled corporate environments. Put simply 'CRM' is a catch-all term that is most commonly used to describe software and related technologies that manage customer-facing business functions (most notably Sales, Customer Service and Marketing), business processes and data.
Provided by: FrontRange

The Next Generation of Outbound Dialing - Moving Beyond the Call Center
From its roots in telemarketing, outbound dialing has a less-than-stellar reputation. We've all been on the other end of an automated outbound call where an agent or recorded message pushes us to buy something. In truth, it's the most efficient way to reach a large number of people quickly, even if not the most personal.
Provided by: FrontRange

The True Value of VoIP
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is one of the hottest trends of the 21st century. Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon, from carriers to residential service providers. What is VoIP really, and why should you care?
Provided by: FrontRange

Automating Service & Support with Voice Self-Service
Self-service support capabilities have traditionally been online. Customers can look up frequent issues, log incidents or check on the status of a ticket on the Web. However, sometimes customers don?t have online access while others still prefer to just pick up the phone. Yet, traditional phone-based support is twice as expensive per-incident as online self-service. Voice self-service-which merges the phone with service desk solutions-transforms self-service by allowing customers to use the phone when they want and need to do so. At the same time, it alleviates the challenges and costs of phone-based support for service teams by automating a number of routine activities and communications like password resets. This growing technology transforms and streamlines the way organizations interact with internal and external audiences, dramatically improving the quality and efficiency of their communications.
Provided by: FrontRange

Six Steps to Setting Up a Successful Call Center
Whether you're just ramping up a new business or are experiencing growing pains, your phone system has to fit your business needs. Today, staying competitive means effectively routing and queuing sales and support calls from customers. Customers now are seasoned veterans in contacting call centers. They expect a smooth, quick process and resolution. Regardless of your size, there are some key practices to follow in setting up a sales or support call center. This white paper covers the six essential steps to creating your call center: real estate, personal computers, customer relationship management software, a phone system, connectivity, and last but definitely not least, employees.
Provided by: FrontRange

Industry Best Practices in Service Contact Centers and Support Desks: Proactive Call Center Support Assures Customer Satisfaction
As manufacturers in a variety of industries vie for competitive edge, they are placing increasing importance on service and support. The front line of service and support for most organizations is a call center that provides technical support to end users. Support is often provided by phone, but organizations are increasingly using technology solutions, including web based capabilities, to automate the first line of support. This report examines the strategies and approaches companies in multiple industries are taking to successfully diagnose and resolve issues in the call center. As such, these leading firms are improving customer retention, increasing first-call resolution rates, speeding problem resolution, and bolstering the top and bottom line.
Provided by: FrontRange

Integrated Contact Center Solutions
How to Increase Customer Loyalty and Drive New Business While Reducing Sales, Service and Support Operation Costs Each year, millions of customers switch to competitive businesses for one simple reason - poor customer service. In fact, caring for your customers has become so important that upper management has taken notice, putting contact centers in a bright spotlight. Because contact centers are the natural choice for interacting with customers (both pre- and post-sales), contact center managers are under more pressure to do more with less. While reducing operational costs, contact centers must also increase productivity and efficiency, increase customer loyalty, as well as generate new revenue through cross-selling and up-selling activities.
Provided by: FrontRange

Shoring Up the Front Lines of Product Service: The Call Center An Aberdeen Benchmark Report
A large majority of companies (79%) say it is either "very" or "extremely" important for their call centers to be able to triage, diagnose, and even resolve problems in the call center. Moreover, 82% of companies say this will become even more important over the next two years. But few companies are comfortable with their call centers' ability to actually help resolve problems: 51% are less than satisfied, and only 13% or either "very" or "extremely" satisfied with call center capabilities in this regard. Almost all survey respondents (92%) say that "customer satisfaction" is the top "key driver" requiring them to improve their call centers' capabilities in problem diagnosis and problem resolution.
Provided by: FrontRange

Integrate Sales and Marketing - Create a Convergence for Better Lead Management
Sales and Marketing departments have been at odds with each other almost since the introduction of marketing. They have continually debated such issues as the quality of leads provided by Marketing to the Sales team and the effectiveness of Sales to develop those leads into revenue.
Provided by: FrontRange

Customer Relation Management: 10 Steps to Success
Customer Relationship Management, or as it is more commonly known 'CRM', is one of the most widely-used yet misunderstood terms in today's technology-enabled corporate environments. Put simply 'CRM' is a catch-all term that is most commonly used to describe software and related technologies that manage customer-facing business functions (most notably Sales, Customer Service and Marketing), business processes and data.
Provided by: FrontRange

Key Tenets In Service Desk Organization Redesign
The growing movement to improve IT service delivery and support has led many companies to rethink the structure and composition of their service desks. When planning such a reorganization, IT management must keep in mind that customers of the support organization do not have technology problems, they have business problems.
Provided by: FrontRange

The Impact of Sales Process and CRM on Optimizing Sales Effectiveness
From the very earliest days of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) the mantra has been repeated like a drumbeat: People, Process and Technology. That is, technology alone is not the silver bullet magical solution that will solve a company’s sales effectiveness challenges. At the same time, another axiom in the CRM world has also been repeated ad nauseam: Get your process straight, and then automate.
Provided by: FrontRange

Knowledge Management in the Support Center
Knowledge Management is a methodology for capturing, optimizing, delivering and maintaining a collection of information that provides guidance or action, and is of value to the organization. When a support professional has access to knowledge, they can quickly assist customers with problems and inquiries. As a result Knowledge Management has become an essential practice within today's support centers.
Provided by: FrontRange

Managing Your Most Precious Asset... Your Customers
Let's get beyond one obstacle right from the start. This paper is not an endorsement or an attempt to squeeze an enterprise-sized software solution into small to midsize businesses. In fact, it is just the opposite. This is a real-world look into the unique and specific needs of businesses like yours and the need to manage your customers- thereby, tracking your revenue stream.
Provided by: FrontRange