According to a recent Forrester Research study, nearly half of all businesses in North America and Europe have already deployed – or are planning to deploy – mobile workforce applications. Watch the upcoming webinars detailed here and learn how you can keep your your mobile employees connected to client data while on the road. Read more »
IRVINE, Calif., June 30, 2008 press release excerpt — Epicor Software Corporation (NASDAQ: EPIC) today announced a collaborative agreement with IBM to deliver a comprehensive, integrated retail system management product for specialty and department store retailers. As part of the expanded relationship, the two companies will develop and market a total offering to centrally manage and support point-of-sale (POS) hardware and software via IBM’s Remote Management Agent (RMA). Read more »
Learn how to increase responsiveness and meet every deadline without straining your staff or your budget. Join PhaseWare’s Randall Nelson and Hoyt Mann for a short session on practical ways to automate your support operations.
At this online event, you’ll learn how to:
Details:
7 Ways to Automate Customer Support
Friday, July 31st, 2008
8:30am PDT / 10:30am CDT / 11:30am EDT
Many businesses outgrow their CRM system. But, before you consider purchasing a new one, make sure you’ve gotten as much value as possible out of your existing investment. Read more »
Round Table Topic: Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive This Economic Crunch
Jason Kort, Director of Marketing, SoftVu
Jason Kort addresses this month’s round table topic: Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive this Economic Crunch”. Jason points out that aged leads have a lot of value that can be tapped in adverse economic situations.
A recent study of 100,000 aged lead survey responses across 38 different lending clients, reveals that 60-70% of aged leads remain viable after the second contact—some beyond even six months after applying online. The typical practice of not following up with leads after one or two contacts—not nurturing leads effectively—means you’re throwing away 60-70% of your total investment in leads. Read more »
Round Table Topic: Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive This Economic Crunch
Hoyt Mann, President of Phaseware, responds to our round table topic “Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive this Economic Crunch.” Hoyt’s recommendation to focus on retaining existing customers in sage advice for any business.
Contributed by: Hoyt Mann, President, Phaseware, Inc.
Much attention has been given to the ways in which CRM can help generate new customers. In an economic downturn, your company must also focus on retaining existing customers. In the course of retaining these customers by keeping them completely satisfied with their interactions with the company, new customers may emerge through referrals. But those existing customers must be taken care of first. Read more »
Round Table Topic: Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive This Economic Crunch
Contributed by: Tom Millay, General Manager, Consona CRM
The customer retention component of your CRM system will keep companies competitive during this economic crunch. Who can afford to lose customers as discernment is exercised when money becomes tight? Never before is providing the right products/services, to the right customer, at the right time been more important.
Round Table Topic: Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive This Economic Crunch
Ronald Lang, the CEO of Majestic Consulting Group offers our readers simple recommendations for leveraging your CRM system to maximize your client base. His insights help both product and service-based organizations discover new revenue opportunities.
Contributed by: Ronald Lang, CEO, Majestic Consulting Group, Inc.
A critical part of building your CRM strategic plan should be an effective “Customer Profile” to identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. While new customers come at an extreme premium today with longer sales cycles, existing clients would be more receptive to hear your offerings, especially if it can be a positive impact to their business. Read more »
from Inc.com, June 12, 2008
Infor has introduced its new SCM Warehouse Management BUsiness Edition, a cost-effective supply chain software solution designed for small and midsize businesses, especially in the third-party logistics, manufacturing, distribution, and retail sectors.
The Business Software Advisor
You ask the questions, and our resident software guru shares her wisdom.
This week’s question: What is a virtual call center and how could it benefit my company?
A: When you think of a call center, you may imagine a noisy room, scattered with desks and overpopulated with chattering agents in headsets at all hours of the day. In traditional call centers, agents are housed in a single site and are guided and monitored by in-house supervisors and managers. Quite oppositely, a virtual call center (VCC) is a customer contact center in which agents work remotely and are connected through an online software system that centralizes the center’s operations.
Often referred to as the “call centers of the future”, VCC’s leverage Web and software technologies to achieve greater flexibility, accessibility, and, ultimately, a higher level of customer satisfaction. These next-generation call centers feature integrated workforce optimization, speech-recognition technology, real-time reporting, comprehensive analytics, enhanced customer surveying and feedback mechanisms. Several key technologies that support and define the VCC model are VOIP, scripting, intelligent routing, workforce management, and call monitoring/recording.
According to the American Marketing Association, the average yearly costs associated with running a 200-agent operation top more than $10 million in some industries. These costs come in part from investment in real estate and capital equipment, as well as from cost-of-living constraints in the headquartered region.
Ask yourself: is the cost of operating a traditional call center a concern for your company? If so, you may want to consider going virtual. In addition to cost-savings, transitioning to the virtual model of call center operations brings several other benefits:
* Having no geographic constraints means companies have broader pool of talent from which to find agents.
* Agent retention improves: studies show that agents who work in more flexible virtual contact center environments experience less stress and greater satisfaction than their counterparts who work in traditional call centers. This, in turn, reduces turnover.
* Strategically placing agents in offices around the globe can ensure more effective and affordable 24/7 service by eliminating such barriers as time zones, foreign languages, and cultural differences.
VCC’s are not solely suitable for large enterprises. Small-to-medium size businesses have the same goals of effective CRM, multichannel integration, efficient call routing, customer self-help, and first-call resolution as the “big guys”, and providers of virtual call center software are recognizing and responding to this market need. Today, there are a number of reputable vendors who offer scalable, easily-deployed, cost-effective and readily-integrated solutions, designed specifically for SMB’s.
If you’re thinking of implementing a virtual call center solution in your company, it would behoove you to research those vendors whose software systems fit with your company’s specific needs and goals. A good starting point for this research is the free Business-Software.com “Top 10 Virtual Call Center Vendors – 2008” report. Now may be the perfect time to get out of that old customer service office and move to a new location: the World Wide Web.
