INTERNET MARKETING: SUCCESS AND FAILURE
Internet marketing consists of many different types and styles even different strategies.  Depending on your business and your goals your approach to marketing online will vary.  Some will choose Social Media, while other businesses find video marketing or pay per click to be the optimal strategy.  At the base of all these marketing types is SEO.  This one we probably hear the most about, yet unfortunately know the least of.  Yes it is true, most of the techniques and SEO strategies are gathered from a lot …

Outbound IVR for Service Companies and Utility Providers (Part 1 of a series)
Service organizations such as air conditioning companies and pest control companies and utility providers are finding Outbound IVR an invaluable business solution.  They have found that Outbound IVR can help them increase their customer contact rates, proactively communicate with customers which reduces inbound traffic to their customer service centers, increase sales, and improve results in their collections departments.  Outbound IVR solutions with the ability to conduct interactive customer satisfaction surveys lets service companies know if customers are not …

         
 Choosing which of these platforms as a place to create your company brand and presence on the internet can be a critical factor in its success.  Ideally having both would bring the most benefit but as funds are limited and marketing dollars are on a “as they come” basis, doing one or the other is a more feasible option for many. When deciding on the type of platform for your website it is important keep in mind your overall goals in promoting your business on the internet such as:
 

  Are you …

Working for some of the Top Call Center Operations, for the past 25 years, has afforded me the opportunity to gain a full understanding of those intriguing dynamics that help shape an efficient Call Center.  Through a series of industry best practices, I have seen some of the best kept secrets of “world-class” customer services implemented. These best practices have also been used to help manage industry service levels, abandonments, and the required agent talk times. Conversely speaking, I have also seen how agent attrition, agent call -ins, inclement weather, …

Imagine that you are a doctor with a busy medical practice.  Keeping your appointment slots filled and moving along is important, not only from a financial standpoint but in regards to the care of your patients as well.  An appointment time that is not filled is a time that could have been used by a truly sick patient.  When a patient leaves your office, they typically leave with their instructions, prescriptions and a follow up appointment date.  In the case of a sick person, some of this information may not …

Many companies hire an office manager to take care of the day to day details and tasks that need to be done.  In addition to taking care of some of these details, the office manager might be expected to handle the telecommunications details as well.  The more involved your company’s telecommunications needs are, the more responsibilities there will be and the more expensive these services will end up being.  For instance, the cost of the equipment that is needed and the staff that will also be needed to keep the …

While it might sound like something you would encounter in December in most parts of the world, it is an automatic renewal clause that some telecommunications carriers leave in their contracts to catch the unsuspecting and the careless company asleep at the switch. Good companies know that about three to six months before the end of a telecom contract, the rates and services should be shopped around- not only for the current provider but for several others. You should go to your current carrier’s rep and ask what they can …

Picking the Right Keywords:

The keywords you choose should not only be related to your industry but targeted to a particular niche within your industry.  Most common mistake made by those attempting to market their business without seeking the help of a professional, is picking keywords that are too general but have high search volume.  The reason they have high search volume is because they are too general.   In order to market your site effectively on the internet, you have to think like a searcher.  Even if those keywords or phrases …

 
To understand what comprises a Green Call Center let’s first look at what keeps a traditional call center from being Green.
1. Using an equipment based, site based call center platform, requiring replication at each site,  takes a tremendous amount of energy, not only to run the equipment but also to keep it cool.  For example, at an energy cost of $1.65 per square foot, at a 100 seat agent call center costs $13,200 per year in unnecessary power and gas bills.

Call center agents work onsite.  This means that each agent must use some means …

Currently, one of the fastest growing trends for contact centers and outsourced contact centers is to move away from costly equipment based, premise based call center platforms and to move to more versatile, “on demand” virtual call center platforms.  Companies that have moved to or are using a virtual call center platform in some capacity include: Overstock.com, AMD, Vonage, Expedia.com, Hilton Grand Vacations, Kodak, American Express and many others.  Why is this transformation to virtual call center platforms taking place?
 On Demand FunctionalityVirtual call center platforms provide an on-demand solution for …