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Call Centre Focus

Editor's choice

17 May 2012

With increasing budget constraints and negative press coverage, is customer service in the NHS in danger of flatlining?


16 May 2012

Tesco’s customer loyalty acquisition programme has been extremely successful, so what is their secret formula?


Call Centre Focus news

17 May 2012
UK SMEs have embraced digital and social media platforms in their 2012 marketing plans.

17 May 2012
Call centre industry research reveals stalled market and collapse of operator profitability with growth expected only when the economy recovers.

17 May 2012
36% of customers have already interacted with companies through social media, up from 19% 8 months ago.

The Big Interview

17 May 2012

As CEO of HEROtsc, David Turner is the driving force behind Scotland's largest customer management centre company. During his career he has also helped run Trinity Horne Consulting, and was an executive with M&S where he set up their home delivery service. Here he tells Call Centre Focus about his passion for people development – and his natural musical talent…


Call Centre Focus articles

15 May 2012

Successfully outsourcing call centres relies on 3 key areas for a partnership to flourish, research has found.


14 May 2012

CRM solutions will help to build a strong affinity with the customer if they are used effectively to understand customer behaviour and intent.

Market insight

17 May 2012
A low energy in-room spray humidifier, ideal for use in call centres, has been launched.

16 May 2012
A device which protects telephonists from acoustic shriek injury has been recognised for its commercial success. http://www.polaris.com.au/index.php

16 May 2012
Ruthbridge, a debt collection agency has signed a contract with Daviker, a business software provider for the supply of its TouchStar Dialler.

Poll: Will your contact centre be affected by London 2012?

As the Olympics draw closer, does your contact centre have a contingency plan to manage disruptions or increased demand on customer service departments?
No, we don’t believe our services will be affected.
No, but we need to make a plan shortly.
Yes, we have a flexible working strategy in place.
Yes, we are hiring more agents to help with increased demand.
>> See results

Call Centre Focus community

Call centre teams rally together in

London Midland call centre team cycle

Call centre staff at London Midland organised a charity bake sale and a 12 hour ‘team cycle’ on an exercise bike.

Call Centre's Got Talent

Celebrating call centres as a hotbed of talent!

Call centre's got talent logo

Contact centres have a bad reputation as being lifeless office environments with frustrated/bored agents taking call after call. But we in the industry know this is not the case and that call centres can be incredibly lively, dynamic places to work and are full of talented individuals who know how to have fun!

We want to showcase this by launching a nationwide competition to find talented call centre workers!


Job of the week

Business manager - quality and training

You will be responsible for the development and implementation of a quality framework, delivering exceptional customer service and ensuring compliance with externally accredited standards.  This will be achieved through the design, development, delivery, and evaluation of all training for our operational staff. You will have significant experience of developing and managing training and quality initiatives in a complex customer services environment. 

Strong planning and organisational skills will be required as well as excellent verbal and written communication skills, the ability to work independently as well as part of a team and you will need to demonstrate inspirational leadership skills to achieve the desired results across organisational and geographical boundaries.

Call Centre Focus survey

Take our survey and win an Amazon kindle!

When it comes to methods of communication, customers have never had it so good. They can interact with companies by phone, SMS, email, web chat, forums, Twitter, apps, automated IVR, etc – and they expect to be able to get their query answered quickly and efficiently no matter how they make contact. But what does that mean for contact centres? Are they offering all these different channels and what impact does it have on their internal processes?

Genesys, ProtoCall One and Call Centre Focus have joined forces to conduct this comprehensive survey into the methods of contact available to customers and the practical implications on organisations.


Upcoming event

The Modern Leader – What are you doing to step up to the challenge?

Tuesday, May 22, 12 PM (UK)

Our distributed online world is great for tapping the best talent, but it also means that leaders need to adapt their techniques to get the most out of employees in far-flung locations. Join Adam Taub from Masterclass Training and Helen Parton from Customer Strategy at this webinar and learn What research tells us about “being a leader”, behaviours and practices you can adopt to become an effective modern leader, how technology can help you be the best leader possible and tips to transition from managing to leading.
 

flexible working webinar Register now for the webinar

Call Centre Focus whitepaper

Walk a mile in your customer's shoes

Success in areas such as profitability, return and performance depends on the customer relationship and customer relationship success falls to the contact centre. It’s therefore as important for the organisation to remain as in touch with their contact centre, and through the contact centre, the customer, as it is to remain in touch with their sales teams and sales outlets.

In this whitepaper, NewVoiceMedia and industry expert, Paul Cooper, offer advice on:
• Customer satisfaction surveys
• How to walk in the customer’s shoes
• Customer service excellence
• Customer engagement checklist
• Do’s and don’ts of customer service