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Industry Insight

14 February 2012
Even in this day and age, it seems many companies still regard their customers as a captive audience rather than a group of individuals, each with their own preferences and agendas. Despite the advent of pricing comparison websites and a myriad of retail and service options making it much easier for consumers to change suppliers, says Steve Deaville, the reality is that many companies still operate with a pre-privatisation mentality, where the customer is just a ‘dumb’ billing point.
06 January 2012
From October this year all employers will start being legally required to enrol their employees automatically into a qualifying pension scheme. But what does this mean for call centres? Alan Foley investigates.
20 December 2011
Operations director at outsourcer LBM Tony Bailey examines the complexities of modern customer service management and asks: are you prepared for the changing contact centre environment?
09 December 2011
Liam Smith offers his opinions and predictions for the outsourcing market in 2012, highlighting compliance, multiple contact channels, the rise of the mid-tier outsourcer, and reverse offshoring as trends driving change in the sector over the coming 12 months.
29 November 2011
Many arguments have been put forward for making the most of customer complaints and ensuring they inform business decisions. But how do you go about doing this? What do you need to look for? What should you measure? In the first in a series of three articles, Mike Havard explains the secrets to a successful complaints management strategy
21 November 2011
With EDF Energy under the review of Ofgem and nPower and British Gas fined £2million for mishandling complaints, Mark Chambers and Matthew James call for a unified best practice framework to ensure customer complaints are handled to an acceptable standard across the board.
09 November 2011
When RS Components started on a journey to build a £1billion e-commerce business, it sought advice from the experts in online purchasing: the customers. Only by asking them what they wanted from a website could they hope to get close to their goal. Keith Reville details the four steps the company took to make sure its customers were firmly at the heart of its website strategy.
08 November 2011
Over the past five years, government legislation, increased access to technology, and shifting employee expectations have seen a surge in the number of people opting to work from home . The contact centre is no exception, says Richard Kenny , and the industry is not as far removed from flexible working as some people might think.
14 October 2011
The landscape of traditional call centre outsourcers has changed, thanks to the emergence of several ‘ super BPOs ’, which offer a full suite of outsourced services.

Stephen Sullivan examines the practical implications for existing clients of customer management outsourcing providers that have been subsumed by a larger operation with a wider remit.
22 August 2011
To be a trusted brand is the holy grail of the brand manager. Consumer trust creates significant benefits – from repeat purchasers to customer advocacy, from price protection to more effective employee recruitment.

But as Thomas Cowper Johnson explains, this trust is hard-earned. Johnson identifies five basic rules in how to achieve this as well as explaining how acting on feedback can build trust.
09 August 2011
Handling customer complaints is one of the most sensitive areas of interaction with the customer and one of the decisive factors for maintaining customer loyalty.

According to James Clark , financial institutions are faced with increased regulatory scrutiny and need to comply with a clear set of regulations for handling complaints.
19 July 2011
The purchase of Ventura by Capita positions the company nicely. As more UK-based organisations face the prospect of belt-tightening across their operations, it makes third-party vendors more attractive than ever.

Peter Ryan also explains why he believes the move favours Capita from the standpoint of cross-selling complementary services across its own and Ventura’s base of existing clients.
05 July 2011
The announcement from global CRM outsourcer Sitel that it would be opening a delivery centre in Belgrade, Serbia - a city that is not known as a hotspot for third-party contact-centre service delivery - has caused intrigue.

However, Peter Ryan believes that this gamble may prove to be lucrative for Sitel considering the ongoing normalisation of commercial and political affairs in that location.
31 March 2011
A study of senior sales and marketing executives has found that almost one quarter of sales and business development teams have seen the amount of face-to-face selling time fall compared to two years.

Steve Thurlow explains why this is more than a natural reaction to the economic climate.
08 January 2011
Daniel Smith asks whether or not Facebooks unified communications platform will spell the end for email as we know it.
05 November 2010
No longer satisfied with being number one in the mobile market, O2's customer service director wants the company to be best of all service providers. Mark Lewis finds out how she plans to to do this and how close she is in making it a reality.
05 November 2010
MySpace has grown rapidly but has struggled to meet the demands of customer service. Its new chief explains to Mark Lewis that telephone is not a primary channel and why online is always going to be number one.
11 October 2010
The recent move by Teleperformance to acquire leading UK contact centre outsourcer beCogent indicates the strong long-term potential in this national market. Peter Ryan explains the benefits of the deal.
25 August 2010
There has been an increasing level of interest and debate in the topic of real-time location based marketing, says Paul Hudson. But there has been little focus on the new opportunities this technology presents brands with an established customer loyalty or reward programme.
13 August 2010
Consumers now receive lots of unrequested and irrelevant marketing literature every day and endless amounts of spam does little to create a relationship of trust between businesses and their customers, says Damian Traynor. Companies need to invest new and innovative ways of communicating to market their offerings more effectively.