Bill Price

Best known for underpinning Wikipedia, open-source software known as wiki has mushroomed as the core of "Web 2.0," a wonderful world with significant implications for CRM.

A wiki (pronounced wick-ee or wee-kee) is, as Wikipedia defines it, a type of web site "that allows users to easily add, remove or otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration."

At their core, wikis enable collaboration across a "community," so community members can share or build together commonly interesting content. There are already at least three major CRM applications for wiki software: one that augments or replaces portions of knowledge management (KM) used by contact center technical support or customer care staff; one that extends the collaboration to one's customer base, especially "early adopters" and savvy users; and one that serves to support blogs and other communities to solicit...

Almost every marketing text since Theodore (Ted) Levitt and Philip Kotler came onto the scene have emphasized that customer segmentation is key to attract the best customers and extract the most from them. As a result, telemarketing and telesales operations have a finely tuned engine that scores prospects, offers special deals and even decides which prospects are not worth the effort. More recently, Don Peppers and Martha Rogers have coined the term, "one-to-one marketing," providing numerous tools to refine further customer segmented marketing and sales, and customer acquisition. Among the more alluring tools today are "potential value" scoring and "lifecycle marketing."

However, over the same time period, almost all customer care and support operations have treated all customers the same; worse yet, many don't even accumulate purchases in the same household or across different product groups, treating the customers not only the same but also in a narrowed-down fashion...

Today's contact center operators face a dizzying array of site location options, the most confusing (and challenging) being going offshore from their home country—away from known hiring and management practices, native language speakers, familiar systems vendors, practiced legal and tax approaches and comfortable surroundings. Yet the lure of 30 percent or more cost savings, along with "keeping up with the Joneses," means that almost every company needs to figure out if offshore makes sense and, if so, what—and when—to take offshore.

(Note: I'm aiming this article at an American-based audience, but most of the concepts apply, irrespective of your home country)

There are two basic options when going offshore: opening your own contact centers (also called "captive" or "insourced") or partnering with a third-party specialist (also called "outsourced"). Until recently, the minimum economic size required to open...

It's 2007, and it's hard to believe all the changes in contact centers this past year. In 2005, the industry faced some heavy challenges, and it wasn't clear it could get out of the hole. But 2006 turned out to be a banner year for the contact center industry and, more importantly, for beleaguered customers all over the world!

I believe it's because of the way the industry took to heart five key issues:

1. The industry finally acknowledged that there is a customer service agent attrition crisis.
2. The IVR revolt rocked the industry into being "fast + simple."
3. Agents at home are hot, HOT!
4. The fog clears, thanks to data and speech analytics.
5. "The Best Service Is No Service" catches on.

Let's look back at how 2006 turned the corner on customer contact centers issues.