Computer Weekly reports that businesses are no longer content to outsource services based solely on operating cost reductions. To remain competitive, contact center organizations now need to create value for their clients and many are using Big Data to accomplish this. BPO firms have access to large volumes of transactional data and are developing the expertise needed to unlock the potential of this information.

By analyzing interactions, companies can determine what practices are most effective at attracting new customers or building loyalty. This can dramatically impact the bottom line, and is pushing businesses to develop better communication between customer service centers and other departments. Insights gained through the data mining are blending the lines of responsibility between BPO providers and their clients. Leading contact centers are moving away from a pure cost reduction strategy to play a more integrated role in the operations of their business partners.

Call Centre Clinic reports that organizations are increasingly using technology solutions to manage the performance of their customer service centers. These software programs provide an easier way to measure key performance indicators and identify areas that need improvement. However, understanding the source of a weakness is often not enough to consistently boost performance of staff members. The source notes that organizations often need to alter the culture of contact centers to see significant results.

To help facilitate the cultural change, businesses may want to view center operations in terms of the value they create for companies. Business 2 Community states that the information available to CRM agents could be used in bolster the performance of other departments. Taking the time to assess customer data collected in contact centers can improve operations throughout organizations.

A survey by CRM magazine found that 76 percent of businesses use social media for marketing, while 63 percent find it effective for implementing customer service strategies. However, significantly fewer firms, 34 percent, rely on the channel as part of their sales activities. Companies may see better results if they tie sales into their social media efforts, as they are able to generate more leads and lift revenue.

Business process outsourcing could provide the knowledge and technical capability to improve lead generation through social media. Contact centers are able to quickly identify potential leads as they answer questions about product specifications, pricing and features. Improving communication and allowing for a greater focus on the transfer of customer data between departments could boost sales by providing sales teams with additional resources to qualify and nurture leads. BPO enables firms to save money on implementing social media strategies that enhance sales and marketing capabilities.

"The results of this survey further confirm to us that a more consumer-like and design-driven approach to business intelligence is becoming increasingly important when it comes to interacting with key business data," he stated.

The emphasis on mobility has a lot of potential not just for customer relationship management (CRM) but also for re-defining internal business processes. Since mobile capabilities often allow representatives to access important data more easily, they are able to perform more efficiently in many cases. Forty percent of survey respondents said that over half of their business takes place outside the office, made convenient by mobile phones and laptops. This is especially significant considering that over three-quarters of those polled plan to work remotely during the holidays.

In order to more effectively analyze data, businesses must embrace mobile applications. Reuben Krippner, an industry leader at Microsoft, told CRM Buyer that integrating communications channels is key to successful business operations and effective CRM.

"As we look ahead at how collaboration and communications continue to evolve, we believe that the tools you use today ... will come together and be deeply integrated into your apps in ways that will speed collaboration and truly transform the way people work," said Krippner.

Interactive graphics, made possible by mobile adaptations, can display data in a way that allows CRM associates to better interpret business and execute strategic, informed decisions.

Forbes reports that the area of cyber security will be one of the main concerns for businesses in 2013. As more customers become comfortable with online transactions, they expect organizations to provide additional features and services through digital channels. Even relatively new technology, such as smartphones and other mobile devices, is experiencing an increase in malware attacks. Customer service centers need to be capable of dealing with external threats as they deliver more digital services to the audience.

To combat this trend and protect themselves and their customers, an increasing number of corporations are turning to business process outsourcing for IT services. This strategy provides companies with the resources and knowledge needed to maintain secure networks. Developing the necessary protections in-house could cost millions of dollars and siphon resources away from core operations. With BPO, organizations are able to quickly and affordably deliver the digital services that customers want.

Poland's Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL) recently announced that total employment in the BPO sector had exceeded the 100,000 mark for the first time. It is estimated that another 20,000 jobs will be created in the field as more global companies look to outsource services for their European operations.

"We provide more and more advanced services that are based on high qualifications and the knowledge of our employees," said Jacek Levernes, member of the board at Hewlett-Packard Europe and head of ABSL. "Soon we might become the world's leader in this segment."

Almost half of the outsourcing jobs in the region have been created in Poland, but other countries are seeing improvement as well. Romania and Bulgaria may soon experience even stronger growth, as their wages are on average 10 to 15 percent lower than in Poland, according to ZDNet. This is a concern for the Polish contact centers that hope to provide additional expertise and services to create more value than their competitors in other countries.

Analysis of the industry shows that the sector is expected to grow at an annual rate of 9.3 percent to reach $757.9 million in 2013, up from $407.1 million in 2011. Brazil continues to dominate the market, containing 51.6 percent of the region's outsourced contact centers, while an increased need for better customer service is driving growth in the Andean and Southern Cone regions. These two areas have anticipated annual expansion rates of 10.3 and 9.8 percent, respectively.

"Market expansion in Latin America will lead to substantial contact center application development to ensure efficient customer interaction," Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Martin Ramirez said in a statement. "Proactive tools will also be in high demand as contact centers will be focusing on business intelligence in order to implement a personalized approach to customer relationships."

According to the report, the Andean region's investment-friendly environment will be a key factor in its rapid growth. As companies continue to look for cost-effective solutions to handle the increasing number of channels available for customer interactions, many are turning to business process outsourcing.

A recent infographic by Knowlagent showed that 59 percent of supervisors in contact centers say increasing agent productivity is their main challenge and top priority.

Call center software can be highly cost-effective and efficient in business process automation, provided it has built-in features for controlling the course of the call through Interactive Voice Response (IVR) functions. According to a Channel Partners blogger, IVR systems that are able to tackle problems automatically save time and money by focusing the phonecall before a live agent is reached.

Additionally, the agent can be more informed by IVR capture, making for a more quality phone exchange and quick resolution of an issue. This often makes agent interactions more efficient, which also promotes employee satisfaction and decreases the likelihood of turnover.

Not only that, but customer frustrations are reduced: The more data that the contact center technology provides to agents, preferably over a single interface, the less often customers will have to repeat information. This is significant considering 81 percent of Knowlagent's survey respondents stated that agent performance is key to customer satisfaction. Additionally, 72 percent of contact center management cited increased first call resolution as a main incentive for improving quality of service.

The contact center is the most effective when agents are able to resolve caller requests quickly based on prior recorded data. Optimal contact center software will inform and equip agents for enhanced customer interactions. These technologies are thus crucial to the customer experience, which sustains relationships and secures loyalty.
 

In 2012 IT development became one of the key areas of growth in the BPO sector, particularly in the healthcare industry. This is likely to continue in 2013 as more businesses look to technology and data analysis to increase efficiency. Companies are turning to data analysis to find market trends and identify opportunities which will continue over the next year. To help facilitate this many BPO providers are developing more vertical integration to provide value with their services. Contact centers now track customer behavior and deliver full analysis to their partners to help them make better decisions and see faster results.

Supporting the increased use of data mining technology is the development of cloud platforms. These centralized workbenches could see strong growth in 2013, despite slower than anticipated adoption during 2012. As firms work out some of the challenges of security, accessibility and reliability, cloud servers could create new opportunities to improve BPO.

However, the latest technology is allowing for more cost-effective solutions when it comes to telephone systems. Specifically, the adoption of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems is enabling firms to receive thousands of calls at affordable rates, according to Business 2 Community. More of these systems are being built for the needs of small and mid-sized businesses enabling them to provide personal customer service without the expensive infrastructure required for traditional phone systems.

VoIP providers are expected to contribute to the global growth of BPO providers as the use of mobile phones continues to increase. Customers often prefer to speak to a live representative to resolve a problem and VoIP integration enables firms to help them go from browsing a website to speaking directly to an agent. This level of service will become standard as companies push to enhance their customers' experiences.

Phone interactions are particularly important to the customer experience, according to recent studies. The American Express 2012 Global Customer Service Barometer indicated that 90 percent of Americans prefer the telephone for customer service interactions and only 7 percent said their experiences "exceeded their expectations."

Call center software has the ability to monitor these exchanges to analyze successful versus unsuccessful phone calls in terms of efficiency in resolving problems and overall service level. CustomerThink recommends that businesses utilize call center or CRM software with intelligent routing capabilities to ensure that customers are directed to the best possible agent to assist them. CRM and contact center technologies also have the ability to maintain detailed customer histories for a more customized service experience.

Danny Rippon, CRM Business Solutions Director at Oracle EMEA, spoke with Contact Centre Live about the consequence of the call center in customer support situations. Since CRM software can aid in constructing elaborate customer profiles, all contact that occurs in the call center can also be tracked in order to identify consumers that are considered to be in jeopardy of alienation versus those that are satisfied. Making these distinctions is critical in preventing the loss of a customer to a competitor.

Superior service requires that businesses have proper technological support to manage customer communication. Having a complete, detailed view of a customer's history assists companies in minimizing frustrations and customizing future offers. The contact center will continue to play a major role in customer service. In today's competitive marketplace, businesses can distinguish their standards by focusing on superior customer care in all telephone interactions.

Phone interactions are particularly important to the customer experience, according to recent studies. The American Express 2012 Global Customer Service Barometer indicated that 90 percent of Americans prefer the telephone for customer service interactions and only 7 percent said their experiences "exceeded their expectations."

Call center software has the ability to monitor these exchanges to analyze successful versus unsuccessful phone calls in terms of efficiency in resolving problems and overall service level. CustomerThink recommends that businesses utilize call center or CRM software with intelligent routing capabilities to ensure that customers are directed to the best possible agent to assist them. CRM and contact center technologies also have the ability to maintain detailed customer histories for a more customized service experience.

Danny Rippon, CRM Business Solutions Director at Oracle EMEA, spoke with Contact Centre Live about the consequence of the call center in customer support situations. Since CRM software can aid in constructing elaborate customer profiles, all contact that occurs in the call center can also be tracked in order to identify consumers that are considered to be in jeopardy of alienation versus those that are satisfied. Making these distinctions is critical in preventing the loss of a customer to a competitor.

Superior service requires that businesses have proper technological support to manage customer communication. Having a complete, detailed view of a customer's history assists companies in minimizing frustrations and customizing future offers. The contact center will continue to play a major role in customer service. In today's competitive marketplace, businesses can distinguish their standards by focusing on superior customer care in all telephone interactions.

Immediate Information and Real-time Data
Information is power, and an overwhelming 79 percent of retail associates surveyed were adamant that management was more effective when supported by the improved access to data that technology provides. The majority of management agreed that real-time data, made possible by mobile customer relationship management (CRM) software, is crucial to better serve their customers.

Technological Adaptation Key to Shopping Experience
Motorola's findings emphasized how important advanced software and applications are to the reported level of satisfaction: Almost half of consumer respondents stated that they are more pleased when sales associates use these technologies, and two-thirds of associates also realize the positive impact their mobile use has.

Senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Motorola Solutions, Eduardo Conrado, commented on how the findings support implementing technology into customer service tactics.

"When shoppers have so many options, it is clear that retailers who embrace technology to enable their store associates to directly engage shoppers are creating differentiation through customer service ... retailers' adoption of the right technology that targets shoppers of various age groups will help drive greater customer satisfaction and increased sales opportunities," he stated.

A primary reason for the rise in mobile shopping is convenience. According to The Washington Post, one third of online fashion retailer Gilt Group's customers rely on mobile to make purchases. Vice president of Gilt's online marketing, Jason John, even deemed mobile developments one of the firm's key focus strategies, and is looking to develop a real-time notification system to alert customers of sales on their devices.

"I wouldn’t be surprised if 50 percent of our sales came from phones and tablets at this time next year," he predicted. 

Companies that take advantage of the value consumers place on quick, convenient product information and transactions made available by mobile technologies can improve overall customer service levels, and therefore retention rates. Additionally, mobile CRM systems can make use of data collected through these devices for targeted marketing strategies.
 

However, it is the area of training that is seeing significant change in the last few years. As employees are brought onboard, they need to quickly learn to handle the multiple channels provided to customers. This can extend the training period and require additional oversight as staff members are brought up to speed. Fortunately, the technology that has changed interactions with consumers is also altering the training process.

InsideARM reports that virtual training models are providing contact centers with a way to improve the on-boarding process. The training models deploy tools across a digital environment, making it possible to conduct courses across wide-spread enterprises. The digital programs require employees to be immersed in the technology they will be using, generating faster results. Managers are able to monitor training programs, determining various strengths and weaknesses based on performance.

Online courses have caught on in a number of other industries, as they allow workers to pursue their objectives at their own pace. When applied to the contact center, this could help improve customer satisfaction and boost revenue.
 

Contact centers are increasingly focused on delivering services through multiple channels. While this is necessary to meet market demands, CRM policies still need to address how agents interact with customers on the phone or through email. A substantial number of consumers leave a business because they are unhappy with their interactions with customer service agents.

In recent research shows that 63 percent of customers felt unhappy when organizations provided a different customer experience than what was promised upfront, according to Bulldog Reporter. This can happen when contact centers and CRM strategies are not incorporated into the sales process. Staff members from one department promise something that is not clearly communicated to another area of the company. Firms need to work closely with their BPO partners to ensure the delivery of the friendly, helpful service that can drive brand loyalty and generate more repeat sales.

"The results of this survey further confirm to us that a more consumer-like and design-driven approach to business intelligence is becoming increasingly important when it comes to interacting with key business data," he stated.

The emphasis on mobility has a lot of potential not just for customer relationship management (CRM) but also for re-defining internal business processes. Since mobile capabilities often allow representatives to access important data more easily, they are able to perform more efficiently in many cases. Forty percent of survey respondents said that over half of their business takes place outside the office, made convenient by mobile phones and laptops. This is especially significant considering that over three-quarters of those polled plan to work remotely during the holidays.

In order to more effectively analyze data, businesses must embrace mobile applications. Reuben Krippner, an industry leader at Microsoft, told CRM Buyer that integrating communications channels is key to successful business operations and effective CRM.

"As we look ahead at how collaboration and communications continue to evolve, we believe that the tools you use today ... will come together and be deeply integrated into your apps in ways that will speed collaboration and truly transform the way people work," said Krippner.

Interactive graphics, made possible by mobile adaptations, can display data in a way that allows CRM associates to better interpret business and execute strategic, informed decisions.

Almost two-thirds of consumers actively read reviews about a particular brand or product, and half admitted that social media plays a role in their purchasing decisions.

These statistics don't only apply to online transactions, however: Forrester's online retail forecast outlined in 1to1 Media predicted that up to 70 percent of in-store shopping follows prior research by consumers. A customer's buying is largely determined by what is heard or read, which could be information gathered directly from a brand or other customers' feedback on a product.

This means that a highly customized approach is essential to a positive customer experience. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems can collect and monitor the increasingly significant online activity of a particular company's users, which includes everything from their purchasing patterns, comments and reviews to their Facebook and Twitter shares. Once this data has been analyzed, marketers can ensure they appeal to those preferences.
 

Building trust with new clients to drive revenue is not the only reason good customer service is significant: It is also crucial to securing prior relationships. A staggering 70 percent of the survey respondents reported they had cut ties with a business after a poor customer experience, and 92 percent of that group took their business to a competitor as a result.

Quality customer service means understanding customers' needs and desires and fulfilling them in a realistic fashion. In a recent global consumer study conducted by Accenture, one in five consumers were found to have switched companies for a particular service this year, a 5 percent increase from last year.

Respondents cited "broken promises" as the main reason they had done so, followed by general inconveniences, which included rude or incompetent agents, long hold periods, having to contact customer service repeatedly about the same issue or explain an issue to multiple associates.

The good news is that 85 percent of consumers that had taken their business elsewhere would have maintained their loyalty if something had been done in the first phase of customer support instead of forcing repeated contact about an issue. By implementing the most up-to-date customer relation management (CRM) software to increase customer service efficiency, businesses can more easily avoid these frustrations that can lead to losing loyal customers and revenue.

Building trust with new clients to drive revenue is not the only reason good customer service is significant: It is also crucial to securing prior relationships. A staggering 70 percent of the survey respondents reported they had cut ties with a business after a poor customer experience, and 92 percent of that group took their business to a competitor as a result.

Quality customer service means understanding customers' needs and desires and fulfilling them in a realistic fashion. In a recent global consumer study conducted by Accenture, one in five consumers were found to have switched companies for a particular service this year, a 5 percent increase from last year.

Respondents cited "broken promises" as the main reason they had done so, followed by general inconveniences, which included rude or incompetent agents, long hold periods, having to contact customer service repeatedly about the same issue or explain an issue to multiple associates.

The good news is that 85 percent of consumers that had taken their business elsewhere would have maintained their loyalty if something had been done in the first phase of customer support instead of forcing repeated contact about an issue. By implementing the most up-to-date customer relation management (CRM) software to increase customer service efficiency, businesses can more easily avoid these frustrations that can lead to losing loyal customers and revenue.

Since mobile channels offer new avenues for customer interaction, particularly via social media, customers can now reach out to contact centers any time, any place. And today's impatient consumer, Cleveland said, has become used to having their needs met right away.

"If I'm sitting somewhere and don't really want to talk on the phone, I can still do this," he noted, according to the news source. "It gives me the ability to communicate my issue and remain silent at the same time. That's important."

Just as mobile shoppers can make a purchase with a click of a button, however, they can just as quickly post negative feedback. Social CRM applications are crucial in keeping tabs on these situations so they can be resolved early on, thereby minimizing the effect on a company's reputation.

Full integration with a contact center is crucial in ensuring a positive mobile customer experience, according to Elizabeth Herrell, an analyst at Constellation Research. In doing so, Herrell explained to Tech Target, support agents are able to address customers' questions and concerns in a timely, informed manner, decreasing chances for both customer and sales representative frustrations.

The convenience of mobile shopping only maintains its appeal if companies are also able to offer convenient customer support. By aligning a CRM contact center with mobile applications, companies can reap the benefits of smoother transactions and more importantly, satisfied customers.

"A great contact center operation reflects its management's passion for balancing the demands of high quality and low costs," Bruce Belfiore, CEO of BenchmarkPortal, told Destination CRM.

The focus on providing quality customer service and improving efficiency often trickles into other areas of a business and helps to boost productivity in unexpected ways. This makes the contact center a central part of future growth as the innovation required to meet customer expectations and deliver quick results allows the company to outperform the competition.

In today's increasingly social and mobile market, businesses need contact centers to be capable of staying on top of the 24/7 demands of consumers. Business process outsourcing allows organizations to boost customer engagement with multichannel services without large increases in costs. Forbes reports that the key differentiator between companies is increasingly becoming their ability to deliver information and accept transactions through new channels.

Mobile CRM Increases Efficiency
Chris O'Connor, CEO of Taptera, spoke on the technology's benefits for many facets of day-to-day operation.

"[Mobile CRM apps are] making the face-to-face sales meeting more exciting, valuable and productive; reducing the onerous tasks of updating CRM systems; and providing a simple communication and collaboration tool so sales folks can communicate with customers and their support networks," O'Connor said, according to CRM Buyer. Since mobile CRM applications allow for instantaneous interactions and data analytics, business processes often run more efficiently and sales associates are able to focus on selling. These applications also offer real-time data for immediate, relevant insight into user behavior, which can then improve marketing and sales tactics.

Advanced, Easy-To-Use Features Are Essential
These advantages are only possible if mobile applications are user-friendly. Kelly Weinhold, product strategist for Angel, told CRM Buyer that one of the biggest trends in mobile sales this year will be easy-to-use applications from the beginning of the transaction to the end. One such feature that could change the face of mobile CRM is the implementation of interactive voice response (IVR) into these applications. When mobile functions are voice-activated, Weinhold explained, basic customer service requests and interactions are possible via voice, a potential time-saver in customer support situations.

Now more than ever, CRM applications need to focus on mobile usability in order to advance.

Over Thanksgiving weekend live chat was extremely popular, as a record number of people used the technology. LivePerson hosted more than 800,000 live chats on Cyber Monday alone. This was a 30 percent jump from 2011 as businesses invest in the technology for their contact centers.

"Consumers today are demanding real-time assistance whenever they are connecting with a brand, especially during the busy holiday season," Robert LoCascio, founder and CEO of LivePerson, told Daily Market.

The Consumerist reports that live chat provides a more effective alternative to resolving customer problems than many traditional channels. Some businesses are already moving away from email because of the ease of communication that live chat offers. Organizations can stay with the current trend by using business process outsourcing to improve contact center operations and enhance their customers' experience.

Nearly three-quarters of consumers currently use at least three channels when seeking customer service, and 22 percent use five or more, according to recent Ovum research outlined in Destination CRM. Customers expect that businesses hear their requests, complaints, and concerns across all of these modes, and according to Direct Marketing News, customer care quality and brand loyalty will only develop by adopting a multi-channel mind-set.

Despite the fact that companies are utilizing a multitude of channels for marketing and sales purposes, revenue would likely increase by linking communication between them. In its Multichannel Customer Experience Survey, Econsultancy discovered that while 90 percent of companies realize the significance of a consistent multi-channel experience, only 4 percent have merged their internal systems.

Kate Leggett, a senior analyst at Forrester research, recently spoke to Destination CRM on potential problems for companies failing to do so. "Companies need to make sure that every customer contact gets melded with one customer record."

"They've organically increased their channel footprints without thinking about how to stitch them together," she noted. When companies don't embrace the multi-channel approach to customer service, information that customers give isn't stored or shared, and users are forced to repeatedly give the same information.

The best way in which to appeal to a customer's needs, desires, and habits is often to use a multi-channel approach to create a unified, fully-developed profile of their purchase history and offer multi-channel support interactions.

GII reported that contact centers use IVR systems to manage between 10 and more than 90 percent of customer calls. Information collected during this process can be used to reduce costs for companies while resolving customer issues more quickly. According to Tech Target, Ailtom Nascimento, vice president of global accounts at Stefanini, claimed that cloud-based IVR applications can save a company up to 40 percent when replacing in-house hardware.

The majority of companies are not using IVRs to their full advantage, GII reports, despite the fact that they can cut down on both expended time and costs. Since IVR systems capture customer activity from their first call, businesses can track and analyze customer satisfaction, which increases the likelihood of repeat business.

Only by storing all customer input via IVR can a complete customer profile be created, thus providing an opportunity for an increase in customer service quality. Every single response recorded through IVR is essential data for customer service, marketing, and companies' internal HR purposes.

GII reported that contact centers use IVR systems to manage between 10 and more than 90 percent of customer calls. Information collected during this process can be used to reduce costs for companies while resolving customer issues more quickly. According to Tech Target, Ailtom Nascimento, vice president of global accounts at Stefanini, claimed that cloud-based IVR applications can save a company up to 40 percent when replacing in-house hardware.

The majority of companies are not using IVRs to their full advantage, GII reports, despite the fact that they can cut down on both expended time and costs. Since IVR systems capture customer activity from their first call, businesses can track and analyze customer satisfaction, which increases the likelihood of repeat business.

Only by storing all customer input via IVR can a complete customer profile be created, thus providing an opportunity for an increase in customer service quality. Every single response recorded through IVR is essential data for customer service, marketing, and companies' internal HR purposes.

For this reason, a number of organizations are investing in callback technology. These programs allow customers to be put on hold digitally. The computer remembers their number and, when an agent is free, automatically dials them back. This gives the customer the option to visit companies' websites or conduct other research without being tied to their phone for an extended period of time.

Resource Nation reports that callback technology is especially helpful during the holiday season and other busy periods. When call volumes spike, it can be difficult for contact centers to maintain quality service and keep wait times down. The technology also allows for 24-hour service without a dramatic increase in staffing levels. Clients can leave a message at any time and a customer service agent will return the call when there is sufficient staff on hand. When combined with social media, live chat, video, and other technology, callback features can greatly reduce hold times without a significant increase in expenses.

According to Deloitte's annual holiday survey, nearly seven in ten (sixty-eight percent) consumers intend to use their mobile phones for holiday shopping this year. Not only that, but smartphone shoppers are projected to spend 72 percent more than those who do not plan to use the technology this holiday season. Convenience, customization opportunities, and better overall brand interaction are all reasons that customer relation management (CRM) intelligence can focus on using the mobile shopping experience to improve the customer experience and keep up with the growing trend.

Customized Mobile Shopping
Alison Paul, vice chairman of Deloitte spoke on his firm's findings as they relate to the current holiday shopping season.

"... [The] conversion rate for shoppers who use a retailer's dedicated mobile application is 21 percent higher than those who do not," Paul noted. "This holiday season, branded applications, Wi-Fi connectivity and personalized, location-based promotions from retailers can enable shoppers to make an immediate buying decision in the store."

Because mobile devices are already customized to fit an individual user's preferences, businesses can benefit from each customer's phone settings and behaviors, thereby allowing them to personalize electronic direct marketing strategies. One of these strategies made possible by mobile shopping is targeting content in real-time.

Real-Time Marketing
Real-time mobile marketing is about tapping into real-life shopping habits and mobile phone purchases, and bridging that gap.

"The near-term opportunity is simply about making physical/digital connections easier," announced Mikail Damiani, CEO and co-founder of mobile marketing solutions provider, "This will allow for targeted delivery of product information and offers which can be used right there and then."

CRM intelligence allows marketers to personalize content to specific customers based on mobile shopping behavioral data. Capturing shoppers' habits on their mobile device enables businesses to then customize content based on the where and when they shop, on what device, and how often.

Why is location information so directly beneficial? Location-based ads are more tailored and relevant to consumers because marketing is based on what is actually available to them. As a result, LBS has the potential to be especially useful for local businesses, according to David MacQueen, director of wireless media strategies service at Strategy Analytics.

Location information is even more valuable when combined with other behavioral data. When used in conjunction with more traditional geographic information system technology to include social, physical, and emotional indicators, these analytics can help companies predict trends and improve the customer experience.

Simon Thompson, Director of Global Business Solutions at Esri, explained the significance of these services in his interview with MIT's Sloan Management Review.

"Companies mine their own databases, mine their loyalty systems, mine their CRMs, mine tweets, social media, customer transactions, market surveys," he told the news source. "They link data using geography to give them better insight about what people are doing where, who those people are and why they are there in the first place."

Shopping patterns that are tethered to a mobile phone shopper's location at any given time through LBS tell businesses a lot about what the user is most likely to buy, when, and where, meaning more relevant advertising and as a result, increased likelihood of customer loyalty.

In a recent study on the impact of big data on sales performance, eighty percent of participants (CEOs, CSOs, sales executives and managers  reported feeling challenged by the amount of data available and the difficulty of accessing it. Thirty five percent of the participants have implemented technology to supply information to sales reps, and the success rate of this group was almost eight percent higher than companies without the technology. A staggering Ninety percent of those surveyed saw great benefits to sales in providing access and insights in one technology system.

Instead of improving from the vast amount of information available, some businesses' sales have been impaired if the data hasn't been put to good use. The main issue is that sales people are spending too much time making predictions on which customers to target based on an unmanageable amount of data when state-of-the-art CRM systems have the ability to analyze it for them.

According to Destination CRM, the average sales representative spends 24 percent of his time preparing for sales calls and sifting through an overwhelming amount of data in order to close deals. Brian Kardon, CMO at Lattice, told Forbes he believes that predictive CRM could benefit from big data since a large burden would be removed from salespeople, making them more efficient, and consequently improving customer care.

Electronic direct marketing strategies have endless possibilities when they make use of extensive data capture on customer behavior, but only if they are able to adequately analyze it.

"More people are sharing online content than ever before, indicating a desire not for ads, but rather for media that gets them thinking and creating," she explained. "Customers are commenting, remixing, and rating … They're engaging in a way that's entirely unprecedented in our formerly linear production model."

A New Approach to Customer Involvement
So how is a company to know what content will inspire consumers to join the conversation? That's where social CRM comes in, since strategies that save a company time in analyzing how to reach a target audience improve the content to be published and the overall customer experience. According to Destination CRM, one approach that is particularly useful in gathering customer demographic information is running contests and promotions through social media outlets. The advantage to gathering data from these methods is that it comes directly from fans and followers, increasing its value.

"With this intelligence, companies can form a greater understanding of their customers, and, more significantly, they're able to define what online social tendencies are occurring among their user groups," Jim Belosic said in his article for the news source.

Empowering Both the Consumer and the Company
Identifying trends among users gives companies new insights in how to win attention and more importantly, to start a conversation among fellow consumers. Running a contest or promotion, Belosic asserts, fuels a company's marketing power because it relates back to the fact that a social CRM platform is irrelevant without consumer involvement.

Social CRM is only effective in customer management if it's used to thoroughly engage users. A business that uses the strategy to interact with consumers has the potential not only to gain insight into specific demographics but also to improve its brand image and user experience. Saracino argues that social CRM tools, when used at every stage of promotion, can fully unlock a company's potential for continuous customer engagement and increase "brand likeability, familiarity and trust and, ultimately, sales." By involving the consumer via social media platforms, companies have the potential to find new opportunities to reach users while building on existing user relationships.

No part of the organization interacts with customers more often than contact centers, and they continually deal with uncommon situations that could provide an understanding of operational shortcomings. Business 2 Community notes that organizations can greatly improve data analysis by speaking directly to customer relationship management agents.

To accomplish this, companies are turning to Interactive Voice Response analytics, according to DMG Consulting's annual IVR report. The report notes that IVR systems have changed rapidly to handle more calls while providing firms with analysis that reduces agent time and costs. With a little planning and customization, these systems can enhance the overall customer experience, tying multiple channels together and even automating key processes.

The information collected through the contact centers may identify areas in need of improvement. Customers are moving to more integrated services, relying first on social or mobile channels before trying other methods, creating multiple opportunities to capture data. Advanced analytics are helping businesses improve experiences across all channels and collect vital information that can refine product development, marketing strategies and brand positioning.

Writing for Business 2 Community, industry expert Shep Hyken recently asserted that one of the keys for organizations hoping to optimize their customer experience offerings is the prioritization of core values.

Core values, according to Hyken, are "what the company stands for." Examples can range from the simple, like honesty or passion, to the more specific, such as minimal customer response time.

Generally speaking, these will be values that all companies aspire to. Yet it is unrealistic for a firm to genuinely hope to excel equally in all of these categories. That is why it is essential for organizations to rank these values in order of their importance and then truly commit to them.

According to Hyken, though, this is not sufficient. Businesses must then go further to ensure that these core values are well-established in the company's culture. They should be taught to every employee and referred to on a regular basis, he asserted. If this happens, the values will inevitably become a focus, and affect the quality of every customer experience.

In a separate Business 2 Community report, Flavio Martins argued that, on a similar note, firms should also take steps to ensure the customer experience is goal-oriented. Without the establishment of clear-cut objectives, customer interactions may be insufficiently focused, leading to unsuccessful support efforts. These goals should seep into every section of the organization that has any level of interaction with customers.

"Customers expect a lot these days," Gina Rosen, a consultant at Columbus Business Consultants, told Smart Business, "and one of those expectations is that businesses, whether small or large, interact with them."

However, quality time with customers is nearly impossible when sales representatives are overwhelmed by automated research-focused tasks. CSO Insights' Sales Optimization Survey determined that in the last five years, time spent selling fell from 46 percent to 41 percent, leaving the other 59 percent of their time to generating leads, doing research, and attending meetings.

CRM tactics fortunately cut down on time sales reps spent identifying a target consumer for improved customer experience and increased revenue generation. In his CRM news report, Christopher Bucholtz evaluates how CRM strategies help companies determine which customers are likely to buy.

"Time invested with these customers is worthwhile because it is far more likely to result in sales," he explained, "and then once a sale is complete, it can lead to future sales."

By allowing CRM to test marketing and evaluate customer reactions, future efforts can be re-strategized. After all, customer service is meaningless if it doesn't result in consumer loyalty and new business.
 

By taking advantage of specialists, firms are able to focus on their core business, generating higher returns. However, The Financial Times notes that outsourcing cannot be successful if there is not a strong focus on creating effective processes. Companies need to work closely with their BPO partners to ensure a smooth transition of all appropriate information.

This could be something as simple as transferring a customer speaking to a CRM representative in the Philippines to a separate department based domestically. Failure to create smooth and timely transfers could result in lower customer satisfaction, retention rates and even sales. 

Businesses are increasingly using contact centers to collect customer information that can be used by the marketing department to refine audience understanding. This process makes communication between the two entities essential, but every department could be impacted by a poor process. Firms that work closely with BPO partners may also generate greater revenue and increase productivity.

One technology firms are increasingly utilizing for this purpose is interactive voice response (IVR). As Resource Nation recently highlighted, IVR has applications for organizations in diverse sectors.

The news source noted that retailers, for example, can leverage IVR to provide direct, high-touch customer support. It cited the case of a company that uses IVR services for its in-store pharmacies. With IVR, customers are able to easily refill their prescriptions, and the IVR system will alert the customer whenever the prescription is ready to be picked up.

Healthcare providers can also utilize IVR, the news source noted. When employing this technology, a doctor's office or hospital can automatically follow up with recent patients and confirm appointments.

In the realm of banking and finance, IVR can serve as a means to provide a variety of functions. For example, a credit card company using IVR solutions can enable customers to check their balances.

However, for an IVR system to be effective, it must meet a number of criteria, as industry insider Shankaran Nair recently highlighted in an interview with Express Computer Online.

According to Nair, one of the most important aspects of a successful IVR system is simplicity.

"The trick is to keep your IVRs crisp and short," said Nair, the news source reported. "A lot of intelligence has to go into crafting the IVR."

The news provider noted that when IVR systems require users to input too much information over the course of many steps, customers often become frustrated and hang up without resolving their issue or securing the answers they need. This reflects poorly on the organization, diminishing the quality of the customer experience.

One technology firms are increasingly utilizing for this purpose is interactive voice response (IVR). As Resource Nation recently highlighted, IVR has applications for organizations in diverse sectors.

The news source noted that retailers, for example, can leverage IVR to provide direct, high-touch customer support. It cited the case of a company that uses IVR services for its in-store pharmacies. With IVR, customers are able to easily refill their prescriptions, and the IVR system will alert the customer whenever the prescription is ready to be picked up.

Healthcare providers can also utilize IVR, the news source noted. When employing this technology, a doctor's office or hospital can automatically follow up with recent patients and confirm appointments.

In the realm of banking and finance, IVR can serve as a means to provide a variety of functions. For example, a credit card company using IVR solutions can enable customers to check their balances.

However, for an IVR system to be effective, it must meet a number of criteria, as industry insider Shankaran Nair recently highlighted in an interview with Express Computer Online.

According to Nair, one of the most important aspects of a successful IVR system is simplicity.

"The trick is to keep your IVRs crisp and short," said Nair, the news source reported. "A lot of intelligence has to go into crafting the IVR."

The news provider noted that when IVR systems require users to input too much information over the course of many steps, customers often become frustrated and hang up without resolving their issue or securing the answers they need. This reflects poorly on the organization, diminishing the quality of the customer experience.

"Now that brands recognize the importance of the mobile channel, their focus must shift to adopting forward-looking mobility strategies to augment their in-store and big browser sales channels," Jay Dettling, executive vice president of Acquity Group, told Internet Retailer.

Fox Business News notes that technology is altering the way companies offer simple promotional items like gift cards. More consumers are using mobile wallets or location-based apps to be alerted to special discounts and deals. Additionally, firms are moving to provide additional support for these services through their customer service centers. The Acquity survey found that 44 percent of retailers provide click-to-call functionality with their mobile apps, allowing for easy resolution of any problems with the press of a single button.

To manage these advances in customer support, companies are increasingly turning to business process outsourcing. This allows them to enhance customers' experiences in a cost-effective manner by leveraging their contact centers more effectively.
 

The flexibility and file sharing capabilities of cloud servers appeal to companies for a number of business functions. The technology is increasing communication between departments and facilities and creating greater flexibility among the workforce. This is allowing firms to boost productivity levels and adjust quickly to market trends. However, the technology also has some drawbacks that companies need to overcome. 

"Cloud services, especially shared platforms, are a new terrain for providers and clients alike, as they are highly standardized and can't be easily customized — the antithesis of traditional outsourcing," said Stanton Jones, an analyst of emerging technology at ISG.

The areas that appear to be primed for the largest amount of growth for cloud-based outsourcing are human resources and customer relationship management, according to Jones. Contact centers are being required to collect customer data from interactions. Cloud platforms enable firms to easily share the collected information with various departments to refine marketing tactics and improve understanding of the audience.

As a separate CRM Buyer report recently highlighted, the effects of the rise of mobile CRM extend beyond the immediate, as the technology has had a significant impact on desktop software - and vice-versa.

Speaking to the news source, industry expert Archie Roboostoff noted that as people become increasingly familiar with and appreciative of the look and feel of mobile CRM solutions, they develop similar expectations for desktop software.

"People are now used to a certain type of interface which includes larger buttons, swipes and gestures," said Roboostoff, the news source reported. "Because of mobile, people want apps that get right to the functionality as soon as possible. This is now influencing desktop computing as well."

However, as industry insider Alexei Miller told the news source, this influence goes in both directions. In addition to expecting their desktop software to work in ways similar to mobile apps, users also assume their mobile apps will feature the computing power of desktops.

"Plain and simple, users now expect software that loads up instantly, looks beautiful, remembers who they are when they switch between programs, upgrades itself in seconds and so on," said Miller, the news source reported.

When mobile CRM solutions do not meet these expectations, individuals may have a negative reaction toward the organization providing the apps.

More contact centers are providing video conferencing to enhance the customer's online experience, acknowledging that many consumers prefer face-to-face contact. The capability for CRM specialists to lead video discussions is allowing firms to differentiate their customer service capabilities and improve sales effectiveness. However, Telepresence Options magazine notes that the use of the technology has been limited to customer care, while there are a number of other sectors that could benefit from the use of video.

Video is able to enhance the connection between customers and companies, which has made it useful in promoting customer loyalty. The same principles can be used to enhance self-service features by posting instructional film clips. This can reduce the number of calls customer service centers receive, and can create value-added service with the inclusion of promotions within the videos, according to RBR-TVBR.

Customers are often more willing to look at a two-minute video than read through pages of information. The more companies are able to incorporate the technology into their CRM strategies, the better they will be able to boost satisfaction, create value and reduce customer care costs.

As numerous industry experts have noted, one of the most significant trends now occurring in the world of customer service is the rise of social customer support. And as Sanda Belaire recently highlighted in an interview with Forbes, Twitter can be one of the most powerful tools in this regard.

Belaire, who works for Nordstrom, noted that the retailer utilizes Twitter as a means of providing high-quality customer service.

"We know that the definition of customer service is changing and today many want to be served through social media," said Belaire, Forbes reported. She noted that customers can tweet to either Nordstrom or an individual salesperson at any time and receive a response as quickly as possible.

"Social media is continuing to redefine service and we are here to listen to our customers - happy or unhappy," added Belaire, according to the news source.

By putting such focus on social customer support, the company has been able to develop deeper relationships with customers, leading to improved reputation and retention rates.

However, it can be challenging for a business to develop a culture that incorporates Twitter and other social media channels effectively. To this end, Gini Dietrich, writing for Chicago Business, recently asserted that CEOs and other top-level executives should have a hands-on role when it comes to social media. These decision-makers can create an example for other employees to follow by regularly using social media to interact directly with customers and clients.

Sweeney noted that a popular donut chain recently gained a tremendous amount of positive publicity when one of its employees cheerily met an intentionally ridiculous service request from a documentary filmmaker. The video featuring the employee's actions has received more than 2 million hits on YouTube.

That is why Sweeney asserted that one of the overarching rules that companies should emphasize regarding customer support is "never say no."

On a similar note, Gina Debogovich, speaking to Small Business Trends, emphasized the importance of customer focus, particularly when using social media. By operating this way, she explained, a firm will meet all of its clients' expectations, improving loyalty.

According to DestinationCRM, CRM solutions could still stand to be improved. The news source reported that many salespeople believe CRM software was created with management and support teams in mind, rather than them. CRM should help provide a sales team with information on how likely a customer is to buy in order to make conversions.

FierceCIO reported that CIOs should carefully consider who their end-users will be when deploying a new system. If a CRM solution was created for a management team, but is implemented in sales, installing the solution will have been a wasted effort. There are many ways to prevent errors in CRM deployment, but it's most important for IT decision-makers to keep end-users in mind.

Social media is one of the fastest-growing customer services channels, with 63 percent of businesses offering some level of service, according to CRM Magazine. Unfortunately, many organizations are failing to put this channel at the front of their strategic plans. The CCA research suggests that companies should focus more on social functions within contact centers and CRM strategies.

"Putting customers first will necessitate transforming contact center agents into customer advocates, which will require strong organizational and executive support," Anne Marie Forsyth, chief executive of the CCA, told MemeBurn. "As customers become more vocal, particularly in evolving channels such as social, it's vital for the contact center to acquire greater visibility and influence within the organization."

Contact centers and business process outsourcing can remain cost-effective solutions for organizations looking to improve their understanding of customer expectations. Modern contact centers provide the data collection and analysis needed to implement effective cost saving strategies that also enhance consumers' experiences.

As numerous businesses have learned the hard way, poor social customer support can lead to significant backlash. Thanks to the wide-reach provided by Facebook and Twitter, an upset client's dissatisfaction can spread rapidly, greatly damaging the organization's reputation.

This, according to Govindaraj, has led a number of firms to use their social CRM to prioritize social support channels over conventional methods, such as phone and email. He asserted that while this may seem sensible, it can actually cause just as many problems as an approach that's imbalanced in the reverse direction. Customers using conventional channels will become less loyal, hurting customer retention.

The key to effective social CRM is a balanced approach. Studies have shown that while social support is growing in popularity, email and the phone remain the most commonly used options. Firms that move away from these media too rapidly may be doing themselves a disservice.

More organizations are turning to business process outsourcing as a cost-effective solution for maintaining their online reputations. In addition to operating contact centers and handling customer calls, these partnerships are also providing the technology, knowledge and staffing levels needed to monitor social media outlets. BPO has enabled firms to collect more information about customer behavior to improve marketing efforts.

Data collection has become an essential step in the role of a contact center. The interactions with the customer through online channels make it possible for organizations to gain a deeper understanding of their audience.

"In the highly social world where there's all kinds of information freely available online, where people are not as nervous about giving answers to your questions, customer care groups should be trying to gather 20, 30, 40 fields of information on the customer," Scott Klososky, a technology consultant and entrepreneur told Business 2 Community. "Because the more they know about the customer the better they can serve them."

The study, which included more than 500 consumers, revealed that slightly more than half of participants' favored email for interaction with businesses. This was followed by the telephone at 19 percent.

Perhaps surprisingly, only 2 percent of respondents indicated that social media was their ideal mode of communication.

"We suspect that social media platforms aren't taking off as favored customer service channels because, more often than not, complaints are too complex to explain in a short post," said Shamus Kelly, CEO of the customer service technology consultancy that sponsored the research.

Kelly further indicated that consumers tend to turn to social media only after having failed to find resolution via other means, using Twitter and Facebook to express their displeasure with their recent customer experience.

However, another recent survey of customer support channel preferences suggested that the methods used vary depending on how products are purchased. As Business Insider reported, Forrester Research found that email was the most popular option for consumers who purchased items online, selected by 34 percent of respondents. The phone was chosen by 30 percent of respondents, making it the second most popular option.

However, among those who purchased offline, revisiting the physical location was the most popular option, cited by more than half of participants. In these cases, email was the preferred customer support channel for only 7 percent of respondents, while the phone was again second, chosen by 32 percent of consumers.

This suggests that firms striving to provide an optimized customer experience must provide a variety of options, with an emphasis determined by customer purchasing behavior.

To help organizations achieve success with CRM systems, IDG News recently highlighted a number of common errors that can significantly undercut the effectiveness of a CRM solution.

For example, Sid Banerjee, CEO of a customer experience management solutions provider, emphasized the need for CRM systems to incorporate social media.

"[I]t's not enough to merely collect and monitor [social media]," Banerjee told the news source. "Businesses need to intelligently listen to their customers and ... actively engage with [them] over Facebook, Twitter [and] other social outlets."

Social media is becoming increasingly important, as more consumers view such services as a legitimate means of contacting a company. Sorting through and responding to inquiries and comments issued via these channels can be extremely difficult for organizations unless they leverage social CRM solutions.

Illustrating this point, a recent study by Nucleus Research found that social media integration makes CRM systems produce far more valuable insight into customer behavior and attitudes, Destination CRM reported.

Another critical CRM error that firms must avoid is overlooking the end user experience. Speaking to the news source, Chris Fritsch, a CRM consultant, noted that the end users should play a role when choosing a CRM system.

"The discussion should focus on CRM as a tool for improving the organization and achieving important organizational goals like enhancing revenue, reducing costs, automating processes and saving time," he said, according to the news source.

By keeping end users in mind, firms can choose a CRM system that is best suited for the tasks it will need to perform.

The St. Louis Tribune reported that showrooming is a prime concern for retailers during the holiday season. Among other effects, the showrooming trend has led to a renewed focus on providing high quality customer experience, according to Stephen Wyss, a partner in the retail and consumer products practice of BDO USA.

"[Showrooming] has made bricks-and-mortar retailers shift their strategy and focus on customer service and the in-store experience, making sure it is something the consumer is going to remember - something they're going to enjoy," said Wyss, the news source reported.

Customer experience is one of the most important distinctions between in-person and online shopping, so it is of the utmost importance for physical retailers to place an emphasis on this area.

The financial research firm Celent conducted a survey of consumers' interactions with banks, insurers and brokers and found that customers who consider themselves somewhat tech-savvy are more likely to use smartphones for customer service activities than those who consider themselves extremely knowledgeable. Businesses looking to maximize customer use of mobile applications should design them around moderately knowledgeable consumers, and aim to provide an easy-to-use system.

"Consumers seek service methods that offer maximum convenience, ease-of-use, and speed," the report stated.

Over half of those surveyed considered themselves active in their interactions with banks, regularly checking balances or using services. Consumers are increasingly using smartphones to replace online activity and calls. A survey by ZenDesk shows that 53 percent of in-store customers conduct research on their mobile devices before making a decision.

However, contact centers need to be designed to provide support for the mobile programs, as the Celent survey found that consumers, particularly younger demographics, prefer face-to-face conversations when resolving complex problems. Customers who are unable to find the solutions they need online are more inclined to call with the hope of receiving a quick resolution.

Increasingly, social media is playing a vital role when it comes to the customer experience. More specifically, individuals are turning to businesses' social media accounts to seek out customer support. To meet expectations in this area, it is critical for firms to focus on the customer side of things, as Small Business Trends recently highlighted.

The news source spoke to ​Gina Debogovich, who was instrumental in creating Best Buy's social strategy. She emphasized the importance of paying attention to clients, as well as customer support agents.

"I began by listening … to the customers online who were reaching out for customer service and technical support, to the business teams who were hesitant to engage," she explained, the news source reported.

Without focusing heavily on customers' needs regarding social customer support, it is impossible for a firm to meet expectations. This will greatly reduce the overall quality of the customer experience offered.

Speaking to Business News Daily, industry expert David Lee King emphasized that paying attention to customers is a critical component of any social strategy. He asserted that many firms use social media solely to spread the word about their products and services. This, he explained, will not likely lead to an effective customer experience. Instead, firms should pay attention to their customers' behavior and strive to engage with them.

Business process outsourcing is often viewed as a cost-saving strategy, but the move can provide a number of advantages to companies as well. A recent survey by Monitis showed that 56 percent of consumers cancel online orders due to errors or slow response times. Solving these issues can directly improve companies' bottom lines. Responding directly to each inquiry requires careful planning and management of staffing levels within contact centers, but improving the quality of customer experiences also demands additional coordination with other departments.

"Outsourcing means developing a partnership mentality," Jill Blankenship, CEO of Frontline Call Center told 1to1 Media. "They are not just a vendor. There must be an internal point of contact that outsourcers can refer to and contact whenever they want so they can effectively communicate and work together to inspire and correct any issues within the contact center."

Online shopping is expected to grow during the upcoming holiday season. Ecommerce sales increased 15.4 percent during the third quarter from the same period last year to represent $41.9 billion worth of transactions, according to a study by comScore. 

It should not be a surprise that many organizations, understanding the importance of these areas, strive to provide a top notch customer experience to their clients via social media. According to industry expert Dave Kerpen, one of the best ways to achieve this goal is to take relatively small steps to surprise customers and demonstrate appreciation.

Small steps, big rewards
Speaking to Business Insider, Kerpen noted that small actions can often have big rewards when it comes to customer appreciation. As an example, he mentioned a real estate agent who would produce a bottle of champagne whenever a client closed on a home. This was a small investment for the real estate agent, but because it was surprising and appreciated, he was able to gain many repeat customers and referrals.

"[S]urprise and delight does not have to be costly," said Kerpen, according to the news source. "It simply takes creativity. Think outside the box to find a simple touch that can be added to improve overall customer experience."

This type of tactic is not exclusive to the physical world. Businesses can also surprise and delight their customers via social media, with similar effects. The key, as Kerpen pointed out, is for firms to pay close attention to what their customers say and write. This will provide insight into the organization's customer base which can then be used to develop unique means of demonstrating appreciation on social networks. For example, a firm may offer certain customers special discount offers, or even free products or services, as a thank you for their loyalty.

Listening matters
The importance of listening to customers was also recently emphasized by David Lee King in an interview with Business News Daily. According to King, many organizations make the mistake of using social media to broadcast their messages. The true value of the channel, King said, is that it allows businesses to genuinely engage with customers, which can have a major impact on loyalty and brand reputation.

Social media efforts need to continually improve the level of engagement with consumers. Forrester's Social Technographics study found that 80 percent of B2B customers and 68 percent of B2C consumers are considered spectators. These potential clients read comments and reviews posted on social media sites. This creates a large number of opportunities to provide essential information needed to nurture potential leads.

To generate successful CRM strategies CMSWire notes that organizations need to assess their social engagement capabilities. Contact centers are proving to be a cost-effective solution for engaging customers through social media channels. The departments understand the social CRM landscape, creating relevant information with quick turnaround to enhance customers' experience. Making the effort to improve the center's capability can enhance lead generation for any organization, but success often depends on properly defining new metrics to measure reach, trending topics, value and more within the social CRM environment, the source stated.

Yet seeing such results is not automatic. For social CRM to be effective, firms must be persistent in their use of the technology, as CIO contributor David Taber recently asserted.

Taber noted that social CRM systems require significant amounts of data to be effective. Firms will also likely need to acquire new kinds of information from their customers and clients. To this end, he recommended that organizations expand their "terms of use" and opt-in language. Firms must continually calibrate their data-gathering tools to ensure their social CRM systems have sufficient information to produce viable insights.

Additionally, as numerous industry experts have noted, social CRM, and social media in general require consistent, regular action. The world of social media is incredibly fast-paced. To take advantage, firms must dedicate employees to the task of maintaining accounts and persistently interacting with customers and clients.

One strategy that firms are increasingly considering to improve a variety of areas is gamification. With gamification, businesses utilize tactics to turn business operations into competitions amongst employees, complete with rewards for the best performers. Theoretically, this serves as a motivator for workers, making jobs more fun and employees more productive.

As Wired recently highlighted, views on the ultimate value of gamification strategies in fields such as customer support are mixed. Speaking to the news source, Jonathan Taylor, a part-time customer service representative, told the news source that gamification can improve morale and satisfaction.

"Each time one of us gets a kudos, we give a little 'woot' and share our success with the whole office. I think it's so exciting because you know that you've not only solved a customer's issue, but you've made an impression on them," said Taylor, according to the news source.

However, others are not as enthusiastic about the merits of gamification. Kathy Sierra, a game designer, told the news source that gamification is problematic because it creates an extrinsic reward system - employees seek rewards that are totally divorced from the job itself. This can make the work less satisfying, ultimately undercutting the effectiveness of gamification.

Yet gamification can also be useful as a means of encouraging adoption. For example, CRM Buyer recently highlighted the value of gamification for encouraging employees to utilize mobile customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Because adoption can be a serious obstacle, this makes gamification a valuable resource.

The customer experience is the main driving force behind improving sales. Companies are taking a long-term view of their relationships with consumers and need contact centers that support this strategy by providing quality service. As organizations look to business process outsourcing as a cost-effective solution, they need to ensure they are using the right metrics to measure contact center performance and customer satisfaction.

CMSWire notes that companies need to establish loyalty objectives before they can accurately analyze the relationship between the customer experience and loyalty. Having a firm idea of the final goal makes it easier to calculate the value created. Business 2 Community reports that often companies are too concerned with measuring call quantity rather than looking at the quality of those interactions.

Customers need their issues fully resolved before they will be satisfied with the level of service they receive. Developing CRM strategies that deliver solutions can enhance the overall experience for clients and turn them into loyal consumers

However, the consequences for failing to emphasize customer support may be more severe than some organizations realize. Recently, Time Magazine reported that customer service software company Parature estimated U.S. companies lose approximately $80 billion worth of sales each year as a result of poor customer service. Additionally, more than 60 percent of customers involved look to competitors for their desired products and services thereafter.

The rise of social media has added to the importance of customer support, as CRM Buyer's Erika Morphy recently pointed out. She noted that a firm that commits a customer support faux pas on social media channels could possibly receive a large amount of negative attention very quickly, harming its reputation and brand value.

As Time Magazine highlighted, though, there are a number of simple steps businesses can take to greatly improve their customer support capabilities. For example, firms can place greater value on customer support skills when considering who to hire. The source recommended that businesses look for workers with positive attitudes and the ability to remain calm despite pressure, as these qualities can help them avoid mishaps when dealing with customers.

Additionally, the source recommended that businesses make sure that all employees are completely clear regarding their roles and responsibilities when it comes to customer support. Customers can become annoyed if they are transferred from representative to representative because it is unclear who should handle a particular issue.

"Not having a mobile website is like operating a shop but closing the door 40 percent of the time," Google's Ross McDonald told B&T magazine.

Google's trends report shows a 20 percent spike in shopping-related searches in the last month, with 40 percent of those searches coming from mobile devices. Optimizing web pages for viewing on mobile devices is just one of the challenges that companies need to address. The channel also needs to be properly supported with improved security and contact centers to enhance customers' experience.

CRM Buyer notes that customers are using their mobile devices because of the ease and convenience, and are more likely to make a purchase if the process is seamless. Addressing security issues to protect consumer information could eliminate obstacles, while providing mobile CRM strategies could address any questions or concerns clients have.

That is why many businesses are investing in mobile customer relationship management (CRM) apps. With mobile CRM, firms can provide customers with access to a wide variety of information and services, thereby improving the customer experience. However, mobile CRM also carries potential risks. That is why it is critical for firms investing in mobile CRM to prioritize security, as CRM Buyer recently highlighted.

Results May Vary
Speaking to the news source, Alan Goode, managing director of a consultancy service firm, said he believes that companies have made significant progress in this regard, focusing more heavily on the security of mobile apps now than they did in the past.

However, industry expert Alexei Miller asserted that the security of solutions will likely vary from vendor to vendor.

"I think you can expect major publishers to be very good at - and conscious of - security," said Miller, according to the news source. "What is harder to control are the emerging startup applications that are making a huge push into the market with their simplicity and ease of use."

While this does not mean firms should shy away from mobile CRM apps that are intuitive, as these are appealing to customers, it does mean that firms should always ensure that the mobile CRM options they are considering focus more on security than usability.

A Competitive Advantage
Mobile CRM apps can help businesses from a variety of sectors. As a separate CRM Buyer report noted, the retail industry provides one such example. With mobile CRM apps, a retailer can automatically deliver welcome messages to customers as they enter a store and highlight special offers.

More importantly, mobile CRM apps can provides salespeople with valuable insight into customers in the store, allowing the salespeople to tailor their service to meet individuals' needs.

By providing such a unique, personalized customer experience, retailers may be better able to compete with online retail giants and avoid the problem of "showrooming," which consists of consumers visiting a physical store but making a purchase online from an online seller.

One of the top destinations for outsourcing healthcare IT services, records management and other related functions is the Philippines. Healthcare outsourcing has been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the country's economy. From just 14,000 full-time workers in 2010, the sector now employs 43,000 people, according to GMA News.

The growth of healthcare IT services is providing the investment needed to see strong growth in other BPO sectors as well. Companies are able to provide their clients with cost savings for a number of services designed to improve operational efficiency. BPO is expected to create approximately 500,000 jobs in the country between 2013 and 2016.

"The larger BPO firms have cost advantages, and because of their size, they can easily offer both existing and new clients all kinds of back office and business support services at highly competitive prices," Pasig City Representative Roman Romulo told the source.

To improve service, it is essential for contact centers to keep track of their successes and failures, and one of the most effective means of achieving this is through metrics. By measuring a variety of factors and outcomes, firms can modify their operations to improve customer satisfaction.

Speaking to Destination CRM, industry expert Peggy Carlaw, president of a customer service training and consulting firm, asserted that of the many metrics available to contact centers, the most important is likely "task completion."

Task completion is fairly straightforward: It is a measure of the number of customers who were able to reach their objectives by engaging with the contact center.

Task completion is "the number-one driver of customer satisfaction," according to Carlaw, the news source reported.

"It's simple: Customers want to call, not wait too long, get someone on the phone who can help, and get done with the business at hand," Carlaw explained, according to the news source. "And they want the first-line reps to be able to handle their issues without having to refer to their supervisors."

As many industry experts have noted, expectations for customer support have increased significantly in recent years. If a consumer must wait a long time for a response from a company, he or she will quite possibly look elsewhere in the future. Even worse, the individual may use social media and review websites to spread the word of his or her dissatisfying experience, driving away other future customers.

A survey by Zendesk found that 78 percent of consumers felt the channel will be the future of customer service. Additionally, 50 percent of those surveyed stated that unanswered questions or complaints on such sites would prevent them from making purchases. This information makes it extremely important for companies to improve their efforts to enhance the consumer's experience through social media. 

The need for talented professionals able to handle interactions through multiple channels is encouraging organizations to rely more on business process outsourcing for their customer service needs. Even with the ability to handle customer inquiries, Destination CRM notes that businesses still need to pay careful attention to measuring satisfaction levels.

"It's simple: Customers want to call, not wait too long, get someone on the phone who can help, and get done with the business at hand," Peggy Carlaw, vice president of Impact Learning Systems, told the source. "And they want the first-line reps to be able to handle their issues without having to refer to their supervisors."

The utility of such solutions is largely why the global software market experienced modest growth in the first half of 2012, despite the continued economic instability in Western Europe and around the world. Notably, customer relationship management (CRM) solutions were among the biggest drivers of this growth, according to IDC.

The research firm noted that the global software market reached $167 billion in the first half of 2012, up 4.7 percent. Applications software saw the most growth, increasing 5.1 percent in this period.

The bulk of this growth was due to increasing adoption of CRM software, IDC noted. Customer services, marketing and sales - three of the four key CRM market subcategories - saw double-digit growth in this time. The fourth subcategory, contact center applications, was not far behind.

As businesses continue to place a premium on providing a high-quality customer experience, the adoption of CRM technology is likely to expand around the world.

Enhancing customers' experience is one of the best ways to improve their first impression. Business process outsourcing can help companies handle consumer issues in a cost-effective manner. Business 2 Community notes that good customer service promotes better understanding of the customers. This can increase the accuracy of services and marketing efforts by improving the quality of leads provided. Building shared values creates a better connection with the audience, breaking down barriers and generating more reliable customers.

However, Destination CRM reports that companies often rely too much on surveys to measure their contact centers' performance. Measuring automation and containment rates may not provide a true assessment of customers' experiences. Understanding the challenges customers face in acquiring the answers they seek may lead to solutions for enhancing services. Technical problems may overshadow the strong performance of contact center staff, preventing them from doing their jobs effectively, but without accurate assessment, the company could be spending resources in solving the wrong problems.

However, there is no definitive consensus regarding how to best leverage CRM tools. Many businesses primarily use CRM as a means of improving their outreach efforts to potential customers and clients.

Speaking to CMSWire, industry expert Rodney Kuhn recently asserted that CRM is often best used to optimize the customer experience.

The Customer Experience
As Kuhn noted, customers now interact with businesses in far more ways than they did in the past. The customer experience, he explained, extends beyond the traditional purview of the contact center. In addition to conventional modes of communication, such as phone-based customer support and email, firms must also have the means to offer a customer experience that includes online chat, SMS, social media, and more.

CRM tools can prove invaluable in this regard. With CRM, a business can do a far better job of compiling and sharing information concerning a particular customer throughout the organization. This means that anyone who interacts with that customer, regardless of the medium used, will be able to provide a more personalized response, thereby improving the customer experience.

A Popular Tool
Considering the utility of CRM systems, it is perhaps unsurprising that the technology is growing in popularity. Enterprise Apps Today recently reported on a Computer Economics study that found adoption of and investment in CRM increased during 2011. More than half of participating North American companies utilized CRM tools last year, compared to 34 percent in 2010.

Consumers are increasingly expecting businesses to provide the latest technology to enhance their interactions, according to Dimension Data's Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report 2012. However, it is a lack of flexibility within businesses' structures that is preventing the firms from overcoming these challenges.

"These results highlight the need for organizations to develop customer service strategies which provide usability and simplicity for customers," Robert Allman, general manager of Customer Interactive Solutions, told PC Advisor. "Call centers are increasingly widening their scope, and the mobility and agility of consumers today means organizations need to embrace technology trends to provide optimal customer service."

A shift in policies toward enhancing community management over individual interactions could help firms overcome their internal challenges. By developing policies that provide education and structure for how to engage through social media channels, companies are improving the ability of both consumers and staff members to create smoother conversations, CMSWire reported. Measuring how inquiries are currently being handled can provide insight into how to use multiple channels more effectively, which creates a path toward better integration.

However, CRM systems can only fulfill these promises if used properly. Writing for Smart Company, Sue Barrett recently asserted that one of the keys in this area is to focus on developing improved relationships, rather than better data.

This is a serious problem for many firms. Businesses dedicate themselves to accumulating exhaustive data on potential and existing customers, a process often dominated by the IT department. This is not inherently a problem, but becomes one when this focus comes at the expense of customer relationships themselves. As Barrett asserted, businesses must always strive to use this data to better engage with customers, not simply to target them more accurately.

A similar argument recently caome from 1to1 Media contributor Chase Cornett. Cornett asserted that the ultimate value of CRM programs is the development of a better customer experience, which includes every level of engagement with a given firm.

Consumers are expected to increase the number of channels they use to interact with businesses, according to Call Centre Helper, and this is forcing companies to adapt their services quickly. Social media tools have been one of the fastest-growing channels for customer service. The Benchmark report shows that one-third of companies support social media, up from just 18 percent in 2011.

"Historically, organizations set the tone in how they collaborated with their customers," Andrew McNair, Dimension Data's Head of Benchmarking, told the source. "However, the mega trends of mobility and the prevalence of internet-based services such as video, web chat, and social media are transforming the way the world wants to talk to organizations. It's the customer who’s driving how, when and for what they will use each channel."

Among the trends likely to drive interactions is web chat. The survey found that 46 percent of companies plan to have some chat capability in place within the next 12 months. Customers prefer the channel to email or phone calls, as it enables a faster resolution. A survey by LivePerson found that 94 percent of those that used web chats would use them again.

The research firm found that the contact center industry is poised to reach $337.8 billion by 2018. This growth is being driven by a number of factors, but the most notable is the shift toward greater responsibilities for the contact center. In addition to basic customer support, contact centers are now frequently used to engage with clients in a variety of ways. The technology used in this capacity is also evolving, according to the study, as contact centers adopt interactive voice recognition (IVR) programs, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, and many other systems to improve communication.

Additionally, the report noted that the rise of social media is putting extra weight on contact centers. As businesses in virtually every industry are coming to realize, social media is a critical component not just of marketing, but also customer support. Studies have demonstrated that growing numbers of consumers expect organizations to offer assistance via social networks. If a particular company does not provide this option, it may be perceived as lagging behind its rivals, which can significantly damage its reputation and ability to attract new customers.

The GIA report noted that companies, realizing this trend, are putting social media responsibilities in the hands of the contact center. Software developers are working to produce additional tools, such as social CRM, that contact center agents can utilize to better respond to queries, comments and complaints via social media channels.

The research firm found that the contact center industry is poised to reach $337.8 billion by 2018. This growth is being driven by a number of factors, but the most notable is the shift toward greater responsibilities for the contact center. In addition to basic customer support, contact centers are now frequently used to engage with clients in a variety of ways. The technology used in this capacity is also evolving, according to the study, as contact centers adopt interactive voice recognition (IVR) programs, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, and many other systems to improve communication.

Additionally, the report noted that the rise of social media is putting extra weight on contact centers. As businesses in virtually every industry are coming to realize, social media is a critical component not just of marketing, but also customer support. Studies have demonstrated that growing numbers of consumers expect organizations to offer assistance via social networks. If a particular company does not provide this option, it may be perceived as lagging behind its rivals, which can significantly damage its reputation and ability to attract new customers.

The GIA report noted that companies, realizing this trend, are putting social media responsibilities in the hands of the contact center. Software developers are working to produce additional tools, such as social CRM, that contact center agents can utilize to better respond to queries, comments and complaints via social media channels.

Destination CRM reports that businesses are using social media to not only provide faster responses, but to collect customer data and predict shifting trends in market demands. The practice has allowed companies to deliver more relevant products and services while increasing customer loyalty. Integrating feedback into the development process makes the product feel more personal and enables consumers to feel a part of the process.

"Taking customers' perceptions into consideration and asking for their input … will produce more loyalty and, in turn, more sales," Peter Friedman, chairman and CEO of LiveWorld, told the source. "Social media is a dialogue and relationship venue. The deepest value comes from actually having conversations with your customers and reviewing the content and passion in their words." 

However, collecting and analyzing social media data can be a time-consuming process, and few companies have the resources to do that internally. This has created an opportunity for hosted contact centers to provide additional value to their clients, as firms are increasingly turning to business process outsourcing for access to skills and services they lack in house.

To improve customer service offerings, many organizations utilize customer relationship management (CRM) software. CRM programs can reveal critical insight into customers' attitudes, histories and habits, which can be used to develop better service for both individuals and a company's customers at large.

While CRM systems have always been a valuable source of insight, they are gaining even more utility as users integrate social media, a recent study determined.

Destination CRM reported that the study, conducted by Nucleus Research, found that social media is helping firms use CRM to gain more thorough, usable insight into their customers, thereby improving the value of the technology. Additionally, social capabilities are increasing the speed of the development and deployment cycle for CRM programs.

According to the news source, firms are turning to social CRM both to better understand their customers and to influence other potential and existing clients across social media channels.

"Companies continue to achieve significant returns from functionality and usability enhanced by the deepening use and widespread adoption of social media as a means of understanding and managing how their customers interact," said Rebecca Wettemann, a vice president at Nucleus Research, the news source reported.

In a separate Destination CRM report, industry expert Joshua March asserted that the integration of social media into CRM systems is critical for organizations. Social networks are becoming an increasingly popular channel for customer support, and firms that fail to offer these services may fall behind their competitors.

CRM Destination reports that the growth in contact centers is mirroring the trend for adopting new technology. Advancements have allowed businesses to pursue more integrated and sophisticated CRM strategies. The technology allows contact centers to expand their roles to and provide enhanced services in addition to improving cost efficiency.

As businesses look to outsourcing services, they are increasingly seeking advantages beyond lower costs. A survey by KPMG found that access to skills and financial flexibility outweighed savings as a factor for outsourcing IT services. This is encouraging hosted contact centers to expand their offerings to include workforce management, quality monitoring and data collection.

Customers are coming to expect high levels of service through social media and mobile channels, and increased competition is forcing all businesses to provide quality service. For this reason, the United States remains the largest market for contact center enterprises, even as other regions are growing at faster rates.

Contact centers can play a key role in determining a business's customer service offerings. To this end, it is crucial that firms prioritize, as Multichannel Merchant's Mariann McDonagh recently highlighted.

McDonagh pointed out that there are many different measures by which different businesses' contact centers may define success. For some, it may boil down to reducing call times. Others may put more of a premium on providing a personal touch to improve client satisfaction.

Without designating priorities, a contact center is unlikely to achieve the company's goals. If speed is the priority, call scripts may be ideal. For a more personal experience, contact center agents may need access to social customer relationship management (CRM) tools and other sources of insight into customers.

A survey by LivePerson found that live chat was the preferred channel for customer support, with 45 percent of respondents listing it as their top preference. This trend is likely to remain popular in the future as well, as 94 percent of patrons who had used live chat in the past stated they would use it again.

"In order to provide the most compelling online shopping experience possible, it's essential that businesses understand how consumers are interacting with brands online during the holiday shopping season," said Jeremy Sokolic, head of marketing at LivePerson. "By intelligently connecting with online visitors, at the right time and through their preferred channel, businesses can exceed consumer expectations this holiday season, enabling them to drive more conversions and greater customer loyalty as a result."

Businesses that take the step to align their CRM strategies with shifting consumer behavior may be likely to see increased sales this holiday season and into next year.

Yet while social media is critical for marketing purposes, it would be a mistake to see this as the limit of the medium's potential value. Increasingly, firms are using social media to provide customer support, and with good reason. As CRM Buyer's Erika Morphy recently highlighted, the stakes of social support are growing.

As Morphy noted, a recent NM Incite study found that nearly half of all social media users have utilized these networks as a means of achieving customer support. This number increases to nearly 60 percent among 18 to 24 year olds.

These numbers emphasize the fact that consumers increasingly consider social media a relatively standard channel for customer service. Studies have shown that people now expect to have a variety of methods for reaching out to a firm for service help, with social media holding a key place in this regard. If a business does not offer service in this form, consumers may view that organization as insufficiently dedicated to assisting its customers, which can have a drastic, negative impact on its reputation.

The rewards for providing good customer service and the consequences of falling short can also be extreme. According to the NM Incite study, approximately 71 percent of social media users who received a fast, effective response to their customer support requests were likely to recommend that business to friends, family and coworkers.

Yet as Morphy pointed out, if a firm has a social customer support mishap, the dissatisfied individual can easily spread the word of his or her experience, which can cause major problems for the organization.

Contact center technology is allowing businesses to improve their workforce management by increasing the visibility of performance through measurable metrics. The ability to measure processes is helping organizations optimize their staffing levels and create systems that improve staff efficiency by providing access to all of the updated information they need.

"A lot of organizations have started to understand that having point solutions has limited value," Danny Estrada, CRM practice director for Net@Work, told TechTarget. "There is a desire to have end-to-end business solutions that handle everything from ERP to CRM. That is what is keeping us busy."

The sharing of information across departments and facilities is improving data analysis and market understanding within organizations. The same technology that allows customer service centers to review customer histories is allowing companies to use more focused marketing strategies, develop better products and deliver more efficient services.

However, despite this general consensus, there is less agreement concerning how firms should approach social CRM. Writing for Business 2 Community, industry expert Joshua Paul recently asserted that one of the keys to effective social CRM use is to view it as an extension of traditional CRM, rather than a totally new tactic.

Social CRM, Paul explained, is essentially a means for providing businesses with greater insight into prospects and clients, much like traditional CRM. The key difference, of course, is the way the information is obtained. Ultimately, though, this insight will be applied in similar ways: improving customer support, as contact center agents will have a clearer understanding of how to best serve an individual.

This does not mean that social CRM is inconsequential. As Joshua March, writing for Destination CRM, recently highlighted, social CRM can improve a firm's ability to engage customers significantly, leading to a host of benefits.

Insider Retailing reports that online offers, such as daily deals or coupons, are inciting an increasing number of complaints from customers. Citing research by NSW Fair Trading, the source notes that customers have come to expect the same level of service online as they find in many brick-and-mortar stores, which is causing businesses to adjust their CRM strategies.

In addition to wanting a smooth, efficient experience online, customers also expect quick resolution to their problems through their preferred channels. Contact centers are expected to immediately deliver unlimited choices for consumers. Companies have been adding digital channels to enhance the consumer's online experience, but staff also need to process the claims quickly.

Consumers expect replies to their social media posts within minute and responses to their emails within hours. Having the right staffing levels can help meet these expectations, but only if there are enough dedicated personnel to adequately manage each channel. Building teams to focus on various digital channels may allow contact centers to deliver more immediate and personalized responses.

As important as the customer experience is, though, there is no definitive consensus in terms of how firms should go about developing this aspect of their business. Writing for Business 2 Community, Flavio Martins recently suggested organizations should always keep their ultimate goals in mind when considering the customer experience. Without a clear objective, the firm will not be able to design a truly effective customer experience.

Once this goal is established, though, decision-makers can begin to determine the best alterations to make in their customer support and other services. Additionally, establishing objectives is critical if the firm hopes to measure its successes and failures in this area.

Emphasizing the importance of customer experience for companies, Bruce Temkin, managing partner of customer experience research for the Temkin Group, recently told CIO that he believes CIOs should make this a key focus, particularly when implementing new technology. If a new piece of technology is intimidating for customers, it is not a worthwhile investment, he explained.

To handle this, many companies are looking to improve CRM strategies to help them connect with customers. As businesses seek to expand their marketing efforts, they are also trying to enhance the consumer's experience by adding multiple interaction points. The South Bend Tribune notes that business process outsourcing is an increasingly popular way to provide these services.

"I've seen five or six different [industry] segments that are more involved," Dick Wooden, founder of Success with CRM Consulting, told the source. "They want to get closer to their customers, know more about what's going on. Everybody's trying to get closer to whoever they're serving and get to know more about them, what they like, what they don't like."

Organizations will need to set their priorities properly to successfully improve contact centers. Multichannel Merchant suggests companies start by addressing their corporate cultures, as this lays the foundation for the type of services that are provided. Building a strong customer-centric culture can ensure that all contact with consumers embodies the principles the company wants to promote.

This is even more prominent when it comes to mobile CRM solutions. However, as Call Centre Focus contributor Mike Richardson recently highlighted, firms have been relatively slow to adopt this form of the technology.

Such a lag can be damaging for organizations, he explained, as firms will miss opportunities to become more competitive and efficient.

He highlighted the case of Combiflow, an Irish business that adopted mobile CRM in 2008 to better equip its salespeople. Morgan O'Brien, Combiflow's managing director, told Richardardson that the mobile CRM tools allow the company's employees to perform work from any location.

"[Mobile CRM] has given us the freedom to make the most of the time spent with potential clients. This has resulted in more sales calls and, ultimately, more business," he added, according to the source.

However, to make mobile CRM effective, companies must approach it in a cautious manner, as Midsize Insider contributor Doug Bonderud noted. Firms must consider how their operations can best take advantage of the technology and develop realistic expectations in terms of return on investment.

However, to be effective, IVR systems must be well designed, as Shankaran Nair, president of corporate strategy for Servion, recently highlighted in an interview with Express Computer Online.

The news source noted that many IVR systems require customers to input a significant amount of information before reaching either a support agent or the solution to their problem. As a result, many callers become frustrated and hang up without resolution.

"The trick is to keep your IVRs crisp and short," said Nair, the news source reported. "A lot of intelligence has to go into crafting the IVR."

The news source noted that  a number of technological developments are on the way that will likely improve the quality of IVR systems, leading to greater implementation. Of particular note is the rise of high definition (HD) voice.

Speaking to Destination CRM, industry expert Chris Thorson explained that one of the problems with many IVR systems is that customers have to repeat themselves. HD voice can reduce this tendency.

Experts estimate that just 10 percent of organizations consider lower costs to be the primary benefit of their BPO providers. A recent survey by KPMG also found that access to skills and financial flexibility outweighed savings as a factor for outsourcing IT services.

Despite cost cutting no longer being the main driving force behind BPO decisions, the study found that 76 percent of respondents expect they will continue to outsource IT at either the same or higher levels. Organizations are finding that they have access to additional benefits which allow them to expand their core business functions by outsourcing non-essential services.

Storms and other disasters can impact contact centers in a number of different ways - servers or phone lines could go down, offices could be damaged or employees may be unable to get to work. Companies need to have the right mix of contingency plans to ensure that their operations continue.

One of the most important things to consider is how contact center services will be provided during or following a disaster. Taking the time to address a variety of scenarios with the goal of providing a smooth, seamless transition can give the appearance that the company was unaffected or minimally impacted by the emergency. In addition to solving technical challenges, recovery efforts also need to look at how to handle staffing levels. Employees can be incentivized to work during or immediately following a disaster, but companies also need to consider courses of action that account for workers' homes being damaged or other eventualities that result in employees being unable to make it to work.

That is why Joshua March, writing for Destination CRM, recently asserted that the rise of social media should play a key role in companies' customer relationship management (CRM) policies. As he explained, social media has created a new channel for individuals who are dissatisfied with a firm's customer support. Instead of relying solely on calling or emailing the contact center, people can express their displeasure via Twitter and Facebook. Not only is it easier for clients to use these channels, but they have the potential to reach a far greater audience. This means a negative review can have far-reaching consequences.

That is why March argued firms should be sure to incorporate social media into their CRM strategies. Doing so will improve engagement and help organizations to demonstrate their commitment to customer support.

Many firms have already grasped the importance of social CRM. BostInno reported that a recent study of 450 marketers found that 16 percent currently use such tools and a further 21 percent plan to by year's end.

Speaking to CIO, Bruce Temkin, managing partner of customer experience research at consulting firm the Temkin Group, recently asserted that CIOs should be more focused on the customer experience. He went on to provide a number of recommendations for CIOs to pursue in order to improve in this regard.

One of Temkin's suggestions was that CIOs strive to keep technology simple. While offering the latest technology to customers may seem ideal, this can be detrimental if the technology is seen as intimidating or overly complex.

"If you don't make it usable, you're throwing away your entire investment," said Temkin, according to CIO.

Kerry Bodine and Bobby Cameron, writing for CIO Journal, echoed Temkin's sentiments. The authors asserted that CIOs should work to create a business culture that supports positive interactions with customers at all levels.

Businesses will need to examine their CRM strategies to ensure that they are able to handle the increase in traffic during the peak shopping season. There are several steps that firms can take to reduce the demand on their contact centers. Multichannel Merchant recommends that firms increase the number of email or live chat agents, as these can help reduce the number of calls the center receives. Customers are expected to increase their online purchasing and are likely to use digital channels to resolve any issues while online. Businesses can enhance customers' experience by ensuring that they have the staff and technology in place to handle an increase in web traffic. 

Social Media channels should be supported with information posted on the company's website. Creating FAQs, instructional videos or other educational materials could address some of the more common issues, eliminating consumers' need to call. This strategy, combined with regular updates on any problems, can keep customers informed and minimize contact center traffic this holiday season.

Enterprise Apps Today reported that a Computer Economics study found both adoption of and investment in CRM systems increased in 2011. Among participating North American companies, 51 percent had adopted CRM tools in 2011, compared to only 34 percent in 2010. Additionally, the study found that while 30 percent of participating firms invested in the technology in 2009, 35 percent did so in 2011.

"Companies are giving very high priority to any investments related to customer experience, anything that has an effect on sales and topline revenue or on improving customer retention," said Frank Scavo, president of Computer Economics, according to the news source.

Considering the importance of customer experience, firms aiming to use CRM for this purpose must strive to provide a cross-channel experience, as Baskaran Natarajan recently highlighted. Writing for TechTarget, Natarajan asserted that by leveraging CRM in this way, businesses can stand out from their competitors.

A study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth found that 62 percent of Fortune 500 companies use Twitter to interact with customers. Facebook, blogs and other social media sites are also more commonly used as the need to enhance the consumer's experience increases.

"The dynamics have shifted even more," analyst Elizabeth Herrell told TechTarget. "Customers now say, 'I don't want to call. I want to send an email, a text. I'm going to tweet, and go on Facebook.'"

Media Post notes that customers make no distinction between social media channels. If they are able to find a simple, straightforward way to get their questions answered they will use that method, whether it is Twitter, Facebook, email or text. This means that contact centers need to ensure they are leading the way on new technology and providing new channels for customer interaction. Businesses that are not on the cutting edge of CRM strategies risk losing clients to their competitors.

Writing for Business 2 Community, Tara Hornor recently asserted that one of the most critical aspects of social customer support is responding to negativity. There are, according to Hornor, two main types of negative social comments. One consists of "trolling" - posts and messages intended solely to cause consternation for the individual's amusement. These can and should be deleted, Hornor argued.

The other kind, legitimate comments and complaints, require a more thorough response. According to Hornor, organizations should strive to respond to these instances with a light yet respectful tone. The company should apologize publicly, then contact the individual privately to address the matter with greater specificity. Hornor asserted that firms should also include a plan for avoiding such incidents in the future.

By doing so, firms can take advantage of the service recovery paradox, in which customers become more loyal toward a company after it solves a customer service issue than they were before encountering the problem in the first place.

The Wall Street Journal reports that tech giants are increasing their customer service staffing levels to assist customers with changes in Windows 8. The popular operating system comes standard on most computers and the update is forcing companies like Toshiba, Hewlett Packard and Dell to increase staffing at contact centers in anticipation of consumer problems.

To enhance customers' experiences, the computer companies are focusing on delivering multiple support channels. Customers could access information through their preferred channels, whether those are social media, email or the telephone. The goal of the buildup, according to the source, is to provide seamless support for a standard operating system update. This trend is likely to continue as software becomes more complex.

Companies will need to review their customer service centers to ensure that they have the training and knowledge needed during product launches. Having a CRM strategy that addresses consumer issues for the new problem can not only improve firms' reputations, but identify problem areas that were missed during development.

1 to 1 Media reports that the contact center for television and internet provider Fidelity Communications has reduced its hold times significantly by requiring a live representative to answer within 20 seconds. This places a lot of importance on training and communication, as the initial point of contact needs to properly gauge why customers are calling and determine a course of action, often transferring to the right personnel. Cross-training agents for multiple tasks can ensure that they will be able to provide some assistance on any issue, as TechTarget reported.

Building a team of qualified personnel is one of the most important activities in running a contact center, the source stated. Technology can be helpful in answering some questions, but when customers call, they often want to speak to a live representative. A study by Velaro found that 60 percent of customers refuse to hold longer than a minute. Focusing on developing a simple but effective skill-based routing system can ensure that calls are answered quickly and by personnel able to resolve the problem.

One of the most effective ways for a firm to make the most of its social media presence is with social customer relationship management (CRM) tools, which can automate and optimize social processes.

However, as a recent study revealed, many businesses have been slow to embrace social CRM, and the leading cause of this reluctance is hesitancy on the part of executives.

Campaign reported that the study, conducted by Ovum IT services, determined that a number of factors, such as security and privacy concerns, have made executives wary when it comes to social CRM. This, according to Margaret Goldberg, author of the study, is harming businesses' potential.

"Social media often only requires a miniscule fraction of the seats and revenue required for traditional channels, yet it can provide enterprises with valuable real time market data. However, enterprise executives have yet to see this value," she explained, according to the news source.

While social CRM adoption may be slow, it is still progressing. BostonInno reported that a recent Awareness Inc. study found that 16 percent of 450 participating marketers' organizations have implemented social CRM, with an additional 21 percent planning to in the next few months.

A column for the Business Mirror notes that contact centers and other business services could enable the Philippines to catch other emerging economies without large scale industrialization. The source notes that most countries have had to develop their manufacturing infrastructure before seeing steady sustained growth, but the Philippines has managed to achieve similar results by investing in its services sector.

Business process outsourcing is expected to create nearly 1 million jobs within the country over the next year, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP). These jobs, which can range from customer service to data entry to IT development, are giving employees better salaries than they can find at local manufacturing companies.

"We aim to become the world's No. 1 destination not just for call centers but other select non-voice segments of IT-BPO, generate a total of 4.5 million direct and indirect jobs, and achieve cumulative revenues of $96 billion for 2012-2016,"  BPAP chairman Alfredo Ayala said in a recent statement.

Throughout the Asia-Pacific region, IT outsourcing is providing substantial growth. A study by Gartner estimates that the region will expand from $6.45 billion in revenue this year to $9.5 billion in 2016.

It has taken longer, but companies are now beginning to realize that social media can serve an additional, valuable function: customer support. Numerous studies have demonstrated that consumers are increasingly viewing social media as a viable channel for contacting a company regarding problems or issues they've experienced with products or services. If such service is not offered, the customer may feel underappreciated.

It is therefore critical that firms have robust customer support policies in place. Writing for Entrepreneur, Scott Levy recently asserted that one key aspect of such a policy is ensuring that the human element is present. He explained that customers appreciate knowing they are engaging with a real person, rather than a faceless corporation.

By signing social media messages, a company's employees can make the social customer experience more personal and satisfying, improving the firm's reputation and customer retention rates.

A brand loyalty survey by ClickFox found that product quality and customer service ranked highest among the reasons consumers stayed with a particular product or company. This places a lot of importance on the contact center to properly handle customer issues and deliver exceptional service.

Quality service is one of the most important factors in determining customer loyalty, according to the survey. More than one-third of respondents stated that providing 24-hour service was the top factor in earning their repeated business. Companies that address quality control in their contact centers may find the number of loyal customers rising.

Destination CRM reports that firms can focus on a few key performance factors to increase the level of service they provide. Dropped calls and long wait times are big deterrents when it comes to exceeding customer expectations. Most consumers feel that they should wait less than a minute to speak with a live representative. Taking note of the number of abandoned calls or the number of repeat contacts can help companies develop strategies for reducing these problems and improving customer service.

Writing for CIO, David Taber recently asserted that one of the most crucial elements firms must consider is their own organization. According to Taber, despite the benefits of CRM systems, it is a mistake to simply make the tools available to all employees. For those who are not sufficiently familiar with CRM, or for whom the technology is not truly relevant to their jobs, CRM may actually do more harm than good.

Taber therefore recommended that organizations carefully consider which employees could actually benefit from CRM systems and ensure only those individuals and departments gain full access to the programs.

Additionally, it is important for firms to provide sufficient training for staff who are as of yet unfamiliar with CRM. Without this preparatory work, CRM can seem intimidating to employees. They may therefore choose not to use the available programs, diminishing the effectiveness of the CRM solutions.

Firms are spending less on in-house networks, and cloud platforms make it easy to align business practices across far-flung departments or facilities. The trend is helping to blur the line between IT outsourcing and BPO as organizations seek to apply best practices throughout their companies.

"The push towards platforms is increasingly accompanied by a bundling of infrastructure components as part of the BPO contract," Thomas Reuner, Ovum principal analyst, told Network World. "Consequently, the boundaries between IT outsourcing and BPO are becoming blurred."

Companies are spending less to develop in-house networks and taking advantage of the services provided by other firms. During 2012, businesses dedicated an average of 24 percent of their IT budgets to developing internal platforms, down from 32 percent in 2011, according to research by the Society for Information Management. Cloud-platforms are enabling BPO providers to drive standardization across departments by improving communication and automation. As a result of the additional spending on cloud services, companies are opting for greater use of hosted, managed and maintained BPO applications that are integrated with them.

Significant planning is necessary to ensure that these new workers are able to able to provide a satisfactory customer experience, as Multichannel Merchant recently highlighted.

According to the news provider, one of the most important steps a firm can take in this regard is making sure that agents have scripts available. This can help improve consistent responses from the organizations, and provide guidance to contact center agents who may not be as familiar with the company or its products and services.

Another useful recommendation, put forth by Don Peppers in a conversation with 1to1 Media, is the notion that firms should strive to hire skilled contact center agents. Obviously, such employees may demand a somewhat higher salary than untrained counterparts. However, considering the importance of customer support, this is likely a wise investment for companies.

The study noted that while three-quarters of respondents said being offered new innovative technology was important, only 7 percent listed it in the top three qualities they looked for in a mobile provider. The attributes of performance, pricing and service outweighed technology concerns for most consumers, showing the importance of having a CRM strategy that provides value to clients.

"Increasingly, customers are very well-educated and aware of the services that they're purchasing, and what they're finding is that they're able to cut through the hype and whether they're getting the service that they want," Dan Hays, U.S. wireless advisory leader for PwC, told Marketing Daily.

The report states that companies should focus on content and experience, including reliability and a reputation for strong customer service, which increasingly relies on collecting data. Customer service centers are able to provide a range of service options for most clients, including boosting customer engagement through their understanding of consumer interests and behavior. Developing these CRM strategies is dependent on firms' ability to collect actionable data that can anticipate consumer needs.

Writing for Smart Company, Walker asserted that firms considering a CRM solution should first survey their current customer support performance. Without this knowledge, businesses will be unable to accurately gauge the effect their CRM tools have, making it difficult to maximize the utility of the technology.

To this end, Walker recommended that firms simply contact their customers, using surveys and questionnaires to establish the current level of customer satisfaction. This can then serve as a baseline, allowing the business to better determine the effect of CRM solutions.

This focus on the quality of customer support offerings reinforces the notion, put forth recently by industry expert Chris Bucholtz for CMSWire, that the primary goal of any CRM system should be client retention, rather than customer acquisition. Clients stay with businesses for many reasons, but a high quality customer experience is undoubtedly one of the most important, and CRM tools can play a critical role in improving this aspect of the organization.

Research by the Information Services Group (ISG) shows that the number of large contracts increased significantly throughout the year. The number of contracts for $100 million or more has already exceeded the full-year total from 2011. The Asia-Pacific region led the industry as the fastest growing region.

"These results bear out our prior expectation that the second half of 2012 would improve upon the first," John Keppel, president of ISG, told the source. "Third quarters are typically the weakest of the year, but the global market continues to build momentum in key segments."

In particular, marketing, creative and digital services are being outsourced more. An online survey by Aquent found that two-thirds of companies leverage some form of external workforce to meet marketing objectives. Among those services that were most in-demand, according to the survey, was mobile app development, as 40 percent of respondents stated they sought assistance for these projects.

Customer Management IQ notes that businesses need to focus on delivering value to their digital communities. Focusing on analyzing the collected data and finding measurable goals will help organizations deliver content that is relevant to the needs of the audience. The source notes that running an effective social media marketing campaign is a process that often requires continual engagement, evaluation and analysis to be effective. The firms that keep this in mind may find greater success in managing their social CRM strategies.

Social media has helped organizations create better customer experiences because it provides a variety of channels for patrons to get the information they seek. Companies can utilize videos, Twitter, and even mobile technology to deliver quality service. More consumers are turning to online sources to answer their questions, so businesses that address common issues through social media may see a drop in the number of calls received by their customer service centers.

As ITworld recently highlighted, one of the best ways for an organization to improve its customer support services is by leveraging data assets. Most organizations, the news source noted, maintain detailed, robust reserves of information concerning their clients. If this data is placed into the hands of customer service agents, those employees will be able to provide a more personal, efficient, and effective experience.

Additionally, if the agent knows how many times a customer has called the company, how many products he or she has purchased and other relevant information, and can demonstrate this knowledge, then the customer will see firsthand that the business places importance on serving its individual customers. This can help the firm develop a reputation for having a customer-first attitude and earning its clients' trust.

ITworld also recommended that organizations ensure that customer support agents are completely aware of the products and services customers may call about. This will improve the quality of the advice and assistance offered.

Online sales are expected to grow significantly this holiday season, as companies are providing benefits like free shipping to capture additional transactions. Internet Retailer estimates that online sales will increase 12 percent during the winter from the same period last year, and much of this is due to a jump in the use of mobile technology to market to customers.

A survey by Daily Deal Media found that over half of consumers would consider making purchases on their mobile phones if prompted by a discount. Having the ability to know when a customer is looking for specific products and triggering a reward could boost transactions for any business.

CRM Buyer notes that retailers need to focus on building the quality of the customer's experience. Alerting customers of relevant offers shows the buyer that their business is appreciated and can increase the chances of them making additional purchases in the future. Similarly, enabling customers to speak directly to sales representatives through their mobile phones can help address any questions and improve customer service.

Social News Daily, in conjunction with SAP and Pivot, recently released an infographic highlighting this point. According to these firms' research, more than 70 percent of businesses now use social media for customer support purposes. Of these, nearly 87.5 percent have seen a positive impact from the practice.

Despite this trend, and the success firms have experienced with social customer support, many businesses are still reluctant to invest money in this area, according to the research conducted for the infographic. Of the firms studied, more than three-fourths allocated less than $50,000 for social customer support efforts.

While the data suggests social customer support is growing, it is not yet widespread. Forbes reported that a recent study found many Fortune 500 companies seem to undervalue their social media presences, failing to include links to these accounts on their contact pages. This, according to Tom Eggemeier, head of sales for the firm that conducted the study, demonstrates that many firms still see social media solely as a marketing tool, not a key part of the customer experience.

Call Centre Focus reports that building communities can lead to higher customer satisfaction and lower service costs. The strategy requires businesses to provide the forum for consumers to interact with business personnel and each other. This gives the clients access to the experiences of their peers, while cutting costs up to 50 percent by reducing the number of calls the contact center receives, according to the source.

The CRM strategy takes advantage of the increasing connectivity of consumers, who will often search online for answers before calling a customer service center. Maintaining a chat room or forum connected to the company website can help businesses address these concerns quickly while providing an additional channel for collecting customer information.

Utilizing communities requires a lot of time and effort on behalf of contact center staff. Destination CRM notes that for the strategy to be successful, employees must act as guides within the community, directing participants to the correct areas and listening for feedback. These monitors should also initiate conversations when activity falls to ensure an engaging environment for the consumer. This CRM strategy can ultimately improve customers' experience and help build brand loyalty.

As The Sydney Morning Herald recently highlighted, one critical yet often overlooked aspect of the customer experience is trust. Speaking to the news source, Craig Kelly, chief operating officer of a customer experience consultancy, explained that trust can play a major role in helping an organization to stand out from the competition.

"We often talk about price differentiation, but one of the areas you can really compete in is the experience you provide your customers, and that experience has to be a trustworthy one as well," said Kelly, the news source reported.

Whenever a customer is considering the merits of a given organization, one of the most significant factors is risk. If the firm is not sufficiently trustworthy, the risk of the product or service being unsatisfactory will inevitably seem higher to the individual. But by consistently delivering a high-quality experience, a company can gain a reputation for dependability, which makes it easier for new customers to put their trust in that firm.

However, trust is not established solely through consistent, high quality products and services. Organizations can and should also gain trust by providing satisfying customer support when problems or complications arise. As numerous experts have noted, a customer who has a problem with a product and then receives sufficient customer support to overcome the issue will likely become more loyal to the firm than they would be if the product simply worked perfectly from the beginning.

While this does not mean firms should sabotage their products, it does emphasize the importance of high-quality customer support.

Romania-Insider.com reported that the country had become the ninth largest market for BPO, according to a report by the consultant firm Jones Lang LaSalle. Romania has seen good growth for its contact center services, but companies in the nation have started to offer a wider range of options for their clients, including BPO, research and development and IT operations. The country's customer service centers have benefited from a workforce that is familiar with a variety of languages, including English, German, Hungarian and Italian, which has helped its contact centers secure projects from businesses in the U.S., U.K. and Germany.

The country could continue to rely on outsourced services as a way to grow its economy. Like many European countries, Romania has been struggling to deal with a prolonged recession, and the country could prove to be the solution for U.S. financial institutions that are investing heavily in BPO efforts, according to Inquirer News. BPO has provided banks like JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo with a wide range of non-core, business support activities. The strategy has worked well, as both Wells Fargo and JPMorgan recently posted strong profits for the third quarter.

That is why Chase Cornett, writing for 1to1 Media, recently argued that customer experience should be a primary focus for businesses' customer relationship program (CRM) efforts.

CRM and customer experience
CRM tools have the ability to greatly improve a firm's operations by gathering information about clients, thereby providing insight that would otherwise go unnoticed. Perhaps more importantly, CRM also offers a way for a business to provide additional, personalized service options to clients.

According to Cornett, businesses should leverage CRM tools to gain greater perspective on every interaction a customer is likely to have with an organization. With CRM, an organization can discover a great degree of detail about all of these interactions, which collectively form the customer experience, and then use that information to improve its service offerings.

As Cornett noted, customers tend not to see the various parts of a business as separate entities, but rather as a collective whole. This means that interactions with one department will reflect upon all others. By leveraging CRM, a firm can strive to improve each of these contact points, and therefore customers' overall impression of the business.

A customer experience advocate
Customer experience is such a critical determinant of a business' success that Rachel Miller, writing for Business 2 Community, recently argued that businesses should consider establishing a chief customer officer position. This individual would be a c-level executive charged with representing the customers' interests in the boardroom. The chief customer officer would also be responsible for discovering and implementing new strategies that place a heightened focus on the customer in every department.

With such an advocate, businesses would be forced to become more customer-centric, according to Miller. Such an attitude will likely lead to greater retention rates and customer satisfaction.

These connected consumers also expect contact centers to be faster in their responses. Seventeen percent of respondents between the ages of 16 and 34 stated that faster response times on Twitter would improve their customer service experiences. Speed is becoming an essential part of contact center operations. Indeed, 1to1 Media reports that 60 percent of customers who call contact centers refuse to hold longer than a minute. The source cited a study by Velaro that showed one-third of those polled thought hold times should be erased altogether.

These trends make it important for contact centers to have the right staffing levels at all times. That said, advancing technology is also making it easier to provide additional information to customers in the form of videos. Solis stated that 25 percent of consumers would prefer to use additional guidance, demonstrations and tutorials posted online.

However, achieving this end result is easier said than done. Companies must take the right approach to CRM for the technology to serve a valuable purpose. Writing for CRM Buyer, industry expert Christopher Bucholtz recently asserted that one of the keys to effective CRM deployment and customer relations is an emphasis on authenticity.

According to Bucholtz, firms often view CRM as simply another means of making sales. This, he argued, is a tactical error. He explained that most people do not particularly want to engage with a company if the business has nothing to offer other than sales pitches.

Instead, businesses should use CRM as an opportunity to engage with customers in a more authentic way. This can lead to more fruitful, productive conversations that make the customer see that he or she is genuinely valued. Such interactions are more likely to prove useful to the customers, thereby gaining their trust and maintaining their attention.

In many ways, this notion is similar to the idea that businesses should be forthright when they make mistakes, admitting their errors openly and making a transparent effort to improve their future performance. In this case and with CRM in general, the company's instinct may be to adopt a somewhat defensive, artificial posture. However, experts agree that authenticity and honesty can lead to customers not only forgiving a company for its errors, but actually becoming more loyal to the business than before the mistake occurred.

ZDNet reported that chief information officers are planning to spend more on outsourced services as they scale back spending on hardware. The IT leaders of modern corporations are under increased pressure to find cost-saving solutions for their organizations that will also boost productivity. The survey revealed that cost reduction was the top concern among CIOs in 2012.

The push for additional savings is leading to a reduction of spending on in-house networks. During 2011 and 2010, 32 percent of companies' IT budgets was spent on developing internal platforms, but that figure fell to 24 percent in 2012.  Much of the reduction was countered by the increase in spending on outsourcing, which accounted for 17 percent of the budget in 2012.

The Asia-Pacific region has proven to be a reliable and cost-effective location for IT outsourcing. A study by Gartner estimates that the Asia-Pacific market will grow from $6.45 billion in revenue this year to $9.5 billion in 2016. The influx of investment will enable countries like the Philippines and Vietnam to improve their BPO industries, which are still considered underdeveloped, according to the study.

As the news source noted, mobile customer relationship management (CRM) tools may help to negate the worst effects of this trend.

A personalized experience
Craig Elimeliah, vice president and director of technology and digital solutions at RAPP, told the news source that utilizing mobile CRM can provide a means for a physical retailer to better interact with and market to potential customers. He noted, for example, that a business can use mobile CRM to automatically deliver welcome messages to consumers when they step inside the store.

"That type of serendipitous engagement, with no strings attached - just a 'Hello Craig, welcome to our store' - means a lot to consumers," Elimeliah explained, according to the news source.

CRM on both ends
Mobile CRM can also benefit retailers when put in the hands of salespeople, as Al Beery, a software retail expert, explained to the news source.

"The most important thing for retailers to do is equip sales associates with technology, such as an app, which prepares the employee for face-to-face interactions by providing a complete, 360-degree view of the customer," he said, according to the news source.

To be effective, though, such strategies require full-scale adoption on the part of employees, which some organizations struggle with, as workers are often reluctant to alter their behavior. As a separate CRM Buyer report recently noted, however, gamification can improve mobile CRM usage. With gamification, firms can provide rewards, and therefore incentives, to employees for utilizing the tools.

The growth of the industry is fueled by advances in technology that are giving businesses more options and greater flexibility than ever before. However, this can also make it difficult for companies to choose the contact center options that are right for them. Call Center Helper notes that there are several business process outsourcing options available to companies, from managed services to hosted or cloud technology, and each has its own advantages. Hosted customer service centers can provide savings and quality service, while cloud-based platforms are increasing the customization options for contact centers.

When considering the use of BPO, it is important for companies to keep their long-term objectives in mind, as Business 2 Community states. Having specific goals for the contact center, such as increasing repeat sales or reducing the number of overall complaints, will help the firm determine how much control it needs over its operations and how it will integrate with other departments. Finding solutions to these problems will help an organization determine the features its contact center needs to provide.

As a recent study revealed, businesses in the Asia Pacific region are increasingly turning to hosted technology to achieve these ends.

A growing trend
The study, conducted by Frost & Sullivan, found that the market for hosted contact services in the Asia Pacific region was $181.9 million in 2011. By 2018, the market is expected to reach $465 million in value.

"Premises-based vendors will have to clearly articulate their cloud migration strategies," said Krishna Baidya, industry manager for Frost & Sullivan. "Companies lacking a clear roadmap for such new technology platforms are likely to have trouble adapting to the influx of low-cost, easy-to-operate applications offered by competitors."

There are a number of different reasons behind this trend, according to the report. Firms are turning to hosted solutions as a means of leveraging applications that would otherwise remain unavailable, the study noted. Additionally, hosted solutions offer improved flexibility and scalability for firms, making them ideal for both cost savings and better efficiency.

Sunk costs
However, the study found that many organizations have invested heavily in on-premise solutions for their contact centers, and as such will likely be unwilling to move to hosted solutions in the near future.

This issue is not limited to contact centers. As a recent TechTarget study demonstrated, having invested too heavily in legacy solutions is one of the leading reasons why firms of all types and sizes have not adopted cloud-based services to a greater degree.

Yet businesses deploying mobile CRM solutions often run into a problem: employees are reluctant to utilize the new technology. To overcome this issue, firms should consider gamification, as CRM Buyer recently suggested.

Benefitting From Competition
The news source noted that a number of different organizations have experienced success after creating apps and programs that encourage competition among employees regarding adoption of mobile CRM tools.

For example, one company rewarded employees who simply inputted mobile CRM-related data, such as when and where they met clients. Employees' efforts are displayed on a leaderboard visible to the whole company, thereby creating incentive for workers to utilize the available systems.

Useful Tools
Writing for ComputerworldUK, William Band of Forrester Research recently argued that mobile CRM represents one of the most useful technological developments in recent years. With a means to access and input data regardless of location, employees can become much more efficient, performing work-related tasks while on the road or at home.

This is particularly important as more firms begin to institute bring your own device (BYOD) policies that permit employees to utilize their personal smartphones and tablets for work-related purposes. Maximizing the potential of these programs requires putting a company's tools and resources in employees' hands at all times.

A recent report by International Data Corporation predicts that home-based agents will become a must-have option for business process outsourcing. Cloud-based platforms are enabling businesses to spread customer service operations across a number of locations, including employee homes. The IDC estimates that the use of home-based BPO in the U.S. will grow by 25 percent annually, becoming a $6.1 billion industry in 2017.

"Pressures such as changes in the way companies and consumers are communicating, cost and a need for talent are impacting the customer care BPO market, and home agent delivery is one way that providers are addressing these issues," IDC research analyst Melissa O'Brien said.

Customer service interactions are likely to be the driving force behind the growth. Companies are using an increasing number of channels to interact with consumers, and TechTarget notes that for many of these channels, speed, low cost and professionalism are a factor in an organization's success. Home-based agents give businesses the employees to handle volume while minimizing the cost associated with increasing office space. The flexibility also makes it possible to employ more part-time workers during peak hours, ultimately reducing labor costs.

Shifts in consumer behavior have caused firms to create a more social environment in which to engage customers. Social media and mobile technology have increased the number of touch points through which companies can deliver information, run contests or deliver promotions. However, not every business is ready to implement a comprehensive social CRM strategy. The source notes that businesses must accurately assess their readiness for the cultural shift that needs to occur to deliver quality customer experiences through the new channels.

Business 2 Community states that firms can use Six Sigma models to define, measure and improve customer service. Using a familiar model creates a consistent language across departments, which makes it easier to share information and apply ideas or solutions that were successful elsewhere in the company. Once initiatives have been created, the Six Sigma model also encourages the continual testing and refining of policies to keep the focus on improving services.

Yet to develop successful relationships with customers, it is not enough to simply invest in a CRM system - users must also wield these tools correctly. And as CRM Buyer's Christopher Bucholtz recently highlighted, one of the keys to successful CRM deployment is acknowledging the fact that the customer, not the business, controls the conversation.

The Customer Speaks
According to Bucholtz, in the past, businesses were typically the ones who controlled communication. Firms would interact with customers predominantly through pre-packaged messages, delivered via marketing and channels. Other than customer support and service, the client's voice was largely absent.

Now, however, customers and clients have a bevy of channels through which they can communicate with and about businesses. Social media networks, review aggregating resources, and other websites all present methods by which customers can offer feedback and reach out to a given company.

Bucholtz asserted that the rise of these channels means that firms must acknowledge that the customer's voice, not the company's, is now dominant, and CRM systems need to reflect that reality.

To this end, Bucholtz recommended that organizations work to ensure that their CRM systems are usable by a wide variety of employees, not just those in marketing or customer support. This can make the business more agile and better able to respond to customers in a variety of ways.

Organization-wide Tool
This attitude is shared by Saby Mitra, a manager at an international sales and marketing consulting firm. Speaking to Sci-Tech Today, Mitra noted that CRM tools are most effective when implemented throughout every level of an organization, instead of isolated to certain specific departments.

Business 2 Community notes that businesses often don't set measurable goals designed to improve the customer's experience for their contact centers. This can keep them from developing the right culture that continually allows staff to exceed the customer's expectations.

To achieve a high level of engagement from staff and create such a client-focused culture, businesses need a way to measure customer satisfaction and staff performance. TechTarget reports that many businesses are relying on contact center performance management software to provide actionable data and address customer service issues. These programs track a center's performance to identify areas where improvement is needed. With the information, managers are able to align staff to better handle call volumes or arrange for training on specific skills.

These investments can lead to a dramatic cultural shift within the contact center, as the analytical technology provides information to identify problems early. These tools are changing the way contact centers operate by placing more emphasis on providing a clear mission and values to guide employees through their interactions with clients.

But improving the customer experience is easier said than done. According to Forrester Research analyst Art Schoeller, one of the keys to achieving this goal is adopting an "outside-in" approach to the contact center.

Speaking to TechTarget, Schoeller explained that such an approach requires the organization to consider the customer's perspective and how he or she interacts with the company. This should help the firm simplify the technology the customer encounters, and to improve collaboration among different aspects of the business.

"A customer starts a conversation on Twitter, then goes to the Web, then calls or walks into a retail store," Schoeller said, according to the news source. "The tough question is, How do you link all those? If you have a system that's out of whack, you'll have a tough time cracking that."

The rewards for achieving such a link can be significant. If a company can offer customers service that passes seamlessly from one contact point to another, customer satisfaction rates will almost certainly increase.

This is especially true as customers increasingly turn to diverse channels for customer support. As numerous studies have demonstrated, consumers now expect more from organizations than ever before, particularly in regard to contact options. Many customers assume that a firm will be able to address through issues via the phone, email, online chat, and social media. If the contact center can integrate all of these channels and make them work together, the customer experience will improve.

The problem, the source notes, is that social media branding efforts are usually handled through marketing or corporate communication departments, rather than customer service experts. Companies that are able to integrate their customer service centers into their social media efforts may be able to better control and respond to complaints online.

"Successful integration of self-service requires companies to take a customer-centric approach," Kim Martin, director of marketing at Voxeo, told 1to1 Media. "That means providing a consistent user experience across channels, tying into the same customer data repositories, and using the knowledge they've got to personalize and streamline interactions."

The source notes that improving customer experience across channels requires taking a holistic approach to the entire CRM strategy. Customers grow increasingly frustrated when they need to repeat their problem to multiple agents. Directing them to the right department immediately is an important step in the process, but staff also need the capability to share information and coordinate efforts.

Speaking to the news source, Mark Johnson, head of a leading messaging technology firm, noted that providing online support in the contact center can save a company money because customer service agents are able to conduct multiple chat conversations at once, reducing the total number of agents needed.

He added that online chat support can also be preferable to phone-based assistance for issues regarding hardware, software, and mobile handsets, due to the flexibility of the medium.

"For example, when working with a technology product, pictures or specific written instructions are sometimes more effective in solving the problem," said Johnson, according to the news source.

However, while offering online chat support may help organizations improve their service, a recent study found that in-person and phone-based customer support are still customers' preferred methods. Conducted by Forrester Research, the study found that among customers who made their purchases online, only 3 percent used online chat for customer support, Business Insider reported.

Speaking to the news source, Mark Johnson, head of a leading messaging technology firm, noted that providing online support in the contact center can save a company money because customer service agents are able to conduct multiple chat conversations at once, reducing the total number of agents needed.

He added that online chat support can also be preferable to phone-based assistance for issues regarding hardware, software, and mobile handsets, due to the flexibility of the medium.

"For example, when working with a technology product, pictures or specific written instructions are sometimes more effective in solving the problem," said Johnson, according to the news source.

However, while offering online chat support may help organizations improve their service, a recent study found that in-person and phone-based customer support are still customers' preferred methods. Conducted by Forrester Research, the study found that among customers who made their purchases online, only 3 percent used online chat for customer support, Business Insider reported.

TechTarget reports that firms which routinely view their CRM services from the customer's perspective are likely to have better cooperation between departments and create a smoother experience for their clients. In today's world, few customers rely on a single channel to resolve their problems. They may start in one area then switch to another when frustrated.

"A customer starts a conversation on Twitter, then goes to the web, then calls or walks into a retail store," Industry analyst Art Schoeller told the source. "The tough question is, how do you link all those? If you have a system that's out of whack, you'll have a tough time cracking that."

The source recommends noting the specific journey that customers can take as a way to identify key channels. Wired magazine notes that companies are using Twitter as a new CRM tool. This may help start conversations or direct them to a website, but the 2011 Global Customer Service Barometer by American Express showed that 90 percent of consumers prefer phone conversations to resolve complex issues. By focusing on improving services when viewed from the outside, companies may be able to create effective, cost-saving CRM strategies.

Consequently, customer experience and marketing are intricately tied together, as Business 2 Community's Debra Murphy recently noted. She therefore recommended that firms' customer support and marketing departments work together to improve customer experience offerings.

As a recent study revealed, this same logic may also apply to the field of human resources. The Credit Union Times reported that the study, conducted by Temkin Group, found that only 15 percent of participating organizations' HR departments help to improve their firms' customer experience offerings.

"Employee engagement is critical for customer experience success," said Bruce Temkin, managing partner of Temkin Group, according to the news source.

He added that the results of the survey suggest that customer experience and human resource professionals should quite possibly work closer together than they do now.

To improve the customer experience, companies may want to hire a Chief Customer Officer, industry expert Rachel Miller recently suggested. Writing for Business 2 Community, Miller pointed out that by having a C-level executive to represent consumer interests in the boardroom will force other departments to pay close attention to the customer experience in all of its iterations.

Such an executive, Miller explained, would be responsible for determining what customers value about a company and how the organization can improve in these regards, as well as creating new services and offerings that can meet customer demand.

Focusing this heavily on the customer experience could potentially yield significant dividends. A 2011 RightNow study found that 86 percent of survey respondents would be willing to pay more money for a better customer experience, and 89 percent switched to a different business after undergoing a poor customer experience.

However, successful implementation of a CRM system is not automatic. To be effective, IT officers must leverage CRM tools in an intelligent, focused way. One of the keys to achieving this level of strategic deployment is understanding what the true value of a CRM system is. What can it accomplish?

While many would argue that customer acquisition is the most valuable outcome of CRM implementation, industry expert Chris Bucholtz, writing for CMSWire, recently asserted that customer retention is the more significant benefit.

According to Bucholtz, CRM programs can aid customer retention by improving businesses' customer support abilities. He explained that for most firms, approximately 80 percent of customer service requests are fairly routine. With CRM, the organization can streamline its responses to such issues, minimizing the time it takes to achieve resolution. This frees customer support staff to spend more time and effort on the remaining 20 percent of unique, more demanding issues. The end result is a better customer experience, which encourages clients to remain with that company.

These social media sites have also been proven effective at boosting sales and generating new leads, which makes them popular with companies' marketing departments. Marketing and customer services are often combined in an attempt to build a strong brand and memorable experiences for consumers, but Destination CRM states that overuse can turn customers off, decreasing the value of the channel.

Finding the balance between the right level of touch and resolving issues has been challenging for a number of companies. CMSWire reports that some businesses view their social media strategies as more of an external liaison role and are focusing on the interactions. Employees are given specific guidelines to listen, monitor and follow up, limiting the scope of their activities. This has allowed the businesses to better control their brands and make a cohesive presentation across multiple channels and thousands of interactions. By limiting the number of messages, these businesses have avoided oversaturating their interactions with customers and have increased the value of their social media presence.

The contact center is one of the most critical resources companies use to offer top-notch customer service. To remain effective in the future, contact centers must continually leverage new technology, and skilled workers, as 1to1 Media recently highlighted.

Speaking to the news source, Don Peppers, founding partner of the Peppers & Rogers Group, explained that technology can help organizations' contact centers remain flexible and responsive while addressing increasingly demanding customers.

Notably, customers are now using more channels than ever. This means contact centers must offer assistance via voice, social media, chat, email, interactive voice response (IVR), SMS and other methods to ensure clients can use the medium they prefer to receive assistance, the news source noted.

To successfully utilize these various technologies and channels, firms need to hire skilled contact center employees, according to the news source. If workers are insufficiently experienced in these areas, problems will likely ensue, leading to decreasing levels of customer dissatisfaction.

This may be particularly true as social media becomes increasingly important for customer support. To handle such requests, many firms turn to social customer relationship management (CRM) tools. However, as CMSWire contributor Chris Bucholtz recently highlighted, these platforms also require skilled workers. Leveraging social CRM programs requires knowledge of how social media networks work and how customers use them. A lack of awareness can lead to embarrassing incidents that can drive away potential and existing customers.

The contact center is one of the most critical resources companies use to offer top-notch customer service. To remain effective in the future, contact centers must continually leverage new technology, and skilled workers, as 1to1 Media recently highlighted.

Speaking to the news source, Don Peppers, founding partner of the Peppers & Rogers Group, explained that technology can help organizations' contact centers remain flexible and responsive while addressing increasingly demanding customers.

Notably, customers are now using more channels than ever. This means contact centers must offer assistance via voice, social media, chat, email, interactive voice response (IVR), SMS and other methods to ensure clients can use the medium they prefer to receive assistance, the news source noted.

To successfully utilize these various technologies and channels, firms need to hire skilled contact center employees, according to the news source. If workers are insufficiently experienced in these areas, problems will likely ensue, leading to decreasing levels of customer dissatisfaction.

This may be particularly true as social media becomes increasingly important for customer support. To handle such requests, many firms turn to social customer relationship management (CRM) tools. However, as CMSWire contributor Chris Bucholtz recently highlighted, these platforms also require skilled workers. Leveraging social CRM programs requires knowledge of how social media networks work and how customers use them. A lack of awareness can lead to embarrassing incidents that can drive away potential and existing customers.

A new study by Gartner shows that the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, is expected to reach $9.5 billion by 2016, with China being one of the major centers for growth. By the end of this year, the industry will represent $6.45 billion in outsourced services as firms continue to look for cost-saving measures.

"The Asia/Pacific BPO market is still relatively underdeveloped and underexploited when compared with other markets or regions," Gartner Research Director T J Singh said.

The study notes that firms from the U.S. and Europe will drive growth in the industry as they look for scalable, high-quality service in a variety of industries. Finance, telecommunication, retail and transportation are the region's largest consumers of BPO services, but many other industries are expected to seek opportunities in the region as competition raises quality, CNBC reports.

The expansion of contact centers and IT-BPO will create additional competition among businesses in the region, as few companies have been able to dominate multiple processes. Ultimately, this will give outside firms options that will help them realize savings and improve their processes.

The Toronto Star reported that the study, conducted for American Express, included more than 1,000 adult Canadian consumers. It found that 32 percent of participants believe businesses pay less attention to offering high quality customer support now than before the economic downturn. When this survey was conducted last year, only 24 percent of respondents felt this way. Thirty-four percent admitted to having lost their temper with a customer service agent within the past year, and 21 percent angrily left a store due to poor service.

Notably, more than three-fifths of those surveyed said that within the last year, they had intended to purchase a product or service from a business but chose not to as a result of that firm's poor customer service. And, just as importantly, 20 percent indicated they had discussed a bad experience via social media networks.

As these statistics show, businesses that fail to offer a satisfactory customer experience will suffer significant consequences. That is why it is critical for businesses to see customer support not as a necessary expense, but rather as an opportunity to gain customer loyalty and brand advocates.

1to1 Media stated that companies will need to develop new cultures to deal with shifts in customer behavior. The source notes that consumers are becoming more adept at using self-service programs to resolve issues, but they are also demanding additional channels. Proper training for employees will help them balance voice, chat, email, mobile and more to quickly and professionally handle customer issues.

Customer service centers will need to be agile to manage surges in traffic during peak hours. Tracking information helps companies manage their schedules, while more effective call routing systems are enabling firms to use part-time employees who work from home, the source stated. This cost-effective solution maximizes personnel when they are needed during high-volume periods.

Some state governments have realized that new demands are being placed on employees at contact centers and are providing subsidies for their training. KRQE -TV reported that New Mexico has dedicated $1.3 million for the training of customer center employees with the goal of helping local customer service centers expand their operations.

But not all IVR systems are equally effective. As The Economic Times recently highlighted, a new study suggested that the voice used in IVR programs can have a huge impact on user behavior.

"We have been systematically looking at what affects user performance on IVRs for some time now," said Philip Kortum, one of the authors of the study, the news source reported. "Voice is the major element in an IVR interface, as graphical elements are for a Web page, and this study was a first attempt to understand the impact voice might have on the perceived usability of such systems."

According to Kortum and his co-author, Rochelle Edwards, IVR systems using male voices were typically seen as more usable, though not more trustworthy, than those featuring female voices. They also noted that the tone of voice can have a major impact on the customer experience.

Kortum claimed that organizations should take into account voice and other simple modifications when designing their IVR systems, as these seemingly minor details can have a major impact on how the technology is received by users.

The pair will present their study, "He Says, She Says: Does Voice Affect Usability?" at the upcoming HFES 56th Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

In addition to the tone and gender of the IVR system's voice, another major factor affecting the success of the technology is clarity. As Destination CRM recently reported, HD voice technology, which can greatly improve the quality of IVR phone calls, will likely lead more firms to adopt such systems.

But not all IVR systems are equally effective. As The Economic Times recently highlighted, a new study suggested that the voice used in IVR programs can have a huge impact on user behavior.

"We have been systematically looking at what affects user performance on IVRs for some time now," said Philip Kortum, one of the authors of the study, the news source reported. "Voice is the major element in an IVR interface, as graphical elements are for a Web page, and this study was a first attempt to understand the impact voice might have on the perceived usability of such systems."

According to Kortum and his co-author, Rochelle Edwards, IVR systems using male voices were typically seen as more usable, though not more trustworthy, than those featuring female voices. They also noted that the tone of voice can have a major impact on the customer experience.

Kortum claimed that organizations should take into account voice and other simple modifications when designing their IVR systems, as these seemingly minor details can have a major impact on how the technology is received by users.

The pair will present their study, "He Says, She Says: Does Voice Affect Usability?" at the upcoming HFES 56th Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

In addition to the tone and gender of the IVR system's voice, another major factor affecting the success of the technology is clarity. As Destination CRM recently reported, HD voice technology, which can greatly improve the quality of IVR phone calls, will likely lead more firms to adopt such systems.

The contact center industry is expected to generate $8.4 billion in revenue this year, but Benedict Hernandez, chief executive of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines, has predicted that industry revenues will reach $14.7 billion by 2016, GMA News reported. At a recent industry conference, Hernandez noted that companies are attracted by the high-quality, cost-effective solutions local contact centers can provide.

"The reality is we have established ourselves as the pre-eminent brand," he told the source.

New industries have recently moved to take advantage of the highly skilled workers in the Philippines. Business 2 Community reports that the video game industry is outsourcing IT services to the country to monitor the quality of online experiences for their customers. Everything from handling server traffic to troubleshooting solutions for gamers experiencing problems is handled by outsourced centers with the goal of providing the best online experience for customers. Because of this, the Philippines Software Industry Association has generated thousands of new jobs and grown by 11 percent in the last year, the source stated.

However, as some industry experts recently pointed out, it may be worthwhile for firms to include Tumblr in their social media efforts.

According to Tumblr, the company currently hosts more than 74 million blogs and a total of more than 32 billion posts. Obviously, with such widespread use, this makes Tumblr a potentially valuable resource for firms' social CRM efforts. However, as TechTarget pointed out, many are reluctant to incorporate Tumblr into their social strategies for a number of reasons. For one, Tumblr does not feature quite demographics as diverse as other social media networks, so not every business' customers or clients will make significant use of the network. Additionally, it can be difficult to quantify returns on investment.

However, others believe Tumblr can be a valuable resource for social CRM purposes. It can be an effective channel to interact with customers via multimedia, thereby developing deeper relationships. And because it is consistently growing, there is potential for firms to establish a presence now that will grow in value and importance over time.

In many cases, this level of commitment to customer engagement also extends to employees and partners. Destination CRM report firms that focus on all aspects of their enterprise are better able to create a customer-centric culture that boosts the quality of experience for the end-user. However, firms also need to turn these experiences into new sales leads, and it can be difficult to cut through the noise in the market.

CRM Buyer suggests that companies monitor their social media channels for brand mentions. This can cue the organization to potential leads that have already designated a preferred channel for contact. This data allows the company to collect additional information for its customer profiles, helping to refine marketing efforts. The monitoring of social networks is allowing firms to manage their SEO strategies to stay accessible and open to the target audience, the source states.

With this comprehensive approach, companies are better able to enhance their customers' experience, providing relevant information and offers that will generate new sales.

Business Insider reported that 51 percent of survey participants who purchased a product offline chose to visit the physical location when they experienced a problem, while 32 percent chose to call the business on the phone. Only approximately 1 percent visited the organization's website for self-service, and another 1 percent used online chat.

Among those consumers who made their purchases online, 34 percent used email when they required customer support, making this the most popular channel. The phone was second, used by 30 percent of respondents, followed by visiting a physical location at 13 percent. Online self-service and online chat were used by only 7 and 3 percent, respectively.

These statistics could suggest that the transition from traditional forms of customer support to more modern options is not happening as quickly as some anticipated. However, the results also indicate that online customers are more likely to use internet channels. Considering that online sales are consistently increasing, it is therefore likely that consumer reliance on internet-based customer support will continue to grow with time.

In addition to internet-based customer support options, it is also increasingly critical for firms to make use of other contact center technology. As Enterprise Apps Today recently highlighted, firms should consider deploying both video chat and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) systems in their contact centers to meet anticipated demands from tech-savvy customers.

Business Insider reported that 51 percent of survey participants who purchased a product offline chose to visit the physical location when they experienced a problem, while 32 percent chose to call the business on the phone. Only approximately 1 percent visited the organization's website for self-service, and another 1 percent used online chat.

Among those consumers who made their purchases online, 34 percent used email when they required customer support, making this the most popular channel. The phone was second, used by 30 percent of respondents, followed by visiting a physical location at 13 percent. Online self-service and online chat were used by only 7 and 3 percent, respectively.

These statistics could suggest that the transition from traditional forms of customer support to more modern options is not happening as quickly as some anticipated. However, the results also indicate that online customers are more likely to use internet channels. Considering that online sales are consistently increasing, it is therefore likely that consumer reliance on internet-based customer support will continue to grow with time.

In addition to internet-based customer support options, it is also increasingly critical for firms to make use of other contact center technology. As Enterprise Apps Today recently highlighted, firms should consider deploying both video chat and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) systems in their contact centers to meet anticipated demands from tech-savvy customers.

To determine how well a business is performing when it comes to the customer experience, many firms rely on customer satisfaction ratings. Theoretically, a customer who indicates that he or she was satisfied with a given element of the business also had a positive experience.

However, as Gerry McGovern of CMSWire recently highlighted, this is not necessarily the case. Sometimes, customer satisfaction does not accurately reflect the customer experience.

As an example of this concept, McGovern discussed an occasion when he tested a website with a volunteer who struggled to accomplish basic tasks. Afterward, he asked her how satisfied she was with the website, and she replied, "Really satisfied," despite all the trouble she experienced.

According to McGovern, customers will often indicate that they are satisfied with a product or service, even when they did not have what most would consider a positive experience. And ultimately, it is the experience that really matters. The woman in the experiment he cited may have felt satisfied with the website, but the difficulties she encountered would have likely prevented her from making a purchase, or returning to the website in the future.

For this reason, organizations should go beyond simply measuring customer satisfaction when testing their various processes, and instead monitor customers' abilities to move through the various aspects of the customer experience smoothly and confidently.

Fox News reports that the practice of nearshoring has caused foreign investment in Mexico to rise 27 percent in the first half of 2011. Numerous factories are now producing automotive and aerospace components, as well as medical devices for companies in the U.S. The shorter supply lines have helped increase stability in distribution networks while saving fuel.

The growth of the manufacturing sector has encouraged many of Mexico's students to pursue work in engineering and technical fields. Mexico now graduates more engineers from its universities than the U.S., according to Cision Wire, but other industries are also seeing the benefits of BPO.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that border towns such as Tijuana have seen strong growth through the expansion of contact centers. Companies are able to find bilingual workers who provide cost-effective services. BPO has also grown with Mexico's information and communications technology industry, the source states. Outsourcing the development of software or IT services has made San Diego's tech companies more agile and competitive.

A whitepaper by UC Strategies notes that customer service centers are increasing their reliance on integrated mobile applications that link communication channels. Building a unified communications infrastructure allows any representative in a customer service center to handle calls, texts and email, which reduces wait time and can improve the overall service to the customer.

Placing the platform on the cloud has enabled firms to track performance and share the data with decision makers throughout the organization. The coordination of the information is allowing contact centers to more accurately measure their levels of service to make improvements and take advantage of changes in consumer preferences. This measurability is one of the keys to sustaining high levels of performance, CIO Magazine notes. Without the coordinated services, the company could potentially be missing on opportunities to enhance its CRM.

The use of multiple channel services is making CRM strategies increasingly complex, but the development and use of company-specific mobile apps is instantly providing customer service representatives with data on the customers' past interactions, from purchases to previous calls.

Consequently, it has never been more important for companies to provide a high-quality customer experience. That is why CIO Journal contributors Kerry Bodine and Bobby Cameron recently asserted that it is critical that CIOs embrace this focus, extending it beyond marketers and customer support staff.

As the authors noted, many different components comprise the customer experience. They defined customer experience as "how customers perceive their interactions" with a particular company. This, they explained, includes the stages in which consumers first discover a business, begin to learn about and evaluate its offerings, make a purchase, receive it, use it and receive support if needed. This wide variety of engagements means there are many opportunities for a company to make a positive or negative impression on the consumer.

To ensure these touchpoints are perceived well, Bodine and Cameron asserted that CIOs should work to create and maintain underlying systems that support positive interactions with customers. These include content management systems, reporting tools and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms.

CRM in particular may be useful for achieving this goal, as Tanita Sandhu recently highlighted for Gulf News. According to Sandhu, while some may see CRM primarily as a sales-generating tool, it is most useful for improving a company's standards. CRM can highlight problem areas and help firms improve their customer support offerings.

"The expansion of outsourcing as a standard business strategy speaks to a growing comfort level around using outsourcing for higher-level functions," Simon Tarsh, a director at Deloitte Consulting, told CFO Journal.

The practice is no longer constrained to non-essential functions, either. Insurance Tech recently reported that there was a trend in the insurance industry for companies to outsource part of their core business functions. This was allowing organizations to develop more specialization when it came to claims dealing with personal injury or litigation.

With the additional efficiency and savings a company is able to create through BPO, it is not surprising that more organizations are taking advantage of the practice. The Deloitte survey revealed that all business processes are expected to see an increase in outsourcing in the future. Despite this, companies are taking a cautious approach when it comes to new technology.

The adoption of cloud technology continues to be uncertain as businesses take a more wait-and-see approach to outsourcing. Among the top concerns facing organizations was data privacy, with 75 percent of respondents listing it as the main reason against adopting outsourced cloud platforms.

Bizcommunity.com reports that consumer preferences have changed significantly to require organizations to use a multi-channel approach to CRM. The availability of smartphones, social media and other new technology means that more people of all demographics are communicating through non-traditional channels.

A recent Pew Research Center study found that 79 percent of adults spent a substantial amount of time online, the source reported. This allows companies to reach customers more easily by offering services through the internet. ARN reports that web-based services are quickly becoming the norm in Australia's contact centers.

"Web-based service offerings, including live chat and smartphone apps linked to live agents, will become increasingly important tools in the battle to win long-term customer loyalty in Australia," Avaya managing director Tim Gentry told the source.

Despite the growth of the digital channels, the source notes customers can still prefer to interact with a representative during more complex problems. Contact centers need to ensure that they have the technology in place to maintain a multi-channel solution to CRM.

Conducted by Awareness Inc., the State of Social Marketing Report: 7 Major Findings and In-Depth Analysis surveyed more than 450 marketers from a variety of businesses in different sectors, according to BostInno. Among these participants, 16 percent had a social CRM program in place at their organizations. A further 21 percent indicated they intended to deploy a social CRM solution by the end of 2012.

These numbers may seem somewhat low, considering the consensus among most industry experts that social CRM programs can yield powerful results for firms. As the study revealed, through, budgetary constraints may be a leading reason why so few marketers have implemented such systems. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed stated they do not have sufficient budgets for social marketing and ultimately rely primarily on human resources. Consequently, these professionals are not able to afford to deploy the tools or spend the time necessary to mount truly effective social media-based efforts.

Another factor that may be delaying the implementation of social CRM systems is return on investment (ROI). A recent study, conducted by the Data Warehousing Institute, found that more than two-thirds of participating business executives and IT professionals maintained relatively little engagement with social media channels, TechTarget reported. These respondents cited the fear that social media efforts would not yield a significant, measureable ROI as one of the leading obstacles preventing greater engagement with the medium.

David Stodder, director of research for business intelligence for the Data Warehousing Institute and author of the study, noted that both CEOs and CIOs want to see a hard return on their investments, according to TechTarget. Social media-based efforts, however, may be difficult to quantify.

The Telegraph reports that outsourcing has become an essential part of development. The practice of hiring outside specialists is nothing new, but has altered the way companies view their positions within the market. Firms are able to focus more on their core business, while relying on the services of partners to maintain specifics like shipping, IT and even manufacturing.

Tech Circle notes that business process outsourcing has been important to fulfilling specific skill gaps within the IT industry. Technology advances quickly, and building or housing the necessary infrastructure in-house can be expensive. BPO has allowed firms to hire companies with access to the right skills and knowledge to create customizable, secure systems.

The practice has enabled companies to prosper by gaining access to a wide array of resources. Developing firms benefit from the advantages specialists provide, creating cost-effective business models that are able to pursue growth opportunities quickly.

The 2012 Gartner Executive Programs CIO Agenda survey found that Asian CIOs' business and technology priorities are, for the first time, closely aligned with global trends, Computer Business Review reported.

"This is the first time that we've seen such a tight alignment and I think it shows that Asia and the rest of the world are becoming one," said Linda Price, Gartner Executive Programs group vice president for Asia Pacific, the news source reported. "Globalization is really having a huge impact on the global CIOs' view of business."

Among the most significant trends revealed by the survey is rising appreciation of CRM. CRM applications were the fourth highest priority for survey participants, the news source reported. In last year's survey, such programs did not break into the top 10.

As a result of the increasing acknowledgement of CRM's importance globally, the market is growing. A separate Gartner report found that the CRM market reached $12 billion in 2011 and is likely to grow 7 percent in 2012.

Wired magazine reports that companies are turning to Twitter to improve customer service. The ability to provide an instant answer with a link to a website or a phone number for more information allows businesses to address consumer issues quickly. The fast responses are helping organizations turn potential problems into a positive experience for the customer, which the consumer is then happy to share across Twitter.

The use of the new technology is changing the way contact centers operate, expanding their role in marketing campaigns, data collection and more. The additional channels are leading contact centers in Illinois to expand their facilities and provide additional positions to deal with the influx of messages, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Customer service centers remain a cost-effective solution for companies. The use of Twitter and other social media programs will improve efficiency by providing additional ways to ensure that customers are directed to the right department while creating the quick solutions the client needs.

However, having the right tools in place is not enough. Organizations must take additional steps to ensure social CRM solutions are used effectively.

Writing for CMSWire, Chris Bucholtz recently asserted that one of the keys to achieving an effective social CRM operation is putting these tools into the right hands.

According to Bucholtz, there are a number of skills personnel in charge of handling a firm's social CRM practices need to possess. Most notably, it is critical that the employees have the ability to understand how a customer will perceive their social media efforts. Without this degree of foresight and empathy, it is entirely possible that an employee will issue a message that is misunderstood by the company's followers and fans. This can be embarrassing to the organization, or even damage its credibility and reputation.

Additionally, Bucholtz noted that the employees in charge of social CRM must be well aware of the firm's ultimate goals for social media. This can vary greatly from one organization to the next, with some more concerned with attracting attention to the brand while others are more focused on providing social customer support.

These objectives will have a great bearing on best practices for social engagement, and employees using social CRM must understand what these goals are and how to best achieve them.

"Carriers are asking whether some other organization can perform certain functions better, letting them focus on whatever their strength is," Ellen Carney, a senior analyst with Forrester Research, told the source. "There's a particular opportunity around specialized lines of insurance."

Call Centre Focus stated that the handling of fraudulent claims has created a specific niche for contact centers to work with insurance companies. The centers have been able to improve customer satisfaction while increasing security for the insurers.

However, companies that are considering outsourcing a function of their operations need to ensure that the move is right. For many organizations, this depends on providing a real advantage through the partnership, Insurance Tech stated. Technology is helping to smooth communication between partners, leading to increased opportunities to build specialties and leverage core capabilities. The expertise is also allowing insurance firms to scale business models more effectively to see additional savings.

The international study found that finding cost effective solutions to IT services was driving business decisions. Three out of five respondents stated that operating in-house IT infrastructure increased costs. As a result, more than 40 percent of all infrastructure is expected to be outsourced in the next five years, up from just 25 percent.

"This study reveals a significant shift in the way organizations analyze and approach IT services," said Bill Fathers, president of Savvis. "IT departments are now looking to strengthen collaboration, efficiency and competitive agility – and they're turning to secure, outsourced environments and cloud computing to help meet their objectives."

Companies are continually seeking ways to increase their agility in the market. The need for faster data processing and information sharing is driving companies to invest more in cloud technology. This was one of the fastest-growing sectors of the IT field in the last year, as 85 percent of companies use cloud solutions, up from just 39 percent in 2010.

Acknowledging these facts, many companies have instituted customer care programs. However, as industry expert Amber Remke recently highlighted in Tulsa World, many customers make mistakes regarding their customer care. One of the most significant of these is stopping short.

Making the hard decisions

One of the most common strategies organizations implement to improve their customer care offerings and the quality of the customer experience is the use of measurement systems. Companies can leverage feedback tools in order to gain an accurate understanding of how customers are actually using and responding to their offerings. If customers are dissatisfied with a given product or service, these programs can alert companies to that fact, instead of forcing firms to wait for particularly upset customers to issue emails, social media messages or phone calls.

However, as Remke noted, some firms establish such programs and then do nothing with the results they receive, thereby negating their potential effectiveness.

According to Remke, businesses must take action if a particular problem area becomes apparent. When customers are unhappy, the best way for a business to demonstrate that it cares is through firm action.

Benefits of care

The benefits of this type of customer care can be seen in the service recovery paradox. This is a phenomenon that has been repeatedly demonstrated: when a dissatisfied customer receives quality support, he or she is likely to feel more positively toward the company than before the product or service failure. To take advantage of this tendency, though, firms must pay attention to customer care feedback and metrics and act on that information.

One of the reasons for the strong growth is the emphasis on quality service. Contact Center Association of the Philippines president Benedict Hernandez recently stated that the industry continues to build the required skills to keep the country's reputation as the top destination for voice services. The Philippines recently became the top market for global outsourcing, in part because of its flexibility in working with foreign companies and its population's proficiency with the English language.

"The Philippines has the edge in the English language," Hernandez told GMC News. "Voice-wise, the Philippines has the advantages over China."

Global Post reported that the Americanized accent featured by many educated Filipinos has helped the BPO industry overcome hurdles dealing with consumers in the U.S. This has made the country a popular choice for American companies seeking cost-effective customer service solutions. The language proficiency is helping contact centers see steady growth, adding thousands of jobs to the Filipino economy.

Among the difficulties faced by businesses implementing mobile strategies is the issue of security. Companies are scrambling to provide platforms for their contact centers that can handle the increase in mobile communication. They also need to ensure that these platforms are not vulnerable to web-based attacks, which could delay the implementation of the system by making it more complex.

"The way most companies do it is a quick and easy configuration, but that is not necessarily secure - and that is to allow the application server to access data from the back end," Jerry Irvine, CIO of Prescient Solutions, told CRM Buyer.

Mobile devices are usually the most vulnerable to malware as customers download numerous applications, Irvine stated. Focusing on the security of the system can smooth the implementation of the mobile platform by preventing disruptions and outages, which can negatively impact the customer's experience. Providing the additional focus on security can ultimately protect the company and create value for the consumer.

Customer Support and Marketing

Murphy noted that the internet, and in particular review aggregating websites, have made it easy for a dissatisfied customer to share his or her experience with the world. Such testimonials can have a major impact on a business' success as individuals will search the internet for information on a company before patronizing it.

This means that a business' reputation will largely be dependent on the quality of the customer experience it has offered to clients in the past.

Consequently, Murphy asserted that businesses should incorporate customer support into their marketing efforts. Instead of focusing exclusively on promoting brand recognition and making sales, marketers should work with customer support agents to develop mutually beneficial strategies.

Negative online reviews, for example, should be seen as both a marketing issue, as they concern the brand reputation, and a support issue, as they concern the customer experience.

Social media's role

One of the primary areas in which customer support and marketing will likely overlap is social media. Facebook, Twitter and other sites are among the leading sources of criticism directed at companies, meaning that firms should focus on these resources as both a means of improving brand reputation and responding to customer issues.

However, many major firms have yet to adopt this view of social media. Forbes reported that a recent study found many Fortune 500 companies seem to still view social media primarily as a marketing channel, disregarding its support potential.

"Increasing healthcare spending is driving countries to create health reforms that will not only ensure additional coverage to members but also introduce technology solutions such as electronic health records," Total Transcriptions Solutions managing director Myla Reyes told Manila Standard Today.

The Healthcare Information Management Association of the Philippines recently reported that it expects 43,000 new positions to be created by the end of the year, according to the news source. Many of these positions are in the information management sector as organizations attempt to streamline their business processes.

In addition to the creating thousands of new positions, the BPO industry is also seeing a strong increase in demand for higher quality of service. This is forcing a number of contact centers to concentrate on staff development. Business Line reports that top users of BPO are increasingly targeting highly skilled or knowledgeable workers capable of providing friendly service while quickly resolving the customer's problems as a way to improve their offerings to clients.

The 2011 Global Customer Service Barometer by American Express shows that 90 percent of American consumers prefer phone conversations to resolve issues. For contact centers this becomes an essential part of their CRM strategy, as they need to ensure proper staffing levels to provide the services the customer expects and wants.

Personalized conversations can make a strong impression on the customer. Small Business Trends reports that a positive, or negative, experience can have a large impact on customer loyalty. Companies that focus on providing quality customer service are likely to benefit from increased sales and brand loyalty. Unfortunately many companies fail to take full advantage of this. The customer service barometer found that consumers felt firms did not do enough to win over their business.

Only 24 percent of respondents said that companies showed their appreciation to the customer by going the extra mile. A much more common experience was that the staff was helpful but didn't do anything special, which received 43 percent of the responses. Companies that stress the importance of high-quality service in their CRM strategies may see strong gains in repeat sales.

To truly take advantage of mobile CRM, organizations need to make a number of decisions. One of the more important of these, as CRM Buyer recently pointed out, is whether the firm will embrace real-time responsiveness.

Right tools for the right job

Speaking to the news source, industry expert John Lucker noted that there are both advantages and disadvantages to attempting to leverage real-time responsiveness.

In some cases, he explained, a mobile CRM app simply must respond immediately in order for it be an effective tool for the customer. If this is the case, the firm must pursue a mobile CRM solution that can extract and deliver data in real time, when it has not yet been analyzed or organized into more coherent form.

The problem with this tactic, according to Lucker, is that this can significantly increase the chances that a system will crash or fail, which may seriously damage the company's brand reputation and relationship with customers.

"The thing with mobile apps, especially mobile CRM apps, is that customers expect them to work smoothly. No one wants to be in a position of explaining why a self-service CRM app is buggy and hard to use," Lucker said, according to the news source.

Slow but steady

On the other hand, some mobile CRM apps require data to be processed. Lucker cited a program that provides recommendations to customers based on past purchases as an example. For such a tool, real-time responsiveness is far less important than accuracy and relevance.

One often-underappreciated component of CRM systems is data security. As Dale Dabbs recently highlighted for Destination CRM, firms should strive to protect the data accumulated for CRM purposes, and use CRM databases to improve their responses in the event of a data breach.

Acknowledging risks

As numerous recent events have demonstrated, there are many cybercriminals intent on acquiring personal data from organizations. This information can be used for a number of malicious activities, most notably identity theft and fraud. This makes organizations that hold sizable archives of personal data appealing targets.

However, in order for CRM systems to be effective, firms must collect a significant amount of such data. As Dabbs pointed out, this means that any firm that hopes to take advantage of CRM will inevitably also face a heightened risk of attack by hackers hoping to cause a data breach.

Businesses using CRM should therefore incorporate comprehensive data security plans into their operations. These steps should include cybersecurity measures such as firewalls and antivirus programs, complex passwords, limited employee access to customer data and extensive training for workers to support best practices.

Worst case scenarios

Dale also emphasized that firms should use their CRM capabilities to prepare to respond in the event of a data breach. For example, a CRM system can help quickly alert customers affected by a data breach, as well as provide support for these individuals. This can minimize the damage done by a breach, both to the customers and to the company's reputation.

The largest factor in building a successful social CRM strategy is customer experience, according to Destination CRM. This makes it increasingly important for the business to consider each interaction from the consumer's point of view to find areas that can be improved.

CRM Buyer reports that building an effective social CRM strategy is about targeting specific customers. The personalization available through social media channels allows the company to focus on improving the experience of each customer. Once they have been introduced to the programs and sites that will enhance their service, the business then needs to continue its efforts to keep consumers informed of new products and services, the source stated.

The strategy of starting small then drilling down for relevant specifics requires the customer service center to become a valued partner in collecting customer data. All of the interactions that the center has with the customer can provide additional information about preferences, product use, demographics and more. Many contact centers have already become adept at collecting, analyzing and sharing customer data with their clients, increasing the centers' value as a BPO strategy.

However, there are also recurring issues that have inhibited IVR's utility. Perhaps most notably, IVR can be undermined by unclear communication, as it depends upon speech recognition technology.

That is why evolving HD voice technology may significantly improve IVR's effectiveness, as Destination CRM recently highlighted.

Achieving Clarity

As the news source noted, the use of IVR among contact centers is growing as organizations from many different industries seek to improve the efficiency of their customer support offerings. As HD voice technology improves, making calls clearer, this trend may increase.

"With [standard-definition] audio, the customer often has to repeat himself, and that costs money in the contact center," said industry expert Chris Thorson, the news source reported.

HD voice helps to alleviate this issue. The technology improves calls' sound quality, thereby improving IVR programs' ability to distinguish between similar-sounding words and sounds.

Additionally, the news source noted that HD voice's higher level of clarity allows customers to call from noisy environments, such as airports or the street, and still have their words understood by the contact center's IVR program.

An Improving Technology

HD voice is not the only development impacting IVR. A recent study by a leading contact center optimization firm found that cloud computing is playing an increasingly prevalent role in the deployment of IVR systems. According to the survey, a third of respondents now use cloud-based IVR.

Some contact centers are now experimenting with the use of automated response systems that provide answers to simple customer queries. CRM Buyer reports that self-service mobile technology is helping to solve a number of challenges faced by customer service centers. The programs can be customized to provide new product information, launch videos, take requests for call-backs or even lead the client through a text-based conversation to help diagnose problems.

The programs are helping increase the productivity of contact centers by reducing wait times and ensuring the customer reaches the right department. A recent Nucleus Research survey found that self-service mobile platforms increased productivity by 14.6 percent. 

Other channels are also benefiting from the technology. ITWeb reports that digital chat programs are helping websites be more sophisticated with the information they are able to provide. Virtual assistants are able to ask questions through a chat window to determine what the customer is looking for. Some can even complete sales by recording customer information for later processing.

One area in which contact centers have been extremely beneficial to companies is improving the customer's experience. Most customer service centers now provide a range of communication channels for the consumer. This is allowing business to decrease the overall number of calls by solving minor issues through Twitter or other social media channels. The customer gets a quick resolution to his or her problem, while the company can reduce waiting and maintain a good client-to-staff ratio.

The additional interactions are also providing managers with numerous sources for customer data. By viewing the contact center as a partner, firms can capture additional information on preferences, demographics, response rates and more that can be shared throughout the organization. Helping to facilitate the use of the data has also impacted the development of additional IT infrastructure Technology Inquirer reported.

Streamlining business processes and sharing the information with clients requires contact centers to develop a variety of customizable applications and software. This causes the entities to work closely with their clients to integrate the platforms to other aspects of the business, and has resulted in true partnerships between corporations.

As important as customer support is, there are many other, more subtle aspects of the customer experience firms would be wise to pay attention to. One of these, as Sanjay Sarathy recently highlighted for CRM Buyer, is billing.

The billing experience

Sarathy noted that there is actually a significant degree of variety and quality between the billing strategies organizations deploy. A number of these are very straightforward and relatively common, such as offering a variety of payment options. Others require somewhat more sophisticated software - for example, sending an email reminder to let a customer know his subscription or the credit card on file will soon expire, or, for international organizations, accepting payment in local currencies.

According to Sarathy, research suggests that firms offer more flexible and advanced billing options tend to see higher revenues. For example, he claimed that customer acquisition rates go up by 3 to 5 percent when businesses accept local currencies.

Additionally, Sarathy noted that making it easy for customers to cancel their subscriptions to services tends to lead to longer relationships with clients. This is likely due to individuals appreciating the customer care displayed by such organizations.

Consistency Counts

As Sarathy pointed out, businesses often view billing as an unfortunate necessity, and their primary goal is to minimize the cost of their services, rather than maximizing the experience for customers.

But a customer who has a single poor billing experience may be sufficiently dissatisfied to avoid patronizing that company again in the future.

Writing for Business Insider, Peter Shankman recently emphasized the notion that customer care must be constant. It is not enough for an organization to dazzle customers with occasional acts of extremely high-quality care. While such acts can have a very positive impression, they can be completely undercut by a single instance of poor service.

With consistently high-quality customer support and care, though, a firm can demonstrate a genuine dedication to the customer experience, which is likely to be a far more effective way of increasing customer loyalty and retention.

Retailers received a 3 percent year-over-year increase in revenue during August and the back-to-school season, but the big gain was in online sales, which jumped 11 percent from the same period a year prior, according to Direct Marketing News. Mobile purchases are expected to grow by 20 percent this holiday season, the source reported, as consumers begin to open their wallets. Mobile devices provide another channel for customers to compare prices, discover product quality and complete transactions.

With experts predicting that the upcoming holiday season will be a big one for e-commerce, companies need to ensure that their sales and CRM strategies are ready. Multichannel Merchant notes that several online training programs are helping businesses increase the effectiveness of their customer service staffs. The increased reliance on online channels is placing additional demands on contact centers, which must have knowledgeable professionals monitoring accounts and providing high-quality service.

Companies that are able to maintain a high standard for their interactions through mobile and social media are likely to see an increase in brand loyalty and potentially capture additional sales this holiday season.

There is no definitive solution to ensure that customers receive a high-quality experience every time they interact with a company. However, there are strategies a firm can adopt to increase the likelihood that these interactions will be satisfying for consumers.

According to Business 2 Community contributor Shep Hyken, one of the most important elements companies should focus on when considering the customer experience they offer is simple niceness.

Nice Guys Finish First

As Hyken pointed out, most businesses feature a front line customer experience. This is the point when the customer actually engages with a representative of the company, such as when she or he places an order for a product. At this point, niceness can make a major difference, determining whether the interaction is unsatisfactory, satisfactory or exceeds the individual's expectations. Whether the product is a cup of coffee or a new car, the level of customer care demonstrated by the company representative will play a major role in determining how the client feels about the firm after the transaction, and whether he or she will return in the future.

Empathy's Role

Similar to niceness, empathy is another basic element that can have a huge impact on the customer experience, as John Foster recently highlighted in a separate Business 2 Community report. An empathetic representative will be able to put himself or herself in the client's shoes, motivating the agent to provide the best customer experience possible.

"The IT-BPO and GIC [global in-house center] industry has grown rapidly, so has the demand for a skilled workforce," BAP President and Chief Executive Benedict Hernandez said. "We need motivated and highly-qualified professionals."

The BPO industry in the Philippines is expected to grow into a $25 billion industry by 2016, employing more than 1 million people as companies continue to look for cost-effective means to managing non-core operations. As part of the growth, contact centers are expanding their offerings, becoming more sophisticated in their use of technology to align with their clients' goals.

Customer relationship management requires companies to maintain multiple channels for communication to provide service through mobile devices, email or phone calls. These interactions are making it easier to personalize service by collecting customer data, which is shared across multiple departments. The technology is allowing the BPO industry to provide more end-to-end services, customizing services and IT platforms to fit the objectives of clients.

To retain customers, it is critical for firms to offer a satisfying customer experience. Yet this is much easier said than done. One of the keys, according to Business 2 Community contributor John Foster, is an emphasis on empathy.

Feeling for the Customer

Empathy, according to Foster, is the most important element of customer support. This is because an empathetic customer service representative will be able to place himself or herself in the customer's position and therefore want to help solve whatever problem has arisen.

At times, this will almost certainly lead to conflicts between the customer's best interest and the business' financial incentives. Foster provided the example of a woman who bought a laptop only to have it stolen mere minutes later while still in the mall. Obviously, the store does not have a responsibility to compensate the woman for this incident. Yet the manager quickly decided to provide a replacement computer at no cost. Such an act, while costing the store the cost of a computer, will likely prove worthwhile in the long run, as the woman is liable to become a loyal customer and to tell this story to many others.

Foster noted that empathy is also critical because of the service recovery paradox. This refers to the fact that consumers who have a problem with a product or service and then receive assistance to remedy the issue tend to become more loyal than those who had no problem to begin with. While noting that this does not mean businesses should strive to create problems, it does emphasize the importance on providing a high-quality customer experience, and that requires empathy for the customer's plight.

Empathy in the Contact Center

Writing for CBS News, customer service expert Michael Hess asserted that it may be advisable for firms to institute empathy-training programs in contact centers. Doing so may improve the quality of responses offered, leading to improved customer satisfaction.

While social media does present significant marketing opportunities, it can also offer much more utility to firms  willing to take advantage. This is especially true if a company utilizes social customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Such solutions have the potential to greatly improve a firm's social media presence, as well as the ways it interacts with customers and clients via these channels.

However, achieving these results is not automatic. To effectively utilize social CRM, organizations must strive to consider the customer experience, as Destination CRM's Patrick Dorsey recently highlighted.

The customer's side

Social CRM is most effective when used to deepen the relationship between the customer and the company. By doing so, a firm can increase brand loyalty and retain customers well into the future, which often proves far more beneficial than gaining new clients.

To this end, firms need to see social media not as a new method of offering sales pitches but rather as an opportunity to improve the customer experience. Dorsey argued that one of the most effective ways to reach this point involves focusing on the customer's side of the social media experience. How can the company use social media and social CRM to offer real value to the customer?

Some organizations, for example, have used these tools to create online communities through which clients can share their experiences and issues regarding the company's products and services. This can serve as a valuable resource to improve the user experience while also providing useful data to the organization itself.

Over the last few years, companies have shifted the focus of their CRM strategies to include more mobile programs. This approach appears to be in line with shifts in consumer behavior, as mobile apps are now tied with social media as the fourth most popular way to get information.  Contact centers must continue to implement new channels for customer interactions, including mobile programs, if they wish to maintain high standards of service.

Mobile apps appear to help companies fulfill several important factors in providing good customer service. The programs can be customized to fit the needs of the individual, making them more personal than traditional services. Apps also provide a way for the customer to take direct action by texting, calling or connecting to social networks.

Immediate feedback is important to many consumers. The Red Cross survey found that 76 percent of consumers expect replies within three hours of posting a request. The goal of reducing response times places a lot of demand on contact centers, but if successful, it could lead to higher brand loyalty and increased sales.

Users of mobile devices saw a higher satisfaction rating than customers who relied on more traditional lines of communication. This could assist other industries in developing their CRM strategies. Companies can improve customer satisfaction by providing mobile platforms for them to conduct transactions, find information or receive account updates.

Consumers continue to adopt mobile platforms in increasing numbers. The study found that 7 percent of credit card customers use mobile apps to pay bills, receive text alerts and perform other daily interactions, up from 4 percent in 2011. The use of smartphones is significantly higher among shoppers. A report by Nielsen found that 47 percent of smartphone users rely on shopping apps to compare prices and make purchases.

The adoption of mobile technology is helping organizations effectively communicate with their customers. With millions of smartphone users across the country, incorporating mobile services into a CRM strategy appears to be an effective way for companies to improve their customer service.

Writing for CRM Buyer, Christopher Bucholtz recently noted that with both traditional and social CRM, success is only possible if organizations have realistic expectations for the technology. Too often, a firm acquires CRM tools and, knowing how powerful such programs can be, assumes all of its problems will be solved.

This, as Bucholtz noted, is far from the case. Social CRM cannot resolve fundamental problems within an organization. It can help a company become significantly more effective when it comes to assisting and building relationships with customers, but such success takes patience and discipline.

However, this does not mean social CRM is inconsequential. Far from it. As customer service expert Mikkel Svanne recently explained to Computer Business Review, social CRM has tremendous value and is likely to become even more important in the near future.

IT has become integrated into every function of an organization and BPO is commonly seen as a way to manage various parts of the system. Computerworld reported that remaining competitive often requires expertise in several areas which can be difficult for in-house IT departments to manage in a cost-effective way. The use of external providers for data collection, security, cloud servers, and other functions allows the organization to focus on its core systems without sacrificing quality.

Customer relationship management is another area that is becoming increasingly complex. With the rise of social media and mobile technology, businesses have adopted new strategies for delivering high-quality service. This has shifted the role of the modern contact center as well, making them partners in the development of systems that enable organizations to capture and share customer information.

The complexity of a BPO relationship requires a clear understanding of each company's role and responsibilities. Outsourcing has become about leveraging the strengths of specific firms to create value, rather than a simple cost benefit analysis. Developing the right partnerships can help corporations control the increasingly complex systems that are required to remain competitive in today's market.

As Forbes reported, a customer service company recently found that more than half of consumer-facing Fortune 500 companies do not provide links to their Facebook profiles or their Twitter handles on their contact pages. Additionally, 27 percent did not offer this information on their websites at all.

"This is a classic example of where consumer behavior is changing much faster than companies are adapting," Tom Eggemeier, head of sales at the firm responsible for the study, told Forbes. "Companies are still seeing social media through the lens of marketing, not as part of an overall brand execution strategy."

Numerous studies have demonstrated that consumers are increasingly turning to social media when searching for customer support. Companies that do not leverage social media for this purpose risk being perceived as unconcerned with the customer experience.

To improve presence and customer interaction on social media, firms should consider adopting advanced social customer relationship management (CRM) tools and strategies. David Taber, writing for CIO, recently noted that large corporations can have a great deal of difficulty manually managing all relevant conversations, comments and complaints that concern them on social media channels.

A social CRM system can automate and improve a firm's abilities in this regard, helping to prioritize issues to ensure that important concerns are addressed immediately. Additionally, as Taber noted, social CRM tools allow companies to integrate social media with formal incident reporting and case records, thereby permitting the organization to use its traditional, dependable methods for responding to problems regardless of the medium through which they were reported.

However, many firms have been reluctant to embrace mobile CRM technology, fearing either the costs involved or the difficulty of achieving a definitive, solid return on investment (ROI). Others have begrudgingly adopted the technology out of a sense obligation as competing firms have taken similar steps.

As CRM Buyer recently pointed out, however, properly deployed mobile CRM can yield significant results.

The customer experience

The news source noted that when firms utilize mobile CRM reluctantly, the results are often underwhelming. Seen as an unfortunate necessity, these mobile apps typically lack much appeal for users, limiting their effectiveness.

When organizations strive to develop mobile CRM tools and apps that offer valuable services to customers, the results can be impressive. The news provider highlighted the recent J.D. Power and Associates 2012 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction survey. This study found that only 7 percent of credit card customers utilize mobile devices when completing transactions, yet this group demonstrated higher average satisfaction levels than customers using other channels.

The key to successful mobile CRM applications is creating apps that improve the customer experience, rather than focusing on simply creating another contact channel.

Better on both ends

In addition to improving customer satisfaction, mobile CRM can also improve employee performance. A recent Nucleus Research study of 220 CRM decision-makers from North America and Europe found that providing salespeople with mobile CRM access increased sales productivity by an average of 14.6 percent.

As the contact center expands its capabilities, it places large demands on the personnel. An article in Adotas notes that improving customer experience often relies on empowering the contact center staff to act effectively. Providing employees with the flexibility to help customers solve problems will help them perform better. This also enables them to foresee potential recurring problems and take steps to correct them. The more proactive the CRM staff is, the more positive the customer experience will be.

Positive interactions can help build brand loyalty by creating a strong connection with the customer, the source states. However, improving sales is about more than creating a good experience. Customers need to be directed to new areas, new products and new services to help increase the chance for upsells or repeat businesses. In an article for CMS Wire, Rodney Kuhn, founder of Envision, stated that the best way to achieve this was to share customer data across all departments. The information can be used to align business practices to be more focused on improving sales and the customer experience.

Writing for the Gulf News, Tanita Sandhu recently asserted that the true value of CRM lies in its ability to help a firm improve its standards and brand perception, rather than simply increase sales in the short term.

Achieving this prioritization can be easier said than done. As Sandhu noted, CRM can definitely be used to improve sales. Firms can use the technology to better target potential and existing customers. However, according to Sandhu, such tactics, when pursued too aggressively, may prevent a company from making the most of CRM.

Sandhu pointed out that businesses lose an average of 10 to 15 percent of their customer bases annually. With CRM, a company can improve its overall treatment of customers and clients, and its brand reputation. As a result, it may be able to cut down on this deterioration, which will ultimately prove far more valuable than a few additional sales to high-value clients.

John Everhard recently made a similar point. Writing for callcentre.co.uk, Everhard noted that CRM tools can allow organizations to utilize predictive analytics to better understand customer behavior. As a result, firms can offer customer support channels that address the issues and problems clients are likely to encounter, thereby improving the customer experience.

According to Everhard, offering this level of service can lead to greater sales figures and increased client retention as the time needed to solve support issues decreases and overall customer satisfaction increases.

The survey, conducted by a leading industry firm, found that 61 percent of respondents cited customer experience management as a leading area of focus within their organizations, making it the most commonly cited answer.

The survey also found a number of recurring questions that companies are struggling to answer. Among these issues were the best means of developing an effective framework for customer experience and how to prioritize listening to clients to improve customer experience.

Customer experience is a critical component of business operations. As Destination CRM reported, a recent study determined that individuals who have a positive customer experience are far more likely to recommend the company to friends and family via online channels.

Similarly, those who have a poor customer experience may turn to the internet to share their grievances, hurting the company's reputation and driving away potential customers and clients.

A National Privacy Commission will be created to monitor compliance with the law. The commission will also ensure businesses within the Philippines comply with international standards for data protection, making it easier for multinational corporations to locate contact centers within the country. The new law is expected to help boost foreign investment in the country's BPO industry.

IT and customer service centers represent a strong growth sector for the Filipino economy. According to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, employment in the IT-BPO sector grew by 22 percent in 2011, the International Business Times reported. The BPO industry is expected to double by 2016, expanding to $25 billion in annual revenue.

In a statement from the Philippine Information Agency, Senator Edgardo Angara, main author of the law, said that the next step will be the passage of a Cybercrime Prevention Act, which will establish legal framework for the detection and prosecution of internet-related crime.

The development of sales apps has become a common use of mobile CRM. These programs are a quick way for companies to increase mobile purchases, and have a measurable return on investment. However, this is not the only solution to creating value. In an article for CRM Buyer, Jeff Hasen, CMO of Hipcricket, notes that often the most valued use of a mobile app is to improve customer service by providing quick solutions to common problems.

Companies can build a more robust relationship with their customers if they approach their mobile CRM strategy as another tool to maximize sales and enhance service. This can be as simple as building on the core competency of the business.

"You don't have to mobilize the entire CRM system," Peter Price, founder of Webalo, told the source.  "For some companies, being able to track a package via an app can add value because they realize that those calls are the source of the greatest number of customer inquiries."

The power of CRM is greatly enhanced when combined with social media, which can provide a huge supply of data and insight when tools are properly implemented.

However, as Midsize Insider contributor Shawn Drew recently highlighted, many organizations' IT departments are fairly slow to implement social CRM tools. He noted that old habits can be difficult to overcome and, crucially, IT managers may feel reluctant to replace existing CRM tools with more advanced, socially-optimized ones, especially if the current CRM tools were expensive.

This thinking, while understandable, is an example of a common psychological fallacy that people commit regularly without realizing it. Called the sunk cost fallacy, it refers to the perception that a project cannot or should not be abandoned because of the significant amount of money, time or energy previously invested. By giving up on that project, the person feels that he or she is accepting a tremendous, unacceptable loss.

However, in reality any time, money or energy previously invested is already gone and not recoverable, and therefore should not play a role in determining the best course of action moving forward. Instead, decisions should be based on the current situation and the best means of achieving success in the future.

In many cases, this means discarding an existing CRM system, even if it was expensive and time-intensive, when a better, socially-optimized tool becomes available.

As Drew noted, companies that are reluctant to spend money on a social CRM system now will quite possibly end up spending more in the future.

One issue that customer support agents are likely to grapple with is how to direct a customer to a different channel if necessary. If a customer is extremely upset and posts inflammatory, negative comments on the organization's Facebook wall, it is probably in that firm's best interests to handle this individual in a more private manner, such as via email or the phone.

In a discussion with CMSWire, customer experience expert Rodney Kuhn noted that the key to directing customers to the proper channel is focusing on the customer journey. To guide the customer, he asserted, it is crucial that the contact center agent offer the client a reason to do whatever is desired of him or her.

If a contact center worker acts in good faith and strives to serve, the customer will likely trust the agent. They will have reason to believe that the agent's directions are in the customer's best interests.

CMO reports that building a good customer experience is about understanding the customer. Contact centers can provide a valuable tool for collecting consumer information from their interactions, which can help a business properly segment the customer to provide a unique and relevant experience.

Channel preference is a big part of the customer experience. Customer relationship management now deals with a variety of social, digital and mobile channels, so understanding which clients prefer to interact through their mobile phones can provide a high-quality experience that can help build loyalty.

Collecting customer information is one of the main steps an organization can take to enhance interactions, but companies also need to be asking the right questions to gain insight from the data. The source suggests identifying common needs, as well as the unique needs of various segments, to provide true value to each audience group. Sharing the information across departments can also help the company align business practices with customer service

The study, conducted by a leading call center optimization firm, surveyed more than 500 contact center professionals regarding their organizations' goals and trends in the industry. It found that nearly 70 percent of those surveyed believe increasing complexity caused by the growth of multichannel tactics is the biggest challenge their organizations face. However, only one-third of contact centers have invested in technological upgrades to meet these demands.

The study also found more than 40 percent of respondents' contact centers experienced broken processes due to rising complexity.

Technology's role

Contact center technology may prove a useful tool for addressing these issues. The report found that consensus among respondents was that organizations are investing in technology to meet their 2012 contact center goals. Cloud-based interactive voice response (IVR), cited by 33.3 percent of respondents, and customer relationship management (CRM), used by a quarter of participating organizations, are among the technologies now used in the contact center.

Turnover and training

The study found that in addition to the growing diversity of channels, contact center complexity is being driven by the need to train and recruit new customer support agents. Nearly half of participating contact center agents noted their organizations face hurdles in this regard, which leads to a number of problems, including broken processes and low employee morale.

Writing for 1to1 Media, Rodney Kuhn recently asserted that increasing and improving the training of contact center agents may help to improve the performance and efficiency of new agents. He noted that the growth of social media and other channels means that new customer support agents must handle questions and complaints in more forms than ever before. If an agent is untrained, he or she may feel overwhelmed and therefore dissatisfied with the position, leading to higher turnover.

Kuhn argued that contact center managers should take the time to ensure that new customer support agents are well-informed regarding how to handle social media-based issues. For example, agents need to know when to address the customer via social media and when to direct him or her to utilize a more private channel, such as the phone or email.

CIO magazine reports that companies regularly need to assess the needs of their CRM software. Modern customer service centers are asked to monitor multiple channels, collect customer information and provide high-quality service. To accomplish these goals successfully, they need to be properly supported with the right tools, but each company has different priorities.

Fortunately, the improvements can be made incrementally, the source noted. New software can be aligned and customized with changing business processes to help the organization continually improve and streamline service. The small adjustments can save the company money by creating the system that aligns best with company objectives.

Organizations that remain customer-committed will see stronger results from the changing CRM environment, Chief Marketer reported. The focus on customer needs encourages the sharing of data across all departments to align company practices with customer service goals. Moving data from a customer service center or marketing department can open a dialogue focused on improving the customer experience in a way that will provide meaningful growth to sales and the business' profitability.

Consumers are increasingly connected to their smartphones, and companies that utilize online videos may be able to answer additional questions, provide instructions and offer services that go beyond one-to-one interactions, Enterprise Apps Today reported. Young consumers may be very comfortable using video to interact with companies, which may help drive the use of video chat in CRM.

"Video has long been adopted in the consumer space," emerging technology expert Laura Bassett told the news source. "Younger generations are showing a preference for a video chat over a phone call or text. This trend will extend to customer service in specific areas that require personalization, relationships, or advanced support."

Video provides companies with a way to quickly improve the experience for consumers. By creating targeted messages on video, contact centers can help the client feel engaged, which has made the medium one of the key trends in customer service, according to Sci-Tech Today. The use of videos allows companies to quickly and clearly disseminate information targeted to key audience segments or dealing with common questions.

As more companies adopt videos into their CRM strategies, it will force other contact centers to develop new ways to handle customer requests to remain competitive.

Recognizing these facts, many companies strive to produce extreme, over-to-the-top displays demonstrating their customer care. However, as Business Insider contributor Peter Shankman recently highlighted, it is far more important for organizations to provide consistent customer care than occasional, extreme examples.

To highlight this concept, Shankman noted the case of a leading airline company. He explained that he is loyal to this brand because the company has always provided high quality care in his experiences. Additionally, he once witnessed an exceptional example of customer care, wherein the airline waived several hundred dollars in charges when an extremely distressed customer experienced a mix-up and missed her original flight. Not only was this customer overjoyed, but bystanders appreciated the gesture.

However, recently a report surfaced accusing the company of allegedly "losing" a 10-year-old traveler, leading to a storm of comments on the company's social media sites. It is likely that many of the outraged commenters had had nothing but pleasant dealings with the airline, but a single, major customer care shortcoming likely lost many of the company's clients.

On a similar note, industry expert Kristi Carter recently asserted for Adotas that too many firms focus on boasting about their customer care. Instead, these organizations should strive to demonstrate their service, as actions speak far louder than words.

With CRM, a firm can gain extremely valuable data on both large populations and individuals. Yet while the general benefits of CRM are widely acknowledged, not every company follows best practices, which means that many firms do ultimately maximize their CRM investments.

Writing for CIO, industry expert David Taber recently asserted that it is crucial for organizations pursuing a CRM deployment solution to firmly integrate the technology throughout the company, especially between the sales and customer support departments.

As Taber noted, many firms have historically seen CRM primarily as a means of acquiring new customers and clients. While this is undoubtedly a major benefit of the technology, this view overlooks the value of CRM for customer support agents. And because customer support agents often wind up interacting with a given customer far more than a sales representative, this use CRM use may actually prove more valuable. By integrating the technology to allow for use by sales and customer support, a firm can gain customers and then take steps to ensure it keeps them.

In a column for Business Insider, entrepreneur Peter Shankman notes that good customer service can dramatically increase revenue, creating strong customer loyalty that generates repeat sales. The problem, he points out, is that there is often a disconnect between company policies and what consumers expect in service.

Customer service centers that are properly trained and motivated can be an essential tool in creating quality service. Call Centre Focus reports that empowering employees can help create a culture that encourages better service and is in line with the company's values.

Fostering a sense of pride and ownership within the contact center staff can make them more invested in the brand, the article states. Getting team members involved in the creation of new policies or decision-making processes can raise the enthusiasm employees have for the company's core values.

Achieving a customer-oriented environment involves rewarding success, promoting brand values and setting goals that encourage cooperation. Being open about the goals and core objectives of the company can help employees understand the value of their role and encourage better decision-making when dealing with clients. Treating the contact center as a central part of the company's long-term objectives can build an environment that generates strong customer service, which provides a number of immediate benefits for the organization. 

That is why so many organizations invest significantly in contact centers. As Enterprise Apps Today recently highlighted, several of the leading trends occurring in the contact center revolve around technological advancements.

One of these trends is the rise of video calling. "Younger generations are showing a preference for a video chat over a phone call or text. This trend will extend to customer service in specific areas that require personalization, relationships, or advanced support," said Laura Bassett, director of marketing, customer experience and emerging technologies at a leading business communication solution provider, according to the news source.

Another technology contact centers are increasingly embracing is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Speaking to Smart Business, communication technology expert Alex Dresberg recently noted that VoIP technology enables contact centers to queue an unlimited number of calls. Consequently, firms can hire fewer agents without degrading quality of service.

That is why so many organizations invest significantly in contact centers. As Enterprise Apps Today recently highlighted, several of the leading trends occurring in the contact center revolve around technological advancements.

One of these trends is the rise of video calling. "Younger generations are showing a preference for a video chat over a phone call or text. This trend will extend to customer service in specific areas that require personalization, relationships, or advanced support," said Laura Bassett, director of marketing, customer experience and emerging technologies at a leading business communication solution provider, according to the news source.

Another technology contact centers are increasingly embracing is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Speaking to Smart Business, communication technology expert Alex Dresberg recently noted that VoIP technology enables contact centers to queue an unlimited number of calls. Consequently, firms can hire fewer agents without degrading quality of service.

An article in Call Centre Focus notes that high-performing customer service centers are adept at building trust among consumers. The trust can be built through superior service, or with a firm understanding of the issues faced by the customer. Kate Leggett, an analyst for Forrester Research, notes that knowledge management has become critical for success in customer service in an article for Enterprise Apps Today.

Customers are demanding that companies interact with them in an increasing number of ways. More than 40 percent of consumers prefer to interact with companies online, according to a study by Performics, but when customers do have questions they want the issue resolved quickly. Contact centers are often the main point of contact for consumers, and this requires their staff to have access to a range of technical knowledge on the product and company so they can properly assist the client.

The needed expertise can only be developed with experience and training. Quality training programs have enabled contact centers to expand employees' ability to properly engage the customer. Customer service centers that dedicate a significant portion of their resources to training and developing staff are likely to outperform competitors when it comes to delivering quality service.

Conducted by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), the study included more than 500 contact center professionals from around the world, asking them to identify short-term and long-term goals and trends.

"A few short years ago during the economic downturn, contact centers were laser-focused on driving down costs and riding out the storm. Today, as this new study illustrates, the customer service macro trends - social, mobile and self-service - are driving contact centers to transform their operations to be more customer centric and responsive," said Mariann McDonagh, chief marketing officer of the company that commissioned the study.

Customer is key

Asked to rate various priorities on a five point scale, customer satisfaction received the highest average score, 3.86. This was followed by increasing agent productivity and meeting service level agreements, both of which received scores of 3.56.

Economic concerns were deemed less important. Increasing sales and profitability received an average 3.35 rating, while lowering operating costs was rated 3.3 by participants.

Technological solutions

For companies looking to improve the quality of contact center customer support, social customer relationship management (CRM) software may help, according to David Taber. Writing for CIO, Taber asserted that organizations lacking CRM systems may have significant difficulty addressing relevant customers and conversations through social media channels. Considering the increasing use of social CRM as a customer support resource, this can greatly impact a contact center's ability to provide a satisfactory customer experience.

Social CRM tools can help a firm to automate the process of finding and prioritizing social requests and comments, improving response time and quality via these channels.

Conducted by the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), the study included more than 500 contact center professionals from around the world, asking them to identify short-term and long-term goals and trends.

"A few short years ago during the economic downturn, contact centers were laser-focused on driving down costs and riding out the storm. Today, as this new study illustrates, the customer service macro trends - social, mobile and self-service - are driving contact centers to transform their operations to be more customer centric and responsive," said Mariann McDonagh, chief marketing officer of the company that commissioned the study.

Customer is key

Asked to rate various priorities on a five point scale, customer satisfaction received the highest average score, 3.86. This was followed by increasing agent productivity and meeting service level agreements, both of which received scores of 3.56.

Economic concerns were deemed less important. Increasing sales and profitability received an average 3.35 rating, while lowering operating costs was rated 3.3 by participants.

Technological solutions

For companies looking to improve the quality of contact center customer support, social customer relationship management (CRM) software may help, according to David Taber. Writing for CIO, Taber asserted that organizations lacking CRM systems may have significant difficulty addressing relevant customers and conversations through social media channels. Considering the increasing use of social CRM as a customer support resource, this can greatly impact a contact center's ability to provide a satisfactory customer experience.

Social CRM tools can help a firm to automate the process of finding and prioritizing social requests and comments, improving response time and quality via these channels.

To take advantage of this shift in consumer preferences, customer relationship management centers are increasingly being provided the tools to interact directly with consumers as they move through the purchasing process. Research by Forrester Consulting found that 44 percent of consumers wanted questions answered by a liver live person while in the middle of an online purchase.

CRM solutions are providing contact centers with the tools needed to combine live chat to with the customer's shopping experience. The goal of these programs is to reduce the rate of abandoned shopping carts, but the challenge remains of gaining insights into which customers have questions.

CMS wire reports that new social media technology has allowed customer service centers to mine data that could provide insight into the consumer's desires. Identifying common questions could help contact center employees respond faster and keep the customer from abandoning their his or her cart. The implementation of live chat into online sales service is another example of the expanding role of contact centers.

According to industry expert Tim Suther, this fact should lead more companies to pursue customer centricity. Writing for AdAge, Suther explained that customer centricity revolves around the notion that a firm should invest in customers relative to their value to the company. Doing so, according to Suther, can improve margins by 10 percent or more.

However, pursuing such a policy can be extremely difficult. As Suther acknowledged, the growing number of customer support channels presents problems. Customer centricity requires the establishment of priorities, yet meeting demand through multiple media can make such stratification tricky.

In particular, the growing importance of social media is forcing companies to adapt their customer support options. A recent thinkJar study found that 85 percent of 400 survey respondents' organizations used social media-based customer support. Of these, 56 percent cited customer requests as the reason behind the adoption, making this the leading cause.

Contact centers have enabled companies to focus on their core business without sacrificing service in areas such as IT, customer relationship management, order processing and more. The modern business environment requires companies to maintain their competitive advantage while remaining agile. Contact centers provide a cost-effective solution to non-core-related objectives, enabling the company to remain focused on pursuing key market positions.

Today's contact centers have even become an integrated part of the marketing process by collecting customer information through their interactions. This lets companies respond more efficiently to changing consumer demands and position themselves to grow their market positions without requiring additional staff. Through the use of social media channels, companies are able to expand their reach without removing resources from the core business.

Being agile in the market requires businesses to maintain the right staffing levels, and contact centers can provide the support needed to accomplish that.

Writing for Business 2 Community, Doron Herzlich recently asserted that one of the keys to improving customer support is ubiquitous assistance.

Help at every level

As Herzlich noted, it is not uncommon for a customer to put items into his or her shopping cart and then leave that page to seek out further information about the product or service being considered. When this occurs, the likelihood that the individual will follow through with the purchase drops significantly.

To avoid this result, it is important that organizations provide support at every stage of the sales process. According to Herzlich, support options should be visible on every one of a company's web pages.

Too often, companies' support offerings are located only in select areas, such as a page specifically created for that purpose. Additionally, many organizations limit customer support to a single department. To be truly effective, staff from every area should be made available to support potential and returning customers.

The right culture

In order to achieve this level of customer support, organizations should strive to develop a corporate culture that prioritizes this area, as the Harvard Business Review recently highlighted. This entails finding the right level of freedom for customer support agents, allowing them to use a sufficient degree of discretion when it comes to handling customer inquiries and complaints.

When it comes to customer support, a company's website is one of the first places that an individual will turn. To make this resource as valuable as it can be, many firms provide FAQs, contact information and, increasingly, live chat. This last tool can be particularly valuable, as it allows a customer support agent to interact directly with the consumer, providing an efficient communication channel. However, to be effective, agents using live chat must be well-educated regarding the company and its offerings, as well as problems that customers experience and how to solve them.

As CMSWire contributor Jeff Mason recently highlighted, customer relationship management (CRM) software can help organizations improve their live chat offerings.

According to Mason, a CRM system can pore through social media channels and other online communities to find data that may be relevant to the company's support staff. For example, users of a product may tweet and retweet about a newly-discovered technical problem until one of them finds and explains a possible solution. By delivering this information to customer support staff using live chat, the agents will now be aware of a potentially commonplace issue experienced by customers as well as the means of correcting it.

With this knowledge readily available, agents will be better prepared to handle incoming live support inquiries.

When it comes to customer support, a company's website is one of the first places that an individual will turn. To make this resource as valuable as it can be, many firms provide FAQs, contact information and, increasingly, live chat. This last tool can be particularly valuable, as it allows a customer support agent to interact directly with the consumer, providing an efficient communication channel. However, to be effective, agents using live chat must be well-educated regarding the company and its offerings, as well as problems that customers experience and how to solve them.

As CMSWire contributor Jeff Mason recently highlighted, customer relationship management (CRM) software can help organizations improve their live chat offerings.

According to Mason, a CRM system can pore through social media channels and other online communities to find data that may be relevant to the company's support staff. For example, users of a product may tweet and retweet about a newly-discovered technical problem until one of them finds and explains a possible solution. By delivering this information to customer support staff using live chat, the agents will now be aware of a potentially commonplace issue experienced by customers as well as the means of correcting it.

With this knowledge readily available, agents will be better prepared to handle incoming live support inquiries.

The IT research firm recently reported that spending on IT outsourcing is expected to increase roughly 2 percent globally in 2012 from the year before. Cloud-based services are expected to grow by 48.7 percent as companies take advantage of the Infrastructure as a Service segment.

"Today, cloud computer services primarily provide automation of basic functions," Gregor Petri, research director at Gartner noted in a press release. "As next-generation business applications come to market and existing applications are migrated to use automated operations and monitoring, increased value in terms of service consistency, agility and personnel reduction will be delivered."

Much of the growth for the industry will come from Asia, where increased capital in the region is allowing businesses to scale up their operations. However, in the U.S., business process outsourcing has allowed large companies to strengthen the development of their core business. Bloomberg Businessweek reported that outsourcing has allowed Midwest manufacturing firms to increase their flexibility and innovation to provide affordable services to clients.

Automated services have made BPO a cost-effective solution for many American firms. Gartner's report shows that IT outsourcing will grow through 2016 as companies continue to pursue IT solutions. 

Workforce management tools have become essential to improving customer relationship management operations by providing managers with information needed for maintaining staffing levels. Over the years the programs have simplified the process of identifying call volumes and wait times.

TechTarget recently reported that workforce management applications have enabled contact centers to build on the strengths of today's workforce. Employees have become much more comfortable working with online channels, and with the expanding role of customer service centers, customizable software provides the means to conduct services through social media, mobile devices and more.

Workforce management applications have even helped companies solve problems with staffing issues. HR Magazine notes that staffing levels can have a large impact on production. With the right programs, companies can increase the productivity of their staffs and balance workloads when employees are absent. This has helped to improve the cost effectiveness of contact centers to make them a more valuable part of customer service strategies.

The question, then, is how to build up and maintain customer loyalty. To a significant degree, this is dependent on providing a high quality customer experience. The 2012 Net Promoter Industry Benchmarks survey, which included more than 30,000 U.S. consumers, found those companies that provided satisfying experiences to their customers were the most likely to be recommended to others online, Destination CRM reported. As good as a product or service that a company offers may be, the loyalty of its clients will likely come down to how well they were treated.

As Entrepreneur.com contributor and marketing expert Joanna Lord recently highlighted, there are numerous subtle steps a firm can take to improve its customers' experiences. For example, she recommended that firms improve the "Thank You" pages on their websites. This is the page that individuals are directed to upon making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. Often, it is nothing more than its name suggests.

Lord asserted that companies should consider adding additional content, such as useful resources and contact information. This will show the customer that the company is committed to making his or her experience as enjoyable and valuable as possible.

Lord also suggested companies strive to improve their feedback channels. Instead of relying solely on email and a phone number, firms can provide a better customer experience by accepting feedback via social media and other channels.

"We see tremendous opportunity for the country to seize leadership in the global healthcare sector," Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (HIMOAP) president JL Botor told the Manila Standard Today. "The increase in our membership only means that more companies are considering the Philippines as a high-value destination for healthcare outsourcing."

Healthcare management firms are able to provide a number of services through BPO, which makes it an attractive, cost-effective solution for healthcare organizations in the U.S. Currently there are more than 150 companies in the Philippines conducting clinical coding, revenue management and transcription services, but the market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 21.4 percent, the news source reported. 

One of the key advantages the Philippines will have over other countries is the high number of medical professionals available. According to Commission on Higher Education data cited by HIMOAP, enrollment in the country's nursing programs has outpaced demand from local hospitals, and unemployed nurses could find work in health information management.

One of the top reasons for calling a customer service center was to speak directly with a representative, and customers are increasingly becoming frustrated by call menus and long wait times. Improving customer service has forced many companies to reexamine their procedures relating to incoming calls, according to Call Centre Focus.

The main challenge to resolving customer issues quickly is ensuring that the call is directed to the right agent. Call menus were once the preferred option for segmenting contacts, but the Forrester survey shows that an overwhelming number of callers prefer to talk to a live person quickly.

Understanding why people are contacting the organization can help companies reduce waits and improve customer service, but it requires a lot of analysis into customer behavior and business processes. The contact center industry has managed to control expenses while adapting to customer demand by exploring call screening procedures that build value for the customer and business. Call Centre Focus points out that dividing interactions based on value can help create procedures that reduce the challenges contact centers face.

The question, then, is how to best provide a satisfactory customer experience. As marketing consultant and entrepreneur Kristi Carter recently asserted for Adotas, one of the most important rules to live by when it comes to customer experience is that words are no match for actions.

Convincing customers

There is virtually no limit to the number of organizations that regularly make claims touting their customer support and the overall customer experience they offer. However, the sheer fact that such claims are so ubiquitous means that consumers have become fairly indifferent to them, as they do not necessarily reflect the companies' actual capabilities or policies.

That is why Carter asserted it is essential for organizations to prove their customer support and service offerings, rather than simply laying claim to them. This can be accomplished in a number of ways. For example, Carter noted that the rental car agency Enterprise offers free pickups within 10 miles to its customers. By instituting such a policy, the company is able to effectively demonstrate its commitment to customer experience, thereby gaining loyalty and brand advocates.

Responsiveness

Another key to demonstrating concern for customer experience is responsiveness, according to Carter. In some cases, this can be as simple as thanking customers for their compliments and asking how to do more. Just as critically, organizations should listen to criticism and work to implement customer suggestions in a visible way.

A recent study highlighted the importance of this behavior. Conducted by a leading customer experience management firm, the survey found that 83 percent of more than 6,500 participants would be more likely to be loyal to a brand if they knew the company would act upon feedback that customers provided. By proving this is the case, a company can show it values its customers, which is a key part of a successful customer experience.

Customers are not just making purchases from mobile phones, they are also using the devices to conduct research on products and prices. As customers read through websites, companies could have a good opportunity to generate leads by reaching out to them.

Advanced analytics has enabled companies to identify when consumers visit websites to gain product information. Enabling a contact center to follow up with the customer could improve sales by helping the client through the buying process. Automated procedures can send the consumer a text or initiate a call, while collecting information on product searches provides the team with the data needed to move the customer along to the proper sales staff.

Inside sales staffs are trained to follow up on customer inquiries, but mobile devices make it possible to initiate the sales process immediately. Analytics for websites enable contact centers to identify and target high-value leads, which can be contacted and guided through the purchase. Contact centers enable companies to complete this type of lead generation in a cost-effective manner.

Digital marketing enables companies to expand their reach and generate a high number of potential sales leads, but the survey found that 36 percent of customers never receive a follow-up. Jan Johnson, noted in a column for Forbes that customers contacted by a live sales rep within the first five minutes of making contact were much more likely to be moved along the sales pipeline.

Integrating a contact center as part of the sales team is a cost-effective means to ensure each potential customer is contacted. Business 2 Community reports that contact centers are a common option for credit card companies to generate leads.

Telemarketers are commonly seen as the outbound sales process, making cold calls to qualify leads, but the prevalence of online marketing is making them a valued part of inbound sales. Companies that integrate contact centers into their sales strategies can ensure that every potential lead is contacted and moved along the sales pipeline.
 

"Across multiple business sectors, technology has empowered customers to seek tangible rewards and now banks are facing that reality," Pierre Pilorge of Ernst & Young told Destination CRM. "Customers expect to be rewarded for the value of their business, not just the duration of their banking relationships."

As consumers become more focused on rewards, business can utilize contact centers to create cross-selling opportunities. Product sales have become integrated with customer relationship management as competition for customer attention has increased. Contact centers provide a cost-effective solution to maintain quality service.

The shift in the market has placed increased pressure on customer service centers to develop high standards for employees. Proper training has allowed some contact centers to provide additional interactions as well as collect data for market analysis. Banks and other institutions are asking more from customer service centers, and some developing countries are working to develop standards of training to help the local industry.

However, organizations deploying CRM tools must also avoid several obstacles to take full advantage of the technology. One such obstacle, as CIO contributor David Taber recently highlighted, is the possibility that the tools will be affected by politics in the office.

This is due to the fact that a properly deployed CRM system will have extensive implications for many different components of a company. Whereas older CRM systems were primarily the exclusive domains of executives, managers, and IT, current CRM tools can be used by salesmen, customer support staff, marketers, and more.

Because CRM affects so many different departments and individuals, it can be easy for one party to blame another if something goes awry, Taber noted. If an account is lost or a sale is missed, it is likely that there will be a significant number of individuals who demonstrably played a role.

Additionally, some departments may feel overprotective or territorial of their accounts, according to Taber. As a result, they may resent what they perceive as meddling from other workers, leading to petty battles over issues such as records management and read permissions.

To reduce the risk of such rivalries and political maneuvering, organizations should strive to involve every concerned department when both choosing and deploying a CRM system. By gaining as much input as possible, a company can ensure that its CRM solution is not geared toward one department at the expense of another.

American Airlines has used its social media team to create personalized responses through twitter. The unique personal message increased customer interactions, according to CNBC, and resulted in a change in the culture of the company that focuses on the long-term relationship with the customer. This is an important factor in creating an effective social media program.

"The first piece is that mind-set," analyst Zach Hofer-Shall told TechTarget. "If we get to the point that social isn't a new thing - it's a complement - that mentality will lead the technical tactics of this. We don't need an entire social media team. It's a business function."

To help businesses accomplish the goal of integrating social media programs into business functions, contact centers are taking the lead in developing CRM strategies. The shift has forced executives to work more closely with customer service centers to create cross-channel strategies that promote the business's overall objectives.

However, to be as effective as possible, it is vital that organizations choose the right CRM solution for their particular needs. As Laura Quinn recently highlighted in The NonProfit Times, one of the keys to determining the right CRM system is a thorough self-assessment.

To this end, Quinn offered a number of questions that decision-makers should consider. For example, what processes does the organization support? With whom does the firm interact? The answers to these questions will vary greatly from organization to organization and should be a deciding factor when it comes to choosing a CRM solution. For example, a multinational corporation will have very different processes and customers than a medium-sized charity. Both can take advantage of CRM, but in very different ways, and the CRM system chosen should reflect these differences.

Another key to successful CRM use is measurement. A recent Gartner study found that of the Fortune 1000 companies using social CRM, only half will see a significant ROI. According to the report, this is due to these organizations' failure to measure objectives, which makes it impossible to adjust CRM operations to improve results.

TD Bank recently announced that it will open a contact center in Greenville, Florida, with the goal of improving its customer service. Workers will answer customer questions on everything from loan rates to account problems. The jobs have been in high demand as the company had more than 4,000 applicants so far, according to Greenville Online. TD Bank plans to add 1,400 jobs over the next three to four years.

Contact centers are a cost effective tool that opens lines of communication with consumers. Providing access to trained staff can let firms quickly answer questions and provide information about products or services. State governments have even come to rely on contact centers to handle public health issues

Following an outbreak of Influenza at a state fair, the Indiana Department of Health set up a contact center to address residents concerns. The center will be a part of the state's efforts to educate the public on symptoms and proper procedures that can prevent the spread of the illness. The cases of influenza were linked to pigs being shown at the fair.

However, despite the increasing investment in CRM technology, many companies fail to take full advantage of these tools, as CRM Buyer's Christopher Bucholtz recently highlighted.

Scheduling

One of the CRM features that organizations tend to overlook, according to Bucholtz, is scheduling. Scheduling may seem like an overly basic function, but it can actually serve a variety of purposes and offer a number of benefits. Specifically, CRM tools can sync a variety of programs and platforms, creating calendars that incorporate both events and alerts. For example, CRM scheduling can provide an alert for a salesman to contact a potential buyer three months after initial contact.

Workflow

Another CRM tool that organizations underutilize is workflow management. Bucholtz noted that this feature allows a company to visualize workers' activities throughout the product lifecycle.

Perhaps more notably, by using workflow programs, managers can ensure that their employees actually adopt the technological tools at their disposal. This is a major benefit, as a significant percentage of all failed CRM deployments are due to a lack of adoption among workers.

To take advantage of these features, managers and other decision-makers must first learn about the tools, then teach workers how to implement them, instead of assuming that employees will make these strides on their own.

However, incorporating social media in the contact center is easier said than done. According to 1to1 Media contributor Rodney Kuhn, both organization and training are necessary to achieve success in this regard.

Oftentimes, Kuhn noted, a contact center agent will face an issue via social media that he or she is not qualified to handle. This is true with traditional channels as well, but the variety and volume of social media make this an even greater challenge. He therefore argued that companies should take steps to ensure there are plans in place to facilitate communication between contact center agents focused on social media and the rest of the company.

Agents should also be trained regarding the unique nature of social media customer support, he asserted. When, for example, an agent passes a case along to a manager, he or she should know how to direct the customer without revealing personal info, confusing the issue, or failing to inform the consumer of the progress being made.

Technology such as social customer relationship management (CRM) tools can help in this regard, as David Taber of CIO noted. With social CRM, companies can improve their monitoring of social media channels, which can result in faster response times and more efficient prioritization.

Mobile technology and a consumer preference for online communication will force businesses to adapt channels that reach customers quickly. In many cases social media will provide firms the ability to improve interactions with consumers through the control and oversight of feedback, discussion boards, help centers and more. The use of social media channels can have a large impact on customer loyalty, retention and data collection, which can influence a number of operational policies.

One to One Media, noted that social media is a channel that requires full-time monitoring by well-trained agents. This is causing many organizations to use contact centers and create cost-effective solutions for their social media strategies. The move is expanding the role of contact centers beyond handling customer complaints or taking product orders and toward including them in branding strategies of companies.

As much as 40 percent of consumers now prefer to conduct business online, making social media the main line of communication for many customers. Companies will need to train their customer service staff to properly handle issues through social media in a way that is consistent with the overall market position of the company.

Speaking to Smart Business, Desberg noted that traditionally, contact centers rely on large private branch exchange (PBX) phone systems. These can be extremely expensive to install and maintain, especially considering the software needed to ensure proper functionality. A VoIP solution, he pointed out, is more scalable and does not require the installation of major equipment.

Additionally, VoIP allows an organization to queue an unlimited number of calls. This minimizes the number of agents needed to provide customer support.

As Shaheen Haque recently noted in an interview with AME Info, VoIP can also help organizations improve employee retention rates. He noted that contact center technology is critical for making agent positions appealing to potential employees, as it can offer much greater flexibility for workers.

With a VoIP solution, companies can even adopt an at-home agent solution, Haque noted. The ability to work at home can be a powerful motivator for an agent to continue with a particular business, reducing turnover and therefore improving the total level of experience among employees in the contact center.

However, a couple of high profile outages have raised some concerns about the stability of cloud platforms. Forbes recently reported that companies are increasingly using cloud platforms for customer relationship management. The technology has enabled firms to capture and track leads as they move through the sales process, as well as create multichannel CRM tools.

Cloud-based technology has enabled contact centers to track thousands of potential clients and integrate social media channels into customer interactions. The digital platform has become an affordable and effective way to improve customer service, giving contact center employees the ability to keep track of personalized information through a variety of channels.

So far, the benefits of cloud computing have outweighed the risk of an outage. Most platforms have remained reliable despite large increases in usage. The more the cloud technology is used, the better engineers and programmers get at maintaining service. Regardless of what technology is used, companies will need to continue to rely on customer service centers to help build sales.

To continue to grow, however, the industry has several key challenges to overcome. According to the report, the industry has been singularly focused on costs. This prevents many firms from building value within the industry, and has restricted innovations to business. Top performing BPO relationships have focused on developing coordination and communication between the companies involved. By improving collaboration, firms have been able to improve the value of the relationship.

Changing social behavior is forcing firms to be smarter with their investments in their contact centers. More consumers are using social media and online channels to communicate with companies, forcing companies to invest in technology that enables multichannel engagement. Investing in training and technology to improve the capability of the contact center staff, companies have been able to provide more responsive customer service and build brand loyalty.

The additional benefit of brand loyalty, customer engagement and the higher sales it brings, is causing many firms to examine their BPO relationships for ways to improve innovation.

As a recent study revealed, however, many large companies fail to provide a satisfactory customer experience through social media. The 2012 Customer Service Index, compiled by a leading social media monitoring company, found that more than half of all social media content relating to or directed at the 40 large companies studied was negative and only three firms received more positive than negative feedback.

Industry expert Tamsin Fox-Davies, writing for Business 2 Community, asserted that these and other large firms may be able to improve their social customer support by mimicking smaller companies. Small businesses, she noted, tend to have more success when it comes to pacifying upset customers via social media.

According to Fox-Davies, these results are largely due to smaller firms offering more personal responses to customers. By tailoring responses to customers' queries and mixing humor with sympathy, many small businesses are able to turn upset individuals into loyal customers.

"A few short years ago, during the economic downturn, contact centers were laser-focused on driving down costs and riding out the storm," said Mariann McDonagh, chief marketing officer at inContact. "Today, as this new study illustrates, the customer service macro trends - social, mobile and self-service - are driving contact centers to transform their operations to be more customer centric and responsive."

Part of the reason for the change in direction has to do with shifts in consumer behavior. The economy has forced many consumers to seek additional benefits, such as strong customer service, from the companies they use. A quarter of the businesses surveyed by ICMI stated that they experienced customer attrition.

Combining additional channels has helped some customer service centers improve the quality of service they can offer. Conducting loyalty programs to collect data and improve the personalized experience available to consumers has helped some contact centers, but it has also made the task more complex. Only 32 percent of contact centers stated that they had upgraded technology to deal with multiple channels.

The move to invest in its IT infrastructure could help make the country more popular for business process outsourcing. Currently, much of the country's telecommunication services are based around the capital region of Jakarta, according to Global Times. Additional investment could ease business process outsourcing to other cities.

Companies continue to rely on BPO to help reduce capital spending. A separate study by IDC found that companies will continue to respond to economic pressure by outsourcing non-core functions. Cost effective solutions driven by the investment in new technology and IT hardware has made countries like Indonesia a potential market primed for business.

Indonesia ranked 19th in IT spending last year. As spending continues, Indonesia is likely to attract large, multi-national corporations seeking cost effective BPO and IT solutions. IT outsourcing is expected to grow from $800 million in 2010 to $2 billion in 2015, according to Multimedia Development Corp.
 

Every year, millions of Americans are the victims of fraud, amounting to more than $3.56 billion in losses, McClatchy Newspapers reported. These cases of fraud often lead to large headaches for consumers and companies as they attempt to sort out the damages. To help in these situations, companies need to be able to operate cost-effective customer service centers that can deliver quality service.

As fraud cases get more prevalent and sophisticated, the role of customer service centers is changing to be more active in protecting customers. Companies can no longer wait for a customer to contact them about a problem, but need to help consumers identify fraud. To keep customers satisfied about the level of protection they are being offered, contact centers also need to monitor customer spending habits to identify unusual behavior that may help identify and prevent fraud.

This level of customer service requires a lot of resources, and businesses need to ensure they are completing tasks in the most cost-effective manner. Business process outsourcing may be the solution for a number of firms looking to improve the level of customer service and protection they can offer consumers.

Simpson noted that one of the best ways for organizations to convince customers to stay is to offer rewards programs. Reward and loyalty programs provide an effective means for firms to demonstrate that they value a particular customer. With CRM, organizations can improve their loyalty and reward offerings, tailoring their programs to meet individuals' desires and values.

Too often, Simpson asserted, organizations see CRM as a means of acquiring information about customers which is only used to gain more customers. While that is useful, he maintained that firms should also use the information to better their rewards for existing customers.

Betanews contributor Irving Fain recently made a similar claim. He argued that CRM, and particularly social CRM, can be used to develop long-term relationships with customers, and that this is the technology's most valuable feature.

According to the study, the Chinese contact center market experienced revenue of approximately $116.8 million in 2010. This growth will likely continue, with the market forecast to reach $255 million in revenue by 2017. This will put it ahead of the Australian market, which will is projected to reach $226.4 million that year.

The study found that the three sectors contributing the most to China's contact center industry growth are banking & finance, telecommunications and government.

Lu Shui Shan, research associate for ICT Practice in Asia Pacific for Frost & Sullivan, noted that vendors in China made significant strides toward streamlining their channel programs in 2010.

Such measures will be crucial for contact centers in the near future. As MultiChannel Merchant contributor Lauren Ziskie recently highlighted, as consumers become increasingly reliant on smartphones and tablets, it will become critical for contact centers to provide customer support via a variety of channels.

As the telecommunications, banking and financial industries grow in countries like China and India, many firms are looking to create cost-effective solutions for improving customer service. The strength of the emerging economies in the region is keeping businesses focused on the area. A recent report by Frost and Sullivan notes that contact centers in Asia-Pacific are leveraging cultural and linguistic similarities to expand business throughout the region.

The region is poised for rapid growth in the near future. It is estimated that the region's customer service center industry will expand by 9.6 percent annually as new technology enables firms to reach a broader range of clients.

"Service providers are also slowly expanding their portfolio to other non-voice, back-office operations such as knowledge process outsourcing, financial and accounting outsourcing, and human resources outsourcing to provide end-to-end support,"  Frost & Sullivan research analyst Sathya Subramanian said.

The strengthening regional economies will also help to boost domestic demand for quality customer service centers. Domestic markets accounted for 60.9 percent of the total revenue for contact centers in the Asia-Pacific region during 2011.

Customer service centers that utilize social media and online channels to interact with consumers are likely to see strong improvements in service. Forty percent of survey respondents said they prefered to interact with people online rather than in person. Social media strategies designed to continually engage customers could generate greater returns for the company.

"These new Participants are comfortable increasingly replacing real-time communications with social media interactions," said Daina Middleton, Global CEO of Performics. "In this new social normal - one where people prefer online communication and maintain high expectations about two-way relationships - brands must utilize social channels to build exceptional, interactive digital experiences."

More contact centers are changing their operations to focus on digital communication. Technology has enabled customer service representatives to fully engage the client through text, email and social websites simultaneously. These cross-channel communications are likely to continue to play a role in branding, as more consumers rely on social media to stay connected to friends, family and coworkers.

Customer engagement has helped companies generate millions in revenue, so it is not surprising that more emphasis is being placed on the contact center to provide high quality service. For many customers, the customer service center is their only point of contact, so the service needs to be simple, but efficient. Good customer service at every stage can help the company develop a customer-centric culture that may help improve sales.

Improved technology gives contact center personnel access to customer information instantly, allowing them to make recommendations based on previous purchases. This strategy requires real-time information, increasing the importance of collecting consumer information from every channel. Offers that are particularly relevant to the customer's current needs may help increase responses by contributing to customer engagement.

Treating the customer service center as an extension of the sales staff can build strong connections with the consumer at every step. With high quality service, the customer may be more inclined to make repeat purchases.

As the Guardian contributor Mark Osman recently highlighted, however, it is crucial that organizations thoroughly plan out their strategies before moving to social media. Failing to do so can have serious repercussions.

For example, Osman noted that a company that did not adequately plan its adoption may discover it does not have enough support agents. As a result, the company's response times to social media requests and questions will likely suffer. Users of social media tend to expect immediate answers, and a company that stretches itself too thin simply will not be able to provide them.

As Midsize Insider recently highlighted, it is also critical that organizations consider why they are moving to social media. Is it to gain customers? Or to provide another channel for support? By answering this question, the company can develop an appropriate strategy to achieve success with these channels.

Businesses are turning to technology and advanced analytics to help them refine consumer relationships. Every day, more contact centers are updated to rely on mobile and social media channels to answer customer inquiries and improve customer service. The response has been strong from consumers who continue to use mobile devices at a rapidly growing rate, often relying on company applications to help make product purchasing easier.

Companies are also relying on their customer service centers to collect and analyze customer data. The goal for many of these programs has become simplifying customer experience to make a seamless, trouble-free sales experience regardless of the channel. Data analytics helps create opportunities for customer service centers to be the front-line sales team, improving both service and sales.

"Our marketing members see real value in using high-performance data analytics to be more targeted, personal, and timely in their communications so they can not only more efficiently acquire, but also grow, customer relationships," notes Donovan Neale-May, Executive Director of the CMO Council.

TechTarget recently highlighted the various ways the organization uses social CRM to interact with its fans and followers. For example, the Kansas City Royals post a variety of content on social media sites, including videos and photos of plays, trade and injury updates and weather and traffic reports.

Notably, the Royals, as well as many other teams, take efforts to engage fans, rather than simply posting content for them to passively view and read.

"What’s changed is we make the posts more interactive," said Erin Sleddens, director of online and target marketing for the Royals. "We still want to market, but instead of posting that it’s T-shirt night, we will have a poll for favorite T-shirt."

Additionally, Sleddens added that the team answers any questions it can that are directed to the organization via Twitter.

This last point is particularly noteworthy, as Twitter is quickly rising to become of the most important customer support channels available to companies.

"It's becoming clear that social media savvy consumers are an incredibly important segment of any company's customer base, both because they have higher service expectations and they have wide broadcast networks for sharing their experiences with others," said STELLAService CEO Jory Leiser, MediaBistro recently reported. "By failing to take Twitter seriously as a customer service channel, companies may be inadvertently ignoring some of their best customers at their own peril."

As many industry experts have noted, the true value of social CRM is the degree to which it allows organizations to develop connections with customers, as opposed to simply information gathering. Social CRM tools can help organizations, from baseball teams to corporations to small businesses, engage effectively and meaningfully with their customers, clients and fans.

The Chinese Contact Center market reported $116.8 million in revenue during 2010 and is expected to reach $255 million in 2017, according to a report by Frost & Sullivan. This rapid growth is possible because of the unique opportunities within the Chinese market. Firms are increasingly adopting new technology that helps them meet the demands of clients.

Chinese vendors are using their understanding of the emerging economy to increase their efforts to secure contracts. Many firms are merging to help improve their development of industry specialized solutions. The country's strong pool of graduates from the state university system is helping companies develop the technology and solutions they need to leverage their cost effective services globally.

China is fast becoming a center for innovation, and the Frost & Sullivan report shows that channels for ecommerce and mobile marketing will help the Chinese contact center industry generate revenue at a faster rate than competing markets.

"In China, global vendors streamlined their channel programs and expanded their partnership programs in 2010," Lu Shui Shan, of Frost & Sullivan, said. "Global vendors are now focusing on large local enterprises in BFSI, Government and E-commerce, as there are fewer new customers from MNCs."

The sales team needs to be able to do the hard work to research, analyze and target specific segments of the market to improve the effectiveness of a campaign. This requires a lot of time and energy, but the payout can be worth it. A study by the Direct Marketing Association found that telemarketing remains best way to generate a high number of responses.

Companies need cost effective ways to improve lead generation, and outsourced sales may be able to provide them. Telemarketing can generate a 13 percent rate of return if used effectively. Even an outsourced sales staff should be supported with the right data to make targeted sales calls. Cloud technology enables customer service centers to share customer information with a sales team to help improve the personalization of marketing efforts, increasing their effectiveness.

Modern contact centers can provide additional value along every step of the sales process. Capturing information, gaining feedback, directing customers to informational websites or signing them up for regular emails can all help a large firm improve lead generation during future marketing campaigns. 

"We are delighted to be recognized among the top ten best outsourcers in the world," Ken Tuchman, Chairman and CEO of TeleTech said. "For three decades, we have been committed to helping our global clients differentiate their brands through the customer experience."

TeleTech specializes in technology-based solutions that optimize business processes to improve customer experiences and revenue. By implementing and managing customer support centers for its clients, the firm has helped them create cost-effective solutions.

Outsourcing has helped companies grow in an increasingly complex global market. Partnering with firms like TeleTech enables companies to focus on their core operations and keep a competitive advantage in the market.

The IAOP is an advocate for the outsourcing profession. Its Global outsourcing 100 is a vital reference tool for firms looking to work with the best companies to improve business processes. Companies are evaluated on the capabilities of their service providers and advisors by an independent panel.

With the attention new technology gets for being able to create advantages, it is not surprising that 86 percent of board members surveyed stated that IT's strategic contribution will increase by 2014.

"Board directors clearly have a top priority to invest in IT and leverage IT for competitive advantage," said Jorge Lopez, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. "It underlines the fact that the investments they plan to make are essential to growth and even survival, and that they are willing to throw the investment gauntlet down now, rather than later."

Some cost-effective processes improve IT capabilities within a company. Due to the specialties involved, IT services are commonly the subject of Business Process Outsourcing. This solution allows even large companies to experience savings while still improving coordination and communication between departments. Firms have even managed to outsource portions of IT services based on other BPO objectives. Companies with multiple customer support centers may find that outsourcing the IT services that support the contact centers can reduce costs while improving operations.
 

As the Harvard Business Review recently highlighted, one of the most effective ways of ensuring that clients receive a satisfactory customer experience is creating the right culture among customer support agents. This entails striking a balance between rigidity and freedom among customer service agents. The customer may be frustrated by the lack of personal consideration if agents are too rigid, but complete freedom to improvise will likely end up emphasizing entertainment over information.

By establishing a clear set of guidelines that allow for limited, rather than total, freedom to improvise among agents, an organization can increase the likelihood that customers will receive a satisfying, helpful response when they call the company's contact center.

Additionally, as Business 2 Community contributor Becky Carroll recently noted, organizations should strive to develop a customer-centric attitude throughout the company, at every level. This way, every customer interaction will likely result in a satisfied customer.

"We're focused on bringing in more great people who are dedicated to quality service and helping Lowe's meet the rapidly changing expectations of customers," said Don Easterling, vice president of the Lowe's Contact Center.

The move to expand the customer support center comes after the firm was ranked No. 1 in Appliance Retailer Satisfaction, according to JD Power and Associates. Retailers were based not only on in-store service and price, but delivery and installation services as well. Lowes is attempting to further improve the quality of the services, which have helped it become one of the largest home improvement chains in the country.

With the additional staff and focus on its customer support, the firm hopes to continue to separate itself from its competitors. The expanded contact center will give it a cost effective method to achieve its improvement goals.

Hiring

As industry expert Peggy Carlaw recently highlighted for Business 2 Community, two of the keys to the creation of an effective contact center are hiring and training. Too often, organizations rush to fill their customer agent vacancies, and in doing so hire individuals who may not be the best fit for the position. According to Carlaw, training an agent is a costly investment, and should only be undertaken with those who are likely to benefit from the training and remain with the company for a fair amount of time.

Additionally, high turnover may be demoralizing for the other contact center agents, according to Carlaw, and will therefore likely reduce the others' quality of service.

To reduce the likelihood of hiring workers who will ultimately not work out, Carlaw recommended that contact center managers carefully consider their top performers and determine what characteristics define them. Then, managers should work with human resources to develop methods for identifying these traits in new applicants.

Training

Training is another crucial component of a successful contact center, according to Carlaw. She noted that due to companies experiencing high turnover rates, likely due to hiring mistakes, organizations are often reluctant to invest much time or money in their agents' training. However, she asserted that proper training will pay for itself many times over. Employees who have been well-trained are better able to respond to the various situations they find themselves in. Agents who lack training, on the other hand, will likely feel unprepared, flustered, and anxious, leading to dissatisfaction and more turnover.

Training can also be beneficial because customers appreciate interacting with knowledgeable agents far more than agents working from scripts, as a recent report demonstrated. Business News Daily reported on a study, conducted by researchers from the University of Utah that found that consumers are extremely capable of discerning the difference between scripted and improvised conversations.

The study also found that while in some cases either form was acceptable, in others the consumers greatly preferred the improvising agent. For an agent to provide such service, though, requires significant training, both in conversational skills and regarding the organization he or she represents.

The Guardian recently reported that a number of companies are experimenting with new attitudes and approaches toward handling customer experience on social media. For example, the supermarket chain Sainsbury's adopted a policy allowing its customer support agents to improvise and exercise personal judgement more when responding to customers via social media.

This, according to the news source, has led to several online success stories. Sainsbury's director of customer service strategy, Oke Eleazu, told the Guardian that there is a connection between their light-hearted support style and viral appeal.

Additionally, the news source noted that Cathay Pacific has opened its business class lounge at San Francisco International Airport to individuals recognized as having significant influence on social media networks.

Such hands-on policies are likely to prove advantageous. New York University professor of marketing and social media Joel Rubinson recently told Destination CRM that executives who immerse themselves in social media, rather than delegating the task to others, are likely to experience greater success with the medium.

A new report by a management consulting firm shows the importance of taking a long-term view to the practice of BPO by noting that high performers consider the process within the broader scope of the business. This helps the organizations resolve conflict and achieve short-term goals more readily. As an example, high performing BPO relationships used technology to create innovative solutions to delivering quality service.

The cost effectiveness of BPO has helped make it an attractive solution to most large firms, but as the world becomes more integrated and connected, it can be difficult to continually improve customer support. A collaborative, holistic approach can help companies consider benefits beyond cost when building their contact center relationship, according to the study. This approach has let companies develop additional value through the partnership.

By focusing on the expertise of both firms, high performing partnerships were able to leverage additional efficiency in the relationship. Changing market conditions make many firms utilize BPO relationships for more than customer support. Many organizations now rely on their partners to create complete Big Data analysis. Contact centers that have access to customer information are developing the expertise to find connections and solutions to market issues.

Additionally, customers now often expect organizations to offer customer support via social media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter. Failing to provide such service, either well or at all, can hurt a company's reputation and customer retention.

That is why CIO contributor David Taber recently argued that companies should implement social customer relationship management (CRM) systems to improve their customer service offerings.

Organizing the Noise

As Taber noted, without a sophisticated CRM system in place, it can be extremely difficult for an organization to address the conversations occurring on social media sites. There are simply too many disparate users for a company to effectively address all of them without tools to help. With a CRM application, an organization can integrate its social media interactions with formal incident and case records, ensuring that social media-using customers receive high quality customer support through the channel of their choice.

Customers Helping Customers

Taber also pointed out that social CRM can help organizations to create communities for customers to help one another. By doing so, companies can create a self-supporting pool of resources that is available to customers at all times, and that addresses redundant issues that these individuals may experience.

Social Value

Social CRM may be particularly valuable for companies because social media-savvy customers tend to have more influence than those who avoid such services. According to a recent American Express study, people who use social media for customer service tell others more frequently about their experiences more frequently than non-users. Additionally, study participants who used social media for customer service indicated they would spend more for high quality service than those who do not use social media for this purpose. 

Mobile devices have become a very useful business tool. Consumers often use their devices to do product research or purchase new supplies. More companies are using text messaging and mobile marketing to create deeply personalized offers. The new technology is changing how contact centers conduct their business, creating additional demand for multi-channel customer relationship management.

However, a recent study by ICMI showed that less than half of contact centers have upgraded their technology to deal with the additional channels that consumers demand. Next-generation customer contact centers will soon need to embrace mobile technology to manage not only customer relationships, but staff as well.

Several new applications allow supervisors to access information from their mobile phones. The increasing complexity of operating multiple channels and conducting a wider range of services has driven the need for technology that improves operating efficiency. With the new mobile apps, managers can view and process system information to increase staff productivity to create a fast, flexible environment.

Social media and digital marketing has increased the need to control messaging across multiple channels. Customer support centers are beginning to add technology that lets employees engage customers through a number of channels, allowing their partners to use them to create a strong, unified message for the brand.

The multiple channels companies need to effectively communicate with customers is creating increased demand for centralized branding teams. Hospitality Network noted that hotels are using CRM to standardize guest communication. This allows firms to control the guest experience for customers who make reservations or call with questions. The CRM platform is even being extended to customer satisfaction, giving hotels valuable feedback that can improve the quality of service.

Customer care centers have become a cost-effective tool used to gauge the performance of new innovations. Products or services can be tested more efficiently if the feedback gained is pooled through a single unit, creating easy access to the data and analysis. The engagement with customers during these tests provides another channel to control service and build an effective brand.
 

Writing for ComputerworldUK, Band further argued that one of the most notable of trends is the rise of mobile CRM. Previously, most CRM deployments featured a top-down approach in which analysts would pore through data and eventually produce usable information for the company's workers. This was a time-intensive process that limited the value of the insights gained.

With mobile CRM, however, workers can use their own tablets and smartphones to both input information and, more importantly, access their company's CRM systems. This can help salespeople, customer support agents, and others to leverage CRM data regardless of the time and place.

Christopher Bucholtz, writing for CRM Buyer, also noted that mobile CRM has the advantage of encouraging adoption among employees. Workers often resist significant changes to their day-to-day routines, but because mobile CRM allows them to use their current devices, the transition will often generate minimal resistance.

"This new study illustrates the customer service macro trends- social, mobile and self-service - are driving contact centers to transform their operations to be more customer centric and responsive," said Mariann McDonagh, Chief Marketing Officer at inContact.

Additional channels of communication are creating a more complex contact center. Almost 70 percent of surveyed customer service centers reported an increase in demands from multi-channel customers. Businesses rely on CRM centers to increase customer interactions through social media and other channels. Along with the additional demand for new channels, the changing business environment has created a stronger need to collect data.

The more complex role is changing how companies view their partnerships with hosted contact centers. As companies move to more extensive analysis of customer data, they are involving contact centers in the process. Customer service centers will soon be a vital part of collecting and analyzing customer data with the goal of improving overall service, the survey noted. Nearly 70 percent of respondents noted that service level agreements were an integral part of success in today's contact center.

The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Utah, determined that most customers can easily separate the scripted portions of interactions from the improvised parts.

"Even if the differences are subtle, they could spot the differences," said Don Wardell, one of the study's researchers.

A potentially risky practice

According to the news source, the study also determined that the circumstances surrounding the service call significantly affect whether the client approves of or is dissatisfied by the scripting. When the client has a basic need, such as checking into a hotel, scripting is not seen as a problem. However, when the call's purpose is to acquire specific, customized information such as a restaurant recommendation from a concierge, heavily scripted conversations can rub customers the wrong way.

"They [customers] want to feel like the person cares about their request and that they’re being treated as individuals, not some mass-produced commodity," Wardell elaborated.

Customers first

As Business News Daily noted, many companies use scripting as a way to ensure base level of quality in all conversations, as well as improve efficiency in the contact center.

While this is understandable, it can have negative consequences, as the study demonstrated.

To determine whether and how to use scripting in the contact center, organizations should consider whether scripting ultimately serves the company or the customer. As Becky Carroll recently pointed out for Business 2 Community, one of the keys to providing a high-quality customer experience is developing customer-centric practices.

As more companies look to business process outsourcing to improve efficiencies, they continue to turn to the Asia Pacific region for partners in operating hosted contact centers. The region had 9.7 percent growth in 2011, as increased domestic demand helped spur the market. In China, the growing size and number of multinational companies has created additional demand for outsourcing customer relationship management services.

The better outlook for the industry has encouraged more investment and additional entries into the industry. With the increased competition companies, are moving toward more diversified offerings to offer distinction between firms, Business wire reports. The additional services have helped the region become more attractive to outside companies, but it is the presence of well-qualified and cost-effective labor that has made Asia Pacific the center of the contact center industry.

"Cost effectiveness proved to be important factor for contact center operation."  said Manoj Menon, the ICT Practice Partner and Managing Director at Frost & Sullivan. "Australia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and India were key growth markets last year."
 

However, there is an additional potential advantage to the gathering of customer feedback: demonstrating customer appreciation. As a new survey revealed, many organizations are failing to take advantage of this opportunity.

Feedback and Perceptions

The study, conducted by a leading customer experience management firm, included more than 6,500 U.S. consumers. Eighty-five percent of participants indicated they had provided feedback of some sort to big box retailers. However, less than half of those surveyed believed that companies leverage the data gleaned via customer feedback to improve the customer experience.

Notably, 83 percent of participants indicated they agreed or strongly agreed with the notion that they would be more loyal to a brand if they knew for a fact that the company would act upon the feedback they provided.

Missed Opportunities

As these results indicate, organizations are missing many opportunities to improve their relationships with customers.

"Unfortunately, a lot of retailers fail at creating the transparency that customers desire," said Dr. Gary Edwards, chief customer officer for the company that conducted the survey. "Admitting some areas of the business require more attention builds credibility and helps retailers realize the huge potential for brand advocacy."

Customers value organizations that value their customers. If an individual feels underappreciated by an organization, he or she may sour on that brand and look elsewhere.

Laney Whitcanack, writing for ClickZ, recently argued that organizations can benefit from going out of their way to contact customers by email, social media and other methods in an effort to gain direct feedback. She noted that in addition to providing valuable insight, interacting in this way can lead to a rise in loyalty.

The Miami Herald reported that global contact centers are becoming an integral part of  the marketing and promotion of a company brand. Social media has become an intricate part of what most hosted call centers provide, according to a survey by the National Association of Call Centers. The modern call center is a multi-channel customer relationship management center addressing issues on a number of levels for its business partners. Customer collaboration is the second largest trend in the industry this year, according to the recent survey by the association.

"This refers to serving customers in the manner they prefer to be served and creating customer relationships through proactive customer contact," the association's Paul Stockford told the news source. "The most effective way to meet these objectives will likely be through social media channels."

The broadening scope of contact centers has made it a great time to transfer customer service functions to them. The increased competition in the industry has kept costs low and improved the efficiency with which many centers operate.

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools represent one of the most effective means of achieving a high level of insight into an organization's customers and clients. This technology has developed significantly in recent years, particularly in two key areas: mobile CRM and social CRM. As CRM Buyer's Christopher Bucholtz recently highlighted, these two forms differ significantly, but both can produce powerful results.

Mobile benefits

According to Bucholtz, mobile CRM represents a logical, smooth step forward from traditional CRM systems.

"It changes who inside the business is affected by CRM - field service personnel, for instance - but it doesn't change the nature of the data you track or the signals from customers you need to track," he wrote.

This makes mobile CRM easy to implement. Because workers can use their personal mobile devices to input and analyze data, they will likely be less resistant to adopting the technology.

Additionally, mobile CRM can yield a fast return on investment. Speaking to ZDNet, Gartner principal research analyst Praveen Sengar noted that customers who usea company's apps or visit its websites are probably already interested in the organization's products and services. Optimizing these areas with mobile CRM will likely yield results quickly.

Social CRM rising

While social CRM does not typically yield a positive ROI so quickly, it has the potential to be more transformative, according to Bucholtz. He noted that social CRM involves far more data than any other form of CRM. This information has the potential to offer great insights that can help a company improve its operations. However, because of the scope of the data involved, such changes may take time.

Additionally, many organizations struggle to optimize their deployment of social CRM. A recent Gartner study found that approximately half of Fortune 1000 companies that implemented social CRM strategies will not see a positive ROI in 2012. According to Gartner research director Adam Sarner, this is largely due to these companies' failure to develop clear objectives or methods for monitoring the progress of their deployments.

One of the keys to providing a high quality customer experience is maintaining a top of the line contact center. To achieve this end, contact centers must strive to be open to a range of channels quickly, as Lauren Ziskie, writing for MultiChannel Merchant, recently highlighted.

Options for All

As the report noted, consumers are increasingly relying on smartphones. This trend is affecting not just how individuals communicate with each other, but also how they communicate with other companies when it comes to customer support.

Due to the nature of smartphones, customers are now using a variety of channels to reach out to contact centers. While traditional phone calls still play a critical role, many customers now expect companies to offer support via instant messages, Gchat, SMS, live online chat and more.

A recent survey of 2,000 consumers found that, all told, consumers use an average of 6 different channels to contact service providers. Forty percent of participants indicated they use smartphone applications and/or social media networks for this purpose.

That is why Ziskie recommended that contact centers think about the customer experience and develop channels and processes that can best serve the customer's interests. By providing a variety of channels, the customer will be more likely to have a positive, rewarding experience, regardless of the issue.

Speed is Critical

Perhaps even more importantly, offering a variety of contact channels will help customers reach the desired end goal as quickly as possible. Certain channels lend themselves better to certain problems. If a contact center does not support that particular mode of communication, the customer will receive a less efficient experience, and will feel that she or he has wasted time.

As Ziskie noted, most customers now value their time over virtually all other aspects of customer support. In the past, consumers placed a premium on the personal aspects of communication with companies. Now, speed is king, and companies should do everything they can to make their contact centers efficient and flexibile.

One of the keys to providing a high quality customer experience is maintaining a top of the line contact center. To achieve this end, contact centers must strive to be open to a range of channels quickly, as Lauren Ziskie, writing for MultiChannel Merchant, recently highlighted.

Options for All

As the report noted, consumers are increasingly relying on smartphones. This trend is affecting not just how individuals communicate with each other, but also how they communicate with other companies when it comes to customer support.

Due to the nature of smartphones, customers are now using a variety of channels to reach out to contact centers. While traditional phone calls still play a critical role, many customers now expect companies to offer support via instant messages, Gchat, SMS, live online chat and more.

A recent survey of 2,000 consumers found that, all told, consumers use an average of 6 different channels to contact service providers. Forty percent of participants indicated they use smartphone applications and/or social media networks for this purpose.

That is why Ziskie recommended that contact centers think about the customer experience and develop channels and processes that can best serve the customer's interests. By providing a variety of channels, the customer will be more likely to have a positive, rewarding experience, regardless of the issue.

Speed is Critical

Perhaps even more importantly, offering a variety of contact channels will help customers reach the desired end goal as quickly as possible. Certain channels lend themselves better to certain problems. If a contact center does not support that particular mode of communication, the customer will receive a less efficient experience, and will feel that she or he has wasted time.

As Ziskie noted, most customers now value their time over virtually all other aspects of customer support. In the past, consumers placed a premium on the personal aspects of communication with companies. Now, speed is king, and companies should do everything they can to make their contact centers efficient and flexibile.

The abundance of companies competing for a customer's attention is creating a crowding effect on the market. More marketers mean that fewer advertisements are effective in getting much attention. To help offset this trend, managers may want to consider using a hosted call center to support their digital promotions.

A study by Direct Marketing Association found that telemarketing campaigns generate an average response rate of 13 percent. This is significantly higher than digital banner ads and email, which were below 1 percent. Companies that utilize an outsourced sales department may see additional lead generation without a lot of extra costs.

Boosting response rates may be as simple as creating a customer care center dedicated to following up on email campaigns and ensuring that the customer has no questions. This strategy also makes it possible to create cross-selling opportunities by having the same staff confirm customer satisfaction. Using telemarketing can provide a personal touch to online transactions that may lead to greater response rate.

Large companies are now using BPO to improve operations in printing, manufacturing even building security. The move allows firms to take advantage of expertise outside their sector and can improve the efficiency of the entire company if done correctly.

Many businesses rely on business process outsourcing for a number of services. Among the most common jobs outsourced is customer service. The number of call centers, billing processing, complaint departments have seen a large increase in emerging economies. This strategy allows large businesses to provide affordable service that doesn't reduce the value of the departments.

When using a third-party for customer service, the company needs to be careful to protect the valued feedback it receives. This makes the relationship with the service provider a vital part of BPO. The communication between firms should be examined carefully as they enter the working relationship. Companies often rely on feedback from customer service centers to improve operations, product specifications and marketing. Having the right partner can help firms analyze and improve these programs. 
 

Customer relationship management (CRM) can have a significant impact on how well an organization can conduct these interactions. However, in order to make the most of CRM systems, firms must strive to create symbiotic, rather than parasitic, relationships with their clients, as CRM Buyer's Denis Pombriant recently highlighted.

A Biological Analogy

Pombriant noted that, biologically speaking, there are a number of different types of symbiotic relationships between organisms. In mutualism, both species gain some sort of benefit from their relationship. In parasitism, one species gains at the expense of the other.

According to Pombriant, too many organizations use their CRM tools in a parasitic, rather than symbiotic, manner. A parasitic outlook would be defined by the company seeking ways to gain profits regardless of the customers' best interests. A symbiotic attitude, on the other hand, centers on using the technology to reach solutions that benefit both the company and the customer.

A Reachable Goal

At first glance, this may seem like a naive perspective. After all, to thrive, a company must compete with others to gain possession of consumers' capital, and there is really no way around that concept.

However, those companies that best serve and satisfy their customers will outcompete those that focus on gaining profits above all else, and consequently dissatisfy their customers. In this sense, prioritizing the customer experience over pure profiteering is likely a winning strategy.

Rational Actors

As Pombriant highlighted, one of the most basic principles of economics is that individuals act rationally in their own best interests. This often translates to choosing to patronize companies that offer the best prices and customer support.

Social media and the internet have put much more information into individuals' hands. This makes them better able to evaluate their choices when it comes to spending their money. Those companies that use CRM to provide a more mutualistic offering will likely triumph over those that are parasitic, as these reputations become better known to a greater number of consumers.

This effect will likely only increase as more organizations adopt social CRM systems. According to a recent Gartner study, companies will spend approximately $120 billion on enterprise applications in 2012, and CRM tools will account for $13 billion of that total.

Neil Rosen, writing for MediaPost, recently pointed out that one of the greatest advantages of CRM systems is that they allow companies to move beyond the limitations of traditional, demographic-based data accumulation methods.

Past Best Practices

As Rosen noted, marketers used to gather a tremendous amount of information about their companies' current and prospective clients. This data was then (and, to an extent, is still) used to sort individuals into demographics. The logic behind such a move is understandable: different groups have different interests and spending habits. It is useful to use general classifications to perform more targeted marketing. 

Organizations based their marketing and other efforts on distinctions of age, income, geographic location, gender and more.

CRM Goes Further

According to Rosen, while demographic-based targeting is useful, CRM systems can provide much greater, more usable insight. The problem with the traditional methods is that whenever a company makes generalizations about people, it inevitably makes mistakes and misses opportunities.

To emphasize this point, Rosen offered the example of a company assuming that a young person would not be interested in its geriatric-aimed products. In most cases, this is true. However, in some circumstances, a young person taking care of elderly relatives will be interested in the company's offerings. If the firm relied on demographic-based data classification, it would miss out on this potential customer.

CRM overcomes this issue by focusing on individuals and their behavior. With CRM tools, a company can monitor who visits its website, who joins its social media networks and so on. By accumulating this data into a central database, the company gains a much better picture of which individuals it should pursue with particular offerings, improving its overall effectiveness.

Reaction time matters

However, as Destination CRM's Ed Shepherdson recently highlighted, in order for companies to maximize the utility of this information, they must react quickly. A great deal of the individualized data that CRM tools collect, especially that which occurs on social media networks, has a very short shelf life. If the organization cannot use the information it has gathered quickly, it will miss out on many opportunities.

China's economy had been growing rapidly over the last decade as foreign companies expanded operations there. Affordable labor and easy access to raw material have helped U.S. companies conduct business process outsourcing of manufacturing factories to the country. The factories provided the country's middle class with money that has increased demand for American products like Nike apparel and Apple's iPhone. With the economy slowing, China's government is looking to attract additional foreign investment.

"The measures to stabilize economic growth include boosting consumption and diversifying exports, but currently, what is important is to pursue a reasonable growth of investment," Premier Wen Jiabao told the Economic Times.

A lack of growth in Europe and the United States may limit China's options for foreign investors, but the country is also pursuing efforts to balance foreign investment with domestic reforms. The Chinese government has spent millions on housing and development stimulus in an attempt to keep the economy growing. The move has helped create thousands of jobs, but has also led to a sharp drop in housing prices.

Social CRM has many uses. According to Vivian Wagner, writing for CRM Buyer, one of the most valuable of these is the technology's ability to help businesses learn from their customers.

Implied Trends

To emphasize this point, Wagner highlighted the case of financial service site Adaptu. Jenna Forstrom, the site's community manager, told Wagner that a number of the company's customers choose to share personal information about their finances. By monitoring these public conversations, Forstrom noted, her company gleans a significant amount of information about how to best serve its customers. Adaptu can create content and crowdsource ideas, as well, improving the company's overall operations and offerings.

Of course, not all, or even most, of Adatpu's customers are willing to share such information. However, as Forstrom pointed out, it is likely that an issue affecting one customer also affects others. By extrapolating, the company gains a significant degree of insight into its customer base as a whole.

Customer is Key

Irving Fain, writing for Betanews, recently reinforced this notion by arguing that the key to an effective social CRM strategy is focus on the customer. Specifically, he argued that the technology should be used to develop long-term relationships with customers. Social CRM is far more intimate than traditional models, allowing for a deeper, more powerful connection between customer and business that translates into increased loyalty and brand advocacy.

To achieve these ends, the organization must have specific goals. Writing for Bizcommunity.com, Carmia Lureman recently argued that businesses should identify both who its ideal customers are and what its ideal customer relationships should look like.

Ideal Customers

Despite many businesses' claims, not every customer is of equal value. Some are significantly more important to companies than others. According to Lureman, organizations need to acknowledge these discrepancies and take steps to determine their various customers' value, and CRM tools, along with data analytics, can significantly improve companies' ability to make these determinations.

By doing so, organizations can optimize their various reward offers and other methods for gaining customer loyalty.

Ideal Relationships

In addition to identifying who its most valuable customers are, an organization should also strive to determine the best client relationships possible. Simply aiming to improve relationships with customers is too vague to be truly beneficial. Instead, the organization must determine what this ideal relationship would look like.

This may vary significantly from company to company and industry to industry, depending on business models. For example, a company that relies predominantly on repeat customers will have a very different idea of an ideal customer relationship than one that sells major products, like an car dealer. Additionally, a subscription-dependent company will exist on very different terms with its customers.

These varying models will affect how a company wants to interact with its customers. To maximize its use of CRM, the organization must determine its ideal mode of engagement. Social media? Email? Telephone? The way the company deploys its CRM tools will depend upon the answer to that question.

Taking Action

All of the CRM planning in the world will have no effect if it is not accompanied by action. Mariann McDonagh, chief marketing officer for a cloud software provider, recently explained in an interview with IDG that one of the critical aspects of CRM deployment is the customer's perspective. Companies often make the mistake of thinking about CRM solely in terms of how it can improve their capabilities and profits. However, she argued that the true value of a CRM system is its ability to improve the customer experience.

According to AME Info, staff retention has become a serious drag on contact centers in the Middle East. Speaking to the news source, Shaheen Haque, a contact center manager, argued that technology can help improve employee retention rates in the region and around the world.

Work at home advantages

One of the principle ways in which organizations can leverage contact center technology to improve staff retention is by making customer support positions more appealing to people. For example, many people would rather work from their homes than in an office, if given the opportunity.

As Haque noted, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and real time monitoring technology can allow an individual to serve as an at-home agent. Essentially, all of the equipment and hardware that was traditionally required to create a contact center can now be utilized remotely, without a significant degradation of service. The flexibility offered by the option of working at home can make agents more satisfied with their positions.

According to Call Centre Helper, these factors make at-home agents an increasingly common fixture of contact centers. The news source goes so far as to suggest that this arrangement may soon become standard operating procedure for the industry.

Database benefits

Another way that technology can improve contact center agent retention, according to Haque, is via knowledge databases. He noted that employees generally dislike being forced to handle situations for which they have not been prepared. Such an arrangement will cause the employee to feel stressed and less satisfied with his or her position.

With a thorough, easily accessible knowledge database, however, support agents will have a much shorter learning curve. Additionally, by making customer information available, interactions will become less demanding.

While the service recovery paradox is not sufficiently established to justify companies intentionally degrading their products, it does demonstrate the importance of establishing a high quality service-recovery system.

Speaking to Smart Business, Edward Kromar, director of service for Blue Technologies, recently emphasized this point. He noted that thanks to how interconnected the world has become, customers who experience substandard service can, and often will, quickly spread the word of their dissatisfaction. To minimize these effects, he argued that it is critical for organizations to preemptively establish comprehensive strategies for offering service recovery to customers.

To a significant degree, this may entail devoting more attention to social media. The channel has become increasingly important, yet a recent Conversocial study revealed that more than half of participating U.S. consumers described their social media interactions with companies as disappointing or mediocre, according to Bizreport.

Business 2 Community reported that marketing consultant Becky Carroll recently gave a presentation highlighting best practices for organizations striving to offer a top-quality customer experience.

Building the right culture

According to Carroll, many of the companies with the best customer support offerings make significant efforts to imbue their organizations with a customer-centric culture. Nordstrom, for example, is well-known for the quality of its customer service. Carroll noted that the company makes customer service a priority at every level, including when it comes time to post job descriptions to attract new employees. Even positions that may seem unrelated to customer service, such as stocking shelves, specifically call for individuals who support customers.

Carroll argued that only by instilling the values of customer experience and customer support,  at the employee level and for every position, can an organization hope to truly achieve excellence in these areas. As she noted, employees are essential when it comes to creating noteworthy, memorable customer experiences. When someone has an excellent experience with a company, it is often due to personal interaction.

Quality experience throughout the customer lifecycle

Another key to offering high-quality customer experiences is focusing on the entirety of the customer lifecycle, as Kerry Bodine recently highlighted for 1to1 Media. According to Bodine, many organizations focus exclusively on the early stages of their relationship with customers. To create customer loyalty and advocacy, however, companies should strive to maintain this level of support throughout their relationships with customers, not solely in the beginning.

According to Ed Shepherdson of Destination CRM, one of these critical traits is timeliness. If a CRM system cannot offer results and insights quickly, the business will inevitably miss out on a variety of opportunities.

To illustrate this point, Shepherdson cited the example of a customer issuing a tweet concerning his dissatisfaction with a company's product. If the company's CRM product is not reactive enough, the organization may never learn of the tweet. This can significantly damage the company's standing in that customer's mind. Last year, Maritz Research found that 83 percent of individuals who issued a complaint via social media liked or loved hearing back from the company they criticized.

Just as importantly, complaints and other social media data can help companies improve their service offerings for other customers. If the organization's CRM system finds the critical tweet and puts that information into the hands of a customer service agent quickly, that agent may be better prepared to offer customer support to other individuals with the same problem.

According to a new report from American Express, of the respondents who used social media in some form for customer support, 46 percent expressed frustration with a bad customer experience via the platform. Twenty-three percent said they rarely receive an answer or have their complaint resolved.

It pays off to provide superb customer support, as respondents said they would spend 21 percent more with companies who deliver great service. On the other end, more than 80 percent of customers said they have abandoned a purchase due to poor service.

Both Facebook and Twitter have hundreds of millions of users, so if your business provides subpar customer service, expect a lot of people to hear about it via these popular sites.

However, as significant as CRM's offerings are, there are also potential pitfalls that organizations must avoid to make the most of the technology. This point was recently highlighted by CRM Buyer's Christopher Bucholtz. According to Bucholtz, companies must be particularly careful not to fall victim to sunk costs.

Sunk costs, as Bucholtz explained, are resources (such as time and money) that an individual or organization invests in that is ultimately a wasted effort. When these develop, it is critical for the person or people involved to acknowledge that something went wrong and take steps to avoid making those same mistakes in the future. However, this can be extremely difficult to do. It requires a significant degree of objective self-analysis and the admission that a great deal of time and effort needs to be abandoned as a loss.

Bucholtz argued that many companies face this dilemma when it comes to CRM. They become too narrow-minded with their use of the technology by, for example, focusing exclusively on acquiring more customers, that they ignore other benefits of the technology to their own detriment. If this occurs, the company must objectively analyze where it went wrong with its CRM deployment and make adjustments, even if this is a messy, unpleasant process. Otherwise, the firm will never be able to maximize its results from its CRM platform.

According to Target Marketing Mag, there are three lessons email marketers can take from telemarketers to provide the most engaging content for a potential customer.

The three "W's" are always a good way to know if the email will be effective. Every email needs to include who you are, why you're contacting the person, and why they should contact you back.

The source also recommends brevity in marketing emails. With more potential customers using their smartphones to access the internet, according to Pew Internet, it is important to make emails easily readable from a mobile device.

Once an email is written, it needs to be run through the "hypocrisy test." If you wouldn't read the email if someone sent it to you, it is probably best to scrap it altogether and start from scratch.

If used correctly, electronic direct marketing can be a great tool for businesses to attract potential customers. 

In the past, utilizing at-home agents would have been infeasible for even the most sophisticated contact centers. Now, thanks to a wide range of contact center technology upgrades, including the implementation of cloud-based systems, it is possible for customer support agents to work remotely while providing an undiminished quality of service. 

As the report detailed, there are a number of advantages for companies that pursue this option. For example, such a deployment may lead to happier workers. An at-home agent will have a reduced or nonexistent commute and more flexible work hours. By improving worker job satisfaction, companies can achieve a higher level of employee retention. The longer a worker performs a particular job, the more experienced he or she becomes, so retaining contact center agents will create a more knowledgeable, better-performing staff.

Another benefit of implementing a contact center featuring at home workers is an expanded talent pool. When a company employs only onsite workers, it is forced to consider only local workers. With remote agents, on the other hand, a company can employ individuals from across the country, or even abroad. This increases the company's ability to hire only the most experienced, best qualified workers.

By taking these steps, companies can improve the overall quality of the customer experience. According to the recent Net Promoter Industry Benchmarks survey, customer experience is one of the chief factors that determines how likely an individual is to recommend a business to others, Destination CRM reported.

According to Business2Community, it is important to know your customers' names when serving them. Mispronouncing a customer's name could turn him or her off and potentially lead to a missed opportunity for the business.

The source gives an example of an interaction between a bank and customer, in which the bank pronounced the customer's name wrong. The customer said it made him feel like he was just another account, and not an important individual to the business. Making customers feel as though the business actually cares is essential to retaining his or her business.

Even if it is a one-time occurrence due to a bad contact center agent, the customer doesn't distinguish between the agent and the company he or she works for. If the agent provides its patrons with a bad customer experience, the overall outlook on the company will be negative. 

According to Destination CRM, the 2012 Net Promoter Industry Benchmarks survey included more than 30,000 U.S. consumers from over 20 industries, asking participants to how likely they were to recommend a company's products or services to others. Each score was determined by subtracting a company's percentage of detractors (those consumers who selected a 6 or below on a 1 to 10 scale) from its percentage of promoters (those giving the company a 9 or 10).

Deb Eastman, general manager of consulting at the firm that conducted the study, explained that those organizations that did the best job of offering a satisfactory customer experience received the highest scores, regardless of industry. To a significant degree, successful customer experience offerings boiled down to setting expectations for the customers and then delivering on those promises.

Companies that attempted to deliver too much or to satisfy everyone ended up falling short, as they ultimately failed to provide a satisfying customer experience to the majority of their clients.

According to Eastman, one of the keys to achieving this high level of customer experience was monitoring. Companies that were able to track their clients' satisfaction at the various stages of interaction with the organization were better able to improve their service offerings.

Computerworld's Eric Berridge recently made a similar point, arguing that companies should invest in tools to improve their ability to monitor customers and themselves. He argued that having thorough records of every instance of customer engagement and making that information available to contact center agents can improve customer support quality.

According to Destination CRM, the 2012 Net Promoter Industry Benchmarks survey included more than 30,000 U.S. consumers from over 20 industries, asking participants to how likely they were to recommend a company's products or services to others. Each score was determined by subtracting a company's percentage of detractors (those consumers who selected a 6 or below on a 1 to 10 scale) from its percentage of promoters (those giving the company a 9 or 10).

Deb Eastman, general manager of consulting at the firm that conducted the study, explained that those organizations that did the best job of offering a satisfactory customer experience received the highest scores, regardless of industry. To a significant degree, successful customer experience offerings boiled down to setting expectations for the customers and then delivering on those promises.

Companies that attempted to deliver too much or to satisfy everyone ended up falling short, as they ultimately failed to provide a satisfying customer experience to the majority of their clients.

According to Eastman, one of the keys to achieving this high level of customer experience was monitoring. Companies that were able to track their clients' satisfaction at the various stages of interaction with the organization were better able to improve their service offerings.

Computerworld's Eric Berridge recently made a similar point, arguing that companies should invest in tools to improve their ability to monitor customers and themselves. He argued that having thorough records of every instance of customer engagement and making that information available to contact center agents can improve customer support quality.

According to Business2Community, the time when service agents aren't receiving customer phone calls should be used as proactive sales support uptime. To offer the full customer experience package, engagement needs to occur before the product or service is purchased, not just when a current customer needs support.

The source states that initially this may be an uncomfortable change for the service agents, but as they make more and more calls, it should become a positive service in a contact center.

Providing the best customer experience possible is essential to business success, as engaging customers has a large impact on retention. According to Business2Community, it is about six to seven times cheaper to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one. Retained customers lead to more business over time, and the best strategy for retention is an unmatched experience. 

Conducted by a leading contact center technology firm, the study found that mid-sized centers lag behind their larger counterparts in a number of categories, Call Centre Clinic reports. When it comes to average speed to answer (ASA), mid-sized contact centers were more than 20 percent slower than larger ones. As the news source notes, ASA is a major contributing factor in determining overall customer satisfaction.

Additionally, the study found that 69 percent of mid-sized centers approach customer emails on an ad-hoc basis, rather than investing in technology to prioritize and queue messages. As a result, 40 percent of emails received by these organizations took more than 24 hours to resolve.

By comparison, only 50 percent of larger centers approached email this way.

As other studies have demonstrated, customer satisfaction with contact centers is key for companies of all types. ZDNet recently reported on a leading analytics company's findings that consumers who were pleased with their contact center experience were 238 percent more likely to recommend the company in question to family, friends and coworkers.

According to Computer Weekly, cloud computing, business analytics software, social media platforms and process automation software are all being used to help lower costs and increase effectiveness.

"Businesses have been considering more functions for BPO, mainly because of the current economic conditions and because the suppliers provide BPO services much better than 10 years ago," Ilan Oshri, professor at Loughborough School of Business, told Computer Weekly.

The use of new technologies will be beneficial to both the provider and customer. New services will be created for the customer, and providers will have new revenue streams.

Social media is a technology that should see an increase in use, as it is a great platform to reach customers. With nearly a billion active monthly users, the popular platform is far-reaching and could provide customer support benefits for many businesses.

The news source noted the trend towards these new technologies in BPO relationships has created a bigger role for IT in the sector.

Writing for Channel Partners, Teal argued that in several ways, the two technologies are complementary. Used in conjunction in the contact center, they provide a means for organizations to significantly increase customer support offerings.

The source cited Randy Kremlacek, owner and president of a leading telecommunications company, who offered an example to highlight the value of these systems. His firm worked with a taxi company that had to gather information whenever an individual called, even if he or she was a returning customer. By combining the company's UC and CRM tools, the taxi company was able to cut down on call times and automate many conversations, improving efficiency and service quality.

Additionally, as a recent NICE study demonstrated, customers increasingly expect to have a number of different channels through which to attain customer support. UC can help contact centers to provide these options. If these options are lacking, customers become frustrated, leading to reduced loyalty and retention.

Writing for Channel Partners, Teal argued that in several ways, the two technologies are complementary. Used in conjunction in the contact center, they provide a means for organizations to significantly increase customer support offerings.

The source cited Randy Kremlacek, owner and president of a leading telecommunications company, who offered an example to highlight the value of these systems. His firm worked with a taxi company that had to gather information whenever an individual called, even if he or she was a returning customer. By combining the company's UC and CRM tools, the taxi company was able to cut down on call times and automate many conversations, improving efficiency and service quality.

Additionally, as a recent NICE study demonstrated, customers increasingly expect to have a number of different channels through which to attain customer support. UC can help contact centers to provide these options. If these options are lacking, customers become frustrated, leading to reduced loyalty and retention.

According to Gartner research, 75 percent of all call centers will incorporate cloud technology in their operations by 2013.

The implementation of cloud computing in contact centers will reduce office costs and provide additional services that could create new revenue streams, according to Computer Weekly.

A separate survey by Accenture found that 40 percent of high performing BPO relationships consider technology provided by the service company to be important, compared to 27 percent of typical performing relationships.

"Effective technologies and architectures contribute to cost reductions and more efficient operations by streamlining the systems environment and reducing the number of systems involved, often standardizing the  technology environment on a unified, centralized platform," said Anoop Sagoo, products industry BPO lead at Accenture.

Cloud computing and other technologies will provide benefits for both the customer and provider. Additional services are created for the customers, while new revenue opportunities are presented to the provider. 

According to Mikkel Svanne, CEO of a leading cloud-based customer service software company, as valuable as social CRM tools are now, they are likely to become even more vital for companies in many industries in the near future.

Speaking to Computer Business Review, Svanne argued that businesses are increasingly moving toward a subscription-based model. Instead of generating the bulk of their profits through upfront sales, organizations are coming to depend on long-term agreements. Consequently, it will become more and more important for businesses to develop lasting, substantial relationships with their customers.

Social CRM can help companies develop and maintain these relationships. Millions of individuals use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks as their primary modes for communication. In the future, this trend will likely increase. The more time that consumers spend on social media, the more important it becomes for businesses to have the means of reaching out to people via these channels. Social CRM tools offer a way to achieve this degree of engagement.

According to a recent study from Conversocial, 55 percent of social media users said their customer experience was "disappointing" or "mediocre."

A main reason for the dissatisfaction is the speed with which responses are given. Nearly 30 percent of respondents expect a reply within the same business day, and 29.7 percent expect a response in less than an hour.

"Bottom line, while traditionally consumers are rarely satisfied completely with customer service, fast and efficient social customer service can quickly change the old paradigm and create a viral effect of consumers actually praising rather than vilifying companies," said Conversocial CEO, Joshua March.

One organization that has been leveraging social media successfully for customer support is Citibank. According to CIO, Citi has taken advantage of Twitter and live chat to appease customer needs on social media.Customers who tweet at "@AskCiti" will get a direct message inviting them to a live chat so their issues can be solved. 

William Vicary, writing for Business 2 Community, recently argued that social customer relationship management (CRM) can play a significant role in achieving this result.

As Vicary noted, social CRM tools can capture conversations regarding the company as they occur on social media channels. Consequently, organizations using the technology can gain valuable knowledge about their clients' desires and levels of satisfaction, information that can be used to improve companies' product and service offerings.

Social CRM can also help firms to engage directly with their customers. By doing so, an organization can demonstrate that it cares about its individual clients, engendering loyalty.

However, as Kora Sexton, also of Business 2 Community, recently highlighted, companies must remain committed to social CRM for the technology to yield dividends. They must check their social media channels regularly and respond to queries and comments quickly, or they may disappoint their customers.

According to Business2Community, responses per post drops off dramatically the more frequently a business posts to the social network. When a brand posts twice a day, the posts only receive 57 percent of the likes and 78 percent of the comments per post compared to posting once per day, and those percentages both drop below 20 percent with six or more posts per day.

The source shared some advice for businesses on how to post correctly to Facebook, including being aware that the response per post decreases with posting frequency, making sure the content posted is relevant and interesting to your audience and using analytics to find the right posting frequency.

If used correctly, Facebook can be a useful platform to provide customer support and contact, as it is the most frequently visited social media source on the internet. The company reports having more than 900 million active monthly users as of March 2012. 

According to Business2Community, responses per post drops off dramatically the more frequently a business posts to the social network. When a brand posts twice a day, the posts only receive 57 percent of the likes and 78 percent of the comments per post compared to posting once per day, and those percentages both drop below 20 percent with six or more posts per day.

The source shared some advice for businesses on how to post correctly to Facebook, including being aware that the response per post decreases with posting frequency, making sure the content posted is relevant and interesting to your audience and using analytics to find the right posting frequency.

If used correctly, Facebook can be a useful platform to provide customer support and contact, as it is the most frequently visited social media source on the internet. The company reports having more than 900 million active monthly users as of March 2012. 

Conducted by Conversocial, the study surveyed 589 people concerning their social media customer support experiences, according to BizReport. More than half of U.S. participants indicated that their interactions with companies via social media were either disappointing or mediocre.

To a significant degree, this is due to increasing customer demands. Nearly 30 percent of participants stated they expect a response from the company within hours, and the same expected an answer in less than an hour. More than 15 percent wanted a response in under 10 minutes.

Joshua March, CEO of Conversocial, said that while these changing demands place significant pressure on organizations, customers are also more inclined to praise companies that offer top-notch service.

Another recent study, conducted by STELLAService, demonstrated just how inadequate many companies' social media response times are. Over a 45 day period, the research firm found that more than half of tweets directed to top retailers did not receive a response.

According to Accenture, Citigroup has implemented a variety of social media strategies to create a better customer experience, including a blog that seeks questions and comments from customers, as well as a service that allows customers to contact the bank through Twitter.

Accenture sees many banks trending toward the "socially engaging" banking model in the future. In this model, banks will monitor customer feedback through social media and provide social digital marketing to engage the customer.

It should come as no surprise that banks have been turning to social media to get customers back in their favor, as hundreds of millions of people worldwide use social media platforms daily. As of December 31, Facebook had 845 million active monthly users, according to Venturebeat. With so many active users, it is a practical platform for companies to reach customers. 

According to Bucholtz, one of the key signals that a business may want to consider CRM is if it has trouble determining why various events occurred. These events can be positive, such as an unexpected increase in sales, or negative, like a loss of existing customers. If the business cannot say why these or similar events happened, it may be because it needs a CRM platform that can better track customer behavior and attitudes.

On a related note, the loss of customers may be an additional signal that a company is ready for CRM. As Bucholtz noted, CRM tools can help companies keep better track of customers' information, which can reduce the likelihood that a client is inadvertently overlooked or receives poor service.

As numerous studies have demonstrated, customer service is becoming increasingly valued by modern consumers. Those companies that offer poor customer service put themselves at risk of being outpaced by their competitors.

While certain aspects of customer support - like a positive attitude, timeliness and clarity - have remained consistent over the years, others have changed. As a recent survey suggests, one of the most notable developments in the field of customer support is demand for multiple-channel access.

Conducted by a leading research company, the study included 2,000 consumers, asking them about their customer support preferences and histories. It found that, on average, customers use six different channels to contact service providers. Company websites are the most popular resource for customers to turn to initially, but smartphone applications and social media networks are gaining, with 40 percent of participants indicating they used these channels for customer support.

Perhaps most notably, the survey found that as many as 40 percent of respondents want the live representative they reach to already know about the customer's experience before the conversation begins. This suggests that companies that have not yet adopted customer relationship management (CRM) tools in the contact center may want to do in the near future.

According to a recent study by Ifbyphone, 58 percent of customers are more likely to buy when the phone is answered in under one minute. Of the customers who waited more than 10 minutes to have their phone call answered, more than 60 percent said it was very unlikely that they would recommend the brand.

The study found that 51.1 percent of calls were answered in less than one minute when connecting with a live person, and 24.1 percent were answered immediately.

Although customers like their calls to be answered quickly, they don't like to be cut off without an answer. According to 1to1 media, one of the biggest problems with contact centers is that many agents are instructed to close out calls quickly, which many times results in the customer's problem not being resolved.

Customer service is one of the keys to a successful business, so it is important to answer phone calls in a timely manner and provide a proper response. 

As this number demonstrates, social media is assuming an increasingly critical place in the contact center. However, as Voice+Data recently highlighted, for organizations to take advantage of social media, they must develop and implement a comprehensive strategy.

Speaking to the news source, Stephen Lord, general manager of client services and marketing at a leading marketing agency, emphasized that companies using social media for customer support must consider what they hope to accomplish, who will be responsible for these tasks and what resources are needed.

By doing so, the organizations can avoid many of the pitfalls that others experience when adopting social media-based customer service strategies, such as the question of what department "owns" a company's social media presence.

Additionally, with a well-developed plan, organizations can offer a more consistent customer support experience, which is likely to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

According to Business2Community social media can generate revenues in a variety of ways including building a social media presence, monitoring customer communications over social media, and starting a corporate blog.

First, creating a social media presence for your company is essential. According to PC Magazine, half of the world's internet users are on Facebook alone, so it is key to utilize the popular platform, as well as Twitter and other popular social media sites, to grow your brand.

Once you have established a company presence on social media, it is time to utilize the technology for customer support. A recent Oracle survey found an increasing number of customers turn to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms to reach out to companies. As soon as you have customers engaged on social media, the ability to push new products via the service becomes much easier.

Social media platforms have become a part of customers daily lives, so it is important for businesses to create a social presence to interact with their customers enabling them to generate revenue. 

According to Business2Community social media can generate revenues in a variety of ways including building a social media presence, monitoring customer communications over social media, and starting a corporate blog.

First, creating a social media presence for your company is essential. According to PC Magazine, half of the world's internet users are on Facebook alone, so it is key to utilize the popular platform, as well as Twitter and other popular social media sites, to grow your brand.

Once you have established a company presence on social media, it is time to utilize the technology for customer support. A recent Oracle survey found an increasing number of customers turn to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms to reach out to companies. As soon as you have customers engaged on social media, the ability to push new products via the service becomes much easier.

Social media platforms have become a part of customers daily lives, so it is important for businesses to create a social presence to interact with their customers enabling them to generate revenue. 

According to a number of experts, the next development in CRM is the rise of systems focused primarily on customer experience - what some insiders refer to as customer experience management (CXM), IDG reports.

"Any organization that cares about delivering value to its customers should care about CXM," said Kurt Carlson, associate professor of marketing at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

Speaking to the news source, Mariann McDonagh, chief marketing officer for a cloud software provider, argued that one of the keys to achieving CXM is understanding the customer's point of view. Too often, she explained, companies focus predominantly on how to make their own experience easier, when they should strive to eliminate the customer's discomfort and dissatisfaction.

Additionally, McDonagh maintained that companies should implement CXM at all levels and in all departments, rather than solely applying it to customer support.

According to several industry experts, one of the keys to maintaining a high level of customer support is focusing on IT innovation in the contact center.

Self-knowledge is critical

In 2010, BIGresearch conducted an online survey and found that 17 percent of customers will leave a business following a single service mistake, 40 percent after two errors, and 28 percent after three. This means that 85 percent of customers will not tolerate more than three service errors for an organization.

This is one of the reasons why Eric Berridge, writing for Computerworld, recently argued that companies should implement tools that monitor both customers and employees. As Berridge noted, many organizations have managed the first half of this equation, but not the second. Having a detailed record of all company interactions with an individual, including any errors that the organization may have made, can significantly improve the customer experience, as contact center agents can take that information into account while dealing with a customer.

Smoother interactions

Nicholas D'Alleva, writing for Destination CRM, argued that IT can improve efficiency in the contact center, which can lead to improved service offerings. For example, by using an automatic predictive dialer, an organization can minimize the amount of time contact center agents spend waiting for a phone to ring or listening to busy signals. This is time that can then be spent servicing a greater number of customers.

According to several industry experts, one of the keys to maintaining a high level of customer support is focusing on IT innovation in the contact center.

Self-knowledge is critical

In 2010, BIGresearch conducted an online survey and found that 17 percent of customers will leave a business following a single service mistake, 40 percent after two errors, and 28 percent after three. This means that 85 percent of customers will not tolerate more than three service errors for an organization.

This is one of the reasons why Eric Berridge, writing for Computerworld, recently argued that companies should implement tools that monitor both customers and employees. As Berridge noted, many organizations have managed the first half of this equation, but not the second. Having a detailed record of all company interactions with an individual, including any errors that the organization may have made, can significantly improve the customer experience, as contact center agents can take that information into account while dealing with a customer.

Smoother interactions

Nicholas D'Alleva, writing for Destination CRM, argued that IT can improve efficiency in the contact center, which can lead to improved service offerings. For example, by using an automatic predictive dialer, an organization can minimize the amount of time contact center agents spend waiting for a phone to ring or listening to busy signals. This is time that can then be spent servicing a greater number of customers.

Building better relationships

Irving Fain, writing for Betanews, recently highlighted this aspect of social CRM tools. According to Fain, CRM is most useful when seen as a means for developing long-term relationships with customers. He argued that this is true for both traditional and social CRM, but the latter offers greater possibilities for achieving a significant level of trust and loyalty.

Fain noted that traditional CRM is generally seen as a means for measuring, tracking and recording phone calls, meetings, emails, purchases and other, similar data. Social CRM, on the other hand, with its focus on social media networks, offers a more intimate portrait of a business' customers. This knowledge can then be utilized to improve the business' offerings, leading to an increase in customer loyalty and retention.

Additionally, social CRM presents greater opportunities for organizations to interact with their customers, both for promotional and customer support purposes.

However, Fain emphasized that successful relationship-building can only occur if this customer-centric perspective is adopted throughout the organization. According to Fain, most customers do not see a company as an assemblage of departments (marketing, sales, customer service, and so on). Rather, they see the company as a whole. If any one element of the business does not utilize social CRM to improve its service in a customer-focused way, it is likely that customers will take a dim view of the organization, even if the other departments are more successful in their deployment of the tool.

Social leading the way

Steve McKee, writing for Bloomberg Businessweek, emphasized a similar point when he argued that social CRM is leading companies to adopt a greater focus on their customers. Like Fain, he pointed out that traditional CRM is principally an information-gathering tool. Social CRM, on the other hand, requires companies to interact directly with their customers. This makes social CRM two-way, whereas traditional CRM is one-way. In order to effectively cultivate these two-way relationships, businesses are forced to consider their customers' perspectives and work to build these individuals' trust, leading to stronger, long-term customer relationships.

A survey conducted by nFusion and Pegasystems Inc. found that 95 percent of organizations feel the customer experience is important, yet only 6 percent said they deliver the best service.

"Today's organizations are challenged to unify incredible amounts of customer data that are typically soloed across various departments as they struggle to adapt to new channels and provide more consistent customer experiences across touch-points," said John Ellet, CEO at nFusion.

Many customer experience issues occur due to the absence of a single point of accountability for delivering customer experience in the company, according to the source.

The customer experience can be enhanced by integrating new technologies, such as mobile applications and social media, into contact centers, according to 1to1media.

Society is trending toward mobile and social, so the utilization of these technologies will make customers' lives easier, leading to an enhanced customer experience. 

Customer support departments have also begun to implement social media into their operations. Dave Kellogg, senior vice president at a leading social customer relationship management company, recently told Destination CRM that 18.6 percent of contact centers currently utilize social media. Within a year, this number is expected to grow to 22.9 percent.

As more contact centers move to incorporate social media into their customer support strategies, it is critical that they follow best practices to ensure that the technology serves, rather than harms, their service offerings.

Writing for Multichannel Merchant, industry expert Lauren Ziskie recently offered several best practices for contact centers hoping to maximize their use of social media customer support.

Creating a process

One of the keys to successful use of social media in the contact center, according to Ziskie, is developing a monitoring and engagement process. As she notes, at any given time, there may be hundreds or even thousands of posts, tweets and other communications concerning a company circulating around social media networks. Without a concrete, regular process in place for prioritizing and responding to these messages, a contact center's response policies will be haphazard and ineffective.

That is why Ziskie recommends that contact centers develop an engagement workflow chart that helps support staff categorize and prioritize social media comments. For example, Facebook posts that specifically mention the company by name should be addressed more quickly than a not-particularly-popular blog that does the same.

Quality assurance

Another key to successful use of social media in the contact center is quality assurance. Social media engagement offers several unique challenges to customer support staff. For example, it can be difficult to determine the proper tone to use. To many people, social media channels seem inherently less formal than other, more traditional formats, such as email and phone calls. Consequently, customer service agents may be tempted to respond to customer complaints and comments on social media sites with a relative lack of formality.

To ensure that social media engagement follows company policy, Ziskie recommends that organizations establish quality assurance teams to analyze and score every interaction between the company and customers via social media.

According to MultiChannel Merchant, many things need to be taken into account when integrating social media in the contact center, including creating a monitoring and engaging solution, launching a quality-assurance process, and making the decision to potentially outsource the service.

With the high number of posts expected to come through your social media channels, it is key to have an effective monitoring process to make sure you can provide a fast and useful response. A quality assurance program will also aid the engagement process by scoring each social engagement to recognize where improvements need to be made. 

If you find your team unable to integrate social media effectively, outsourcing the process could be an option. MultiChannel Merchant recommends doing research beforehand, though, because many companies claim to comprehensively address social media but, in reality, only send one-way messages to customers.

According to a past Nielsen report, four in five active internet users visit social networks, so the integration of social media in contact centers will become vital in the coming years. 

To take advantage of the possibilities of social media, many companies choose to invest in social customer relationship management (CRM) tools, which can pore through social media channels to find valuable insight, improve engagement with customers, and allow companies to better their social media-based promotional efforts.

However, to achieve all of this, companies must know how to best utilize their social CRM tools. Social media can be a complex, overwhelming resource if approached without a coherent strategy.

As several recent sources highlighted, one of the most effective strategies companies should consider employing when using social CRM tools is to focus on the most influential, relevant social media users.

Social media advocates

One leading social CRM provider recently claimed that organizations should seek out and focus on "brand evangelists," which the provider defines as customers who are extremely enthusiastic and influential about the company. These individuals are naturally inclined to promote the company's brand on social media sites by posting favorable comments about its products or services, as well as recommending the business to friends and family.

Consequently, brand evangelists are among the most valuable customers available on social  media channels. That is why companies should make a concerted effort to use their social CRM tools to better facilitate their relationships with these individuals. Not only will engagement keep brand evangelists loyal and happy, but it will also further encourage them to promote the company.

Identifying the influential

While brand evangelists should be highly prized and treated well, they are not the only individuals upon whom companies should direct their social CRM efforts. As David Veibl of Noobpreneur recently highlighted, it is also advisable for companies to seek out the more influential members of social media networks.

However, identifying these individuals can be difficult, even with sophisticated social CRM tools. That is why Veibl argued that businesses may want to consider utilizing online influence metric tools, which measure individuals' fans, followers, readers and other statistics to determine how far a person's reach is.

While noting the utility of these programs, though, Veibl claimed that they should not be seen as definitive, but rather as a small component of a greater social CRM strategy.

According to a recent LogMeln's BoldChat study, one in five shoppers prefer to use live chat when in contact with a business, and 50 percent of customers who participated in a customer support live chat were satisfied with the interaction.

The presence of a live chat and internet use in a business's customer support channel is extremely important to the younger customer base, according to CMSWire. The source says that younger consumers, who have grown up with the internet, view an absence of these services negatively.

Sixty-five percent of frequent chatters are more likely to make a purchase when live chat is available to them, and the same goes for 56 percent of people who simply prefer chat, according to LogMeln.

Creating an excellent customer experience is key to keeping your customers happy, and simplifying customer support channels by using live chat is one way of appealing to the customer.
 

Despite this rise in usage, many companies fail to reap the rewards of social CRM, either due to a lack of commitment or an unawareness of best practices.

Recently, a number of industry experts spoke with Destination CRM to share critical advice for successful social CRM deployment. As many of these insiders highlighted, one of the overriding keys to achieving effective social CRM is a willingness to adapt in multiple, significant areas.

Preparation and knowledge

According to Altimeter Group, the average enterprise-class company has 178 corporate-owned social media accounts. As this statistic demonstrates, companies are increasingly aware of the importance of having a social media presence.

However, as professor of marketing and social media strategy at New York University Joel Rubinson notes, simply creating social media accounts is easy and not inherently productive. For companies to truly experience success with social media networks and social CRM, executives and all other users must immerse themselves in these fields.

"I hear so many executives talk about having someone else tweet for them ... How in the world can you ever understand social media? That's like saying you read a book about France but you've never been there. It doesn't work," he said.

Only by becoming invested in and experienced with the technology can executives hope to take advantage of its potential.

Determining priorities

Another key to successful social CRM deployment is the determination of priorities. Social CRM can be used for a wide array of purposes, but each of these requires a different focus and strategy for application.

That is why, as vice president of global community practice at a web content management company Erick Mott highlighted, it is critical for companies interested in social CRM to consider where their priorities lie. A strategy geared toward leveraging social media for marketing purposes will be very different from one primarily concerned with improving the company's customer support offerings.

Once these priorities have been identified, a company can then work to identify the areas and ways in which its social CRM tools can best be employed to achieve the organization's goals.

Gartner recently shared 10 mistakes that lead to mobile customer service failure, including the violation of the "three-click" rule, the inability to correct mistakes and the violation of "security 101."

Following the "three-click" rule is key for mobile-based customer services, because if getting the desired information takes more than three keystrokes, businesses are likely to have a frustrated and confused customer.

Another key is giving the customer the ability to go back and revise a mistake that was entered, something that many mobile applications and websites lack. Gartner recommends integrating two back buttons, one that erases text and one that doesn't,  but allows the customer to go back and correct a mistake.

Perhaps the most important mistake to avoid regards security. Encryption and a secure login is essential in any type of mobile application to ensure the safety of customers' information.

More than one billion people will own a smartphone by 2016, according to Forrester, so it is more important than ever to perfect your mobile customer support. 

However, successfully implementing IVR in the contact center is not a simple, automatic process. Used incorrectly, IVR systems can prove to be a turnoff for customers who may become frustrated by non-intuitive responses or unwieldy menus. Used correctly, however, and IVR can provide customers with a quick, satisfying experience.

Writing for CMS Wire, industry expert JR Sloan recently argued that to create a successful IVR system, organizations must thoroughly plan its deployment and remain dedicated to maintaining and improving the system.

Planning

The key to planning an IVR system, according to Sloan, is focusing on the customer. By keeping the customer's perspective in mind, a company can develop an IVR system that is intuitive and easy-to-use.

To achieve this level of customer-centricity, Sloan argues that companies should strive to minimize the number of options available at every stage. If a customer is forced to listen to nine options before selecting the proper next stage, the call time will quickly become elongated, to the point where the customer may even forget some of the choices. This can lead to misrouting and, ultimately, a frustrating customer experience.

Once the IVR call stages have been developed and the technology seems ready for use, Sloan argues that companies must conduct thorough testing with real people and real situations. Even the most carefully considered call-flow may prove inefficient when used by actual customers. It is far better to identify any miscalculations before putting the IVR system into use in the contact center then after. And if this testing is only conducted with company-created scenarios, it is possible that the organization will fail to foresee real-life problems that will soon present themselves.

Continued dedication

As Sloan notes, contact centers must not assume that their IVR systems are finalized once they have been tested and deployed. Rather, it is critical for organizations to monitor and update their IVR as time passes and new developments arise. For example, it is possible that a particular menu item will prove more popular than anticipated. If this is the case, the company should reformat its IVR menu to prioritize this item, as this will improve the overall quality of customer calls.

EMarketing and Commerce recently shared a few ways to use social media and mobile amenities to increase customer loyalty, including building amenities for your target consumers, creating Facebook brand pages, and allowing customers to pay via their mobile phones.

Social media has enabled companies to directly target their customer base, with one of those main platforms being Facebook. EMarketing and Commerce points out how United Airlines sends out travel notices via its Facebook page, alerting customers of delays.

Facebook is a platform that should be used by businesses to contact their customers, as the social network is said to have more than 900 million active monthly users, according to CNet.

Many businesses are turning to mobile apps to reach out to customers as well. Starbucks has integrated its rewards program, receipt history and a store locator into a mobile application that lets you pay for your coffee.

Using social media and mobile amenities makes the customer experience simpler and much more enjoyable, and will help keep customers loyal to your brand. 

However, a number of industry experts have weighed in on the results, offering a variety of interpretations. Christopher Bucholtz, writing for ECommerce Times, for example, recently argued that a large portion of the blame should be attributed to many organizations' unwillingness to adapt based on the information gleaned via social CRM.

Recently, Midsize Insider highlighted another possible explanation for these results: a failure to successfully identify objectives and strategize.

Objectives key

There are many different ways to measure success when it comes to social media-based marketing and customer interaction. One obvious metric is Facebook "likes," as they offer a clear measure of how many individuals have seen and approve of a post. Another, similar measure would be retweets on Twitter.

However, as the news source points out, these metrics only account for a particular aspect of social media success for businesses: visibility. If a business is solely interested in how well its social media efforts translate into sales, then these metrics would not be particularly meaningful. Instead, the business would probably want to focus on the number of website visits that resulted from social media promotion, as well as how many of those visits turned into actual leads.

To truly benefit from social CRM, it is necessary for a business to determine precisely what its objectives are for the technology. Only this level of specificity can allow the organization to tailor its efforts and make the most of the services and information social CRM programs are capable of producing.

Planning

Once these objectives are established, a business will be in a much better position to develop a comprehensive, specific plan for maximizing its social CRM platform. As Midsize Insider notes, too many businesses attempt to mash together their traditional CRM with social CRM solutions. While related, these are two distinct tools, and need to be treated as such.

It is also crucial for businesses to consider that while social CRM is inherently useful for gathering information on current and potential customers, it is more difficult to engage with these groups. To achieve a high level of customer interaction, businesses may want to plan out an incentive-based approach to social media, in order to entice customers into engaging.

Business2Community recently shared six tips on how to improve call center performance, including rethinking your hiring philosophy, creating the right perception, and using extensive employee coaching.

Call center performance is based heavily on the call center agents who speak directly with the customer, and the need to hire people with the right attitude should not be overlooked. Supervisors also need to make sure they are properly coaching their agents to make sure the right practices and techniques are being used when in contact with customers.

Also, perception is everything. The customer needs to feel that your call center is not just for revenue generating purposes, but customer loyalty, as well.

Unified Communications Strategies feels it is time to move customer contact solutions to mobile devices, such as cell phones and tablets. The switch to customer service mobile applications will be key for businesses in the near future.

The need for excellent contact center performance in businesses is critical, as it could mean the difference between keeping and losing a customer. 

However, successful CRM implementation is not automatic. Companies interested in these tools must also be willing to adapt their operations and remain committed to the technology, as several industry experts recently highlighted.

The need to adapt

Writing for E-Commerce Times, expert Christopher Bucholtz argued that effective long-term CRM is largely dependent on businesses' ability and willingness to adapt as circumstances change. Too often, businesses invest in CRM software and determine the best ways to apply the technology, but then become passive. Instead of looking to find new ways of using the CRM tools at their disposal, business owners solely maintain their existing processes.

According to Bucholtz, this is a significant mistake. Markets inevitably change over time, and it is critical for businesses to modify their use of CRM to match these changes. For example, he notes that the activities that indicate when a prospect may be ready to make a purchase can change over time. If a company does not adjust its CRM applications to account for this change, it will likely miss valuable sales opportunities.

The need to commit

In addition to adapting CRM solutions to match evolving conditions, businesses must also fully commit to using their CRM to the fullest in order to maximize its benefits.

This point was recently emphasized by Eileen Brown. Writing for ZDNet, Brown used an example to highlight the potential power of CRM when used by a dedicated company.

While staying at a Gaylord hotel, Lauren McKay tweeted that she loved cornbread. Soon thereafter, the hotel noticed the tweet, and responded by offering her cornbread. However, by this time, McKay had already checked out.

Four months later, McKay stayed at a Gaylord hotel in a different location. Not long after she arrived, the hotel sent her a plate of cornbread, along with a personalized note referring to her original tweet.

McKay, appreciative of the quality of customer experience provided by the hotel, wrote a blog post praising the company.

As this incident demonstrates, if a company has a robust CRM plan in effect, it can offer a much greater level of customer service, which can create loyal brand advocates who will recommend the company to others and continue to patronize it themselves.

Destination CRM recently shared four things to consider when constructing your customer service program: good positioning, proficiency, partnering outside your organization, and developing a process.

It is key to figure out where customer service fits into your business, while making the process as easy for the consumer as possible. Good outlets to use are social media and chat features on your webpage.

Bad customer service is detrimental to any business, and DailyFinance says most of it stems from bad policies. Companies that focus heavily on selling and not serving the customer will likely have low scores in the area of customer service. It is also important to give employees the power to help customers, possibly by allowing them to accept a return without the authorization of the manager.

It is important to emphasize customer support within your business, as just one bad customer experience could lead to the loss of multiple customers if that customer decides to inform his or her peers about a bad experience. 

According to industry expert John David Kendrick, however, successful CRM implementation does not have to be overly complex or difficult. Writing for MyCustomer.com, Kendrick recently presented three key steps for effective CRM deployment.

The first stage, according to Kendrick, is to determine critical issues for customers and clients in the company's industry. By using CRM tools and tactics, organizations can accumulate data from consumers to determine precisely what products or services customers value.

Next, the company should dig deeper into this data to determine priorities. By discovering how customers value the results found previously, a company can reorient itself to place a greater emphasis on providing the valued elements.

Lastly, Kendrick argues that companies must actively measure their CRM efforts on an ongoing basis, making necessary adjustments depending on successes and failures.

This last point is particularly crucial. Recently, Gartner found that half of the Fortune 1000 companies using social CRM would not see significant ROI, largely because they did not monitor and react to their CRM efforts. Only tracking and reacting can ensure that a company makes the most of its CRM tools.

A new study, conducted by STELLAService, demonstrated that Twitter responses are slightly better, but still lacking, among the top 25 retailers, MediaBistro reports. Conducted over the course of 45 days, the study found that more than half of all tweets were completely ignored by companies. Only 44 percent of these tweets were answered within 24 hours.

"By failing to take Twitter seriously as a customer service channel, companies may be inadvertently ignoring some of their best customers at their own peril," said STELLAService CEO Jory Leiser.

The consequences of failing to offer customer support via Twitter is exacerbated by the fact that social media users tend to place a higher value on customer service, as a recent American Express study demonstrated. In that study, twenty-one percent of social media users indicated they would pay more for better customer service, as opposed to only 11 percent of non-social media users.

The Business Insider recently laid out some tips to running a successful email marketing campaign, including timing, having a strong headline, making it mobile friendly and writing infrequently.

Making your email marketing campaign mobile friendly is key with the recent technological trend toward mobile devices. According to a recent Gartner report, worldwide sales of mobile phones reached 419.1 million units in the first quarter of 2011. With so many people now checking email on their mobile phones, if the marketing campaign isn't mobile, it is likely being ignored.

AGBeat says that avoiding the use of spam words such as "buy," "cheap," and "bargain" is essential, as many email providers label those messages as junk and put them directly into the spam folder.

"Don't create just another marketing newsletter," Tim Jahn of Entrepreneurs Unplugged told Business Insider. "Your customers already get 3,203 of those. Instead, share your real story with your customers. Write in a personable voice, as if you're just writing to a really good friend of yours."

In the past few years, technological advances have given rise to two subsets of general CRM: mobile CRM and social CRM. As recent reports have suggested, mobile CRM tends to yield substantial results faster than social CRM. However, experts widely believe that, to be truly effective and competitive, organizations should adopt both systems.

Mobile CRM and faster ROI

Speaking to ZDNet Asia, Gartner principal research analyst Parveen Sengar recently explained that the different ways in which customers interact with the two systems are largely responsible for mobile CRM's quicker path to substantial ROI. Mobile CRM relies primarily on the use of mobile-optimized websites and the development of mobile apps, both of which yield data that can be used to improve the company's operations.

Social CRM, on the other hand, relies on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. According to Sengar, when a user visits a mobile website or uses a mobile app, he or she is likely interested in purchasing products or services from that company. However, someone who sees the company's social media presence may not be so far along the sales cycle.

Faulty metrics

Another reason for the relatively slow progress toward substantial ROI for organizations implementing social CRM solutions is a failure to appropriately measure their progress using the technology. Gartner recently reported that 50 percent of Fortune 1000 businesses that have implemented social CRM solutions will not see significant returns this year for precisely this reason. By failing to track their efforts, they cannot maximize their successes or minimize their failures, greatly reducing the effectiveness of the technology.

Additionally, many of the benefits of social CRM are subtle and difficult to identify. Numerous studies have demonstrated that people, especially young people, increasingly expect companies to offer customer support via social media channels. Social CRM allows companies to accommodate these expectations, and by doing so, gain loyal brand advocates. Brand advocates will patronize a company into the future and recommend it to friends and family, which can be incredibly valuable in the long term. However, this process may take longer to show demonstrable dividends.

According to a recent study from Cutting Edge Information, the growth of digital media among healthcare providers and patients has made digital marketing a key piece in the marketing media mix for new brand campaigns.

For patients, digital media is used as an eLearning resource to stay informed on available treatment options. Providers use digital media as an everyday platform to communicate with pharmaceutical field reps.

A recent survey conducted by the Chief Marketing Officer Council reports that senior marketers state digital marketing has become a key topic of conversation and a strategic agenda with executives and line-of-business leaders. The report found that 67 percent of respondents believe electronic direct marketing via email is the most effective use of digital marketing.

"With sophisticated marketing endeavors, there is no silver bullet, and as we shift focus from the tactics of search, display, social, and mobile to the strategic value of customer data integration and ownership, the winners will be those who best architect and orchestrate their marketing resources around their technologies and customer data," said Jacques van Niekerk, CEO of Acceleration. 

However, as beneficial as social CRM can be, success with the technology is not guaranteed. Recently, Gartner announced that it had conducted a study and found that of the Fortune 1000 companies using social CRM, only approximately half will see noteworthy ROI. Discussing the results, Gartner research director Adam Sarner claimed that the biggest factor preventing companies from seeing gains from social CRM is a failure to adequately monitor the effectiveness of their application of the technology. Without an established means of tracking results, a company cannot hope to effectively adjust its strategies to optimize its use of social CRM.

CRM expert Christopher Bucholtz recently argued that there is another factor, as well, that impedes companies from experiencing the benefits of social CRM. Writing for eCommerce Times, Bucholtz maintained that the inability or unwillingness to adapt to change is one of the primary reasons that companies do not always reap rewards following an investment in social CRM technology.

Usability essential

According to Bucholtz, employees' ability to use and master social CRM tools is a critical component of successful implementation of the technology. Yet{,} achieving this level of usability is not always easy.

Bucholtz offered the example of a company that adopts an aggressive adoption strategy toward social CRM, applying the technology widely throughout its organization. As numerous other experts have noted, ensuring that CRM is used in every department is a critical factor in optimizing performance, so this would seem to be an ideal strategy.

However, the technology will only be effective if the employees within the company are able to {can} use the tools made available to them. Often, this will not be the case initially. Employees tend to prefer to use the tools and systems they are comfortable with, and they may resist adopting social CRM tools at first. As Bucholtz noted, even if the employees do embrace the technology, it may be some time before users can maximize its capabilities.

Training and preparation key

This does not mean that companies should avoid implementing social CRM solutions. Rather, it means they should temper expectations and institute policies that encourage users to learn about and take advantage of social CRM. By doing so, and by tracking their progress, companies can increase their likelihood of experiencing a high ROI from the technology.

According to a recent IBM survey, CEOs are shifting away from traditional customer engagement tools, such as email and phone, and using social networks for direct engagement. Within the next three to five years, 57 percent of CEOs are expected to use social platforms to connect with customers.

The survey also revealed that social media is expected to become the No. 2 organizational method within the next five years.

"If a customer has a problem, the fastest way to address it has become social media," Stuart Greif, vice president of global travel for J.D. Power and Associates, told the Chicago Tribune. "Younger generations might never call into a call center. They might always go online and address these things in real time."

With so many people on social media today - Facebook claimed to have 800 million users in September and Twitter claims to have about 100 million users, according to Mashable - it is only natural that more CEOs utilize the popular platform to enhance the customer experience.

Considering these factors, the rise of new technologies can be both a blessing and a curse for businesses. If properly integrated, they can help a company offer top-grade customer support. Poorly utilized, however, and they may damage a company's public perception.

Writing for the Huffington Post, marketing expert Ernan Roman recently argued that one of the key ways of using technology to ensure customer satisfaction is the integration of multiple channels in the contact center.

Customers demand options

According to Roman, in many ways, customer support is similar to marketing. To effectively promote itself, a company must utilize a variety of channels, such as telephone, email and social media, to reach as wide an audience as possible. In the same way, companies should offer customers the option of voicing their concerns and receiving assistance in a variety of channels. Failing to do so will make some customers feel undervalued and frustrated.

One of the keys to successful integration of multiple channels into the contact center, according to Roman, is offering accurate response time estimates. He noted that this practice is established as an effective component of traditional phone-based customer service, as it can adjust customer expectations and, by doing so, reduce frustration. The same is true for other channels, including email and social media. He recommended that companies create automatic responses that provide an accurate estimate of when a customer can expect to receive a more in-depth answer.

Social media responsiveness critical

While many companies understand the importance of addressing customer complaints submitted via phone or email, studies suggest that they lag behind when it comes to social media. Last year, Maritz Research found that after issuing a complaint against a company via Twitter, only approximately one-third of survey respondents received any type of follow-up response. Those who did, however, greatly appreciated the display of support, with 83 percent indicating they liked or loved hearing back from the company.

As this suggests, integrating social media into the contact center can have a major impact on customer satisfaction, and therefore the overall success of a company.

Considering these factors, the rise of new technologies can be both a blessing and a curse for businesses. If properly integrated, they can help a company offer top-grade customer support. Poorly utilized, however, and they may damage a company's public perception.

Writing for the Huffington Post, marketing expert Ernan Roman recently argued that one of the key ways of using technology to ensure customer satisfaction is the integration of multiple channels in the contact center.

Customers demand options

According to Roman, in many ways, customer support is similar to marketing. To effectively promote itself, a company must utilize a variety of channels, such as telephone, email and social media, to reach as wide an audience as possible. In the same way, companies should offer customers the option of voicing their concerns and receiving assistance in a variety of channels. Failing to do so will make some customers feel undervalued and frustrated.

One of the keys to successful integration of multiple channels into the contact center, according to Roman, is offering accurate response time estimates. He noted that this practice is established as an effective component of traditional phone-based customer service, as it can adjust customer expectations and, by doing so, reduce frustration. The same is true for other channels, including email and social media. He recommended that companies create automatic responses that provide an accurate estimate of when a customer can expect to receive a more in-depth answer.

Social media responsiveness critical

While many companies understand the importance of addressing customer complaints submitted via phone or email, studies suggest that they lag behind when it comes to social media. Last year, Maritz Research found that after issuing a complaint against a company via Twitter, only approximately one-third of survey respondents received any type of follow-up response. Those who did, however, greatly appreciated the display of support, with 83 percent indicating they liked or loved hearing back from the company.

As this suggests, integrating social media into the contact center can have a major impact on customer satisfaction, and therefore the overall success of a company.

Now, a new study suggests that this trend is likely to continue unabated for at least the next few years.

Conducted by Research and Markets, the Global Social Customer Relationship Management Software Market 2011-2015 report estimates that the market will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.4 percent for that period.

According to the report, much of this growth will be driven by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which began to claim a larger slice of the market in 2011. The main appeal of social CRM to SMEs, according to the report, is that social CRM software, when used in conjunction with social networks, allows organizations' sales personnel to reach target audiences without traveling, making it a cost-effective and wide-reaching sales tool.

As a recent Heavy Reading study concluded, this rise in mobile device usage is one of the primary factors driving the evolution of the modern contact center, particularly the rise of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services.

"Without question, this phenomenal growth in mobile technology, coupled with the growth in BYOD policies, mobile device growth and increasing numbers of remote and teleworkers, is driving more companies to deploy VoIP call centers," said Denise Culver, a research analyst and author of the study.

To meet demands, contact center agents are responding to customers via a variety of channels, including instant messaging, SMS, and social networking.

Additionally, the report noted that hosted technology is allowing contact centers to incorporate VoIP gradually, rather than all at once, as the cloud makes hardware unnecessary in many cases.

According to a recent Fishburn Hedges and Echo Research study, 65 percent of respondents believe social media is a better way to communicate with a company rather than through traditional call centers, and 40 percent believe social media improves customer support. Only 7 percent felt worse off using social media.

Not only do businesses need to integrate social media into their contact centers, but they need to do it effectively. Not using social media effectively is just as bad as not using it at all.

"I do see companies that do it in a half-hearted fashion," said Warren Buckley, managing director of customer service at BT. "One of the things I personally hate is to look at a customer trying to engage a company on Twitter, and they respond back with a number to call. If I wanted to call you, I would have looked up your telephone number and called you."

1to1 media recently laid out some tips for effective use of social media in contact centers, including establishing a tone of voice for your brand, determining proactive opportunities for upselling, and determining the point of contact for the agency.

This may seem like a simple concept, but it is often overlooked. Recently, Eric Wagner shared a personal experience on Forbes illustrating potential pitfalls in this area. A representative from a CRM software company called Wagner in an attempt to convince him to use the company's product, and several weeks later, another representative called with the same message.

However, Wagner's organization already used the CRM software in question, and was only considering upgrading. Ironically, the CRM software company's employees were not using its product, so their records did not offer this critical information.

To avoid such a problem, industry expert Chris Bucholtz recently argued on CMS Wire that managers need to incentivize their employees to encourage them to use CRM. Specifically, he recommends highlighting the time-saving and communication-improving aspects of the technology. By showing employees how they will benefit from CRM tools, rather than simply demanding they utilize these tools, the extent of adoption will likely be much greater among an organization's workers.

According to a study by Gartner, worldwide IT outsourcing revenue totaled $246.6 billion in 2011, up from $228.7 billion in 2010. Providers that showed the highest growth rates in 2011 were those with their roots in cloud-based services. Forty-three ITO service providers booked $1 billion or more in revenues this past year.

Gartner's research director, Bryan Britz, believes revenue cannibalization due to client adoption of industrialized and cloud-based services could jeopardize possible future growth of ITO providers, which are heavily weighted in infrastructure outsourcing.

"Strategies will vary as clients are likely to pursue hybrid cloud strategies, requiring providers to deliver some asset-light and some asset-heavy offerings - which will result in varying growth trajectories among competitors over the next several years," said Bryan Britz, research director at Gartner.

Outsourcing continues to be a practice companies use because of its many benefits - most importantly, cutting costs. 

However, this widespread advice does not mean that organizations should shift their social CRM focus away from sales, as it can undeniably act as an effective tool in that arena. According to Koka Sexton, a director of social strategy, one of the most notable ways in which sales departments can utilize social CRM is via apps.

Writing for Business 2 Community, Sexton notes that social CRM apps help salespeople maintain their companies' brands while working to build trust among clients. Perhaps more importantly, social CRM apps allow salespeople to instantly gain access to CRM analytics data gained via the company's social media networks, improving their ability to target customers and sell the company's products and services.

According to a Gartner study, the worldwide market for social CRM is expected to double in 2012 to $2.1 billion, from $850 million in 2011, and Research and Markets expects the market to grow at a CAGR of 28.4 percent from 2011 to 2015.

The growth can be credited to different aspects of business adopting the use of social CRM. The main presence used to lay in marketing, but it is becoming valuable in sales and customer service and support as well.

Business-to-business applications for sales will account for a good portion of the growth, as Gartner predicts 30 percent of social CRM spending by 2015 will be allocated toward such applications, up from 5 percent in 2011.

Social CRM is becoming increasingly popular among small and medium-sized enterprises, giving them the ability to cut costs and optimize sales. The software provides a platform for businesses to reach their customer base more easily and in a cost-effective nature. 

According to the authors, hosted technology offers a variety of benefits to businesses. In addition to relatively straightforward advantages, such as reduced IT costs, hosted technology can also simplify maintenance and allow for almost instantaneous deployment. Rather than installing servers, wires and other hardware, businesses simply establish internet connections and networks. The lack of on-premise hardware also means that a business must not fix or maintain equipment, as this responsibility falls to the cloud service provider.

Additionally, using the cloud lets SMBs take advantage of telecommunication tools that would otherwise remain unavailable, according to the authors. Interactive voice response (IVR), for example, may be cost-prohibitive with a legacy phone system, yet it can be implemented relatively easily with the cloud.

Increasingly, businesses are acknowledging and taking advantage of cloud services. A  by YouGov survey of 530 UK SMBs found that 67 percent currently or planned to implement cloud services. Of these, flexibility and mobility were the most commonly cited reason, followed by cost efficiency.

"The social networks are good for getting discovered," Laurie McCabe, an analyst with SMB Group, told the Boston Globe. "But once potential customers have found you, e-mail marketing is a great way to stay in contact with them in a very targeted way."

A recent study conducted by Nielsen and RAPP Germany tested to find the method of direct mailing customers are most likely to embrace. Of the 1,800 people who participated in the study, 80 percent opened and read the e-mail sent to them. The only method that proved more effective than e-mail solicitations was a brochure mailed in a creatively printed envelope, opened and read by 84.5 percent of participants.

Personalization is the key, according to Experian QAS. A successful e-mail marketing campaign needs to be tailored to your company's different demographic groups not sent out to just anyone.

The emphasis on sending mail to a specific addressee is crucial, as impersonal, mass mailing is ineffective, according to Nielsen. 

Gartner's predictions were not entirely optimistic. They estimate that 70 percent of social media initiatives in the next few years will not succeed, due to a failure to develop a well-planned social CRM strategy.

To avoid entering this population, businesses should consider developing long-term social CRM strategies sooner rather than later. When successfully implemented, social CRM strategies can increase consumer satisfaction and create brand advocates who will encourage others to consider a particular business' products and services.

Writing for Midsize Insider, Doug Bonderud argued that one of the keys to successfully incorporating CRM tools within an organization is that leaders take steps to incentivize their workers. If employees do not see any discernible benefit to using CRM tools, they will simply choose to continue using the systems with which they are more familiar.

According to Bonderud, to combat this problem, some CRM companies are developing "gamified" systems that incorporate video game mechanics to make them more appealing to use. Whether using such a solution or not, it is crucial for leaders to find ways to motivate employees to use CRM.

Additionally, business leaders must realize that CRM is not simply about sales, as CRM Buyer's Christopher Bucholtz recently argued. Too often, he explained, business leaders maintain this perspective, which limits the potential impact CRM can have on an organization. Only by embracing the possibilities of CRM can a business leader ensure that his or her company will gain all of the advantages the technology has to offer.

Small and medium sized enterprises have turned to Facebook for customer acquisition, with 36 percent of business using the social network to increase sales, according to BaseKit.

The social media giant has overtaken traditional forms of customer acquisition, such as the Yellow Pages, used by 27 percent of SMEs polled, and print advertising, which 21 percent of firms polled use. Not far behind is Twitter at 17 percent.

Social media is also changing the way customer support is conducted, according to Oracle.

The study revealed that more than half of Twitter users expect a personal response within two hours of tweeting a question or complaint, and 51 percent of Facebook users expect a same-day response to questions or complaints posted to the site.

"Whether the customer visits the company's commerce site or social media page, there must be a clear link to a customer service person that is informed and able to help," said Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Retail.

Now, a new study by American Express has found that social media users may value customer support and service more than non-users. While only 11 percent of consumers who have not used social media for customer service indicated they would be willing to spend more money in order to receive excellent service, 21 percent of those who did use social media-based customer service said they would pay a premium for better support.

In addition to valuing customer service more, social media users have a greater likelihood of sharing their feelings about a company's customer service performance. The survey found that, on average, a non-user of social media will tell 9 people about a good customer service experience and 17 about a poor one. Consumers who have used social media for customer service, however, tell an average of 42 people about a good experience and 53 about a bad one.

A bill introduced by Democratic lawmakers and highly supported by President Obama would provide a 20 percent tax credit to U.S. companies for the cost of bringing jobs and business operations back to America. The bill would also end tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas.

The bill follows suit with the President's January "Insourcing American Jobs" forum, which focused on the Administration's goal of creating jobs for America and incentives for American companies to "insource" business operations rurally.

Vice President Biden's comments at the forum indicate the Administration's focus and direction for 2012 outsourcing solutions, “Since day one, this Administration has been focused on encouraging investment and job creation here at home. The business leaders coming here from across the country today have looked at the facts and concluded what the President and I have been saying all along: that America is the best place in the world to do business and create jobs."

Now, E-Commerce Times' Christopher Bucholtz has offered a similar take, further reinforcing the potential value of CRM tools for customer support. According to Bucholtz, there are two primary ways in which CRM can prove valuable in this area.

Firstly, CRM can help companies establish strong relationships with their customers before any sort of mishap. By doing so, organizations can improve the possibility of retaining a dissatisfied customer. "People are more forgiving when there's a relationship in place," he explained. CRM tools can help companies address customer needs and wants, establishing a positive relationship.

Secondly, CRM allows companies to better understand their customers, which improves their ability to offer support. Instead of focusing exclusively on how valuable a customer is to the company, Bucholtz argues that companies should consider how valuable they are to their customers. CRM tools can help achieve this level of understanding, which can then be used to offer an optimal response to dissatisfied customers.

According to IDC's new Business Process Outsourcing market forecast, the U.S. BPO market is expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of 4.2 percent, to $92 billion in 2016.

U.S. BPO growth slowed a bit in previous years, in direct relation to the recession, but according to GIA research, the United States is now the largest regional BPO market. In fact, BPO is one of the fastest growing sectors in the IT services/outsourcing industry.

GIA  attributes the rapid growth to increased desire for global business and technological advancements.

Due to regulation in the post-recession United States, the banking industry is trending toward outsourcing processes such as cash management, custody, and treasury.

Of all the segments in the industry, customer services constitutes the largest sector.

In addition to U.S. growth, the worldwide BPO market is expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of 5.3 percent and reach $202.6 billion in 2016.

In the financial industry, companies have deeply integrated outsourcing models with traditional providers for core lending and retail operations, workflow, collateral tracking, client relationship management, and records management solutions for lending and leasing. Companies have built their infrastructures around these outsourcing arrangements, and now find themselves held hostage by provider services and existing fee structures.

This creates a provider-favorable range that allows providers to control pricing construction. In today's banking provider service model, there is a significant disconnect in pricing of services as well as the mechanisms for the way prices are structured.   

New pricing models, specifically in the banking industry, are expected to emerge as banking companies push harder for better service levels, descriptions, and pricing. As service models are deeply embedded in the banking service contract, it is possible that the industry will seek the advisement of outside consultants to evolve the construction of service and pricing models.

Technology expert John Everhard recently echoed these thoughts and offered his own take on this development. Writing for callcentre.co.uk, Everhard argued that integrating big data insights with CRM tools can increase the value of each customer interaction. By learning more about customer preferences, contact center agents and salesmen will be better able to upsell and cross-sell products and services, increasing companies' bottom lines.

Everhard further highlighted the value of CRM tools capable of predicting customer behavior. According to Everhard, the "next generation of CRM solutions will predict the needs of the customer and offer next-best action using advanced decision-making capabilities and data analytics." He believes that this will both drive up sales figures and increase retention, as customer satisfaction will increase as the time needed to solve issues decreases.

The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector led the market in transaction volume, with an increase of 12 percent. In the BFSI sector, companies mainly rely on outsourcing providers for core lending and back-office operations, collateral tracking, customer relationship management, and records management solutions.

One area that has caused an increase in demand for outsourcing services in the BFSI is the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulation. The regulation requires documentation and processing reform that will affect nearly every sub-sector of the BFSI industry. This reform has resulted in increased administrative demands, creating a need for outsourcing providers who can service this documentation so companies can continue to function without a gap in service.

As Overby notes, in the past, the majority of contact center data analysis was predominantly quantitative, measuring call times, resolutions rates and other basic statistics.

However, with the advent of big data analytics, companies can now obtain significantly more insightful information. "Companies are applying text and sentiment analysis to this unstructured data, and looking for patterns and trends," said Deepek Advani, vice president of predictive analytics for IBM. With this information, contact center agents can better understand the best ways of dealing with various customer issues, improving overall customer service.

Big data analytics are particularly useful in the contact center due to the massive amount of data accumulated there everyday, as Daniel Ziv noted in a discussion with MediaPost. According to Ziv, the average contact center phone call consists of more than 1,000 words. With big data tools, these words can be analyzed to reveal subtle patterns that would otherwise be impossible to detect.

Everest Research Group has taken a deeper dive into the alternative of rural outsourcing, focusing on the benefits of achieving cost savings and retaining work onshore in its April 2012 - Rural Sourcing - An Emerging Alternative for Traditional Outsourcing?

Increased awareness and focus on rural sourcing has been further highlighted in the current economic environment, as the Obama Administration has promoted keeping jobs onshore.

In January 2012, the Obama Administration held an "Insourcing American Jobs" forum at the White House. Discussions focused around ways U.S. companies could source jobs onshore to help rebuild the U.S. economy. Rural sourcing these jobs to local technical college or university resources is one way to gain cost savings and develop rural communities through job creation.

The January forum included statistics on the U.S.'s insourcing trend. Statistics included real business fixed investment growth of 18 percent in the U.S. since the end of 2009, a gain of 334,000 manufacturing jobs in the past two years, and an annualized increase of 5.7 percent in manufacturing production since June 2009, all attributed to a focus on insourcing U.S. jobs.

The President's campaign has continued to build in this area, as new tax proposals have been developed to reward companies who source to U.S. service providers or bring jobs back to the United States from offshore locations and eliminating tax advantages for companies moving jobs overseas. With the Administration's focus on providing resources for growth of this sourcing trend, it is likely to become a more widely used outsourcing solution for U.S. companies.

Ivar Kroghrud, social customer relationship management (CRM) expert, echoed these sentiments in an interview with InformationWeek. By interacting with dissatisfied customers in a genuine, open manner, companies can turn these skeptics into brand advocates.

To this end, social CRM is crucial. With social CRM's sentiment analysis tools, he explained, the company can analyze an individual's comments to determine what he or she wants, and how best to respond.

Additionally, social CRM can help companies determine who they should respond to, and who should be ignored. It is impractical to attempt to engage every customer who writes about the company. Instead, Kroghrud recommends that companies develop metrics to determine which customers and what types of feedback they prioritize, and then use social CRM tools to isolate these situations.

Lastly, Kroghrud explained that companies should offer particularly irate customers the chance to address their issues in a different, more private channel. This way, the customers will receive personal assistance, and the company can minimize the number of people exposed to its negative publicity.

Some key aspects that should be focused on in the service level agreement and throughout the service relationship are the following: meeting year-over-year cost reduction goals, ability to adapt to changing market conditions and industry regulations, service capabilities during peak volume levels, corporate culture blending, speed in decision making, and communication during organizational changes.

This list of key points comes from a 2011 study of 26 successful BPO relationships done by the Outsourcing Center. These key service points can be pivotal for a service relationship. Specific to communicating on organizational changes and decision making, it is critical for companies and providers to establish a rapport between senior executives to ensure communication is appropriate and corporate cultures are blended to match the company's business needs.

According to Jay, CRM can yield insights as to why a marketing campaign was unsuccessful, thanks to CRM's ability to precisely track the behavior of potential customers and clients. For example, CRM may reveal that despite receiving a significant number of responses on a company's website, very few of those responses led to sales.

Upon discovering this phenomenon, the company may look more closely into the responses given by the organization's web management team, discovering that this team was not adequately briefed before the campaign, and did not respond to queries properly. The company will now know to increase internal communications before beginning a promotional push in the future.

Additionally, CRM can help companies turn dissatisfied customers into brand advocates, as Baseline Magazine recently highlighted. Consumers highly value companies that address their complaints. CRM can help to organize these complaints and improve the time and quality of a company's response.

However, simply understanding the importance of CRM is not enough to guarantee results. Proper implementation is critical, and achieving successful implementation requires that companies adopt the proper mindset.

This point was recently highlighted by M Muneer of Financial Chronicle. According to Muneer, many businesses in the past have invested in CRM without truly understanding what the technology is or how to use it, and subsequently failed to see significant returns.

Additionally, Muneer argues that understanding must not be limited to high-ranking executives. To be truly effective, CRM needs to be incorporated throughout an organization, and this can only be achieved if employees at all levels realize how they can gain benefits by using CRM solutions.

Horizontal business process outsourcing has long since been a valuable part of many business processes. Offloading non-core business functions to qualified service providers is a way for businesses to cut costs by capitalizing on economies of scale and efficiency expertise that these services can provide. 

However, as the economy recovers and businesses seek more progressive business management strategies, a new vertical business process outsourcing model has evolved. Vertical business process outsourcing calls for providers to manage a businesses more complex industry specific work.

Using vertical BPO services for new product development initiatives and enterprise service functions is becoming more profitable for companies as more providers emerge in the outsourcing space.

The financial services industry provides one example of a vertical business processing opportunity. The Dodd-Frank Act, released in 2010, provides an outline for regulatory reform that will affect nearly all sectors of the financial industry. These regulations will add significant administrative workloads for many firms and using vertical business process outsourcing to offset any business disruption and process this documentation efficiently is one way vertical business process outsourcing can be used in the industry.

However, as Jeff Zabin recently pointed out, issues regarding channel implementation should not distract contact centers from the more important area of focus: the customers. Writing for Tech News World, Zabin argues that customer concerns should always trump channel issues.

For this reason, Zabin writes that organizations should work to improve their customer prioritization, rather than channel prioritization. Too often, companies develop policies concerning what channel to respond to first. It is more important, he believes, to serve higher value customers first, regardless of channel. Customers who are classified as having a longer lifetime value should be served earlier, even if their channel of choice would otherwise push them down the list.

The benefits administration outsourcing market supports health and welfare, defined benefits, and defined contribution. In this niche business process outsourcing market, quick and seamless integration of provider service and technology is key to a good service relationship.

BAO clients are looking for benefit administration providers that specialize in the industry and can provide knowledgeable consultation about industry practices and regulation.

As business practices evolve, a provider with a consistent and efficient software implementation solution also adds to the value of an administration outsourcing provider. Companies are seeking BAO providers who can integrate efficiently with company processes and can also create a strong administration processing infrastructure that adds value to the company and allows them to focus on their core business lines.

Proven technology is critical to the success of a BAO provider and can be a key differentiator in the decision to outsource to a specific provider. As the BAO market grows and matures, providers with established administrative models and strong company relationships will likely receive greater contract renewals and referrals.

One of the areas in which social media has had and will continue to have the biggest impact is in the contact center. Customers increasingly demand the option of communicating with customer support, sales and other departments via Facebook and Twitter, leading many companies to strive to incorporate these channels into their contact center.

However, as Don Keane recently argued in Business 2 Community, companies should not attempt to adopt social media-based customer support in lieu of other channels. Rather, they should work to incorporate social media, IVR, email and the telephone into contact centers, training their agents to handle all forms of contact with customers. Doing so can significantly improve a company's overall quality of service, increasing customer loyalty and creating brand advocates.

One of the areas in which social media has had and will continue to have the biggest impact is in the contact center. Customers increasingly demand the option of communicating with customer support, sales and other departments via Facebook and Twitter, leading many companies to strive to incorporate these channels into their contact center.

However, as Don Keane recently argued in Business 2 Community, companies should not attempt to adopt social media-based customer support in lieu of other channels. Rather, they should work to incorporate social media, IVR, email and the telephone into contact centers, training their agents to handle all forms of contact with customers. Doing so can significantly improve a company's overall quality of service, increasing customer loyalty and creating brand advocates.

Firstly, companies should establish a process for document processes. If a standard process for documenting the relationship and metrics is not available, both parties should tightly manage this during the transition phase. Developing transition metrics is also important to a successful transition, and will clearly outline the expectations of both parties. Additionally, companies should work to maintain a good relationship with their provider, so setting intervals to report staff turnover and changes is critical. Lastly, both parties should prepare for the unexpected. For the outsourcer, this may mean planning extra budgeting dollars for unexpected costs. For the outsourcing provider, this may include planning for unexpected systems or staffing integrations.

In today's competitive environment, where outsourcers have many providers to choose from, ensuring that the outsourcing transition is done effectively and building strong working relationships during the transition period will likely lead to a successful business relationship and a high probability of contract renewal.

That is why it is crucial for companies to integrate social media into their contact centers.

As Tim Passios and Blair Pleasant recently argued on TMCnet, new developments in contact center technology make this possibility a reality. Now, contact centers can essentially treat Facebook posts and Tweets the way they treat phone calls and emails. Agents can respond to users immediately, thanks to tracking tools that monitor the company's social media pages, and alert agents to relevant activity.

Additionally, Passios and Pleasant argue that it is possible, and advisable, to implement a strategy that allows for social media interactivity across multiple departments. While many organizations leave social media solely in the hands of marketing, companies that incorporate the platform throughout the organization can reap significantly greater benefits.

However, despite increasing awareness of social CRM's importance, Gartner research director Adam Sarner recently claimed that approximately half of all Fortune 1000 companies will not see positive results from their social CRM projects. This, he explained, is due to these companies' failure to set clear objectives for or monitor the ROI of their social CRM efforts.

According to Sarner, many of these businesses are taking steps to monitor the social success of their CRM projects, such as tracking fan pages and Tweets, but this information is not enough to determine whether a social CRM project is truly yielding results. Without that crucial information, an organization has no way of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of its efforts, and cannot adjust its strategies to maximize results.

Gartner predicts social CRM use to grow significantly this year, with the global market for social CRM software expected to reach $2.1 billion. Last year, the market was valued at $850 million.

Another key note from the study infers that competition in the finance and accounting outsourcing market is increasing. This is evidenced by the decreased percentage of contracts held by top three service providers. This figure decreased from 65 percent in 2005 to 50 percent in 2011.

When surveying the finance and accounting market, there are a few key things that companies are looking for when they choose an outsourced provider. A few of the key criteria include location, track record, and cost. Onshore and nearshore outsourcing is becoming of greater importance to companies, because the location can alleviate many cultural and language barrier issues. Track record is also a differentiator for companies seeking finance and accounting outsourcing, as they appreciate seeing transition records and successful case studies on the provider, and how their processes have been effective in the past. Lastly, the cost of the service becomes a key component of the decision. Companies want to outsource to providers who are going to reduce their expenses and provide better overall service than businesses would receive through their own finance and accounting department.

According to Magellan-Solutions, a recent Forrester Research study found that 68 percent of participants had used the telephone for customer service in the past year. Another Forrester Research survey found that the telephone also offered the highest level of customer satisfaction. 

Considering its importance in providing customer support, it is crucial that companies maintain highly functioning contact centers. However, this can be an expensive prospect for companies with limited budgets.

To reduce costs without compromising service, Jeff Valentine recently recommended that organizations consider implementing hosted technology. Writing for Mashable, Valentine estimates that a 50-agent hosted contact center may be as much as 70 percent less expensive than an on-premises solution.

Additionally, a hosted contact center allows for cross-trained workers to act as agents on demand, rather than being dedicated solely to helping customers. As a result, a company can increase its overall efficiency.

To a large extent, success in this area revolves around customer support. As Inc Magazine notes, a company's reputation is highly dependent on its quality of customer service. However, maintaining a high level of customer service can be expensive, as it requires that the company handle large numbers of telephone calls in its contact center.

To help reduce the costs associated with maintaining a high quality contact center, PC World's Jason Kennedy recently recommended that companies consider switching to voice over internet protocol (VoIP).

According to Kennedy, VoIP can save money in several ways. For one, it reduces the need to maintain or install costly hardware, including new phone lines, since VoIP equipment connects directly to a company's existing broadband network.

Secondly, VoIP treats phone conversations as data carried through the internet. This means that companies are charged for VoIP services as if they were using the internet, which is significantly cheaper than what most telecommunications companies charge for phone services.

To achieve this result, companies must strive to provide top-notch customer support. Numerous studies have found that consumers who are dissatisfied with a company's level of customer service are likely to leave that brand, and to inform friends and family of their displeasure.

As the economy continues to recover, more companies turn to business process outsourcing solutions that will improve their business processes and reduce business expenses. In the current market environment, companies are seeking human resource outsourcing services for payroll management, 401k plans, recruiting, workers compensation, insurance benefits, and other administrative tasks.

These outsourcing providers can bring specialized human resource processing services to an organization, which helps companies more efficiently recruit talented employees, process paperwork, manage employment regulation, and ensure that day to day process management issues are handled efficiently.

According to Everest Group Research's study on the human resource market, the industry is expected to grow at a rate of 27.2% year on year. With this growth in the industry, companies can be more particular about the services they are seeking. In today's market, companies want outsourcing providers that can adapt to their company's culture and present a consistent brand message to potential employees and clients.

The study, conducted by thinkJar, surveyed 400 employees from U.K. and U.S. companies, asking them about their organizations' use of social media in the contact center. The report found that 59 percent of participants' companies use Twitter and 60 percent use Facebook to respond to customer support issues. Altogether, 85 percent of respondents' organizations used at least one form of social media-based customer support.

As the survey made clear, customer demand is the leading factor behind the rise of social customer service. At 56 percent, customer request was the most frequently cited explanation for companies adopting the strategy, followed by a desire to keep up with competitors (40 percent).

These reasons are supported by another recent study, conducted by Coleman Parkes. Surveying 2,900 smartphone users from around the world, the study found that 54 percent of respondents had used social media to complain to their mobile service providers. However, of these, only 75 percent received a satisfactory answer, suggesting that organizations still have room to improve their social customer service practices.

First and foremost is the Service Level Agreement (SLA). The Service Level Agreement will include everything discussed leading up to the implementation of the service, and will also establish the guidelines and expectations for the entire working relationship. Having tightly managed lead-in discussions about the level of service needed and capabilities available will allow easier drafting of the SLA and a higher success rate for the service over the long term.

Once the SLA is in place, there are a few key things that both parties can do throughout the life of the relationship to ensure that the communication is successful and the service arrangement is profitable. One is maintaining the relationship between key management personnel. Having good one to one communication between key management contacts and building that relationship through regular interaction and professional networking will more likely result in a longer term contract and greater overall satisfaction with the service. Additionally, periodic review meetings in which both parties discuss the service level being provided and any new issues, changes or enhancements with the service will also make the business relationship more successful and profitable.

However, achieving success with a CRM solution is not automatic. Organizations must take the appropriate steps to ensure effective implementation. According to several sources, one of the  most important steps is training and educating employees.

Speaking to Sci-Tech Today, Marshall Perez, a partner with a marketing-recruiter firm, emphasized the importance of upper management communicating with every department in an organization to inform all employees of the utility of CRM. If employees do not see the value of CRM for their own work, they will not be motivated to make use of the tool. Consequently, companies will miss out on much of the value of the technology.

These sentiments are supported by CRM Solution's "An Executive's Guide to CRM Software." This report claims that failing to incentivize employees to use CRM is one of the most significant mistakes a company can make as it strives to implement CRM. They recommend using a combination of rewards and enforced procedures to encourage all employees, instead of just those who inherently see the technology's value, to use CRM.

In-house direct sales teams often turn to their lead generation pipeline when their contact or appointment list is running low. In-house lead generation and conversion can also be difficult because it is often based on cross-organizational inputs with a lack of accountability and analytics oversight. With in-house lead generation, firms often find that leads are not appropriately targeted, appointments are not followed up on and results are not clearly reported.

Industry outsourcing providers have identified this need for lead generation and have built outsourced teams and software applications to capitalize on demand. Some of the benefits of outsourcing lead generation include clear client profiling, accurate targeting, worthwhile meetings, guaranteed follow-up and feedback, and engaged responsibility with the sales contact for the entire lead generation process.

As the outsourcing industry trends toward increased demand for lead generation and core sales process revenue recognition, a large number of outsourcing providers are building strategies to accommodate this demand. Hewlett Packard's recent announcement of the company's enhancements to its Social Enterprise Services platform will further develop the customer relationship management services that the company can offer this demographic.

Hewlett Packard's Social Enterprise Services platform can offer providers a service that incorporates social media information into existing Hewlett Packard contact channels to provide organizations with a holistic view of their customers. Hewlett Packard's Social Enterprise Services will allow businesses to better target key influencers and track analytics, processes, and information. Building a lead generation system around this single platform allows users to draw from activity on multiple social media sites, as opposed to aggregating information from each site individually.  

One geographic area that has been improving its ability to provide revenue by recognizing outsourcing opportunities for business is the nearshore Americas region. This region is primarily
comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, and Uruguay. These countries are in high demand for outsourcing services, as U.S. companies favor business process outsourcing efficiencies and ease of working with a country closer to U.S. borders.

These efficiencies come from the overlapping bi-lingual capabilities that Latin American countries can offer. Other areas of specialty that have emerged in the region include agile computing, product design, web enablement, and social media services. Companies in this region have the opportunity to leverage their geographic location, infrastructure, latency issues, and cultural affinity, making them more attractive for U.S. businesses and a region for booming future growth.

Considering these numbers, it is clear that Generation Y will play a significant role in the economy in the coming years. Consequently, it is important that businesses take steps to make themselves appealing to Generation Y workers.

To this end, a leading software company recently released a report offering advice as to how organizations can entice these people to work in a contact center. For example, they recommend that contact centers take steps to modernize their technological capabilities. Not only will this improve the contact center's functionality - it will also make working at that center more appealing for technologically-savvy Generation Y workers.

Another recommendation offered in the report is increasing flexibility in terms of management style. As a general rule, Generation Y members put a higher value on flexibility than do most earlier generations of workers. As a result, Generation Y members may resent a highly rigid management style, and will thrive when granted a greater degree of independence.

However, as CMS Wire's Chris Bucholtz recently highlighted, some companies are wary of pursuing a complete social CRM solution because of the potentially overwhelming amount of social media data available. With so many users participating in so many conversations, and with their own limited resources, it can be difficult for an organization to know when and when not to engage with customers.

Bucholtz went on to argue that big data analysis may mitigate this issue. Big data solutions can examine large datasets, filtering out irrelevant material and prioritizing useful data. By doing so, big data can allow companies to focus their efforts on social media users and conversations most likely to yield results. 

These sentiments were supported by Keith Dawson and D. Daniel Ziv on MediaPost. They claimed that big data solutions can provide near instantaneous analysis of social media data, allowing for improved decision making.

Considering social media's prominence, it is no wonder that businesses are increasingly interested in harnessing its power to promote their brands and increase their customers and clients. However, the IBM survey also found that most social media users do not use the medium to communicate with businesses. Of those that do, most indicated that they would not interact with a business unless they believed it was communicating honestly.

To overcome these obstacles and make social CRM effective, Tineka Smith of Computer Business Review argues that organizations must be outgoing and innovative. It is not enough to use a social media page for press releases and standard promotions. Rather, organizations must offer incentives, such as exclusive offers and discounts, to attract individuals to their pages.

Additionally, she recommends business strive to create innovative campaigns that are fun and entertaining. By doing so, new users will begin to comment on and discuss the organization, yielding valuable CRM data.

Writing for Sys-Con, Skrbina argues that this is achieved by reducing the time and effort required for a caller to reach an answer, or the appropriate representative. She notes that traditional, menu-based call service requires the customer to wait through long lists of options, then attempt to match the available options with his or her specific problem, which can be a formidable task.

IVR, on the other hand, lets the customer describe the problem him or herself, as the natural language understanding technology is able to direct the call appropriately. This saves the customer time{,} and can decrease call misrouting.

Additionally, by outsourcing IVR to a hosted technology provider, companies can transfer IT maintenance worries to a third party, allowing them to focus on customer service.

These advantages have not gone unnoticed. Last year, a Global Industry Analysts report predicted that the IVR market will reach $2.78 billion by 2017. As the report notes, technological advancements, among other factors, are driving this trend.

According to Wetteman, one of the keys to companies seeing such a high ROI is that it is being deployed in far more capacities now than when it was first developed. Initially, companies used CRM for limited purposes, such as sales and marketing. In recent years, however, companies realized that CRM can apply to a wide range of departments and applications, including market research and customer service. Consequently, businesses are gaining more value from the tool without spending more money.

This concept was recently highlighted by Sci-Tech Today. The source spoke to several business leaders about the benefits they gained from CRM. Mike Snyder of Sonoma singled out social CRM, claiming that it significantly improves an organization's ability to develop relationships with existing and potential customers through social media networks.

Writing for Business 2 Community, Gofton notes that companies' marketing and customer support departments often debate which of them "owns" the organization's social media, in order to claim a greater portion of the company's budget. This, Gofton argues, is detrimental, as it limits the potential effectiveness of social CRM.

Instead, Gofton believes companies should strive to institute a social CRM philosophy that spans across the company, incorporating many departments to improve the overall deployment of the technology. Such a policy can allow social CRM to operate on all levels, and for staff from different areas to collaborate to the company's overall greater benefit. Above all else, Gofton writes, the focus should always be on the customer.

The question of how best to use social CRM is likely to become increasingly important in the future. In a recent study, Gartner found that CRM is CEOs' "favorite IT capability." Discussing this result, Jorge Lopez, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, concluded that this is due to CRM's ability to improve customer retention. As Gofton argues, however, only collaborative deployment of social CRM can lead to an optimal customer experience.

Gene Alvarez, for example, a research vice president and ecommerce analyst at Gartner, explained that the rise of social media places extra pressure on organizations to make a positive first impression with customers. In the past, consumers were limited in their retail options, as well as their means of disseminating their displeasure with a company. Now, a dissatisfied customer can quickly and easily tell thousands of people about his bad experience by posting on social media, and he can switch to a different online store.

These major shifts in the world of retail force companies to use CRM in different ways. Specifically, they need to communicate with their customers via social media networks, and to use CRM-gathered data to improve their customer support and other services.

As CRM continues to evolve, its potential applications increase. To highlight the new ways in which organizations are using CRM, Sci-Tech Today recently spoke to a number of CRM experts to determine what uses they were discovering for the technology.

Barry Givens of Avanade claimed that CRM solutions are "absolutely essential" to combining the resources needed to successfully market, sell, and deliver products and services. Unlike older CRM, which was used exclusively to analyze data in the wake of a business' success or failure, current CRM solutions allow different departments to access vital information as work is being done, which lets them collaborate together to improve business processes.

Mike Snyder of Sonoma highlighted the value of social CRM. According to Snyder, this technology is critical for managing the relationships a business develops with potential and existing customers among social media networks, a critical component of modern marketing and customer service.

However, not all companies are successful in implementing CRM. Without an understanding of how to take advantage of its offerings, organizations may struggle to effectively use the information CRM provides.

Writing for Forbes, CRM expert Gene Marks recently argued that simplicity is the key to success. At its core, CRM is essentially a database, he maintains, and a database is only useful as long as it is accessible.

To emphasize this point, Marks provides the example of a client of his who wanted nothing more than four reports delivered regularly. This was the only information he needed to improve his sales team's performance.

According to Marks, the key to successful CRM is customizing the information to ensure it is easy for the client to access and understand.

However, while many companies take advantage of IVR in the contact center, far fewer use another of IVR's most useful abilities: outbound services.

As a leading telecommunications company recently highlighted, outbound IVR can provide a significant competitive edge to businesses. It has the potential to integrate different support channels into a single platform, including SMS and social media. Additionally, it can easily be customized to offer personalized interactions. This makes IVR more likely to effectively deliver a company's message than less responsive forms of automated dialing.

As TMC Net's Stefania Viscusi points out, outbound IVR can also improve customer service. By contacting customers to inform them of upcoming appointments or other reminders, as well as sales and promotions, she writes, outbound IVR offers the potential for an improved customer experience.

Because social media customer service differs significantly from more familiar channels, it requires new service agent tactics. As Frost & Sullivan recently highlighted, there are several challenges inherent in the form, such as anonymity cloaking consumers and security concerns. Additionally, because most conversations are available to the public, contact center agents must adopt different tones and approaches when responding to consumers.

For these reasons, Frost & Sullivan advises contact centers to create a single department to handle all customer engagement strategies.

This recommendation echoes a recent Interactive Intelligence Group report on social media in the contact center. They ultimately supported a strategy in which the marketing department, which presumably has more social media experience, works closely with customer support staff to improve a company's overall handling of social media interaction.

To help improve their level of customer service, many contact centers use call quality sheets to help guide their customer support agents. Theoretically, these sheets ensure that the caller receives an optimal customer experience. As Jack A. Dempsey of Business 2 Community points out, however, these call sheets are centered solely on the agent, rather than the customer, too often. Consequently, a call may score perfectly on a call quality sheet, yet still leave the client unsatisfied.

Dempsey recommends businesses rely instead on customer-centric call quality sheets. Rather than asking questions like "Did the agent say 'thank you for calling?'" or "Did the agent mention the company's name?" he advises companies to create sheets with questions such as "Did the agent respond with enthusiasm?" and "Did the agent listen for a complete understanding of the reason for the call?"

With this customer-centric focus, call sheets will guide agents to provide a more satisfying customer experience for callers.

De Clerck cites a recent study by Harris Interactive that found customers who leave negative comments on a social media pages tend to respond favorably when their feedback receives a response. Of the more than 2,500 respondents surveyed, 68 percent of those who posted a negative review following a bad experience with an online retailer received a response from the company in question. Of those, 34 percent deleted their original negative reviews, 33 percent wrote positive reviews and 18 percent bought more merchandise from the retailer.

As De Clerck argues, this data shows how a company can turn a negative review into a satisfied customer by demonstrating concern for the customer experience.

He further argues that even if they do not respond to negative feedback, companies should not hide its existence. According to De Clerck, consumers become suspicious when they see only positive feedback on a company's social media page, which may cause them to distrust genuinely favorable reviews.

However, while social media is now a major component of most promotional strategies, customer support departments have yet to widely adopt it. That is why Interactive Intelligence Group's recent report, "A Realistic Look at Social Media and the Contact Center," recommends that organizations interested in implementing social media into their contact centers make use of their marketing departments, as well as their customer service staff.

With their higher degree of experience in the medium, advertising executives can play a key role in shepherding social media processes into the contact center. By leaving marketers in charge of the early stages (responding to customer requests and comments on social media platforms) and gradually transferring responsibility to support staff, companies can ensure they are ultimately able to provide a high-quality social media-based customer experience at every level.

However, while social media is now a major component of most promotional strategies, customer support departments have yet to widely adopt it. That is why Interactive Intelligence Group's recent report, "A Realistic Look at Social Media and the Contact Center," recommends that organizations interested in implementing social media into their contact centers make use of their marketing departments, as well as their customer service staff.

With their higher degree of experience in the medium, advertising executives can play a key role in shepherding social media processes into the contact center. By leaving marketers in charge of the early stages (responding to customer requests and comments on social media platforms) and gradually transferring responsibility to support staff, companies can ensure they are ultimately able to provide a high-quality social media-based customer experience at every level.

As Ray explained, by using social CRM, a company can learn a significant amount about its customers without relying on surveys or interacting with consumers directly. By making use of social media platforms that encourage discussion, such as Facebook and Twitter, and implementing social CRM software and practices, companies can learn how particular clients feel toward the company and its products and services.

This information can be pooled together in a database and made available to customer support staff. As a result, contact center agents will have a much clearer idea of the best means of responding to that client's call or email, and can provide better overall support.

High quality customer care can play a major role in determining a company's success. Last year, WaterRemarks looked at the stock performance of companies with high-rated customer service. It found that these companies outperformed the general stock market by 23 percent.

The study, which included surveys from more than 50,000 consumers, found that a user's degree of satisfaction with a news or entertainment website would significantly impact whether he or she would visit that website again in the future, or recommend the website to others. Satisfied users were 43 percent more likely to revisit a website than unsatisfied users and 77 percent more likely to recommend the website to a friend, colleague or family member, both of which actions can help a website increase its visitor count and sell advertising space.

Additionally, satisfied visitors were more likely to give money directly to the websites. For websites offering paid subscriptions for increased content, satisfied visitors were 73 percent more likely than unsatisfied users to subscribe to the full site. Even more notably, a satisfying customer experience led to a 147 percent increased likelihood of clicking on an advertisement.

For websites interested in improving their visitors' experience, Inc.com recommends a number of best practices. One of the most important is asking for feedback and responding to it quickly. Inc.com also advises websites to personalize their content and displays, and to test features to ensure they work as intended.

That's where outsourcing comes in. As not all companies have the resources to devote the needed brainpower to innovate and development new products on a consistent basis, hosted services are stepping in to fill demand.

This is especially apparent in the clean energy market. Leaders such as Germany are beginning to offer expertise and services to developing economies, reflecting a reversal of the traditional outsourcing model. China, for example, is one of the largest investors in German wind power production.

Jade Werke, a Chinese subsidiary, will begin production of steel fundaments for offshore wind parks in Germany early next year. The company is also investing EUR 50 million in a production plant in Wilhelmshaven, with construction planned to begin this summer.

"There are still technical hurdles, and the biggest challenge remains upgrading the energy grid," said Anne Braeutigam, wind energy expert at Germany Trade & Invest. "Given the current market conditions and new financing and R&D programs, it's an excellent time for companies to invest in Germany to help resolve these remaining issues."

Furthermore, ISG reported 184 contracts were awarded during the January-March period, reflecting a 31 percent year-over-year drop and a 18 percent quarterly decline. One of the reasons growth was slower in the first quarter is that only one so-called "mega-deal" was completed, which is defined as a contract valued at more than $1 billion.

The first quarter data stems a record-setting second half of 2011, in which global TCV increased 29 percent year-over-year to a reach record $55.8 billion.

"This first-quarter slowdown follows the strongest half for outsourcing in a decade, making for difficult comparisons," said John Keppel, partner and president of research and managed services at ISG. "We saw this same hangover effect in early 2010 as well as in early 2006. So there is historical precedent for the industry taking a breather after two robust periods."

To avoid succumbing to this statistic, Kerry Bodine, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, recommends organizations work to ensure a quality customer experience throughout the customer lifecycle, not solely at the beginning. The customer lifecycle includes every step of a consumer's experience with a company - evaluating a product or service, purchasing it, using it and seeking support in the event of a problem.

She compares this sequence to a dramatic arc, arguing that as a good film with a disappointing ending leaves the viewer dissatisfied, a client who has a disappointing experience with a company will harbor negative feelings and likely move on to another business.

By providing a consistently high level of customer care, businesses can improve customer satisfaction and retention.

Leading the Filipino BPO sector is a market-wide focus on information technology. This week, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) reported the IT-BPO industry employed 638,000 people by the end of last year - 22 percent more than in 2010.

Now it is optimistic it will reach revenues of $25 billion by 2016, making for a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20 percent and a 9 percent share of the total Filipino economy. It would also account for 10 percent of the global IT-BPO market.

"We hit the targets projected in our Road Map 2016," said BPAP president Benedict Hernandez in a statement. "This is a good start to our five-year plan to grow at an average of 20 percent a year - above the projected global annual growth rates of 10-15 percent."

Savitz argues that social media-based customer service can improve a company's response times while reducing individual service agent's workloads. As a result, customer satisfaction will grow, resulting in more loyal clients.

This is possible, he writes, because social support uses a variety of different forms of customer service. Users can often find the information they seek by viewing others' resolved cases, or even by contacting each other directly. When a new question is posed and remains unanswered by other users, social-based programs can alert the service agents, ensuring that no issues are inadvertently overlooked.

The importance of using social media for customer service is further emphasized by the fact that consumers, particularly young ones, increasingly expect it as an option. A recent TNS study of consumers in the UK found that 15 percent of 16 to 24 year olds choose social media-based customer service over any other method. Only 8 percent of 25 to 34 year olds and 3 percent of 35 to 44 year olds feel the same way.

However, as Tibco recently highlighted, one benefit to CRM is often overlooked: determining whether a particular customer is worth retaining.

While it may seem counterintuitive, a business does not always benefit from gaining a customer. Sometimes, the costs associated with either acquiring or maintaining a client outweigh the benefits of his or her patronage. However, it can be difficult to accurately gauge which customers will ultimately prove to be drains on a business.

As Tibco points out, CRM analytics can provide valuable insight in this area. With a variety of metrics and data analysis functions, CRM analytics can produce a fairly accurate impression of how much revenue a company can expect to see from a given client. This can then be compared to the costs associated with obtaining or maintaining the customer - time spent on the phone by contact center agents, postage for mailings and so on - to determine if the client is worth the investment.

The survey polled more than 24,000 Consumer Reports readers about their recent grocery store shopping habits, collecting information from more than 42,000 supermarket experiences. In total, one-third of respondents indicated that they had switched grocery stores. Unsurprisingly, the pursuit of lower priced food and merchandise was the primary factor driving shoppers from one store to another.

However, the survey found that the quality of the customer experience was also a major deciding factor. Approximately one-fourth of those who changed stores did so because of poor selection, poor quality food or long waits for checkout services. Another 17 percent cited employee rudeness as their reason for switching.

These results align with those of a recent British study that found 88 percent of participants claimed they would leave a store without purchasing anything if the service did not meet their standards.

Both studies suggest that if shoppers have options, customer experience will play an important role in customer retention.

The study, conducted by Dynamic Markets, surveyed more than 2,000 businesses and customers throughout Britain. It found that only 7 percent of participating businesses offer an online live chat function for customers looking to contact them quickly via the internet. However, despite the small number of organizations offering the service, the study found that live chat was used by 28 percent of surveyed consumers in the past year. This indicates that customers will largely choose this option whenever it is presented to them.

However, the study also found that British firms oftentimes offer poor quality when it comes to traditional phone-based customer support. Nearly three-fourths of those surveyed indicated that their biggest complaint was a long delay while waiting on the phone for service. This suggests that by improving their contact center capabilities and training, British firms may be better able to provide satisfactory customer experiences.

Conducted by IDG Research Services, the study surveyed 150 participants from a variety of B-to-B sectors on their perception of the use of social media for CRM purposes by their vendors and suppliers. The results indicate that far too few B-to-B suppliers currently use social CRM, but those that are reap sizable advantages. Approximately one-third of respondents indicated they would perceive their supply chain vendors in a more positive light if those vendors used social media.

The survey also found that more than 40 percent of respondents rely on social media to monitor industry trends and news, as well as to stay up-to-date for information on their vendors. Consequently, those vendors that used social media were better able to engage with their customers, creating more open communication channels and a better customer experience.

The results of this survey are further buoyed by another recent study concerning buyers and social media practices. Supply Management polled 100 buyers as to whether they use social media to perform their day jobs, and more half indicated that they do.

Earlier this year, Nice Insight reported that big pharmaceutical companies are currently outsourcing more than biotechnology firms. And this week, research service Frost & Sullivan released a report showing a major leap in contract manufacturing outsourcing (CMO) in the U.s. pharmaceutical sector.

Specifically, the market earned revenues of $10.73 billion last year and estimates this to reach $15.97 billion in 2016, making for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3 percent.

"The continued expansion of the U.S. pharmaceuticals industry and the big pharma's increased outsourcing to improve cost structure and focus on core competencies will significantly augment the market's revenue growth," said Frost & Sullivan consultant Jesse Sullivan. "The pharmaceutical companies that had used their excess capacity during the downturn to retain in-house manufacturing are expected to gradually outsource as the economy improves."

The positive outlook comes even as U.S. firms reported an overall dip in R&D investment between 2010 and 2011. This may slow the pace of pharmaceutical outsourcing in coming years.

This, in turn, led to a swelling of debt loads, particularly in the U.S. and Canada. In order to recover these debts, many collectors and indebted organizations have turned to business process outsourcing.

Ron Rittenmeyer, an expert in the field of outsourcing and accounts receivable management, recently told Forbes magazine that key to successful outsourcing of debt collection is developing a strategy for how processes are hosted.

"Not only what you do - not just having an expectation to perform - but how you perform. Why are these laws being written?" Rittenmeyer told the source. "And why is [ARM] becoming an area of interest for government regulators and various other groups? I think it's because people realize that there are individuals out there who are having [financial] problems."

Managers need to create teams of professionals who are able to provide services that the industry provides, and to have a level of "granularity" in how they approach a problem, which means understanding that one size does not fit all, he added.

Speaking to FoxBusiness, marketing consultant Peter Shankman explained that as businesses become caught up in the importance of increasing their number of followers on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, they sometimes lose sight of an even more important audience: their pre-existing customer base.

Shankman further explained that businesses would be better served by focusing on delivering a top quality customer experience to those who have been fans of the company for a long time, as this will lead to word of mouth recommendations that are more persuasive than even the most effective marketing campaign. "If you focus on the customers you have, new fans will follow," he said.

These strategies are becoming even more important as companies learn to appreciate just how big an effect customer experience has on a business's success. A recent study estimated that top British companies may each lose as much as £100 million annually as a result of providing poor quality customer service.

Writing for Voxilla, Marcelo Rodriguez recently highlighted the benefits of VoIP emergency calling services. He argues that while some people hold the mistaken impression that Emergency 911 is not compatible with VoIP, the truth of the matter is that the two work extremely well together, and have for many years now. He further claims that VoIP-specific Emergency 911 can oftentimes provide a wider range of services than larger, more stationary carriers.

As Government Technology reported earlier this year, many 911 call providers agree with Rodriguez's assessment. Citing the advantages offered by VoIP, such as flexibility and affordability, many 911 call providers have begun to transition to VoIP as soon as their current contracts expire.

That report also highlighted a particular case which effectively illustrates one of the key benefits of VoIP for emergency call services. The previous summer, a construction crew in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, accidentally severed fiber-optic cables, which shut down the city's public safety answer points (PSAPs).

However, because the city had made the transition to VoIP service, the call traffic was rerouted to a neighboring city's emergency response system. The only immediate consequence was a 30-minute lack of service, which the PSAP manager, Lt. Lori Dreier, called "fantastic for an unplanned event."

One of the most active markets for outsourcing is in human resources. The global economic recession took quite a toll on labor markets worldwide. Consequently, employers have suffered talent crises, high turnover rates, job dissatisfaction, recruiting challenges or some other HR-related hindrance.

But savvy, forward-thinking companies looked to outsourcing as a means to handle their talent and personnel demands, allowing them to focus on core practices and specialities.

"My view is that HR should be small and lean and they need to be focusing only on business partnering and strategic and value-add activities," Christina Turner, past president of the Australian Human Resources Institute, told The Australian. "Transaction needs to go to places that do transaction well. Recruitment is in many ways a transaction."

The transactional element of HR, Turner adds, can be a major distraction. Outsourced HR functions as a means of letting go of the nitty-gritty details to focus more on core business strategy.

A recent report from Ventana Research found that 60 percent of surveyed organizations believe that sales analytics are very important to their companies, yet 46 percent indicated that they are somewhat or not at all confident in the utility of the data their analytics systems gather. Sixty-two percent of respondents stated they have trouble collecting the information they need for creating useful metrics.

Writing for CIO, Jeff Vance suggested that customer relationship management (CRM) may provide the solution to the problems faced by these and other businesses struggling to successfully create and take advantage of their sales pipelines. CRM, and particularly social CRM, has the ability to gather significant amounts of useful data on customers and clients, which can then be used to effectively create an accurate sales pipeline.

If companies are able to use CRM in a way that incentivizes their sales agents, they will quite possibly improve both efficiency and profits.

According to industry experts, well-established contact centers realize that the implementation of best practices help them stay ahead of the curve while gaining a competitive edge.

"Generally, it is not too difficult to get hold of private information, and most systems are not secure enough to stop copies [from] being made and removed from the organization," Andrew Kellet, senior analyst of IT solutions at Ovum, told ZDNet Asia.

Kellet added that this has more to do with the availability and amount of data than the actual contact center environment.

This also highlights the importance of employee engagement and satisfaction. As Kellet explains, the risk of data theft tends to increase when agents feel undervalued or overworked.

The world is now much more more digital with vast amounts of consumer data housed on CRM databases. While contact centers have been around for decades, the rise in customer-centric services demands enhance security procedures.

1to1 Magazine writer Cynthia Clark recently explained that one of the most significant of these decisions is whether to use scripting for contact center conversations. There are pluses and minuses to both sides of the issue, and it is up to the individual company to determine which solution is the best fit.

According to Clark, one of the benefits of scripting conversations is consistency. By scripting, a business can ensure that its message and policies are employed in every customer interaction. Additionally, scripting is an effective means of maintaining compliance with legal requirements, which is an important issue for businesses in healthcare and other industries.

However, there are benefits to non-scripting, as well. When agents converse at their own discretion, callers may feel that their customer experience is more customized, leading to greater satisfaction.

1to1 Magazine writer Cynthia Clark recently explained that one of the most significant of these decisions is whether to use scripting for contact center conversations. There are pluses and minuses to both sides of the issue, and it is up to the individual company to determine which solution is the best fit.

According to Clark, one of the benefits of scripting conversations is consistency. By scripting, a business can ensure that its message and policies are employed in every customer interaction. Additionally, scripting is an effective means of maintaining compliance with legal requirements, which is an important issue for businesses in healthcare and other industries.

However, there are benefits to non-scripting, as well. When agents converse at their own discretion, callers may feel that their customer experience is more customized, leading to greater satisfaction.

The Insight Research Institute's report, "VoIP and the SME: CableCos, Telcos, and the Rise of Hosted Service Models, 2011-2016," analyzed trends that attempt to predict the future of telecommunications for small businesses. The report found that while companies with less than 100 employees currently spent approximately $500 million on hosted voice over internet protocol (VoIP) in 2011, they are expected to increase that spending to around $1.2 billion by 2015.

As the report explains, hosted telecommunications offers a number of benefits for small businesses. Perhaps most notably, it is typically less expensive than landlines and other, older forms of telecommunication technology. Yet despite this cost decrease, industry experts largely agree that hosted technology provides a level of service that is at least equal, if not superior, to traditional communications.

Additionally, by using hosted technology like VoIP, small businesses can save a great amount of physical space. Whereas old forms of telecommunication technology require hardware to be installed and maintained on the premises, the physical components of hosted technology are housed by the service provider.

There is a growing consensus that social media will play a key role in many, if not most, companies marketing and overall business strategies in the near future. However, despite this awareness, many companies have yet to adopt social media-based strategies. This means that those companies willing to embrace social CRM may enjoy significant advantages over their delaying competitors.

Writing for TechNewsWorld, CRM expert Christopher J. Bucholtz recently offered several pieces of advice for companies who have not yet made the move toward social CRM. For example, he recommended that businesses use their imaginations when envisioning the best means of applying social CRM to their specific situations. Too many businesses, he said, see how social CRM works for a different industry and simply assume that the methods used there could not possibly apply in their own field. But by utilizing a healthy dose of creativity, businesses may discover social CRM lessons even from vastly different contexts.

He also recommended that businesses come to terms with the notion that social CRM may require reorganization and/or restructuring. It represents a new paradigm for customer relations, and as such will require organizations to adopt new approaches. This should not be a reason for hesitancy, but rather motivation for revitalization.

The latest Global Patent & IP Trends Indicator by inovia found fewer organizations are facing budget reductions, which may be behind the greater portion of IP tasks that companies are outsourcing in order to reduce costs.

This year's study showed a 300 percent increase in organizations outsourcing foreign patent filings compared to last year. The report demonstrates how U.S. patent holders are being more strategic about their approach to foreign filing, focusing particularly on the need to contain IP costs.

Most surveyed organizations don't expect to increase the number of patent families filed this year, suggesting they are taking on a "do-more-with-less" attitude in light of the recovering economy.

"The cautious optimism first identified in the 2011 Indicator is back this year, with U.S. patent owners taking a prudent, yet strategic, approach to foreign filing with a huge jump in outsourcing as a means to keep IP rates low, reduce overall costs and maintain control," said inovia founder and patent attorney Justin Simpson.

According to ZDNet, a leading analytics company has conducted research to determine the effects of customer satisfaction with a contact center on that customer's future interactions involving the company. They polled customers and rated their satisfaction on a 100-point scale, then used this data to ascertain how the individual felt about the company and how this attitude would translate into actual actions.

The study found that customers who scored above 70 on the customer satisfaction scale were 238 percent more likely to recommend the company to family, friends or coworkers. Additionally, highly satisfied individuals were 154 percent more likely than less satisfied customers to make another purchase from the company, and 174 percent more likely to contact the company again in the future.

As ZDNet indicates, all of this data shows the inherent value in contact centers providing high quality customer experience. Customer satisfaction translates into loyalty and positive associations, both of which may lead to increased company profits in the future.

Writing for CBS News, Hess highlights a number of key empathy-related questions that a customer service agent should ask him or herself in order to improve customer care. One significant example is, "What would I expect to be done for me if the roles were reversed?" Another is "What would make this customer satisfied…and is there any reason I can't do it or find someone who can?"

By asking these questions, a service agent may better understand the customer's mindset, and this may lead to a greater overall interaction.

While important in all customer-service interactions, empathy may be a particularly crucial element for a contact center. Because contact center agents do not typically see the client they are assisting, it can be more difficult to develop an empathic bond with that individual. A conscious awareness of the importance of empathy can ensure that a contact center agent always keeps the customer's needs and desires at the forefront of his mind.

In a list of recommendations for improving utility billing and payment methods for the upcoming year, Intelligent Utility highlighted the benefits of IVR for utility companies. By implementing IVR, companies can provide options for customers to self-pay. This, as Intelligent Utility reports, can make the collection of outstanding balances significantly more efficient. Additionally, IVR offers service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without the cost of maintaining a staff of agents around the clock.

Consequently, the publication argues that by implementing IVR and other technology upgrades, utility companies can increase their collection abilities, which leads directly to a rise in overall profits.

Utility companies are but one of the many industries that can and, in many cases, already have taken advantage of the services IVR makes possible. Many research studies have demonstrated the value which people place upon customer experience, and by offering service at any time, day or night, companies using IVR can significantly improve their overall customer service.

Using this tool, financial experts have determined that the top 100 companies appearing on the FTSE Index may each lose as much as £100 million annually by failing to provide each of their clients with a successful customer experience.

The tool's calculations are determined by crunching a variety of business data, such as company profits, revenues and levels of customer satisfaction. According to its metrics, even relatively minor improvements in customer care can lead to huge rewards. For some companies, the calculator estimates that profits can even double by improving customer service.

While these conclusions may seem extreme, recent research indicates that a poor or successful shopping experience can be a main determinant in whether a potential customer purchases a product or service. Studies have shown that as much as 88 percent of individuals claim that they will leave a store without buying anything if the retailer's customer service does not meet their standards.

Conducted by a leading developer of social health networks, the survey data was gathered during the recent Managed Care Executive Group Forum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Of all participating managed care executives, 94 percent indicated that social networking technology is a crucial component of their business's ability to interact with customers, and 56 percent believed that it is a "must-have" for managed care organizations.

The significance of these figures is further reinforced by how highly those surveyed prioritized consumer engagement. Just over three-fifths of participating executives stated that engaging with customers is one of the five most important priorities for CEOs at their organizations.

By using social networking technology and other social CRM tools, organizations are able to improve the quality and degree of their interaction with customers and clients. And as social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter continue to grow, industry experts expect businesses' reliance on social CRM to increase in the coming years.

A recent report from STELLAService highlights the degree to which some companies are ignoring customer feedback delivered via Facebook. As a test, STELLAService posted general service questions on 20 major retailers' Facebook pages, as well as within the comments section of entries posted by the retailers themselves.

The results indicate that the majority of these companies do not place a high value on interacting with or satisfying customers who contact them through social media. Of the 20 retailers, five did not respond to the posted questions within 48 hours. More notably, seven of the retailers edited their Facebook pages to remove any trace of the question.

Speaking to TIME, STELLAService CEO Jordy Leiser said the results indicate that while companies have quickly come to understand the value of Facebook for reaching out to customers, they have not yet grasped that effective social CRM means acknowledging social media as a two-way street.

With the arrival of new technological capabilities, agents are leveraging live online chat, email, mobile services, and even social media to ensure delivery of service according to customer demands. Depending on the sorts of customers being served, contact centers may automate as many conversations as they handle personally.

These trends reflect one of the most important pillars of effective contact center management: efficiency. Customers generally have tolerance for about five minutes of downtime once they've established a sales relationship with a brand, reports Tron Jordheim for Inside Self-Storage. Meanwhile, he adds, company executives have tolerance for about five seconds of downtime once a year.

Once again, technology has been the primary solution to the changing demands of the contact center industry.

"Even in a boutique center, you need a wide and deep technology foundation to provide the services that make your clients and stakeholders money," Jordheim notes. "It all starts with Internet and telephony connections. These communications connections must have tremendous bandwidth. Then you need server capacity to handle the layers of software that power … systems."

Bloomberg Businessweek, citing an Everest Group study, reports that 54 companies in Eastern Europe and Latin America established new outsourcing facilities in 2011, edging out the 49 created in India last year. And industry experts expect this trend to continue into the foreseeable future.

There are several underlying causes to this shift away from India, the most significant being that companies are beginning to outsource higher-level positions. The primary reason behind India's prominence within the outsourcing industry has always been that it is home to a huge pool of inexpensive labor, and many if not most of its citizens speak English. This makes India the ideal source for workers to staff contact centers and similar openings.

However, the positions being outsourced now frequently require a higher degree of skill and training than India's labor market can provide. Consequently, American businesses are turning to countries such as Poland, The Philippines and Brazil for their outsourced customer care and financial services.
 

Bloomberg Businessweek, citing an Everest Group study, reports that 54 companies in Eastern Europe and Latin America established new outsourcing facilities in 2011, edging out the 49 created in India last year. And industry experts expect this trend to continue into the foreseeable future.

There are several underlying causes to this shift away from India, the most significant being that companies are beginning to outsource higher-level positions. The primary reason behind India's prominence within the outsourcing industry has always been that it is home to a huge pool of inexpensive labor, and many if not most of its citizens speak English. This makes India the ideal source for workers to staff contact centers and similar openings.

However, the positions being outsourced now frequently require a higher degree of skill and training than India's labor market can provide. Consequently, American businesses are turning to countries such as Poland, The Philippines and Brazil for their outsourced customer care and financial services.
 

Customer profiling is the process of understanding a business's customer base and categorizing those customers into various demographics. These demographics can then be used to better understand both who is patronizing a business and, just as importantly, why. This allows a business to streamline and improve its customer service, resulting in a better customer experience. Additionally, the knowledge gained through customer profiling may be utilized for marketing purposes.

IVR is useful for customer profiling because it allows businesses to accumulate and then classify customer feedback more efficiently without sacrificing customer service. Yet success in this area is not automatic. The key to successful integration of IVR systems with customer profiling is customization. Organizations must adapt their IVR offerings to align with the nature of their business and, crucially, their customers.

The study, conducted by market research firm Vanson bourne, included 200 senior-level IT professionals from a diverse group of medium and large UK-based businesses. Three quarters of those surveyed indicated that their organizations are currently pursuing a UC strategy. They further indicated that VoIP is the most crucial form of communication within these strategies, followed by video conferencing and instant messaging.

There are numerous benefits to pursuing a UC strategy. Most notably, it has the potential to significantly improve the efficiency of a business's telecommunications - the reason cited by 60 percent of respondents for their move toward UC. Additionally, telecommunications experts argue that UC can reduce costs and improve customer and user satisfaction.

The combined effects of these benefits can be significant. To illustrate this point, an InformationWeek article cited the example of Japanese retailer Mitsukoshi. After adopting UC capabilities in its inventory processes, the company was able to reduce its sales cycle time by 20 percent.

According to a CompTIA survey of business and IT executives, 68 percent of responding organizations had a LinkedIn page, another 68 percent had a Twitter feed and 82 percent maintained a presence on Facebook. Yet while this data indicates a growing appreciation for the value of social media for businesses, the survey also demonstrates that this appreciation is underdeveloped. Despite heavily using social media, less than 20 percent of organizations surveyed used any form of social enterprise tools.

This is a significant statistic, as social enterprise tools are a crucial component of successful social CRM. Seth Robinson, director of technology analysis for CompTIA, said, "Social enterprise tools incorporate the characteristics of social media into business processes." This, he added, encourages "stronger internal collaboration" and "deeper understanding of customers."

As a relatively new marketing tool, it is perhaps not surprising that social CRM is still not fully incorporated into most businesses' marketing strategies. However, as social media becomes more and more embedded into the average consumer's life, it is inevitable that a growing number of companies will begin to explore the full potential of social CRM and social enterprise tools.
 

Most of the new offers are likely to be awarded to private suppliers of work welfare programs, reflecting the British government's decision to replace a disability allowance with a new personal independence payment.

"Under the government's welfare reforms, more than 3.2 million people will be assessed by private companies as to whether they can rejoin the workforce," reported Gill Plimmer for the FT. "The five year contracts - with option for two-year extensions - will be divided among regions, with the winners announced in July for implementation from April 2013."

Both private and public companies alike have been broadening their outsourcing activity in recent years. Higher operational costs and commodity prices have forced firms to seek out more efficient methods of completing tasks, and outsourcing is often seen as a key solution.

Driven by a demand for improved customer experience, contact center development in the United States and Canada is growing significantly. As industry experts have noted, creating domestic contact centers provides job opportunities and therefore contributes to local economies.

An additional factor driving the growth of contact centers in the U.S. and Canada is improved technology. More and more, contact centers are using alternative forms of communication to accommodate customer desires, such as texting, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), and Twitter. Such developments are increasing the importance of contact centers to both businesses and the customers who utilize their services.

As contact center technology continues to improve, and contact centers themselves become increasingly vital for a wide range of companies' customer service tasks, it is likely that such facilities will continue to spring up throughout the United States.

As the E-Commerce Times recently explained, far too many businesses invest heavily in a social CRM strategy and then proceed to use that strategy statically, without ever attempting to dig deeper into the technologies technology's functions.

Consequently, that specific form of social CRM ultimately ceases to provide benefits and the business concludes that it has reached a dead end. In reality, though, the social CRM strategy might still have numerous advantages to offer. The business is simply unaware of them.

Social CRM is generally acknowledged as an emerging tool which can benefit a wide range of industries. Many companies, recognizing this trend, have begun to invest significantly in social CRM technologies and strategies. However, only those companies which match their financial investments with the commitment to explore and adapt their chosen social CRM platforms will reap its advantages.

In a report conducted by market intelligence firm Global Industry Analysts, the global speech technology industry was described as having "displayed remarkable resilience during recession" and has proved itself to be "one of the major revenue grosser for the software industry."

In addition to technological breakthroughs in VoIP and IVR, the report credits the speech technology industry's projected success to its incorporation into an increasing number of products and services. Specifically, the report identifies search engines, healthcare providers and handheld devices as areas of rising use for speech technology.

This report comes at a time when more and more mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones, are releasing apps and data-plans for the use of mobile VoIP. The proliferation of these and other, similar advancements is expected to continue driving the speech technology market into the foreseeable future.

Ivana Taylor recommends in the blog Get App that decision-makers begin by drafting a list of key goals they'd like to accomplish over the next several months. It may be something as broad as expanding into a new market or as narrow as adopting a new payroll processing service. Whatever it is, the next process involves running through the list and determining, precisely, what's needed to meet these goals.

Which of these processes can you handle yourself? What kinds of skills are needed to complete them? Which will require hired help? In answering these questions you should develop a more clear picture of where your outsourcing needs are.

"Whatever the reasons, you need to be clear and honest," Taylor explains. "Time savings comes from focusing on what you want to accomplish, only doing those things and then making a list of all the other things that you've been doing, but that someone else could do better, faster and probably cheaper."

The trend toward online services and communications platforms seems applicable to customer service, too, as 75 percent of surveyed consumers say they would prefer to use online support if it were reliable. However, only 37 percent claim they even try to use self-service options.

But the lack of available online resources drives many consumers to contact centers. According to the survey, more than 40 percent of respondents call customer service if they cannot find answers to their question through self-service.

Furthermore, an overwhelming majority of consumers - 96 percent - expect to be notified of problems without having to ask, preempting calls to a contact center.

"We are seeing a major shift in customer behavior," said Ian Parkes, director and co-founder at Coleman Parkes. "Consumers prefer to seek answers to common questions through online resources. However, many end users believe service providers' online services cannot solve their problems, so they gravitate back to the call center."

Surveying more than 220 CRM decision-makers from North America and Europe, the study found that "providing sales people with mobile device access to CRM" leads to a 14.6 percent rise in sales productivity, and using social CRM tools leads to a further 11.8 percent increase in productivity. When both were implemented, the overall sales productivity gain was 26.4 percent.

Of all those surveyed, less than 2 percent did not acknowledge any productivity benefits from mobile CRM access.

As customers increasingly rely on their mobile devices for a host of uses, it can be inferred that the rewards businesses reap from social and mobile CRM implementation will continue to grow. It is not surprising, then, that a recent Constellation Research study found that 85 percent of surveyed executives plan to improve their CRM systems in the next two years.

The Constellation Research report concluded that such upgrades will be a crucial factor in determining a business's success or failure leveraging CRM.

The study, conducted by TechNavio, found that only a small percentage of all international voice traffic stems from mobile devices. This is primarily due to the expensive rates charged by cellular networks for the service. As a result, most individuals turn to landlines, computer networks and calling cards for their international calling needs.

Several trends contribute to the market potential for mobile VoIP providers. One is the increasing prevalence of social media, and especially the use of social media on mobile platforms. As users rely more heavily on this technology, desire for affordable VoIP options will likely rise.

In addition, businesses utilizing contact centers will likely continue to incorporate VoIP into their service options. It is likely that a typical contact center will soon offer a multitude of communication services for its clients, including text messaging, Twitter and videochatting.

As demand for mobile VoIP options is poised to increase, organizations now have an opportunity to gain a strong foothold in an emerging market.
 

One of the areas this collaboration has been most evident is in business process outsourcing. BPO services can dramatically cut down on operating costs and improve efficiency. They also require the involvement of tech professionals to gauge which processes should be outsourced and through what channels.

"Shared services and business process outsourcing can be used to reduce the operating costs of finance," Paul van Kessel, an advisor at Ernst & Young, told the Financial Times. "The key benefits of business process outsourcing are obvious. It allows organizations to focus on their core activity and, in addition, cost savings can be achieved."

However, van Kessel added, the key to BPO success is in the effective management of supplier relations management and third-party reporting. In developing an effective outsourcing strategy, CFOs have to rely on thorough risk assessment.

The study, which tracks and analyzes the anticipated marketing, sales, and media strategies of a wide range of businesses, also identified "market intelligence research" and "competitor intelligence research" as the other primary areas for investment.

This data supports the growing evidence that CRM is becoming a more and more important aspect of many businesses' marketing strategies. Industry experts have widely touted CRM for improving organizations' ability to provide a better customer experience and leveraging that relationship into increasing profits and market presence.

In addition to identifying areas of investment, the ICD study also analyzes the expected degree of investment for companies in the coming year. Overall, total money allocated to marketing budgets is expected to increase 5 percent for the next year. This modest rise is attributed to the improving yet still damaged global economy. In last year's survey, the anticipated increase in marketing budgets was just over 7 percent.

One of the more sensational developments in the call center industry is the emergence of emotion detection technology. These devices are able to gauge how a caller feels based on factors such as how loud they're talking, their tone, pitch, and pace of speech.

"We are seeing more of this technology being adopted because of its positive impact on the caller experience and call center key performance indicators (KPIs)," writes Omar Zaibak for Customer Think. "Some call centers prioritize callers in their queue based on how angry they are. The system will intuitively listen to the caller while they are on hold."

If he or she is vocally upset they will receive a higher priority in the call queue and connect to an agent faster. This can help allay the more frustrated customers while managing call volumes in a more efficient way.

In this component of the study, known as the Practice-based Opportunities for Weight Reduction (POWER) trial, 365 obese patients participated in a self-managed weight-loss and hypertension-reduction program for a two-year period. During this time, patients monitored their own progress with an IVR system and website, and participated in 18 counseling sessions via phone. They were also given the option of participating in 12 group support sessions.

The results of the study indicated that remote monitoring was at least as effective as more traditional obesity-reduction programs. On average, participants lost a kilogram more of weight than those undergoing the standard treatment, and lowered their BMIs by an additional 0.38.

"I actually think these types of systems are the wave of the future," Lawrence Appel, head researcher and a professor of medicine, epidemiology and international health at Johns Hopkins, said of the programs utilized in the study.

While some businesses have scaled back their outsourcing to foreign markets, the Asia/Pacific BPO sector remains a vibrant location for hosted technology, IT outsourcing, shared services and other market horizontals.

Currently, the Philippine BPO sector employs roughly 450,000 people, mostly in contact center facilities. This figure make the country the world's leader, ahead of India.

"In recent years, however, industry leaders have begun to emphasize a shift in the local industry from call center work to higher value-added work like outsourced engineering, animation and IT services," reports Alex Ferreras for LoanSafe.org. "Wells Fargo's Philippine operations would serve only the needs of the U.S. bank in terms of customer support."

Customer service is one of the pillars of the global outsourcing market, but with rising demand for high-skill positions the dynamics of outsourcing demand may begin to shift. In January, Information Services Group reported that 2011 was the busiest year on record for the global outsourcing industry.

The survey, conducted by British customer intelligence firm Market Force, also found that the biggest factor in shaping customer experience is employee interest. Over 40 percent of those surveyed identified a lack of interest and engagement from store employees as the most frustrating aspect of in-store shopping, therefore making it the most likely source of customer dissatisfaction.

On a similar note, over 80 percent of customers indicated that they appreciate being physically led to a product they're inquiring about, rather than being pointed in the product's direction, and a further 59 percent appreciated product recommendations. As the numbers indicate, though, such a level of customer support is lacking from many retailers.

Yet despite these numbers, the report also indicated that an overwhelming majority of consumers prefer in-store shopping to online shopping, primarily due to the human interaction.

Tim Ogle, CEO at Market Force Europe, said that these results should inspire retailers to modify their practices, as "good customer service doesn't have to be expensive."

It helps to have an well thought-out plan for your outsourcing strategy from the get-go. Collaborate with service providers to communicate that strategy and make clear what you expect from their offerings.

Lydia Vogtner, a contributor for Business 2 Community recommends leveraging the advice of experts to influence your management of hosted technology and services. You shouldn't feel like you need to do all thinking yourself, but it's important make your hosts at least a small part of the team from the early stages.

"Once the work begins - create a positive working relationship that allows for open communication, including the ability to challenge and ask tough questions," Vogtner adds. "Also be mindful of their workload and competing priorities - don't treat them like order takers or put them in constant reactive mode just because you are paying them.

The recurring high placement of social CRM apps on GetApp.com surveys is yet another indicator of the increasing importance of such products within the wider context of CRM and social media-based business. Industry experts have noted the gradual evolution of social CRM apps from point applications to more integrated products offering a wider range of benefits for businesses.

In order to maximize the potential advantages of this technology, businesses must continue to develop their approaches to all social CRM, including apps. Writing for Forbes, R Wang, CEO of Constellation Research, recently emphasized the importance of integrating CRM strategies that incorporate "tangibles, intangibles and contingencies in the calculations of business value." Only such a balanced approach to CRM modernization will ensure competitiveness as social media's role in CRM continues to expand.

According to the report, the IVR technology utilized by case managers provided constant updates on patients' statuses by utilizing biometric and other data, all gathered remotely and automatically. Additionally, patient compliance with the IVR-based program was 85 percent, thereby providing an even greater degree of health information for case managers to work with.

This information allowed case managers to implement proactive, preventative strategies for maintaining patient well-being. The ultimate result was that IVR-monitored patients required re-admittance to hospitals at a significantly lower rate than patients whose health was monitored solely through self-reporting and case manager followup.

This finding comes at a time when more and more hospitals and healthcare providers are beginning to utilize IVR technology, thanks to advancements in natural language and speech recognition technology. These developments are allowing doctors and case managers to monitor patient health at a lower cost while increasing efficiency and ease-of-access to crucial information.
 

While the reasons for IT outsourcing vary from business to business, the popularity is such that it's become difficult to find a service that hasn't been outsourced. One is also hard-pressed to find a company that has not outsourced at least one function.

Some companies credit the potential to scale back capital expenditures. Dustin Andaya, founder and managing director of flower retailer Island Rose, cites flexibility and scalability as the key advantages of outsourcing and hosted technology services.

"IT outsourcing enables our company to remain small and flexible while being able to concentrate on our core competencies," he told CFO World. "It gives us the ability to pool resources from other companies on a per need basis, allowing our operations to grow bigger or smaller as the need arises."

Yet while these schools are demonstrating a move toward further incorporating mobile learning into their programs, the report concluded that much of the educational potential remains untapped, and that schools must demonstrate a greater willingness to explore its possibilities.

Commenting on the report in the Financial Times, Carina Paine Schofield, a research fellow at Ashridge Business School, maintains that the move toward mobile learning is inevitable, and claims that this shift can transform students into more active learners. However, in order for such a change to occur, executive programs must stop viewing mobile devices as distractions and instead see them as learning resources.

Incorporating organizations from both North America and Europe, the report reveals that 25 percent of all respondents are now aggregating and studying data culled from social media networks, and nearly 50 percent monitor open social media networks. Furthermore, more than half of respondents intend to increase their investment in social media tools and services in the next one to two years.

As this trend continues to expand, it can be expected that businesses will need to develop their social CRM strategies. Historically, many organizations have underutilized the potential of CRM by focusing primarily on ways of selling to customers, rather than developing mutually beneficial relationships.

As Adam Sarner, a director of research at Gartner, points out in Forbes, the key to successful social CRM is offering perceivable benefits to customers. By doing so, businesses can encourage customers to voluntarily work with them to improve their operations. Failing to do so will greatly limit the amount of usable data accumulated, thereby reducing the effectiveness of social CRM strategies.

Charles Schwab's 2011 RIA Benchmarking Study even found 52 percent of surveyed investment advisers agreed that devoting sufficient staff time to business development was their greatest obstacle to growth. This is one of the reasons why many companies turn to outsourced customer care and services to fulfill their duties and facilitate growth.

One of the chief advantages of outsourcing, particularly in regards to the financial services industry, is that companies can pick and choose which processes to administer externally and which to maintain in-house.

"You don't have to invent your own solution," adds Marion Asnes for Investment News. "Outsourcing reduces the amount of time and stress devoted to operations, data management and backup, reporting and reconciliation, re-balancing and more. By making you more effective and simplifying your life, it expands your time."

In a recent interview with 1to1 Media, Adobe marketing executive Kevin Cochrane suggested that site design, personalization, and key performance indicators (KPIs) are not receiving the attention they deserve in online customer experience strategies.

"[Companies] don't do enough research into who their customer are and what they're trying to accomplish," Cochrane explained to the news source. "If I engaged you previously, you need to know so I don't have to rehash who I am and what I'm trying to do."

One uniquely effective way to address all of these concerns is through the integration of social media in customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Social CRM utilities help companies make sense of the wealth of information exchanged in online environments and leverage it to build deeper, more accurate customer profiles.

In addition to interpreting implicit feedback expressed in blog posts and online forums, social CRM can provide ways for businesses to gather explicit feedback as well. According to InformationWeek columnist Debra Donston-Miller, directly soliciting customer input through online surveys and similar methods can help uncover unique insights that would have otherwise remained hidden.