LATEST NEWS

Datacraft said business defying slowdown

Integrator Datacraft says the IT market is defying the global slowdown, with business increasing over the past 90 days.

"We don't know quite what's driving it, but it's all about consultancy and professional services work," Datacraft managing director Robin Hartendorp said. "The first thing I would have expected to see to drop off in the current economic situation is product sales, but we haven't seen that yet. Perhaps that will begin to happen in the New Year."

Listed South African company Dimension Data had bought the Australian company, and a few months ago, Datacraft became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dimension Data, a US$3.8 billion company, which is Cisco's biggest global partner.

NSW law to block V8 compo claims

The NSW government has ignored complaints by several Homebush Bay businesses, including a Commonwealth Bank contact centre, over excessive noise generated by V8 Supercar races due to begin next year.

The government reportedly approved new laws designed to head-off compensation claims from businesses by creating a Homebush Motor Racing Authority, which will have powers to approve preparatory works ahead of the V8 race from December 4 to 9 next year. Many tenants at the site have leases with clauses guaranteeing quiet enjoyment, but the bill is designed to prevent them seeking compensation for breaches of those clauses and for any loss of access to their premises in the lead-up to or during the event.

The Commonwealth Bank, whose buildings house a contact centre adjacent to the temporary track, is reported to have joined other Homebush Bay tenants expressing concerns about the disruption, but declined to make further comment before they had seen the bill.

MindPearl announces Fiji contact centre

Global outsourcer MindPearl has announced it will set a contact centre in Fiji's Kalabu tax free zone next June.

The centre will reportedly employ more than 2,500 people, with more than 5,000 jobs created in the next four to five years. MindPearl chief executive William Pattison was quoted as saying Fiji was chosen for the centre after numerous tests and the availability of a better workforce.

According to the Fiji Islands Trade and Investment Bureau, once set up, the contact centre is expected to generate more than $48 million in foreign exchange annually. Fiji's interim Commerce Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said incentives announced by the Interim government will attract more investors in the country.

AFL kicks goals with speech rec

The Australian Football League has praised the contribution of its speech recognition system in handling the influx of calls from fans ahead of this year's grand final.

The AFL receives thousands of calls from members and the public with queries about all aspects of the finals' games in the four-week period leading up to the grand final. The AFL alleviated the traffic by using a speech recognition system developed by Melbourne-based company Inference Communications.

"What it needed was a seamless speech recognition solution, capable of identifying callers, the nature of their calls and the information they required." The AFL's Darren Birch said. The two products selected were a short-term information service for notifying callers about AFL finals' games, ticket entitlements, broadcast details and event information and a "call steering" service which would steer callers to the most appropriate information, person or department. "We were able to answer up to 80 per cent of caller queries automatically, leaving customer service representatives free to handle more complex or difficult calls, Birch said. "The systems also reduced on hold wait times significantly and provided members with the correct information quickly. This did a lot to lower anxiety levels."

 Wellness @ Work Competition

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Workshops cover a range of topics such as:

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Enter the draw to win 1 x Wellness First 15 disc DVD Set, Valued at $4,997, click here to find out more

Japanese Contact Centre Consumer Results, Enthusiastic Indians, Singapore Winners and Red Frogs

Last week I travelled to Tokyo to present the Avaya Contact Centre Consumer Index for Japan. Such an interesting story as the Japanese consumer experience is quite different to the other countries in the region. Let me share some highlights.

One highlight was going to Nobu (Robert DeNiro's) restaurant with Kase-san and the Avaya team.

OK, I will start with highlights of the research and then onto the cool stuff....

• 40% of the 309 Japanese consumers we spoke to said they preferred to use the internet then interact with a call centre. This was actually the lowest level of preference for internet compared to Australia, NZ, Singapore and India.
• Japan also has the lowest level of agreement that interacting with call centres is always problematic. Interestingly enough Australia has the highest level of agreement with this statement.
• 4 in 10 Japanese consumers said that the increase in fuel prices means they will use call centres more often.
• Only 6% use the internet as their primary channel to contact an organisation, but 12% said they would prefer to use this channel.
• Reasons why Japanese customers are satisfied with the call experience? 1) call resolution, 2) friendly and polite service and 3) received the correct information. Reasons for dissatisfaction? 1) poor communication, 2) lack of knowledge, 3) call not resolved.

Loads more brilliant information available on the Avaya Contact Centre Consumer Index Japan, by contacting Emma at emmamccormack@avaya.com.

I then headed to Mumbai to present the Indian results.... but stay tuned for that next week... great stories about my Question and Answer on-stage performance. Oh, if all my audiences had the enthusiasm of the Indians. Here's a preview...

Read full blog entry here ...

Avaya Contact Centre Consumer Index Launch 2008

Australia Events:
Private sector - 7:30am to 9:15am
Auck, NZ, 2 December
Syd, 4 December
Register here

Government - 12noon to 1:30pm
Syd, 4 December
Register here

Great Christmas idea for all contact centre staff

Don't Get Hung Up! by Jenny Cartwright, Australia's leading telesales trainer (New release)
How to Sell Products And Services By Phone And Get Any Appointments You Want!

Smart Call #42 -
First Birthday Special: Is the government picking on customer service operations?

This week, sponsored by:

Happy Birthday to us, happy Birthday to us!

SmartCall has turned one! November 21st, 2007, was the date the first ever SmartCall hit the Net.

We're not sure whether or not to celebrate, however, given that last week saw another attack on customer service as Australia's federal government singled out telecommunications companies as the subject of too many complaints. We report on the incident and offer response from Three Mobile and the ATA.

Speaking of the ATA, we learn why it has changed its name to the ATA.

This week's sponsor interview is with Mark Mathieson, Chief Information Officer of Manchester Unity, who explains how our sponsors HigherGround and Integ helped the company start to work with remote agents.

Listen to the programme here