Authorities complain over Japanese airline's customer attitude

Fifth Quadrant is delighted to be selected as a Finalist in the Telstra New South Wales Business Awards in the Medium Business Award category.

"Being selected as a NSW finalist is a great honour and has been the culmination of our team’s unwavering commitment to working with Australian, Asian and North American based enterprise and government organisations to design and deliver amazing customer experience,” said Dr Catriona Wallace, CEO, Fifth Quadrant. “We’re honoured to be shortlisted amongst other fabulous businesses in our category.”

Fifth Quadrant has experienced 30% revenue growth over the last five years and has developed at least 20 new products to assist leading organisations design and operationalise customer experience strategy, products and services.

"Our mantra has been that we are ‘Better than the Big Houses’ and our accelerated growth has come from working with Boards, CEOs and Executive teams to develop customer experience strategy that drives the four traditional strategies of Finance, HR, Technology and Sales & Marketing” said Wallace.

Will Irving, Telstra Business Group Managing Director and Ambassador for the Telstra Australian Business Awards, said the range and experience of New South Wales businesses vying for this year’s awards was a positive sign for the growth of the local economy. “The calibre of New South Wales finalists in this year’s awards is outstanding and goes to show why small and medium businesses are the backbone of Australia. “It is so important that we recognise the businesses that support our local communities and celebrate the significant contribution they make by creating jobs, driving innovation and bringing their expertise and innovations to customers - locally and all over the world,” said Mr Irving.

Following the award submission in April, the stringent judging process included a site visit, management interview and presentation to members of the judging panel. Winners of the 2013 Telstra New South Wales Business Awards will be announced in Sydney at Hilton Sydney on Tuesday 9 July.

Australian businesses attempting to contact ASIC are reportedly spending an average of 8.5 minutes on hold despite the corporate regulator having doubled its contact centre headcount in the past year.

According to Business Insider Australia, ASIC call volumes grew from 650,000 in May 2011-12 to more than 1.1 million calls since May 2012, when it combined the eight state and territory business name registers into a national database. Website issues also wreaked havoc on ASIC's contact centre initially, with businesses callers requiring help being turned away by a recorded message that said only to call back later.

"After Business Names Online commenced, the volume of calls almost doubled and the average wait time increased to an average of 13 minutes over the past 12 months," an ASIC spokesperson told Business Insider, noting that callers waited an average of 40 seconds prior to May 2012. "On a few occasions the wait time exceeded 30 minutes. This has now improved to a current average wait time of just over 8 minutes." ASIC's spokesperson said it did not expect call rates to fall significantly below current figures, because ASIC's registry business had effectively doubled in size to 1.7 million names since the online register was launched.

China Southern Airlines has upgraded Australian customer service by continuing to grow its local staff in line with the increasing needs of the region.

In the past 12 months, the customer service team has tripled in size and now occupies a purpose-built contact centre taking up an entire floor of China Southern's new regional headquarters in Sydney's CBD. New staff appointments include a customer relations team, led by former Air New Zealand staffer Azad Rehman, an assistant manager and a team leader to support the contact centre.

The airline has also added a new Sky Pearl team, dedicated to group bookings and a growing presence on social media. China Southern regional general manager Australia/New Zealand Henry He said improving customer service in the region was a top priority. "Since we moved into our new Sydney headquarters last year, we have been committed to growing and improving regional customer service and I couldn't be happier with the progress of our friendly, professional and proudly multicultural team."

Resort Management company Classic Holidays says its staff has excelled its expectations following the latest guest satisfaction surveys.

Three days after checking out, resort guests are sent a customer survey via email asking them to rate different aspects of their experience while they were on holiday at a Classic Holidays resort. Averages calculated for March and April show that 90% guests stated that their overall experience at a Classic Holidays managed resort exceeded their expectations.
However, the most impressive survey statistic was the one that relates to the resort staff.

An outstanding 97% of guests said that the resort staff exceeded their expectations when it came to customer service and courtesy. Established in 1978 with head office operations on the Gold Coast, Classic Holidays is Australia's largest privately owned timeshare Resort Management Company, representing almost 50,000 member families and responsible for over 650 employees.

US contact centre IT company LiveOps has formed a strategic alliance with Connect NZ to offer the LiveOps cloud contact centre to its contact centre portfolio.

Connect NZ offers an "integrated solution combining the LiveOps platform and applications with their own telephony offerings". The combined solution provides the ability to enable multiple communications channels including voice, chat, email, SMS and social media over a single platform, and tighter integration with cloud-based CRM databases.

Connect NZ is a well-established technology provider with more than 30 years of experience working with a wide range of businesses from medium enterprise businesses through to education providers, government and corporate organisations. "We clearly see the value shift from on-premise to cloud. LiveOps Platform gives us a new reason to interact with our customers who have otherwise been stuck with traditional call centres," Connect NZ CEO Karl Rosnell said.

Australian businesses attempting to contact ASIC are reportedly spending an average of 8.5 minutes on hold despite the corporate regulator having doubled its contact centre headcount in the past year.

According to Business Insider Australia, ASIC call volumes grew from 650,000 in May 2011-12 to more than 1.1 million calls since May 2012, when it combined the eight state and territory business name registers into a national database. Website issues also wreaked havoc on ASIC's contact centre initially, with businesses callers requiring help being turned away by a recorded message that said only to call back later.

"After Business Names Online commenced, the volume of calls almost doubled and the average wait time increased to an average of 13 minutes over the past 12 months," an ASIC spokesperson told Business Insider, noting that callers waited an average of 40 seconds prior to May 2012. "On a few occasions the wait time exceeded 30 minutes. This has now improved to a current average wait time of just over 8 minutes." ASIC's spokesperson said it did not expect call rates to fall significantly below current figures, because ASIC's registry business had effectively doubled in size to 1.7 million names since the online register was launched.

China Southern Airlines has upgraded Australian customer service by continuing to grow its local staff in line with the increasing needs of the region.

In the past 12 months, the customer service team has tripled in size and now occupies a purpose-built contact centre taking up an entire floor of China Southern's new regional headquarters in Sydney's CBD. New staff appointments include a customer relations team, led by former Air New Zealand staffer Azad Rehman, an assistant manager and a team leader to support the contact centre.

The airline has also added a new Sky Pearl team, dedicated to group bookings and a growing presence on social media. China Southern regional general manager Australia/New Zealand Henry He said improving customer service in the region was a top priority. "Since we moved into our new Sydney headquarters last year, we have been committed to growing and improving regional customer service and I couldn't be happier with the progress of our friendly, professional and proudly multicultural team."

Resort Management company Classic Holidays says its staff has excelled its expectations following the latest guest satisfaction surveys.

Three days after checking out, resort guests are sent a customer survey via email asking them to rate different aspects of their experience while they were on holiday at a Classic Holidays resort. Averages calculated for March and April show that 90% guests stated that their overall experience at a Classic Holidays managed resort exceeded their expectations.
However, the most impressive survey statistic was the one that relates to the resort staff.

An outstanding 97% of guests said that the resort staff exceeded their expectations when it came to customer service and courtesy. Established in 1978 with head office operations on the Gold Coast, Classic Holidays is Australia's largest privately owned timeshare Resort Management Company, representing almost 50,000 member families and responsible for over 650 employees.

US contact centre IT company LiveOps has formed a strategic alliance with Connect NZ to offer the LiveOps cloud contact centre to its contact centre portfolio.

Connect NZ offers an "integrated solution combining the LiveOps platform and applications with their own telephony offerings". The combined solution provides the ability to enable multiple communications channels including voice, chat, email, SMS and social media over a single platform, and tighter integration with cloud-based CRM databases.

Connect NZ is a well-established technology provider with more than 30 years of experience working with a wide range of businesses from medium enterprise businesses through to education providers, government and corporate organisations. "We clearly see the value shift from on-premise to cloud. LiveOps Platform gives us a new reason to interact with our customers who have otherwise been stuck with traditional call centres," Connect NZ CEO Karl Rosnell said.

Building company Metricon Homes has implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM to upgrade service to its growing customer base.

Metricon found its fast-expanding customer base, in a market where a typical sales cycle can lasts between six to nine months, coupled with a lack of customer data visibility, was impeding its marketing efforts. It began looking for a customer-centric platform to centralise its leads database and enhance its customer experience.
"Microsoft Dynamics CRM was chosen for its good fit with our existing technology architecture and ability to easily configure data capture forms, workflows and business intelligence information," said Mr Orsolic, Chief Information Officer, Metricon Homes Pty Ltd. "As we grow rapidly from a mid-sized company to an enterprise, efficiency is key to ensure that we can sustain this growth while remaining competitive."

The company says it gained immediate benefits from centralising its leads management. Metricon now has the ability to track all customer enquiries, correspondence and marketing materials to ensure timely follow ups by its sales team as well as maintaining prospect's interest across the long sales process. Lead duplication can also now be efficiently filtered out. Most importantly, losing leads as a result of staff movement is now a thing of the past.

US computer giant Dell has opened a new operations site in Chengdu during a forum staged to highlight the Chinese city's potential as an IT hub.

The new Dell facility will combine customer service, sales and manufacturing. "Dell's Chengdu operations site is a milestone in Dell's 'Go West' strategy and underscores our deep commitment to the China market," Dell Global Emerging Markets chairman Admit Midha said. The establishment of Dell's Chengdu facility is also expected to help attract worldwide suppliers to the city and to spur related manufacturing industries in the area.

German software company SAP's Alex Atzberger said China is a very important market for his company. "Chengdu can be a hub of mobile and cloud (technologies) in China. Therefore it is important for SAP to have a development plan in this market," he said. SAP has sent engineers to Chengdu to develop cloud services and other technologies, and it is also working with many partners based in Chengdu and other parts of western China.

Iconic motorcycle company Harley Davidson has introduced a 24x7 Roadside Assistance Program for its Indian customers.

"As a brand built around the customer, Harley Davidson is committed to providing our riders with a superior ownership experiences," said Harley Davidson India MD Anoop Prakash. Harley Davidson has launched the roadside assistance initiative in a joint collaboration with India Assistance, a completely owned subsidiary of Mapfre Assistance.
"With the team at India Assistance, we are now offering a menu of important services, 24×7 support, and trucks that can safely and efficiently tow our entire model line-up," Prakash said.

The roadside assistance program provides a sense of safety and comfort to our customers who can now cruise Indian roads with greater peace of mind. Our investment is in line with our long term commitment to lead the development of leisure motorcycling in India."

The Philippines Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has designated customer service officers in every region of the country to handle queries surrounding new Kasambahay affecting domestic workers.

DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the Kasambahay desk officers will be assigned to regional offices of the labor department. "Questions on the implementation of the Batas Kasambahay are unavoidable, especially during the first few weeks of its implementation. That is why having a DOLE personnel specifically assigned to handle queries and concerns in relation to the rules and regulations of the Batas Kasambahay is a good means to ensure that understanding can be fostered," Baldoz said.

The Kasambahay Law, or the Domestic Workers Act, entitles household workers to minimum wage coverage and benefits such as the Social Security System, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation and leave. Aside from the designation of Kasambahay desk officers, DOLE has also set up a contact center and hotline.

US union the Communications Workers of America (CWA) is renewing its public push for a new law that would punish companies that offshore contact center jobs to destinations like Asia.

The bill is sponsored by Democrat Linda Rosenthal in the Assembly and Republican George Maziarz in the Senate. In a statement, the CWA said was focusing on contact center jobs in New York state as the start of its push with the Save New York Call Center Jobs Act (S. 4434/A.7144)."There are 748,500 unemployed New Yorkers," CWA's Bob Master said. "And 300,000 more jobs are at risk. New York should implement this common-sense legislation and protect high-quality call center jobs from going overseas."

The Save New York Call Center Jobs would require companies to disclose their plans to relocate contact center jobs from New York to foreign countries and hold a public hearing. Companies that failed to notify the state in the required time period would be subject to a maximum civil penalty of $10,000 per day of being in such violation. It would also prohibit such companies from receiving state benefits and contracts.

Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty says the entry of new banks will help improve customer service in the country's banking industry.

"Why we are suffering is that we have not allowed new banks to come in. If new banks come in, then many of our problems on the customer service front will be solved," Chakrabarty said. Only 35% of the adult Indians have accounts with banks and financial institutions.

"So, one demand should come from everybody that more banks should come in. If you allow more banks, then consumer service will be better," Chakrabarty said. The RBI in February released the much-awaited final guidelines on new banking licenses in line with the government's Union Budget 2010-11 proposal to allow more players in the sector, with an aim to promote financial inclusion in the country.

Fifth Quadrant is delighted to be selected as a Finalist in the Telstra New South Wales Business Awards in the Medium Business Award category.

"Being selected as a NSW finalist is a great honour and has been the culmination of our team’s unwavering commitment to working with Australian, Asian and North American based enterprise and government organisations to design and deliver amazing customer experience,” said Dr Catriona Wallace, CEO, Fifth Quadrant. “We’re honoured to be shortlisted amongst other fabulous businesses in our category.”

Fifth Quadrant has experienced 30% revenue growth over the last five years and has developed at least 20 new products to assist leading organisations design and operationalise customer experience strategy, products and services.

"Our mantra has been that we are ‘Better than the Big Houses’ and our accelerated growth has come from working with Boards, CEOs and Executive teams to develop customer experience strategy that drives the four traditional strategies of Finance, HR, Technology and Sales & Marketing” said Wallace.

Will Irving, Telstra Business Group Managing Director and Ambassador for the Telstra Australian Business Awards, said the range and experience of New South Wales businesses vying for this year’s awards was a positive sign for the growth of the local economy. “The calibre of New South Wales finalists in this year’s awards is outstanding and goes to show why small and medium businesses are the backbone of Australia. “It is so important that we recognise the businesses that support our local communities and celebrate the significant contribution they make by creating jobs, driving innovation and bringing their expertise and innovations to customers - locally and all over the world,” said Mr Irving.

Following the award submission in April, the stringent judging process included a site visit, management interview and presentation to members of the judging panel. Winners of the 2013 Telstra New South Wales Business Awards will be announced in Sydney at Hilton Sydney on Tuesday 9 July.

Polaris is delighted to announce that two of its products, the Soundshield 4G Acoustic Safety device and the recently released Soundshield Wireless Headset, have been honoured with individual iF product design awards for 2013.

For 60 years, the iF design awards have been an internationally recognised label for award-winning design in the three disciplines of product, communication and packaging design. The iF brand is a seal of quality and has become a symbol for outstanding design achievement.

When Polaris decided to develop the new Soundshield, it strived to develop a product that was world-class and market leading in its category; a product that not only delivered the best acoustic protection possible, but that also provided headset users with a user interface which enabled them to work more effectively. Hundreds of contact centre agents were surveyed and their needs were documented. The result was the Soundshield 4G, a stylish plug and play acoustic safety device that features HD wideband sound and a large, intuitive touchscreen that provides users with all of the essential call controls at their fingertips.

The Soundshield Wireless Headset followed naturally and is the first wireless headset to be uniquely designed for contact centres. Modelled on the Soundshield 4G and including all of its features, Polaris turned its attention to user comfort. Keeping in mind that contact centre users wear a headset virtually all day long, it designed a lightweight headset piece that achieves maximum comfort. Polaris also added features such as a long talk time (the longest of any wireless headset), easy one touch pairing and side-by-side remote supervisor coaching and training, making the Soundshield Wireless the most comprehensive and acoustically safe headset in the world.

The iF awards is recognition of the effort and commitment Polaris has put into developing these world-leading contact centre products. Over the past three and a half years more than 50,000 man hours have been dedicated to achieving excellence in every facet of their design. Proudly developed and designed in Australia, the Soundshield 4G and Soundshield Wireless Headset stand beside other iF product design winners from companies such as Samsung, Sony and Apple.

For more information on either the Soundshield 4G or Soundshield Wireless Headset visit www.soundshieldwireless.com.au.

Melbourne, Australia (3 May, 2013): Aegis Australia, one of the country's largest outsourcing and contact centre companies, has appointed a new CEO with 20-year customer contact executive Andrew Hume taking over the reins.

Aegis Australia turns over nearly $200 million annually and is a leading provider of a wide range of customer contact solutions. It has more than 2,500 contact centre seats in three locations in Australia providing the customer facing solutions for many major ASX listed companies. Aegis also has successful field marketing and registered training businesses which Hume wants to grow.

Hume, who spent more than 12 years at Aegis competitor Salmat as CEO of Customer Contact Solutions, has a clear vision where he sees the company heading. “I’m determined that Aegis will be a breath of fresh air in the Australian marketplace,” says Hume. “We’re in this for the long-haul and we’re committed to being an innovative partner to the many clients who trust us to deal with and manage their customers. Increasingly, businesses are looking for the benefits of shifting some service delivery to lower cost environments - and that's a solution that Aegis is uniquely qualified to provide."

Hume, one of the architects of the culture that won a contact centre Australia’s Best Employer Award three consecutive years, said one of his first tasks was to bolster his management team.

"I am focused on building an engaged and motivated team of highly talented, energised and creative people to fuel our next growth phase.

"Our team thrives on the challenge of working with clients and partners to craft intelligent solutions that make the complex simple."

Aegis Australia is part of the global Aegis group which boasts more than 55,000 employees in 56 locations across 13 countries with more than 300 clients.

Manila, Philippines, April 29th, 2013 - Altitude Software, a leader in unified customer interaction solutions, and PLDT ALPHA Enterprise, the ICT company of the leading Philippine telecommunications provider, today announced a partnership to bring innovative contact center solutions to top companies in the Philippines.

Altitude Software and PLDT ALPHA Enterprise bring to market high value-added managed services and hosted contact center solutions that reduce costs and optimize resources. Free from complex IT and communications management tasks, companies can focus on business development and customer service and become more productive and competitive.

New competitive advantages for companies seeking to develop business and customer relationships

“Our partnership with Altitude Software highlights PLDT ALPHA commitment to put Relationships First” stated Mr. Victor Tria; Vice President and Head of Corporate Business Solutions, PLDT. “We are in the market with top communications and customer interaction solutions that together with great service and contact center expertise, give companies new competitive advantages in developing their business and customer relationships”.

The PLDT ALPHA Contact Center Solutions service provides a managed contact center platform, managed telecom facilities and other services. It is a converged voice and data solution that has feature-rich functionalities, a high-availability and high-capacity platform, and a dedicated, secured and fully-redundant infrastructure.

Companies win more flexibility to respond to changing business needs

"PLDT ALPHA is the ICT partner of choice of top-tier companies in the Philippines” says Gastão Taveira, CEO at Altitude Software. “Our partnership is already helping key companies provide excellent customer service and grow their business. And they can do this while retaining the flexibility to respond to changing business needs and manage variations on demand on their customer interaction channels”.

Altitude uCI is a flexible and fully integrated contact center software suite optimized for hosted service delivery models, with a great track record on the global contact center market. It provides companies with a new generation of powerful, feature-rich solutions directed at sales, telemarketing, customer service, debt recovery and other business needs. From IVR to intelligent routing, from dialers to agent desktops, from workflow to knowledge base integration, Altitude Software has modular solutions to deploy selectively and address specific business needs, while enforcing security and providing reliability.

15 May, 2013: iiNet today launched new 4G mobile fleet plans, giving business customers more flexibility to stay connected while doing business on the go, with the advantage of cost effective call plans.

Workforces are becoming more mobile, so iiNet’s new flexible 4G mobile fleet plans allow business customers to stay connected for less. Starting from a very affordable $14.95 a month, the new plans include all mobile calls between staff on the same fleet plan and free voicemail. Like all of our products, these plans are designed to be simple to understand but most importantly, give business customers the ability to control costs.

“The plans are of course 4G, so they take into account the latest technology and offer customers some of the highest data speeds available on mobile,” said iiNet Chief Business Officer, Greg Bader.

Flexible contracts are also important to iiNet business customers, so they can always be on the right plan that suits their business needs at any one time. iiNet has already made this easier for some time, with a move away from locked contracts so customers can chop and change as needed. iiNet mobile fleet plans can also be purchased as SIM only which means customers can enjoy awesome call and data value with the mobile phone of their choice.

“With faster mobile access on the 4G mobile network and the new Samsung 4G-ready mobile handsets, iiNet can offer a host of opportunities to help our customers be innovative in the way they manage and grow their business,” said Greg.

The new 4G fleet plans are available from $14.95 per month, with the $29, $49 and $69 plans including all SMS.

The new 4G fleet plans include:

• Included calls to all mobiles within fleet
• Free voicemail
• Generous data inclusion
• No lock in contracts
• Mix and match with a range of handsets