Global outsourcer Aegis, which has a significant presence in Australia, has again received a Silver MVP Quality Award from US-based Technology Marketing Corporation's (TCM) CUSTOMER magazine.

CUSTOMER's MVP Quality Awards acknowledge organisations with "a true commitment to high ethical quality standards, methodology and business compliance". Aegis Global CEO Sandip Sen said the company has earned the MVP Quality Award for the fifth consecutive year.

"This progression clearly outlines our dedication and commitment to providing the best customer experience while continuously maintaining an innovative approach to quality, and offering cost-effective, high-quality solutions to many of the world's leading brands," he said. TMC CEO Rich Tehrani said Aegis has demonstrated a true commitment to high ethical standards, stringent policies and challenging goals.

Milpitas, CA (USA), and Melbourne, Australia - 14 June, 2013 – BolderView today announced that it has opened its doors in Australia and has become a Value Added Reseller (VAR) of Virtual Assistants powered by noHold.

noHold is the developer of the most interactive and diagnostic Virtual Assistant technology and Knowledge Management solutions. With successful Virtual Assistant implementations across multiple industries and on a global scale, noHold has realized the importance of providing a physical office in Australia and New Zealand. Specifically in Australia, one of the largest investor services companies as well as a popular online retailer have used noHold Virtual Assistants to increase First Contact Resolution (FCR) while reducing support costs and increasing customer satisfaction. Virtual Assistants are the future of web and mobile customer interaction.

Global technology market research companies are calling Virtual Assistants (VA) the wave of the future and they are predicting that more than 50% of online transactions will be handled by VAs in the near future. To date, Australian companies have not kept pace with those predictions. None of the leading providers of Virtual Assistant technology have offices in Australia/New Zealand. With no local marketing and sales presence, many ANZ companies are simply not aware of the benefits that Virtual Assistants provide.

BolderView’s founder recognised the opportunity and launched Australia’s first and only company focused exclusively on deploying Virtual Assistant solutions. Opening BolderView’s office in Melbourne means Australian & New Zealand companies have a local source for the world’s leading technologies and reselling noHold Virtual Assistants is a key component of that strategy.

“An existing successful relationship with BolderView’s founder, multiple happy customers and a market propensity to use Virtual Assistants made it very easy for us to decide to expand in Australia. We are happy to work with BolderView and looking forward to our continued partnership,” said Diego Ventura, CEO of noHold.

Dave Brown, Founder and Managing Director of BolderView said, “Companies in North America and Europe have been adopting Virtual Agent technology at an amazing pace. Australian companies are behind the curve – primarily because there’s been no local presence by any of the leading providers. BolderView is changing that. We represent the world’s most advanced Virtual Agent technology and we are very proud for noHold be part of our solutions.”

Bank of Queensland’s contact centre has been recognised as one of the best in the Asia Pacific region, earning a Silver Medal for Best Contact Centre at the Contact Center World annual awards dinner held in Singapore on 7 June 2013.

The mid-sized category, for call centres with 51 - 249 agents, was one of the most hotly contested as the majority of institutions fit into this category, with operations from over 50 nations considered as part of the overall awards assessment process. BOQ's national call centre manager Rod Attrill said his team prided itself on providing excellence in personal service.

"Our ultimate goal is to make sure that every customer conversation is a positive one - as a smaller independent bank, our focus is on meeting our customers' needs not treating them as a just another number or following a process for the sake of it," Attrill said. "We are supported by a broader company culture which encourages employees to put the customer first and gives them the flexibility to solve any problems they might have." BOQ has around 100 call centre employees with the majority based in Perth, Western Australia.

Computershare regional director Australasia Scott Cameron says 50 of the 1,900 share registry services group’s staff in Melbourne will lose their jobs.

The company is moving some contact centre functions offshore to the Philippines and India. The outsourcing is in line with a trend also seen at ANZ Banking, and at the operations acquired by Computershare from Bank of New York Mellon.

Computershare last month completed an 18-month effort to move the Bank of New York Mellon’s shareowner services division to its IT infrastructure after acquiring the business in December 2011. The company transferred some 25 million Bank of New York Mellon records to its core share registry system, SCRIP.

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.

Tourism Noosa has launched a new training program to raise the level of customer service throughout the coastal city.

General manager Damien Massingham said service it is a key challenge facing the tourism industry. He said the Welcome to Noosa program aims to educate local tourism operators and restaurants about the importance of giving high levels of customer service.

"Tourism Australia and Tourism Queensland have identified that throughout Australia actually one of the key challenges is customer service," he said. "Tourism Noosa spoke to our members and they again identified that it remains a problem. So the Tourism Noosa team have put together Welcome to Noosa which really will be a whole new benchmark in raising the levels of customer service."

New Zealand’s Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has acknowledged increased demand has meant people have not been able to reach its contact centre on busy days.

Customer Services Manager Eleanor Young told reporters the contact centres received over a million calls in April and May this year, almost double the same time in 2012. "While we have answered a similar number of calls as we did this time last year, the increased demand has created challenges for our contact centres, and we acknowledge the difficulties and frustration this high demand is creating for customers trying to contact us.

She said the department is rectifying the strains on its resources by employing 100 temporary workers over the coming months, and shifting some current staff into its contact centre. Young said IRD has also created more voice self-service options for main queries, and is encouraging customers to use online services.

The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) says retailers must educate themselves to avoid misleading consumers about their rights.

The ARA said customer service staff could not be expected to have thorough knowledge of complex legislation. The warning comes in the wake of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s decision to go ahead with legal action against nine Harvey Norman franchises accused of giving shoppers the wrong information about faulty goods and refunds.

"Retailers don't go out to break the law," ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said. "I believe in 99.9% of cases where wrong information is given, it's the result of ignorance about the rules." The ARA says retailers have a responsibility to seek expert advice to ensure staff can pass on correct information.

Government owned betting agency Tabcorp has won a 2013 Channel Innovation Award from US-based Retail TouchPoints by using the SDL Intelligent Marketing Suite to integrate mobile directly into its overall multi-channel marketing strategy.

SDL was chosen by Tabcorp because the flexibility and breadth of the solution enabled the company to send integrated, just-in-time campaigns to its critical revenue generating events. Retail TouchPoints recognised Tabcorp for its cross-channel marketing campaigns, particularly its mobile strategy, around the Melbourne Cup in 2012. As part of the eight-day Melbourne Cup Week, Tabcorp introduced a mobile registration and dedicated mobile CRM program for the first time.

New customers acquired by Tabcorp during Cup Week made 59% of their bets and spent 60% of their turnover through mobile products including .mobi, native apps and tablets. Tabcorp was also able to capture valuable data through the mobile channel and begin to grow a previously untapped customer segment that prefers mobile devices and uses mobile as a primary purchase channel.

German carmaker Volkswagen has set up a dedicated contact centre to handle customer queries after issuing a recall on more than 25,000 cars sold in Australia.

The vehicles affected were built between June 2008 and September 2011 and include the Golf hatchback, the Jetta sedan, the Polo hatchback, the Passat sedan and wagon and the Caddy van. The recall follows two weeks of pressure from customers demanding their cars be fixed for wide-ranging mechanical faults.

In addition to the official recall, Volkswagen Australia will also call 4000 diesel cars back to dealerships for inspection. Volkswagon subsidiaries Skoda and Audi have also begun a vehicle call back, with their own hotlines.

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.

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."

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.

UK-based cloud contact centre solutions provider NewVoiceMedia has opened its new Asia Pacific headquarters in Sydney.

NewVoiceMedia produces ContactWorld, which is designed to provide contact centre technology as a 'true Cloud service'. APAC vice-president Brett Waters said the new Sydney headquarters has been launched to accommodate for growing demand in the region, and forms part of NewVoiceMedia's global expansion strategy.

"The company's expansion into Sydney…will strengthen our footprint in APAC which is one of our highest growth regions," Waters said. "As an industry leading organisation, we are always looking for ways to better service our customers and prospects, and the opening of this office provides us with an excellent facility to base our team."

Leading public sector solutions provider Northgate Public Services will upgrade its cloud customer service offering via a new partnership with Content Guru.

The collaboration will initially focus on helping councils to give their residents a better customer experience through their customer service centres, whether people choose to call, send texts and emails, go online or use social media. Public sector colleagues will also be able to work together more efficiently using Content Guru's storm platform.

"Councils are under enormous pressure to make it easier for people to use their services, but at the same time many have to reduce their costs by as much as 20% over the next few years," said Northgate Public Services' Joe Bradley. "The strategic relationship between Northgate and Content Guru will enable local authorities to share customer service centre and telephony resources in the cloud. This will help councils to improve the quality, efficiency and pro-activity of their services for local people, in a way that's future-proofed and cost-effective."

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.

Australian home-based contact centre outsourcer Unity-4 is expanding into the New Zealand market and expects to create up to 150 jobs.

Unity4 CEO Global Dan Turner said New Zealand is the second international expansion for the contact centre outsourcing and technology company. "This is a very exciting development for Unity4," Turner said. "Last year we employed over 500 people in the United Kingdom and Australia, and have brought our proven work from home model and leading cloud based contact centre technology to New Zealand."

Turner said recruitment is underway and more than 20 agents have already been hired, working from home from all over New Zealand. "We have welcomed our first technology client, Flight Centre, and are very close to finalising negotiations with three others. We are confident that many more kiwi companies with a need for innovative, cost effective contact centre services will come on board in the coming months."

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.

Special Feature: Analyst Interview with Tom Dickerson, Business Consultant, Salmat Customer Engagement Solutions.

By Chris Kirby, Head of Analyst Services & Customer Research, Fifth Quadrant

Salmat has gone through some significant changes recently with the demerging of its BPO business and the recent announcement of a strategic partnership with Kana. Chris Kirby, Head of Analyst Services, spoke to Tom Dickerson, Business Consultant, Salmat Customer Engagement Solutions to understand Salmat’s revitalised strategy and provide insights into how organisations can better leverage disgruntled customers.

CK: What are the key strategic objectives for Salmat in the next 2 to 3 years and how are Salmat positioning itself in the market to achieve these objectives?

The big change for Salmat is we have sold our BPO business which was our largest business unit. What that means moving forward is that all of the organisation’s focus is now firmly on the customer experience element of our business.

CK How does Salmat differentiate from some of the other traditional players in this space?

Two elements really, one is breadth in the sense that we offer the full suite across everything and the value you get through integrating that full suite. Secondly our model is extracted from the learnings we gain from what we are doing in the real world and the operations we are managing for our customers.

CK: What do you see as some of the biggest issues facing the industry for the 2 to 3 years?

The issues are exciting at the same time. The top issue for me is that studies are demonstrating that customer satisfaction is bearing a greater weight than brand loyalty now than it did say 15 or 20 years ago. This is a challenge because for some of the big powerful brands as they can’t get away with having average service anymore. They have to actually compete with some of the smaller guys on a service level and not just hide behind the brand itself so that is creating a bit of a stir. Another challenge is that customer expectations are changing. They want to be able to communicate on their terms, this includes selecting the channel they use and often spans social.

CK: How do you see the outsourcing industry evolving over the next 2 to 3 years?

Overall I think international cost pressures are going to play a role, procurement is going to play a big role and I think organisations will be more considered about the way they manage their outsourcing practices. Organisations are become more considered in terms of looking at different operational functions and assessing which elements of the customer experience can be kept onshore versus what can be taken offshore. We are finding that some organisations will keep sales focused activities onshore and often near shore (I.e. New Zealand). The net effect will be an increase in outsourcing with a more considered location strategy.

CK: From your perceptive, where do you see most organisations going wrong when dealing with customer complaints?

The big problem is viewing it as operational work load. Contact centres are perceived to be a cost to the business and part of this workload is handling complaints. The greatest value exists in a shift of thinking where complaints are really viewed as insights and the basis that the learnings and trends you can identify through complaints are the backbone to identifying business improvement initiatives. The premise being, that if someone complains about something there is probably going to be 9 other people who are calling about the same issue. Therefore the weight of value of getting it right is significant from a cost point of view as well from CSAT point of view.

CK: Is there anything you have learned around improving the complaint resolution process that organisations should be aware of?

I think it begins with empowerment. So often you see when you are inside the contact centre, so many complaints will come through to a point that team leaders can no longer handle them because it becomes a full time and specialised role. Empowering front line staff to make decisions around how they can handle complaints and equipping them with the skills to respond to those conversations will help. If you handle a complaint really well, if the customer is frustrated and they complain but the agent is showing a sincere desire to resolve it and seek a resolution it can become a positive experience for the customer and the agent. More importantly, viewing your contact centre as ‘the nose’ of your business means creating a culture whereby frontline staff are focused on identifying points of customer dissatisfaction. This must be coupled with a framework that capture this information, traces it back to the root cause and drive the underlying changes that will prevent future complaints.

Six Best Western hotels across New Zealand have been recognised for their customer service with 2013 Certificates of Excellence from the world's largest travel site TripAdvisor.

Queenstown-based Best Western Cranbury Court Apartments property manager, Marama Mains is one of the Best Western winners who was voted in the top 10% of accommodation providers on TripAdvisor for the third year running. "This award can only be achieved by all of our staff who each day go above and beyond to provide the best possible experience for all of our guests and families," Marama said.

Best Western's New Zealand brand development manager and former All Black Grant Batty said motel managers take pride in delivering a warm, friendly customer service experience for all their guests. "This is a timely achievement for all the Best Western TripAdvisor winners, especially leading up to New Zealand's booming winter ski season. The six New Zealand Best Western Certificate of Excellence winners were: Best Western 555 On Bayview (Dunedin), Best Western BKs Pioneer Motor Lodge (Auckland), Best Western Braeside Resort (Rotorua), Best Western Capri Court Motor Inn (Rotorua), Best Western Cranbury Court (Queenstown), Best Western Wellington (Wellington).

In what could be one of the toughest contact centre contracts around, the Federal Attorney General's Department (AG) has started looking for staff to take calls for a new Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The AG's has issued a request for tender for Call Intake and Support Services for the long awaited official inquiry that seeks to give some acknowledgement and closure to the scores of people whose childhoods and lives were shattered by crimes that many believe were persistently covered-up by churches and authorities. The winning outsourcer must provide staff that can field the calls, provide information to callers, capture crucial information and also refer clients to "related services and other sources of assistance."

The tender calls for the successful service provider "to provide counselling, staff welfare and recruitment support services for those working on the Commission. These include "telephone counselling support to Commissioners and Commission staff", the provision of "counsellors as requested to attend hearings and sessions of the Commission" and to "provide onsite counselling support to witnesses and Clients in attendance, as well as to staff of the Commission."

Outsourcer Datacom has signed a four-year deal to provide the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) with contact centre services.

The contract follows Datacom's September 2012 appointment to the ATO's Outsource Contact Centre Services (OCCS) panel. "We are delighted to have been awarded this work after going through a fiercely competitive process to secure a place on the panel last year, and an extensive process to design a support model that met the ATO'S flexibility requirements," said Datacom Group CEO Jonathan Ladd.

In 2012 Datacom, in partnership with AusIndustry, won the Best Outsourced Contact Centre award at the Government Contact Centre Summit 2012. In the last twelve months Datacom has also signed deals with federal agencies DIAC and the ACCC.

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.

Dutch financial services company ING has opened its own in-house customer service hub in Manila to deliver back-office services to its subsidiaries in the Asia Pacific region.

The new facility handles lending, reconciliation and payments processing, and static data management to support ING Bank's eight commercial banking branches in Asia-in the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia. "Manila will be a strong addition to ING's shared services hub in Asia, including that in Singapore and the soon-to-be-established IT hub in Pune, India," ING Commercial Banking Asia CEO Mark Newman said.

The hub will initially have 30 employees in an office beside the ING Manila Branch in Makati City, but will move to new and bigger premises next year. ING is the latest international financial company to open an in-house "shared-services" facility in Manila, after UK-based HSBC and American bank JP Morgan Chase.

ISP company Internode has expanded its technical support network by launching "techii" services in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth six months after the initial launch in Adelaide.

The service will allow customers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to book by telephone a technical expert to visit their home to set up a broadband connection, install a modem, connect Internet-ready devices to Internode broadband or tweak the best performance from their broadband service. "The most common callouts are to set up new services or to integrate multiple devices throughout the house. Our customers love that everything is typically up and running within the first hour of the visit," Internode's Phil Dempster said.

Dempster said members of the techii team are staff from its contact centres, not external contractors, "so you get the real deal in our award-winning customer service." He said a techii could assist customers to get their broadband service up and running, configure their wireless network, set up Fetch TV or connect their PCs, laptops, tablets or smartphones to the Internet or provide general tech advice.

Optus chief Kevin Russell says the standard of customer service in the telecommunications industry is in decline.

"The standard of service in Australia relative to the standard of service in the UK just seems to have gone backwards," Russell told an Australia Israel Chamber of Commerce lunch in Melbourne. He said it is important for the industry to lift its game on customer service to head off competitors like Google and Apple and recoup billions of dollars invested in super-fast 4G network and spectrum licences.

"It makes me nervous that two core competitors have brand recognition with customers that is fundamentally higher than our relationship," Russel said. "That is a strategic risk that makes me nervous." He also acknowledged that banks now have a better record in serving customers. "It is not my aspiration in life to be completely outgunned by banks but they have done a good job."

Contact centre equipment company Polaris has announced that it’s Soundshield 4G Acoustic Safety device and the newly released Soundshield Wireless Headset have received 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 Soundshield Wireless Headset was designed after extensive consultation with contact centre agents and is the first wireless headset to be uniquely designed for contact centres.

The Soundshield 4G is 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.

Rude retail staff and offshore contact centres have emerged as one of the top customer service complaints in a new survey of Australian businesses.

The latest figures from business review website, Womo.com.au, found rude shop assistants are one of our nation's biggest gripes, with 30% of respondents listing them as their biggest retail complaint. The survey asked reviewers to rate common customer service complaints in three environments - bricks and mortar retail, over the phone, and when tradespeople are working at their home.

In retail, rude salespeople came out on top, followed by 22% who disliked staff who don't say hello, followed by badly trained sales assistants (15%), staff that are too focused on selling product (11%), and salespeople upselling to products of no relevance (7.9%). Having to deal with offshore centres topped the phone customer service list, also rating as the top grip for 30%. Some 20% of respondents chose automated phone services as their biggest gripe, with 12% saying being put on hold for more than five minutes made them angry.

Outsourcer Salmat has joined marketing management software provider Teradata Applications to offer the Influence cloud support and customer insights to its customers.

Influence is designed to let businesses manage their various marketing efforts through a single portal. The core of the product is an insight into how consumers are responding to marketing efforts though behaviours or actions, such as conversations with contact centre staff and navigation of the company website or Facebook page.

Salmat's Peter Anson said Influence could be hosted locally and tuned for the Australian market. "Our partnership with Teradata is a key investment and supports our philosophy of partnering with the best technology providers to help our clients meet their marketing and communication objectives," Anson said.

Traditional retailers in South East Asia are expanding their service channels to meet the challenge from online competition, according to a leading IT supplier.

Global supply chain optimisation provider Manhattan Associates says that developments in web, mobile and social commerce will continue to reshape the retail experience in the region over the coming year. Manhattan's Scott Gillies told reporters that traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers are starting to fight back by investing in services and technologies that will help them remain "both profitable and relevant".

"They are implementing what consumers like about e-commerce into their stores at the same time as investing in their own online offer, and making the overall cross-channel shopping experience seamless for their customers," Gillies said. With consumers increasingly expecting a seamless service across all channels, physical retailers were advised to optimise for mobile and connect all their channels in order to "obtain a holistic view of customer activities".

More than three in five Australian internet users access social media, with almost half logging on daily and some more than five times a day.

The 2013 Yellow Social Media Report by Sensis found Australian Facebook users are spending more than seven hours on the site every week, and the smartphone is now the most popular way to access social networks, taking over from the laptop computer. Sensis' Kelly Brough said both the number of Australians and time spent on social sites shot up this year, showing Australians of all ages were embracing online communication.

"The big thing we're learning from the report each year is the continued, really large growth of social media across Australia," Brough said. "Every site is growing and it's a testament to how important social media is becoming." The survey found 34% of social network users logged on at work, 13% at school, and 18% in the car. Some 44% used social networks in bed, 7% in the bathroom and 6% in the toilet.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand says it is extending its customer service initiatives with a planned global re-launch of the Thailand Elite Card.

The Thailand Elite Card project is designed to attract wealthy individuals and encourage them to make repeat visits to Thailand, whether for business or leisure. Under the revamped membership terms and conditions, cardholders will be able to join up for an initial down payment fee of two million Baht (US$66,000) followed by a 20,000 Baht (US$655) annual fee over a 20-year validity period. Cardholders will be eligible for a five-year Multiple Entry Visa to Thailand and a one-year stay privilege per visit.

Members will be able to access the Thailand Elite Personal Assistance (EPL) at Suvarnabhumi Airport and Phuket Airport, including a fast-track channel at the immigration counters and airport transfers by BMW series 7 limousines. They will also have a 24-hour contact center access for any special assistance.

Marine electronics company Acteon will improve its Southeast Asian customer service with a custom-built service centre at Singapore's new Offshore Marine Centre.

Due to open in July, the $11 million Acteon Singapore Operations Centre will support the offshore operations of Acteon companies across the region. It will be the first purpose-built Acteon centre to service multiple operating companies and will provide engineering, design, equipment maintenance and servicing, equipment rental and sales activities for CAPE, MENCK, Conductor Installation Services (CIS), LM Handling, Aquatic Engineering & Construction Ltd. and Claxton Engineering Services.

"South East Asia is an expanding market for all Acteon businesses and offers numerous opportunities in subsea services," Acteon Group's Paul Alcock said. "We have now reached the point where we need to provide the right local infrastructure and workforce to serve our customers in the region."

Melbourne-based outsourcer Aegis Australia says it will return money incorrectly deducted from employees pay for bathroom breaks.

At least three employees at an Aegis centre in Werribee had money taken from their pay for the amount of time they spent in the toilet during their shift. Chief executive Andrew Hume told reporters the "minimal monies" deducted would be paid back to the concerned employees.

"Aegis call centre employees have scheduled start, break, lunch and finish times, which are managed through an electronic time and attendance system," Hume said. "If an employee is absent from their rostered schedule, they are sent an electronic alert updating them to the amendment and prompting for exceptions to be made." He said after a detailed review, three instances were identified where the process had failed and time deductions were made that were incorrect against standard operating procedures. "The concerned employees have each been spoken to and the minimal monies owed will be paid in the next pay cycle," Hume said.

ANZ bank will send 70 contact centre roles from Australia to its New Zealand operations in Wellington.

The offshored roles will join 175 staff already based in Wellington, helping Australian customers. ANZ says it should need to make any Australian staff redundant, instead relying on natural attrition.

ANZ says Wellington is suited as a customer service hub thanks to its highly trained English-speaking staff, good infrastructure and a friendly time zone. An ANZ spokesman said Australia will remain the main location for calls from Australian customers and it has no plans to expand its New Zealand operation, but it will continue to look at its services.

The federal government will provide an additional $7.8m over two years to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to improve its contact centre service levels to support the introduction of the online National Business Names registration system.

ASIC assumed responsibility for the administration of the National Business Names Register in May, replacing an earlier system of separate State and Territory-based registers. "By providing this extra funding to ASIC, the government will be ensuring that ASIC is able to be contacted by the public in a quick and efficient manner," Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, Bernie Ripoll said.

Responsibility for the National Register represents a significant increase in ASIC's workload, especially with respect to the number of people accessing ASIC's client contact centre - over 1 million phone enquiries and 120,000 written enquiries since its launch. "This funding will improve ASIC's client contact centre capabilities, and allow ASIC to improve the quality of service that it provides to the community."

Australian retailers need to do more to keep up with consumer use of mobile technology, according to Google retail industry leader Ross McDonald.

Speaking at a recent Australian Information Industry Association event, McDonald said Australian retailers should instead be looking at how Australian consumers compare to their offshore counterparts. "Australia has amongst the highest smartphone penetration in the world ... we have the highest tablet penetration in the world...so we can't actually wait to see what's going to happen out of the US or copy best practices in the UK," McDonald said.

Despite Australia's rapid uptake of mobile devices, McDonald said Google research showed just 55% of the websites of Australian businesses could be seen and navigated on a mobile device. "How high do these smartphone penetration numbers have to get before we have 100 percent of businesses that can have their website viewed on a mobile device?" McDonald asked. He said "couch commerce", a spike in tablet use after 8pm at night, was an opportunity for Australian retailers.

Chinese retailer Guofang Group will upgrade its customer technology with a new CRM system from eFuture Information Technology.

Guofang is a major department store and supermarket retail operator in northwestern China with 15 subsidiaries spread across the region. In order to enhance efficiency and meet higher industry standards for customer service, Guofang has selected eFuture to upgrade the CRM system for its department stores.

Under the program, eFuture will assist Guofang in improving interactions with current and future customers through data mining and data analysis, identifying and seeking to retain the most profitable customers, and expanding the potential customer base in the process. System installation and data migration for the CRM program began in early April this year, and the first and second phases of analysis results are expected to come online on the second half of this year.

Queensland state-owned energy provider CS Energy is looking to outsource its service desk and systems administration in order to lower staff costs and improve the availability and resiliency of the operations.

CS Energy this week approached the market for contractors and suppliers to provide service desk and Windows/Intel systems admin services. As well as cost savings CS Energy is looking to improve infrastructure service levels and operational efficiency; ensure availability of skills; provide an overflow facility for increased call volumes or staff absence; and more proactively respond to incident and problem requests.

CS Energy called for an "out-of-the-box" managed services solution that it could adopt "with a minimum of development and customisation". It also asked for a service provider skilled in system upgrades, hinting at a potential Windows XP to Windows 7 upgrade. CS Energy declined to comment on the plans.

The Indian arm of networking company D-Link plans to bring its contact centre in the country in-house, moving away from its existing outsourcing arrangement.

The company also plans to set up a testing lab in India by July to ensure better localisation. "This is being set up to service our domestic clients, but we would expand it to service all other geographies," D-Link's AP Chen told reporters.

"We plan to consolidate all the calls from the English-speaking countries to India. Initially, we will recruit 45 people in India, which would be slowly scaled up to almost 200 people," Chen said. The company is also evaluating possibilities of establishing a software development centre in India within a year.

Melbourne taxi drivers will be required to pass a knowledge exam before being allowed to operate cabs under a move the state government says will improve customer service in the industry.

Fares will increase during peak times, such as Friday and Saturday nights, while prices will drop in off-peak times under changes announced by the state government after a 16-month inquiry, while card payment service fees will also drop from 10% cent to 5%. Drivers will also be guaranteed to keep at least 55% of their takings.

Victoria premier Denis Napthine says the reforms will boost customer service and restore trust and confidence in the taxi industry. "These changes will ... provide better services and safety for customers," he said. "Reforms will ensure that taxi drivers are safe, knowledgeable ... and fairly paid."

Melbourne's Moreland City Council is using videoconferencing to explain council processes interactively, including to its large population of migrant residents who speak English as a second language.

The council's delivery of videoconferencing services follows its deployment a cloud-based service by managed services provider AINS. "Through this project, customer service staff at Moreland City Council will be able to use videoconferencing to explain council processes interactively, in particular to residents who speak English as a second language," said AINS' George Pezzutto.

The Moreland Video Connect initiative is the first online video conferencing service in Victoria launched under the NBN funding, and allows council staff to engage in one-on-one visual contact with the community and provide webinars to allow groups of citizens to interact on a range of subjects and services relevant to council. Pezzutto said all three stages of the end-to-end solution provided to Moreland City Council - software development, intelligence and technical support - were devised by AINS, "to meet the very detailed and specific requirements of Moreland City Council's new online customer service centre."

The New Zealand government has opened a new multi-jurisdictional customer service centre in Christchurch to mark the return of full registry services to the District and High Courts in the city.

The new centre provides a one-stop-shop for the Ministry of Justice, and will manage face-to-face customer interactions with court customers and lawyers for the District Court and the High Court. "Christchurch's Customer Service Centre is another example of the justice sector working smarter and delivering better public services," Justice Minister Judith Collins said.

Collins said the centre will also be a stepping stone toward even more integrated services for the earthquake-hit city being delivered through the Justice and Emergency Services Precinct, a key anchor project for the Christchurch rebuild. "We are continually developing smarter ways to ensure access to justice. This Government is delivering better public services, and a safer New Zealand," Collins said.

The Philippine Health Department has dropped a better living slogan that recommended 'SEX' for contact centre centre workers after a negative reaction from the industry.

Health Undersecretary Enrique Tayag said the SEX slogan, which stood for "Stress-free, Eat the right foods and Exercise", was designed to encourage Philippine contact centre workers to lead healthier lifestyles "We thought it would be funny. They used (the acronym) SEX to make it a simple message," he told reporters.

Industry representatives objected to the acronym, saying their sector was already being stigmatised by reports that HIV infections were higher among their workers. The department is still continuing the campaign, but with the more mundane slogan of "Live Well, Work Well".

The regional Philippine city of Bacolod in Negros Occidental province has been formally identified as one of the country's newest BPO hubs.

The Philippine Department of Science and Technology formally identified Bacolod as a Center of Excellence for IT and BPO during a ceremony this week. Other Centers of Excellence in the Philippines include Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Metro Clark. As a Center of Excellence, Bacolod was elevated from the ranks of the "Top 10 Next Wave Cities in the Philippines."

Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for information and Communications Technology founding president and executive director and councilor-elect Jocelle Sigue dedicated the distinction to "every call centre agent, technical support representative, global services worker, business process manager, IT-BPO professional" and to Bacolod and Negros residents "working to prove that Bacolod, Negros Occidental is truly a Center of Excellence in the Philippine IT-BPM industry today."

A Chinese Maserati owner has taken the extreme step of hiring four sledgehammer-wielding men to smash up his $420,000 car in protest over claims of poor customer service.

The car owner, identified only by his surname Wang, had the men attack the Maserati Quattroporte at the opening of a car show in the city of Qingdao, the Qingdao Morning Post reported. Video images showed the men leaving the vehicle with a shattered windscreen and mirrors, the grille broken and dents to the bodywork. It was draped in a banner accusing the Italian manufacturer of poor decision-making.

Problems reportedly first arose when he took his car to the Maserati dealer for an unspecified repair, with staff charging him for new spare parts despite using used ones, the paper quoted Wang as saying. It later failed to fix a problem with a door and scratched the vehicle, he added. "I hope foreign luxury car producers acknowledge clearly that Chinese consumers are entitled to get the service that is commensurate with the brand," Wang was quoted as saying. Qingdao's Maserati dealer said on Chinese social media site Sina Weibo: "We deeply regret that before the two sides could reach a result via negotiation, the vehicle owner... smashed the world famous car in public... to cause a sensation."

Indian companies risk losing up to 18% of their profits due to a lack of a robust customer experience strategy, IT company Oracle says.

The Global Insights on Succeeding in the Customer Experience Era report also revealed that 93% of executives globally believe improving customer experience is one of their organisation's top three priorities in the next two years, and 91% wish to be considered a customer experience leader in their industry. The study found Indian businesses are still weighing the importance of customer experience and only 29% are just getting started with a formal customer experience initiative, while only 24% consider the state of their customer experience initiative to be advanced and 47% are still assessing "customer experience" implementations.

In India, 72% of executives felt that customers are willing to pay more for great customer experiences, while 49% indicated that customers will switch brands due to a poor customer experience. As social media gains greater customer service focus, 81% Indian executives believed that delivering a great customer experience today requires leveraging social media effectively, but 35% do not have social media for sales channels and 35% do not use social media for customer service.

Singapore customers regard good customer service and a respect of privacy as the key attributes of a reputable brand, according to new research.

A survey by PR firm H+K Strategies found that 86% of respondents believe that brands putting consumers first were important, while 81% said that brands respecting consumer privacy is important. The survey, conducted in February, covered the themes of brand image, customer focus, employer branding, corporate social responsibility and digital orientation.

Other highly regarded attributes decided by respondents included as maintaining a high level of transparency, accountability and integrity(77%); actively engaging customers (76%); is fair in dealings with stakeholders (76%); represents value for money (75%); is well respected internationally (72%) and more. Finally the study also identified opportunities for organisations to build their brands by: having dynamic marketing activities, greater online participation, taking part in corporate social responsibility initiatives and more.

Auckland Airport is hosting a week of workshops for airport staff to learn more about offering customer service to Chinese visitors.

The workshops are designed to help staff at Auckland Airport deliver better airport experiences for Chinese tourists - currently the fastest growing tourism market for New Zealand. Auckland Airport's Glenn Wedlock said the workshops are another initiative from the airport to foster and build enduring relationships with China.

"China is one of the world's leading economies and a huge growth opportunity for New Zealand. We have experienced impressive growth in Chinese arrivals during the Chinese New Year period with 30% year on year growth in the combined two month January and February period," said Wedlock. "These workshops will provide staff across the board at Auckland Airport with increased knowledge of how best to interact with our Chinese visitors, ensuring that we in turn provide the best possible travelling experience for them."

The Department of Human Services has been allocated $30 million over two years in the new federal budget to help it meet customer demand for Centrelink call centre services and reduce waiting times.

Minister for Human Services Jan McLucas said the funding will allow additional staff to be employed to act as a "surge capability" in contact centres. "The Department received over 44 million Centrelink-related calls in 2011-12, that's around 160,000 calls per day," McLucas said. "This funding means we will now have a greater ability to match the availability of call centre staff with caller demand fluctuations and reduce call waiting times."

McLucas said given the large number of calls, demand during the day and over a week can be highly variable and sometimes lead to wait times that are longer than are acceptable. "Accordingly, the Department is working hard to continue to strengthen its telephone services, with a particular focus on those lines where people can sometimes experience longer wait times," she said.

Dimension Data New Zealand says it has won Microsoft's Innovative Technology for Good Citizenship Partner of the Year Award for its implementation of a CRM solution with Prison Fellowship New Zealand.

Dimension Data migrated Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree program from a legacy application to a new system, which gave the organisation flexibility to manage years of historical data, while being able to extend its capability and manage other programs in the community. Prison Fellowship New Zealand is a volunteer-based Christian ministry that attempts to be a "national movement of reconciliation and restoration within the Criminal Justice System".

The Dynamics CRM solution helps the Prison Fellowship manage grants and funding, community children enrichment programs, donation management and volunteer training. In addition, Dimension Data built a donation portal, hosted on Windows AZURE, to collect donations through a credit card gateway. "It is very fulfilling to use our skills and experience with Microsoft technology to help organisations like Prison Fellowship do great work for the community," said Dimension Data CEO Simon Gillespie.

Technology, furniture, medical, cafe and cleaning supplies company OfficeMax Australia will set up new contact centre at its Derwent Park facility north of Hobart.

The new centre, expected to create about 70 new jobs, will be set up with $600,000 in funding from the federal government and $200,000 in funding from the Tasmanian government. The new contact centre will use the National Broadband Network, which OfficeMax is already connected to, and will support clients from across Australia.
Recruitment for the new jobs is expected to start next year.

"It is fantastic that another multinational company is demonstrating confidence in the Tasmanian economy, following Vodafone's decision to create an additional 750 jobs at its Kingston call centre," Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings said. In March, Vodafone announced it would add 750 jobs to its Kingston centre in the state. "We have been working with this company for a number of months to secure these jobs for Tasmanians against competition from other jurisdictions," Giddings said.

The federal privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into a Telstra data breach that led to thousands of customer names, telephone numbers and home and business addresses accessible to a Google search.

Federal privacy commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim Telstra has briefed him about the incident and advised that its customers' information, contained within Excel spreadsheets, was no longer online. Pilgrim said Telstra is investigating the incident and has started to contact affected customers. Data discovered online included customer names, telephone numbers and in some cases home and business addresses.

"I have asked that Telstra provide me with further information on the incident, including how it occurred, what information was compromised and what steps they have taken to prevent a reoccurrence," he said. As part of his investigation he said he would look at whether Telstra's practices were consistent with the Privacy Act 1988 at the time of the data breach, which was revealed by Fairfax Media on Thursday last week.

Qantas-owned regional carrier QantasLink is outsourcing customer service, baggage handling and aircraft cleaning at Mildura Airport.

Qantas says it is inefficient to run its own ground handling services because of the airline's flight schedule, which runs three return flights each day, except for Saturday when there are two return flights. A Qantas spokesman told reporters the schedule means there is a lot of unproductive time for employees during the day.

NTL Aviation Services has been appointed to provide customer service, baggage handling and aircraft cleaning. The airline says it will try and redeploy the six affected workers within the Qantas Group or provide redundancy packages.

Tasmanian auto club the RACT (Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania) has selected Noble Systems' Noble ShiftTrack Workforce Management (WFM) software for its contact centres.

"RACT is committed to providing our members and the wider Tasmanian community with world's best service and expertise," RACT's Rose Schmalfuss said. "That's why we chose to deploy the Noble ShiftTrack WFM solution. It will allow us to more accurately forecast call volumes, so that we more effectively predict how many staff we require to meet our service levels, and to schedule staff with the correct skills at each location."

Noble ShiftTrack WFM provides predictive and analytical features that allow the organisation to maximise results from their team of customer contact specialists and to improve member services. "We're excited to serve a company that is focused on finding ways to enhance life in its local community," Noble Systems Asia Pacific's Ashley Clayton.

Customer service staff at Virgin Airlines is threatening industrial action over pay and conditions.

Check-in staff have claimed they are paid well below market rates, while baggage handlers have overwhelmingly rejected Virgin's pay deal, with more than 80% voting against the airline's offer. The Australian Services Union warns it is keeping its options open if a meeting on Friday fails to get progress on a better pay deal.

ASU assistant secretary Linda White told reporters customer service operators were angry and would not rule out industrial action. "The salaries are not close to what the market is paying," she said.

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has formerly recognised more than 100 of its staff members who it says have gone the extra mile toward customer service for the traveling public.

The airport each year presents customer service awards to its best staff. Examples of outstanding service included Windy Chiu from the Hong Kong Tourism Board who not only helped a French couple with advice about the Lion Dance Championship in Hong Kong, but even bought and sent them tickets to their hotel. Vicky Li, Ella Fan and Lemon Su from China Merchant Shekou Ferry Terminal were also commended for helping a passenger who was 29 weeks pregnant.

"This year marks HKIA's 15th anniversary, and every year we aim to go above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the best possible experience for our growing number of travellers, said Airport Authority Hong Kong CEO Stanley Hui Hon-chung. "Our 65,000 airport staff are committed to providing top-notch customer service and helping HKIA maintain its status as one of the world's best and busiest passenger airports, and some go a step further to enrich the passenger journey."

Indian businesses have been quick to recognise the potential of social media as a customer service channel, according to new research.

Ernst & Young's recent Social Media Marketing - India Trends Study 2013, found that Indian companies are using social media primarily to build communities and highlight brand news, with many already moving beyond Facebook and onto emerging platforms. As well as building communities (95.7%) and highlighting brand news (76.1%), companies polled for the report said they were using social media engagement to provide customer service (58.7%), generate leads (43.5%) and carry out research (41.3%).

"Social media is fast emerging as a means of partnership between organisations and their customers, leading to continuous engagement and deeper loyalty," Ernst & Young's Dinesh Mishra told the Times of India. Facebook was most important platform for marketers in India for engaging customers, followed by Twitter, YouTube and blogging, but almost half of respondents were already using emerging platforms such as Pinterest, Google+ and Foursquare.

Philippine outsourcer Stream Global Services Cebu is looking to take a leadership role in corporate social responsibility with the launch of its Pay It Forward Project (PIFP).

Stream director Potski Alvarez said the PIFP project is part of his company's commitment to the community, which started last January and will run throughout the year. "It's high time for the business process outsourcing sector to make a bigger impact on the society," said Alvarez. The PIFP commenced with an outreach program to The Children of Cebu, Inc. in January, Celebrate Life with Kythe Foundation in February, Cuts for Cancer with Donate Your Hair Inc. in March and Adopt-A-Mangrove with Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation in April.

Other initiatives underway or still being planned include a post-election and coastal clean-up, medical missions, animal rescue, Pink October, deaf empowerment and pride diversity events. Alvarez said Stream is strengthening its CSR programs this year and increasing employee involvement. "We've been supporting Cebu in the lasts eight years when it was not yet a prime BPO destination. Now it has emerged as a top technology hub in Asia. With this achievement, I guess it's just right to give back to the people," he said.

Australian social media management company Local Measure has secured Gelatissimo as its first customer in Singapore and Philippines after announcing plans to expand its presence into Southeast Asia.

Local Measure helps businesses improve customer service by engaging with honest conversations on social media. It leverages aggregated data across Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Instagram to provide insights for retailers, with results captured in real-time allowing retailers to immediately adjust their strategy based on live feedback.

The Local Measure social media tool will be used in over 40 Gelatissimo stores. "Local Measure allows retailers to reclaim that personal customer service so often lost in the business transaction," said Local Measure CEO Jonathan Barouch. "While some customers may comment to friends or colleagues about weak coffee or poorly manicured pinkies, few would complain to the retailer outright. With Local Measure, retailers can now use this feedback to improve their customer service and make changes to their products or services accordingly."

Allianz Global Assistance Australia has set up a smartphone app to help drivers track the location of their recovery vehicle in real-time.

Allianz Global Assistance has one million policy holders and managed 125,000 automotive breakdowns throughout Australia last year. "We can authenticate them as being a policyholder and if they need assistance they can specify what type of assistance, whether they have a flat tyre or battery issue or others," Allianz Global Assistance's Dean Peck said of the new app. "We can then show and alert the customer potentially on Google Maps, either on an iPhone or an Android device, the whereabouts the provider is in terms of location and how far and how long they would expect to take."

Peck said the app can never replace human interaction via telephone calls to its customer service centre, but in many cases will be complementary. "A fully automated system would be always applicable but if people can be made aware that a job has been logged and assistance is at hand and how far away it is, that really gives them peace of mind that they're not forgotten," he said.

ANZ Bank says it has embarked on Asia-Pacific's biggest deployment of its next-generation teller cash recycler (TCR) to provide a "friendlier, more engaging branch experience".

The NCR Cash Recycler 11 accepts and dispenses cash for teller staff, allowing them to focus their attention on the customer rather than counting bank notes. The devices immediately secure all deposited notes in its safe, cash drawers and loose cash are eliminated from the teller counter, improving security. This has enabled ANZ to remove barriers within the branch, which have traditionally kept customers and staff on opposite sides of the counter.

"The NCR Cash Recycler is enabling us to make our branches even more open, welcoming and friendly, where our staff can shake our customers' hands and have meaningful face-to-face conversations," ANZ's Lynne Sutherland said. "As in any other retail store, our staff can now engage more productively with customers, move around the branch with them and discuss banking solutions more effectively. The NCR Cash Recycler 11 helps ANZ create a better overall experience for customers."

Board members and executives from ANZ Bank have traveled to the US on a week-long fact-finding mission to examine the customer service strategies of leading players including Apple and Google.

The delegation, including CEO Mike Smith and chairman John Morschel are attempting to gain an insight into technological innovation in financial services. "The aim of the visit is to deepen our understanding of emerging and future technologies, including global payments systems, mobile solutions and other technology developments that can improve customer service and centricity," ANZ spokesman Stephen Ries said.

Along with Apple and Google, ANZ will meet with companies including Cisco, IBM and Hewlett Packard. Banking analyst Brian Johnson told reporters it was a good move for the bank's board to mingle with technology leaders in the United States, saying "I think they would learn a lot".

Australian banks are among the biggest users of social media customer service, according to a new study.

The new report from online marketing company Web Profits measured companies by their Facebook and Twitter followers and how often they posted updates or tweets. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corporation and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group are all among the top 10 ASX 100 companies using Facebook and Twitter.

CBA came in at number one out of the top ten, with nearly 398,000 Facebook fans and about 19,300 Twitter followers, while four out of six banks in the top 100 have more than 20,000 Facebook fans. Other companies in the top ten include Telstra, Westfield Group and Sydney Airport. "That the big four banks have caught on indicates that even traditionally risk-shy companies know that the blend of information and customer service that social media can achieve is a powerful marketing and loyalty tool," Web Profits MD Paul Sprokkreeff said. While many were excelling with the adoption of social media, the report also found that 46% of the top 100 companies were not using the channel. "That did surprise me. Facebook is one of our biggest platforms with over 11 million active users but only a quarter of our top 100 companies are using it to engage with consumers," Sprokkreeff said.

Leaders in Customer Experience Strategy consulting and the largest provider of Customer Experience Research and Analyst studies in Australia, Fifth Quadrant, this week announced the launch of its Co-creation and Customer Experience Design Practice.

Co-creation is a form of open innovation where ideas are shared. Customer Co-creation is the process of organisations creating products, services and experiences in collaboration with consumers, tapping into their intellectual capital and in exchange giving them a direct say in what actually gets produced, manufactured, developed or designed.

Co-creation is a key part of Fifth Quadrant's Customer Experience Design method and has been used across multiple industry sectors.

Research by Fifth Quadrant shows that despite 62% of organisations across Australia and New Zealand citing Customer Experience as one of their top strategies for 2013, very few involve customers or employees in the Customer Experience Design process. In many cases, it appears that organisations will invest significant time and resources in a customer experience design that doesn't create any significant benefit for the customer or the business.

In order to design differentiated experiences that actually meet customer needs, organisations may utilise Co-creation as a primary method of Customer Experience Design. "It is not possible for organisations to unlock personalised value for customers without having customers involved in the unlocking of that value" said Dr Catriona Wallace, CEO, Fifth Quadrant.

For more information on Fifth Quadrant's Co-creation methodology please contact Claire Chow on +61 2 9927 3399 and please see attachment.

Australian technical services provider Plaut IT Australia has bought Malaysian-based outsourcer Baseliner, for an undisclosed sum.

Baseliner is an SAP service partner for Southeast Asia that focuses on offering SAP application management support, Basis, BI CRM and ABAP project services. "Adding offshore capabilities to our existing portfolio of expertise enables Plaut customers to leverage competitive advantage from globally distributed talent pools and allows us to provide remote services into the South East Asian region for local and global SAP customers," Plaut CEO, Sebastian Moore, said in a statement.

Baseliner will run independently and will be led by its Kuala Lumpur-based managing director, Charles Sigmon. "Taking a controlling interest in Baseliner advances Plaut's stated objectives of strengthening its SAP consulting services business in Australia," Plaut chairman, David Prior, said. "The complementary skill set of both companies will ensure Plaut delivers customers a competitive portfolio of SAP services onshore and now offshore."

Telstra has reportedly sought advice from Commonwealth Bank on how to improve its popularity with its customers.

Telstra CEO David Thodey told BusinessDay that Telstra consulted Commonwealth Bank on the telco's plan to win over customers, a project requiring big changes to Telstra's processes, technology and culture. Thodey said the formerly government-owned CBA had "a lot of parallels" with Telstra, and he took heart from the bank's success in transforming its customer satisfaction ratings under the leadership of former chief executive Ralph Norris. Research found customer satisfaction with CBA reached 80% in January, the bank's best rating since the survey began in 1996.

"It was seven years before they climbed to be number one, and we are what, two or three years into our journey," Thodey said. He added that said while Telstra has lifted the net promoter score that rates its popularity with its customers into positive territory overall, it still had a long way to go.

New data from the Philippine Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) has found that role of contact agent is the most sought after job in the country with available candidates unable to match demand.

The BLE figures showed that from April 22-29, vacancies for call centre agents reached 2,757 positions, ahead of those for production machine operator, followed by sales clerk and labourer. Other sought-after jobs are merchandiser, technical support staff, promo salesperson, customer service assistant, cashier, office clerk, delivery driver, sales officer and motorcycle driver.

Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) president Jose Mari Mercado told reporters he was not surprised that call centre agents emerged as the hottest job in the Philippines due to the great demand for contact centre services, particularly in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. "Hiring is one of our challenges. Yes, we speak English, but not the level of English that the industry is looking for. Graduates usually trip when they engage in free-flowing conversation, and when we talk about business communication," Mercado said.

Indian outsourcer Genpact says it has significantly increased its presence in the Netherlands market a year after its acquisition of European rival Accounting Plaza.

Genpact says it has provided an expanded services portfolio and enhanced career opportunities for its employees in the Netherlands, now serving more than 20 clients with Dutch operations including Ahold, MSD, Achmea and Nationale Nederlanden. In the Netherlands, Genpact delivers a range of services for clients in segments including consumer goods, retail, life sciences, financial services and insurance.

Genpact acquired finance, accounting, human resources and PeopleSoft ERP services company Accounting Plaza last year. "The incorporation of Accounting Plaza into Genpact's European operations has provided tremendous value to the services we deliver to our clients and has positioned us in The Netherlands as a leader in BPM and ERP services," Genpact Europe Senior Vice President and COO Pascal Henssen said. Gurgaon-based Genpact operates out of centres in India, China, Guatemala, Hungary, México, Morocco, the Philippines, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, South Africa, Australia, UAE, Brazil, Kenya, and the United States.

The Customer Relationship Management and Contact Centre Association of Malaysia (CCAM) has engaged US-based consultants COPC to explore ways to adopt an improvement-focused strategy for the industry.

The recommendations are expected to equip the country with an improved BPO structure and framework and with that it hopes will reinforce its position in the Asian BPO market. So far, a Performance Improvement Criteria (PIC) for a pilot program in Malaysia has been formulated to benchmark future trends and pathways.

The COPC PIC prescribes industry best practices, which are expected to enable the country to manage all of its contact centres more effectively. The PIC will also help the industry identify the factors that may affect the performance. Organisations implementing the PIC will have the opportunity to compare their performance against world-class operations, then work toward achieving those standards in their centres.

Chinese telco Shanghai Mobile has completed a major revamp of its customer service IT with the implementation of the full international Veris Billing and CRM product suite from AsiaInfo-Linkage.

AsiaInfo-Linkage says its Veris suite offers operators flexibility and the capability to quickly roll-out new services based on real-time charging and analysis with "full convergence of customer data across pre-paid, post-paid and multi-service contracts". "We believe Shanghai Mobile's installation of the Veris suite across its 25 million subscriber base is a major deployment," said AsiaInfo-Linkage CEO Steve Zhang.

"Not only will it help to set new standards of customer service and flexibility, it also reflects the kind of work we are doing to help China's carriers analyse and better monetise their rapidly growing user traffic," he said. AsiaInfo-Linkage is a Sino-American vendor of Business support systems (BSS) and Operational support systems (OSS) to the telecoms market.

While websites are the most popular channel for customers to interact with organisations, many are becoming dissatisfied with IVR systems overloaded with routing options.

NICE System's Customer Channel Preference Survey found that when customers get in touch with a contact centre, 40% expect the agent they speak with to already know about their attempts to resolve an issue through other channels. The survey of nearly 1,200 people in Australia, the US and the UK indicated that on average, customers are using as many as six channels to obtain answers or resolve issues with a company.

Websites remain the most popular customer channel, with smartphone apps and social networks quickly rising in popularity. Consumers aged 18-30 are driving the use of self-service channels, while those aged 46-60 use fewer channels and, while they are expanding their use of Web and e-mail options, most still prefer the personal contact of assisted channels. The survey also noted the decreasing level of IVR and long menus of phone-delivered choices. One of the biggest reasons customers use IVR (60%) is to reach a live representative or to employ the option where a live representative returns the call.

Fletcher Earthquake Recovery (EQR) says it will relocate its North New Brighton hub in Christchurch to its site in Aranui to improve service to customers in the city's eastern suburbs.

EQR's Bruce Emson, says the aim is to continue repairs in the eastern suburbs from an expanded hub base. "The purpose of these moves is to improve the way that we work, and a new customer centre will be a better way to help our customers in the area.

The company said the old hub would be decommissioned only after all staff were relocated and EQR opens a new customer-facing contact centre in the eastern suburbs to provide a one-stop location for claim queries. Fletcher EQR has played a major role in repairing and rebuilding properties damaged and destroyed by the 2011 Christchurch earthquakes.

Resort and accommodation company Mantra Group has upgraded its customer service IT with a LivePerson cloud-based platform, including live chat and content targeting capabilities.

With the LivePerson solution, Mantra Group is able to detect when a customer is in need of real-time assistance during the online booking process, and proactively invite them to chat with a live agent, ensuring successful completion and ultimately, more sales. "Mantra Group strives to offer the best customer experience possible at every touch point, and we realised that by working with LivePerson, we could provide a more personalised and seamless digital journey for our growing volume of visitors," Mantra Group's Luke Jamieson said.

"Since we've implemented LivePerson's chat and content targeting capabilities, we've seen a significant increase in revenue as well as above industry average customer satisfaction rates," Jamieson added. "We're excited to continue working with LivePerson to provide the effortless and innovative experience we know our customers demand."

Nowra contact centre outsourcer Quincolli has gone into liquidation, reportedly owing back payments to up to 33 employees.

Quincolli was fined in the Federal Court on February 18 for underpayment of 33 staff and ordered to pay back $193,419.36 in underpaid wages to staff by April 19. On February 28, Quincolli's owners lodged a request for a stay of the orders, pending an appeal, which was granted by the Federal Court on April 11, on the condition that Quincolli pay a sum of $20,762 by April 19 to be held by the court until the appeal was determined.

At least 33 former and current employees are reportedly awaiting back payment from the company. United Services Union representative Rudi Oppitz said his organisation was monitoring the situation. "The union will be working with any government agency to make sure we get the entitlements owed," he said.

Outsourcer Salmat has announced a string of high-profile appointments in its new customer engagement solutions (CES) division.

Fiona Boyd assumes the role of chief operating officer, while Mike Banbrook is general manager for "speech and reach" and Tony Bridgewater becomes executive general manager for technology and products. The newly formed CES division aims to consolidate contact centre services, technology solutions and consulting.

Chief executive David Besson said the aim of CES is to improve customer communication. "Many contact centres are struggling with increasing demands and the emergence of new channels such as social media, while simultaneously managing the conflicting objectives of improved customer experience and cost reduction," Besson said.

As Australian businesses increasing turn to social media for service, the need for social media marketing has become a vital component of building a customer base.

According to a new BizReport study by Think Big Online, 65% of businesses surveyed have indicated that social media has helped their business grow within the last year. Think Big Online founder Samuel Junghenn said it's not enough to simply get a message out there. "If you are not getting any interaction or engagement from your target audience, it could mean that your business isn't actually getting the attention it needs to stand out," says Junghenn.

A third of the businesses surveyed said they used social media as a way of improving their customer service. By engaging customers directly through social media, companies are able to focus their marketing strategies and develop innovative ways of marketing that are not possible with traditional marketing forms, the report found.

UK-based telephone answering service Moneypenny has taken the unusual step of offshoring its agents to New Zealand to offer 24/7 service to its customers.

NZ-based Moneypenny staff now take over at 8pm GMT every night from their Welsh-based colleagues from Takapuna, New Zealand. Moneypenny came up with the idea after managers realised staff would rather leave the country than work night shifts, according to the Daily Mail newspaper.

Four UK staff members now live temporarily in a rented house in Takapuna and work on a cycle of four days on, four days off, so they can travel. When they are finished their stint working in New Zealand, they will be replaced by another set of four employees.

Virgin Australia's Velocity customer loyalty program has been named the best in its region by the 2013 Freddie Awards in the United States.

The Freddies represent excellence in frequent travel programs and rate the best programs in three global regions: Americas, Middle East/Asia/Oceania and Europe/Africa. The Virgin Australia Velocity loyalty program was named the best in Middle East/Asia/Oceania in three categories: Program of the Year, Best Redemption Ability and Best Elite Program.

In 2013, 2.9 million votes were cast in the awards, which are named after the late Sir Freddie Laker, who pioneered low-cost air travel across the Atlantic in the 1970s. "This is not an elitist view of these programs but rather the 'best' are determined by the votes of those who spend a great deal of their life on the road," said Randy Petersen, founder of the Freddie Awards.

Customer relationship IT specialist Avaya has announced the release of a video teller machine (VTM) specifically for the China market incorporating Avaya video conferencing and contact center technologies.

Avaya says the VTMs will allow Chinese banks and consumers to expand the types of transactions they can conduct over ATMs, including sophisticated ones such as credit card applications. The VTMs will allow consumers to communicate with bank customer service agents using video technology, while the integration of contact center technologies will help ensure that the video calls are routed to the right agents who can handle each consumer's request effectively.

If needed, the customer service agents can also initiate multi-party video conferences with colleagues and experts to solve customer issues together, Avaya said. "VTMs will help banks to greatly enrich customer services, and more effectively expand business," said Avaya's China MD John Wang. "It will also result in closer integration between customer contact center and core businesses of banks. VTMs can play an important role in transforming contact centers from so-called 'cost centers' to 'profit centers'."

Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific has taken greater control of its inbound voice call routing at its London contact center in a bid to deliver better customer service.

The airline says it has ended delay-prone third-party redirects and implemented a Gamma Network Solutions cloud-based Inbound call handling and routing solution. The solution enables Cathay Pacific agents to instantly trigger their choice of redirect lists, and manage Gamma's cloud-based call recording, through a web interface. Cathay Pacific's London contact center handles up to 400 calls a day, ranging from customer and travel agent enquiries, queries about missed flights to mislaid baggage. When extreme weather or other events disrupt normal operations at the company's European sites, including London, incoming calls are rerouted to other Cathay Pacific locations in Vancouver, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

Cathay Pacific customer sales manager Gunjan Kher said many of the airline's premium customers still prefer to get in touch by phone. "Phone contact is key to building relationships with our customers and it's important that we keep those links open at all times. Before, it could take as long as two hours to redirect our lines to another center," Kher said. "Now with Gamma's Inbound solution it happens instantly at the touch of a button and we have total control over exactly which lines go where. For us it ticks all of the boxes."

Indian BPO company Aegis says it plans to acquire a mid-sized company in Asia or the Americas to scale up its global delivery model by having a presence in newer geographies.

Aegis CEO Sandip Sen said his company has made over 18 acquisitions to date, and is now scouting for potential purchases "in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Brazil, Columbia or even a near-shore (a location closer to the client) market to the US such as Jamaica". Aegis is part of Indian conglomerate Essar Group.

Sen said clients are "sometimes a little reluctant to offshore business 8,000-9,000 miles away. We call it 'rightshoring' - a combination of offshore, onshore and near shore. There is competition in the BPO industry but our strength is our geographic model". Aegis has nine contact centers in the US, six in Argentina, one each in Peru and Costa Rica, along with seven centers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 32 in Asia-Pacific.

Philippines outsourcer Stream Global Services has bought UK rival LBM Holdings to extend its reach into the major British client market.

LBM will be Stream's platform to better penetrate the UK market, the world's second largest English language market, Stream's parent company Ayala said in a statement. LBM is also expected to contribute in expanding Stream's clientele since the UK-based firm has a portfolio that includes telecommunications, financial services, utilities, automotive and retail companies.

"LBM's people, expertise and capabilities, combined with Stream's financial strength, global presence, and sales and service offerings, will establish a broader portfolio of high-value service offerings for our clients," said Stream chairwoman Kathy Marinello. Stream employs over 39,000 employees supporting 35 languages across 56 customer service centers in 23 countries.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has called for increased investment from Australian airports to boost their levels of customer service.

In its annual report on Australia's five major airports - Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney - the ACCC found overall ratings for the quality of service decreased in 2011-12 and for the first time no airport achieved an overall rating of at least 'good'. The ACCC, taking into the account the view of passengers, airlines border agencies, found the airports remained profitable and a combination of strong domestic demand from fly-in, fly-out passengers, increased international passengers and some higher prices boosted aeronautical revenues at all airports.

"It is apparent that continued growth in passenger numbers at most airports is placing pressure on existing aeronautical infrastructure, contributing to lower service standards," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said "More investment is required to avoid excessive congestion, and ensure that the needs of Australia's travellers can be adequately accommodated." The ACCC also found there had been a falling trend in punctuality at airports over the past decade, with the proportion of flight movements that are on-time dropping.

ANZ Bank says its five-year customer-facing IT upgrade, Banking on Australia, has already seen some early progress with more than 1 million users already on the goMoney banking app.

ANZ said in its half year results that goMoney has more than 1 million users, and more than 1 million logons to the app per day. The two iPhone and iPad apps launched in October - FastPay and Transactive - have had 2,300 and 1,685 downloads, respectively, by business customers. Some 300 commercial bankers now have access to the iPad business app, with 1,200 more to come online this year.

In addition, ANZ has rolled out 43 Cisco video conferencing systems into branches, while 800 NCR "iATMs" will begin being rolled out from June allowing customers to complete transactions that have traditionally required the assistance of a teller. "We are transforming our distribution network to reduce branch footprint costs, build out our contact centre capability, and improve frontline banker productivity," the bank said.

Fifth Quadrant, Australia's leading Customer Experience Strategy, Design & Research company announces the inagural launch of the Customer Experience CEO's Forum.

Twelve of Australia's foremost business leaders will come together biannually, for the strategically focused Forum, which is dedicated to the development of thought leadership and innovation in the emerging and complex field of Customer Experience Strategy.

"This Forum is being held at a critical point in time, when businesses are struggling to adapt to the rising power of the consumer and as new technologies and channels, such as digital, social media and mobility, and new approaches such as Big Data, reshape our approach to customer experience," said Dr Catriona Wallace, CEO, Fifth Quadrant.

"Debate within the Forum will provide significant insight into the strategies and practices that businesses can employ as they navigate their way through this changing business environment. For the inaugural gathering, discussion will focus on the use of Big Data strategies for creating breakthrough customer experiences," said Dr Wallace.

New research shows global CRM grew 12.5% last year to US$18 billion, a rate three times that of all enterprise software segments on average, as companies look to acquire more business and serve existing customers better.

The new Gartner report found that 40% of CRM revenue was derived from SaaS (software as a service) products, reflected by the fact that Salesforce.com overtook SAP as the largest single CRM vendor. Oracle, Microsoft and IBM followed in third and fourth and fifth, while SAP remained the top CRM vendor in Europe.

The CRM market has witnessed a wave of acquisitions and mergers, particularly in the area of marketing software. In all, there were more than 50 acquisitions within the CRM market between 2009 and 2012, according to Gartner. "With corporate cash at all-time highs, many vendors are willing to pay high premiums to acquire specific technologies and expertise in an increasingly dynamic and competitive CRM market environment," the report states.

Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt says internet service provider Orcon is looking to relocate its Philippines contact centre to New Zealand's Southland region.

Shadbolt said Orcon had decided to move its centre from Manila back to New Zealand, and he had been involved in initial discussions about establishing it in Invercargill. "It's sounding very interesting," he said. "Usually our businesses are all heading off overseas to take advantage of cheap labour, I guess, and in this case it's reversing the process."

Invercargill was one of several places being considered as a potential base for the contact centre, as the company preferred a regional location over a big city, Shadbolt said. He believed about 25 jobs would be created. Orcon is yet to confirm a shift.

BPO outsourcing has the ability to not only cut operating costs, but boost Australia's country's economy, according to outsourcing sales and marketing company LMS Thinking.

"There is a protectionist idea that outsourcing is the same as offshoring, meaning domestic jobs are lost in favour of cheap labour in other countries," said LMS Thinking MD Tim Kennedy. This is a simplistic view and does not take into account Australian-based outsourcing firms. Kennedy said one of his company's goals is to keep jobs in Australia while still maintaining the benefits of outsourcing such as gaining specialised skills and lowering overheads.

Kennedy said the benefits of outsourcing to Australian businesses are partly financial, as outsourced contractors both domestic and overseas typically have lower overheads than keeping the work in-house. However contracting specific business services allows companies to streamline their operating processes and allows them to focus on their core competencies. "This frees the business from the time and expense of training their own sales force, and allows them to direct these resources into their own specialism, such as developing new products," he said.

A Qantas pilot has earned praise for his customer service skills after turning a disappointing situation for his passengers into a memorable gesture.

Some 400 passengers aboard a Qantas flight to London via Dubai were reportedly told by their pilot just 90 minutes out of Dubai that the plane's refrigerator had broken down and they would not be getting breakfast or lunch, due to fears the food might cause illness. The passengers were also told that food would be available in the lounges at Heathrow for frequent flyers and Qantas Club members after landing, while others would get "vouchers to have breakfast at one of three eating establishments".

While some passengers were becoming disgruntled at the arrangement, the captain told everyone to write down his name and mobile number. The pilot was Richard De Crespigny, and he said if anyone didn't get a voucher or they weren't happy with the service, to call him personally and he would fix it. De Crespigny has experience in averting disaster, he was the pilot of flight QF32, which made an emergency landing at Changi Airport in 2010 after being rocked by an engine explosion.

While Australian businesses expect massive change from the upcoming National Broadband Network, fewer are banking on the initiative making a major difference to customer service.

The Deloitte Access Economics-Macquarie Telecom backed NBN Business Readiness Survey for 2013 found that 51% of respondents believed that the NBN will change how it engages customers and clients, down from 57% in 2010. Only 24% of businesses were ready to take advantage of this capability.

Meanwhile, customer service outsourcer Unity4, which participated in the survey, says it is well set up considering how the NBN will improve its operations. "In the future we'll be able to use voice over IP," CEO Dan Turner said. "Even though technically we as a company can do it now, the internet infrastructure of the country doesn't allow us to do it at a high enough quality for our clients. So the NBN really gives us the ability to start using a more flexible telephony solution, it'll bring down the cost, it'll be a lot more reliable, and it will start to allow us to do things that we probably can't even imagine doing now."

Cloud-based customer service software provider Zendesk has announced that the subscription fees raised across Australia and New Zealand from its $20 Starter Plan will be donated to adult cancer charity, Dry July.

Zendesk around the world has a tradition of donating subscription fees from its $20 Starter Plan to deserving not-for-profit organisations. Zendesk offers the Starter Plan for new companies getting started with customer service and who have three or fewer support agents. For each new Australian and New Zealand customer that signs up for the Starter Plan in 2013, Dry July will receive a donation equal to that customer's first year subscription.

Dry July, which raises funds to create better environments and support networks for adult cancer patients and their families, runs the annual Dry July initiative that encourages individuals and teams to give up drinking alcohol for the month of July while being sponsored. Zendesk and Dry July have been working together since the Australian Zendesk team participated in Dry July in 2012. Since then, the Dry July team has moved into donated office space at Zendesk's Asia Pacific headquarters in Melbourne.

The Philippines' Globe Telecom has deployed a Lithium Social Platform as part of a strategy to reduce customer service costs and increase customer loyalty.

By using the solution, Globe aims to respond to enquiries and posts about Globe across social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and other online social networks. The solution will also provide a source of reliable answers for Globe's service agents as they respond to large volumes of customer conversations on public social networks.

Globe serves 33 million mobile subscribers, 1.7 million broadband customers and 700,000 landline subscribers. "Our deal with Lithium, a trusted partner of some of the world's most iconic brands, is a bold statement of our commitment to innovation in providing the highest quality support and service experience for our customers," said Globe CEO Ernest Cu.

The Maharashtra State Health Department has initiated a process to launch a phone-based Emergency Medical and Referral Services (EMS).

The toll free number service is expected to be launched soon at a new contact center which is being set up at Aundh District Hospital in the state capital of Pune. A call from any part of the state will be routed through the center and ambulances dispatched immediately to pick up patients at the earliest and rush them to the nearest hospital.

Chief Secretary of Health T C Benjamin told reporters the project has been outsourced to BVG India Limited. The second floor at the Aundh District Hospital building is being readied to install equipment and other necessary items required to set up a contact center.

French-based outsourcer Teleperformance says its subsidiary TLScontact has been ranked one of the best companies to work for in all six of its locations in China.

TLScontact is one of the eight companies to receive this award in the first year the Great Place to Work Institute conducted the assessment in China. Teleperformance says the award is an extension of TLScontact's worldwide initiative to continuously listen to employees and take action to build mutual trust and build a great working environment.

"Being a Great Place to Work is essential for hiring and retaining the best talent in the industry," said TLScontact CEO Bertrand Weisgerber. "Our talented employees have built us to be the successful company we are today. We believe a happy employee makes a happy customer and a happy customer makes a happy client."

TravelSky will upgrade its airline customer service IT offering with the Unisys Airline Core Systems Solutions (AirCore) next-generation passenger system.

TravelSky, which operates the reservations, inventory and departure control systems used by China's air carriers, will use Unisys AirCore to streamline and modernise passenger sales and service (PSS) applications for its airline clients. The multi-year deal covers the first phase of TravelSky's modernisation program to replace its inventory and flight information applications as well as provide customer-centric capabilities for its hosted airline clients.

"We selected Unisys AirCore for our modernisation program as it offered the optimal migration path to open technology, using industry standards to allow our airline clients to optimise key customer-facing processes that best suit their individual business needs," said TravelSky VP Huang Yuanchang.

The Bank of Queensland will begin switching off its legacy CRM software in September after a successful year-long pilot of a Salesforce.com solution.

BoQ CEO Stuart Grimshaw said the trial of the cloud-based CRM had reached 388 users in 57 retail branches as of February. He said the Salesforce.com solution allowed staff to create new accounts in five minutes compared with the previous 30 minutes, using 22 keystrokes instead of 144.

BoQ staff had also identified "strong cross-sell opportunities" for 59% of its existing customers through the trial. Grimshaw said the bank hoped to implement the cloud-based CRM by September, although it noted that full implementation was subject to internal approvals.

The federal government has extended the period for phone numbers registered on the Do Not Call Register to eight years.

Australian Communications and Media Authority chairman Chris Chapman says all numbers currently registered will automatically be extended from the existing six years to eight years. "Any new registrations will also be valid for the new period, making life easier for Australians wishing to opt out of telemarketing calls and marketing faxes, long term," Chapman said in a statement.

Since its inception, the Do Not Call Register has grown to include 8.5 million numbers and businesses can incur a maximum fine of $1.7 million for breaching the register. The register is a free service which lists Australian numbers, both mobiles and landlines that are used primarily for private or domestic purposes to opt out of receiving most unsolicited telemarketing calls.

Australian talent outsourcer Flat Planet will look to expand its global growth with a cloud-based virtual contact centre (VCC) service powered by Telstra Global.

Flat Planet provides BPO services to customers across Australia, Asia, North America and Europe. Flat Planet is reportedly Telstra Global's first external customer on the VCC global platform.

"This type of public cloud innovation, blended with the reliability of Telstra's network and hosting services, is an unbeatable combination," said Flat Planet CEO Chris Moriarty. Telstra Global's Nathan Bell said the commercial and operational agility delivered by the VCC platform acts as an "enabler to accelerated growth."

Hertz says it is now the first car rental company in Australia to integrate social customer service into its business.

Hertz customers are now able to resolve service problems by tweeting at the Hertz twitter page. "It is time to get over this misconception that brands can ignore tweets about their brand because social media is relatively inconsequential in comparison to other channels like phone or email," Joshua March, CEO of Hertz social media partner Conversocial, told reporters.

March said between 50% and 80% of tweets to companies require an actionable response. "Failing to deliver great customer service over social channels like Twitter can carry big risks," he said. "There are certain tweets that are malicious and don't merit a response, but even those critical to a business, or especially so, need to be addressed."

The Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS) telehealth project has won the Outstanding ICT Innovation award in the Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards 2013 in Singapore.

The telehealth service allows a nurse to make a 'virtual visit' to a patient at home using the Intel Home Guide remote monitoring device, which includes an in-built camera and is capable of taking remote measurements through peripheral medical devices. At the moment, RDNS is mainly using the device to visit the client virtually and observe them taking their medications, but the device also has a diary element, in which it asks the clients certain questions, which are answered by a push-button on the screen. Depending on what the answer is, the device can prompt or trigger a response.

RDNS CEO Stephen Muggleton said the award came on the same day that RDNS made its first public demonstration in Asia of its seniors-friendly telehealth solution that will potentially enable earlier hospital discharge for patients, prevent medicine mismanagement and maximise nursing resources.

Telstra CEO David Thodey likens his quest to transform the telco's customer service to a marathon, saying he is only part of the way into the strategy.

"I think this (improving customer service) is definitely a marathon and I have got through the first 10km," he told reporters. "It is a big job." Thodey, who still personally reads every customer letter sent to him to keep abreast of service problems, said the goal has been to radically simplify and speed up service, and get the right customer details first time.

"We've moved from just looking at customer service, to a net promoter score which is trying to lift the aspiration of the company, not just to deliver an adequate service but to have customers who - after they've dealt with you - say, 'gee that really surprised me, that's really great," he said.

American Express is partially withdrawing the concierge service for its high-end credit card clients in Hong Kong.

Amex said in a recent letter to its Platinum credit card holders that it's "concierge service from restaurant referrals and reservations to flower delivery will be ceased with effect from May 1, 2013". Amex spokesperson Priscilla Wat said the suspension of the concierge service will affect only Amex's Platinum credit card holders, rather than all higher-level card holders such as those who have Amex's black Centurion card.

"In Hong Kong, we review the features of our card products from time to time with an aim to provide the most suitable benefits and services which meet the lifestyles and changing needs of our card members," Wat told the South China Morning Post. The concierge service was one of the most actively promoted marketing tools for Amex, allowing card holders to call a direct line to arrange anything from tickets to cultural events to visiting a spa.

The DFS Galleria Singapore shopping centre has won the award for 'Best People Practices' at the Singapore Service Excellence Medallion awards.

The luxury retail space was recognised for its "comprehensive staff training and reward programs that have produced individuals who deliver exceptional customer service". The outlet is one of 14 downtown Gallerias operated by DFS Group worldwide.

"Our people lie at the heart of DFS's success and no effort is spared in investing in them," said DFS Asia South MD Craig McKenna. "We are honoured to accept this award, which recognises the attention we give to hiring, training and rewarding our people. I am proud of our wonderfully talented team of sales associates, executives and trainers - all of whom contribute to providing an exceptional experience for our customers." The Singapore Service Excellence Medallion Awards are presented each year to the most outstanding organisations and individuals in the retail sector.

While more and more jobs are being created in the country's contact centre sector, the demands on staff are still stringent.

A Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) report found that contact centre applicants have a "mortality rate" of 95%, with only five out of 100 applicants are able to survive the highly competitive industry. The findings have prompted Philippine Department of Science and Technology (DOST) secretary Mario Go Montejo to recommend that Filipinos become smarter to cope with the demands of the 21st century.

"We need to develop 'smarter people' to keep abreast with the developments. Developing smarter people means building up knowledge workers with 21st century skills," Montejo said, adding that developing smarter people is a complement of its latest umbrella program called "Smarter Philippines." Smarter Philippines is geared towards facilitating and delivering "more effective and efficient services in all sectors," the DOST head said. Under the program are Smarter Government, Smarter Economy, Smarter Mobility, Smarter Environment, Smarter Living, and Smarter Cities.

State Bank of India (SBI) will enhance its customer service by rolling out 600 new NCR Corporation SelfServ 32 ATMs across the country.

With the adoption of the new ATMs, SBI aims to reduce queue times at its branches and give customers the flexibility to execute everyday cash deposit transactions beyond banking hours. In a typical SBI branch, check and cash withdrawals make up more than 60% of transactions performed by tellers. NCR says its SelfServ ATMs allows a single cash withdrawal or deposit transaction at branches to be reduced by up to 75%.

"The Retail Banking Report for Deposit Automation and Recycling, 2012, indicates that some of the strongest drivers of growth for cash deposit ATMs in India are 'queue reduction' and 'customer demand'," said NCR India MD Jaivinder Gill. "The report further predicts that the installed base of ATMs in India with automated deposit functionality is expected to grow five folds reaching 17,000 by 2017 - clearly indicating a trend of increasing consumer demand for counter-based transactions to be available 24x7 on the self-service channel."

China Southern Airlines (CSA) says it successfully negotiated the recent Spring Festival travel rush with the help of a newly-installed suite of Avaya customer service technologies.

CSA completed an upgrade of its contact center technology at sixteen branches at the end of 2012. The system adopted a structure that allows central management and allocating of all resources. Taking advantage of its Avaya Call Management System, a special Spring Festival task group monitored changes of call volumes, wait time and queue list so as to take prompt actions, including optimising call distribution policies and adjusting agent resources.

Using the Avaya technology, CSA is able to monitor the status of all contact center agents at the headquarters, and the incoming customer calls are routed to the agents who can best address the enquiries. Based on the Avaya open platform, China Southern Airlines also has developed VOS (Voice of Sky) application which enables one-stop services to handle all customer transactions including enquiries, flight booking, payment & member service.

Australian outsourcer Datacom has sold its Asia contact centre business to US-based rival Convergys.

The deal involves Datacom's Asia-based contact centres in the Philippines and Malaysia which offer the capability to handle 15 languages between its 1000-strong employee base. "Datacom has built a world-class multi-site multilingual Asia BPO business servicing a suite of long-term blue chip clients," said Datacom CEO Jonathan Ladd. "Today, after a six month competitive process, we're proud to sell this asset to scale global BPO service provider Convergys, who will continue to nurture and invest in these key client relationships."

Ladd said Datacom's Asia BPO business had reached a tipping point and now requires a "truly scaled global specialist to take the business to the next level." Datacom says it remains committed to Asia and will now focus its regional investment on more technologically differentiated service businesses rather than continuing to aggressively grow a global scale BPO business."

A Gold Coast company has been fined $750,000 after using a bogus contact centre to con hundreds of small businesses into paying for unwanted advertising.

Adepto Publications contact centre staff were reportedly coached on how to trick businesses into believing they had ordered ad space, the Federal Court heard. Over four years Adepto billed hundreds of Australian businesses for unsolicited ads in The Underprivileged Children's Guide, The National Emergency Relief Guide or The Volunteer Organisations Guide. Adepto's "cold callers" each day were given a selection of ads for targeted Australian businesses, cut from other publications, according to facts agreed in the court. Another Adepto representative then would make the sales call, falsely telling the business that it already had agreed to place an advertisement in one of its publications.

Former office manager Danielle McKay reportedly directed them to make a "cleansing call" to those companies to check their business details, saying they were from "Australian Business Listings". A recorded "checking call" was made by Adepto staff, using a carefully worded script, to confirm payment details and finalise the sale. Adepto was ordered to pay $500,000, director Craig Francis Mitchell $150,000 and McKay $100,000.

US-based unified communications company Interactive Intelligence has bought the customer support agreements of its New Zealand reseller, Amtel.

Under the sale, Amtel's 24 customers will now directly be served by the Interactive Intelligence sales, marketing, support and services organisation in New Zealand. "This acquisition benefits former Amtel customers by giving them direct access to our local, regional and global support and services staff, which number about 450 worldwide," said Interactive Intelligence CEO Donald E. Brown. "At the same time, it will help us launch our cloud-based communications-as-a-service offering in New Zealand."

Interactive Intelligence plans to expand its Auckland staff to between eight and 12 employees by the end of the year. It also plans to relocate its office to a larger facility within the next 12 months. Dustin Kehoe of IT research company IDC said the acquisition is "fundamentally about acquiring customers and skill sets to bolster a regional capability, rather than one based on assets and infrastructure, which the market no longer requires". "It appears that this acquisition is UC, Collaboration and Contact Centre markets are growing in ANZ, but business needs are geared around professional services and new delivery models. IDC managed services research shows that a vendor's local presence and ability to understand their end customers' business are important success factors."

New Zealand Bankers Association (NZBA) says a public opinion survey has found a high level satisfaction among the country's bank customers.

The survey, commissioned by the NZBA, found that 82% of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with their main bank, with only 7% dissatisfied. "This is a pleasing result which shows that banks are continuing to put a big effort into customer service," said NZBA chief executive Kirk Hope. "It also shows how competitive our banking sector is. By providing excellent service, banks work hard to attract and keep their customers."

The survey also found that 63% of respondents agreed that the strength of New Zealand banks meant that New Zealand got through the global financial crisis with less damage than other countries. "Ongoing uncertainty in other countries, most recently in Cyprus, shows our banks in a good light. We have a strong, stable and well-regulated banking sector which supports our economic growth."

A university student has experienced a very public positive outcome from his campaign to a complaint over Tiger Airways' customer service to social media.

New Ltd reports that Nathaniel Martin took to Facebook to vent his frustrations after Tiger Airways bumped him from his flight from Hobart to Melbourne on Sunday, telling him it had been overbooked. Martin gave a detailed description of his treatment from Tiger and outlined the inconvenience and cost caused by being forced to buy a full fare ticket with another airline in order to make his Monday morning class, despite buying his Tiger ticket a month in advance.

Martin's account attracted 50,000 'likes' on Facebook, prompting a call from Tiger offering an apology and an agreement to reimburse the cost of his fares to Melbourne. A Tiger Airways spokesperson told News Ltd that while cases like Martin's are rare, "overbooking of flights is common practice in the air travel industry here in Australia and world over - it's a practice put in place by airlines (and other travel and tourism industries) to compensate for an average no show rate. ... While issues in relation to this are extremely rare, we are very sorry to have inconvenienced one of our passengers recently. On review of the situation, we dealt directly with the passenger and resolved his specific situation."

Vodafone Australia CEO Bill Morrow said the telco's renewed focus on customer service is part of a sharpened strategy aimed at earning back the "hearts and minds of the Australian people."

Vodafone is attempting to rebuild its image and customer base, spending a reported $2 billion in Australia on network improvements and customer service. Vodafone has announced it will switch on its 4G network from June, has added 2,000 mobile phone towers to improve coverage and introduced a "network guarantee" opt-out for unhappy customers as part of a push to heal its damaged brand. Morrow has directed that staff not sign up customers if the company could not offer adequate network coverage in their area.

The mobile carrier is offering a "network guarantee" to new customers, allowing them to cancel contracts within the first 30 days if they are unhappy with network coverage. Vodafone has also set up a contact centre in Hobart, looking to improve service and public perception by bring customer service back from overseas. Morrow told a briefing with reporters the carrier was pursuing a strategy to lift its reputation in a narrower target market. "We can't be all things to all people - we're not going to make the capital investment that one of our other competitors has, to get that wider coverage of a network," he said.

Westpac NZ has chosen HP Enterprise Services to BPO outsourcing in a bid to improve customer service and productivity.

Under the new five-year contract, HP will provide document processing services, which enable Westpac to manage its end-to-end print production environment. The bank was seeking to provide better communications to its 1.3 million personal, business and agribusiness customers in New Zealand. HP is also expected to modernise the presentation of the bank's customer communications documents such as bank statements, utilising HP Exstream customer communication management (CCM) software. "HP's comprehensive document processing and archiving services allow us to focus on more effective customer interactions in a secure and controlled environment," said Westpac COO Jim Stabback. "Ultimately, this will help us to drive process transformation, achieve cost savings and maintain service excellence for our customers."

HP Enterprise Services country manager Gavin Greaves said financial institutions can easily become overwhelmed with the volume, variety and velocity of information needed to manage their business and serve their clients. "To assist organisations that require strong document processing and archiving management services, HP has recently established a purpose-built facility in Christchurch, and a second document processing site in Auckland," he said.

New research from Fifth Quadrant has found that while more than two-thirds of Australian organisations use social media to deliver customer service, consumers are proving slower to adopt the channel for their service interactions.

Fifth Quadrant's newly released report, Emerging Consumer Channels: Social Media, Web Chat and Smartphone Apps, found that 70% of Australian organisations now offer social media as a customer service channel, but just under one third (31%) of consumers used the channel for a customer service interaction in the past three months. The disconnect between consumer use and business expectations may in part be occurring because the two groups are looking for each other in all the wrong places, the report found.

The world's leading social network, Facebook, is the Australian consumers' number one choice for customer service engagement, followed by online forums and communities, and YouTube. Popular networks including Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs were the least popular options, with more than seven in ten consumers stating they "rarely" or "never" turn to them for customer service purposes. Conversely, the leading network among businesses is Twitter, used by more than three-quarters of organisations. Company blogs, websites and online communities tie in second place followed by Facebook. YouTube and LinkedIn sites are also prevalent contact channel offerings. "Simply creating a new service channel then standing back and waiting for the customers to come won't work," said Fifth Quadrant head of research Chris Kirby. "If organisations want to offer customer service through social media, they need to go to the networks that their customers use. They also need to treat social networks as they would any other communications channel. This means developing realistic long term resourcing plans."

Phone and technology company Apple has apologised to its Chinese customers for its after-sales service in the country after weeks of media criticism.

Apple CEO Tim Cook released a statement on the company's Chinese website saying: "We are aware that owing to insufficient external communication, some consider Apple's attitude to be arrogant, inattentive or indifferent to consumer feedback. We express our sincere apologies for causing consumers any misgivings or misunderstanding."

State-run media across China had accused Apple of being arrogance and of "throwing its weight around", saying faulty iPhones were only repaired under its one-year service policy - not replaced as in other countries - and its warranty was shorter than elsewhere. Cook said Apple would now offer full replacement of iPhone 4 and 4S devices in China, along with a new one-year warranty.

The regional Philippine city of Cebu City has emerged as one of Asia's top outsourcing destinations.

From hosting just four BPO companies 10 years ago, Cebu now boasted over 100 companies and 95,000 workers at the end of 2012. Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (Cedf-IT) executive director Wilfredo Sa-a Jr. said the work they have done has contributed much to the development of the business process outsourcing (BPO), and information and communication technology (ICT) industry in Cebu.

Sa-a Jr. said Cedf-IT's also conducted study tours in India, South Korea, Silicon Valley and Taiwan to see how they were going about the outsourcing industry, which has led to Cebu's being in the top 10 cities for outsourcing for three years. Jerry Rapes, president of software service company Exist Quest, said Cebu is a complete destination and that aside from its progress in business, it is also a hot tourist spot, getting recognition from publications like Conde Nast, the New York Times and Travel and Leisure.

Rural mobile users have better customer experiences than urban users across India, according to new research by American telecoms IT provider Amdocs.

Anshoo Gaur, head of Amdocs India, said pan-India Amdocs customer experience research found the nationwide index score stood at 7.17 on a scale of 1 to 10 but varied across segments. Gaur said that rural populations report a relatively better customer experience than urban populations (7.22 against 7.17), and Generation Y (age group 18-24) consumers report a relatively better experience than Generation X (age group 35-54) customers (7.20 versus 7.12).

Amdocs said the research of 5,000 mobile customers across India was analysed using an analytical model designed by Amdocs, and validated by Deloitte Touche. Gaur said it is becoming increasingly clear to communication service providers that delivering best in class customer experience is a competitive differentiator. "It drives customer loyalty, and directly impacts revenue and profitability."

Many companies in Southeast Asia are yet to fully take advantage of the customer service opportunities presented by interactive digital technologies, according to a new survey.

The Accenture survey of over 400 business executives in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand found that 66% said they face challenges in meeting customer service. But only 34% say customer-facing digital strategy is at the heart of their corporate strategy.

Two-thirds (63%) of the respondents say they face challenges in finding people with the right digital experience. Accenture said that Southeast Asian companies are not taking full advantage of the potential of digital technologies, using new media to "broadcast" information rather than engage with their consumers.

Union officials have raised questions over rules that forbid Ambulance contact centre workers from eating sweets at their desks and allow them only to drink from sipper cups.

Dispatchers in the southeast Queensland communications centres are not allowed to keep lollies, fresh fruit or other food in their drawers or water bottles or cans of soft drinks on their desks. A Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) spokesman said the "carefully researched" rules ensured staff remained "focused on their task at hand and to protect vital technology". "Staff are allowed to consume fluids during their shift in special containers supplied by the QAS," he said. "This is to minimise the risk to vital technical equipment."

Ambulance co-ordinator for union United Voice, Jeanette Temperley said the rules were harming morale for frontline staff. "It's been a long-running issue, particularly in the Brisbane comms," she said. "They can't even have a snack, like a muesli bar or anything. They're definitely micro-managed."

Reported by Chris Kirby, Head of Analyst Services

IDC Financial Insights, in partnership with Interactive Intelligence, recently released the 2013 Banking IT Strategies Outlook report for Asia/Pacific. The annual report examines how the top banks across the Asia/Pacific region are building their IT capabilities and provides insight into the prominent IT strategies and trends evident across the industry.

Through analysing the top 50 IT transformation projects, the following clusters of investment projects were identified:

1. A focus on core banking optimisation
2. A focus on IT optimisation
3. Business process optimisation
4. Data and customer analytics
5. Channel and payments

Focusing on core IT capabilities optimisation, it was reported that core banking with regard to IT investment is back on the agenda for many banks across the region. It was noted that the implementation process is taking much longer with many banks opting for a longer term and iterative approach rather than driving wholesale changes over a shorter time period, thereby spreading the investment over several years whilst at the same time spreading the risk that is inherent with such transformational programs.

It was highlighted that organisations that have already undertaken significant core banking transformation programs are now moving onto areas such as data and customer analytics and channel and payment initiatives. The new core banking platforms are able to provide more flexible environments and provide a full 360 degree view of customer interactions, enabling greater innovation opportunities with regard to customer experience.

In addition investment in risk management projects has declined as the banking industry has moved back to more normal levels of performance. As a result many of the major banks are moving their IT investment away from risk management to investment in customer-centric initiatives.

The report also highlighted 5 key customer experience trends that are emerging across the region:

1. Analytics
2. The continued evolution of mobile banking
3. Remodelling and design of the traditional branch channel
4. A focus on improving speed of service and transactions
5. Hyper-personalisation

Cyrus Daruwala, Managing Director IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific, added, ”In the next 12-18 months we expect to see AU$3 billion worth of new dollars in Australia invested just on customer centric IT initiatives. The total price tag for Australian banking IT investment will be AU$10 billion of which an incremental AU$3 billion will be spent purely on augmenting these channels, customer centricity and touch points.” He concluded, “Customer centricity is really where the fight is.”

Broadcore have successfully deployed the latest speech recognition product offering from Australian provider, Inference Solutions, for Ardwin Freight.

The speech recognition application asks customers the city and state they are calling from in order to ensure that the call is successfully routed to an operator that can best assist them. By expanding the capability of their BroadSoft telephony platform managed by Broadcore, Ardwin Freight are now able to take advantage of a cloud speech enabled IVR service. "Previously when we wanted to use any advanced IVR or speech recognition services we had to send calls off net and hair pin calls to another IVR providers platform. This meant the cost to service these calls was too great. By speech enabling our own telephony platform we are now able to manage our costs more effectively with the added bonus of much tighter integration" said Edwin Sahakian, President, Ardwin Freight.

"We have been working with Inference Solutions for some time now to establish an advanced IVR and speech recognition service offering that integrates natively with our BroadWorks platform. We are now able to offer all of our customers both inbound and outbound speech recognition applications that can deliver far greater automation opportunities at a much lower cost" said Alan Pourafzal, Director of Client Services, Broadcore.

Global hotel wholesaler roomsXML has enhanced its customer service reputation by adding a freecall 24/7 customer service for its Australian travel agents.

"Travel is 24 x 7 and there is nothing worse than having a customer who you can't help because you can't find somebody to speak to," roomsXML Asia Pacific MD Mark Luckey said. "So given that we're a global organisation, we have now put the technology in place which connects Australian customers from 1800 roomsXML to the Australian office during business hours, or to one of our other global offices after hours."

roomsXML has available tens of thousands of hotels and apartments across 9000 destinations in 188 countries. "The technology which underpins our operations ensures continuity in the customer service process, whether it's initiated by the integrated help system, phone or email," Luckey said.

New Zealand Post (NZ Post) is planning to expand its use of Oracle's cloud-based RightNow customer management service to its courier business.

NZ Post last year ended its joint venture with DHL, buying back the remaining 50% of the shares for Express Courier, which operates CourierPost, Pace, Contract Logistics, and Roadstar. NZ Post now wants to rationalise the customer care process for the courier unit with its main business.

NZ Post first started using RightNow as a sales CRM tool, and then slowly expanded the product suite to cover different channels, including contact centres, email, and social media. 'We are currently looking to deploy RightNow across the CourierPost business, and that will give us great benefit in both contact centres that work across our parcel and courier business," NZ Post's Russell Stephens said.

Outsourcer Salmat has partnered with Global software vendor, Kana Software ahead of an expansion of Kana's customer management solution across Australia and New Zealand.

Kana's Brian Donn told reporters the partnership with Salmat was a key plank in the company's strategy to build business in Australia, particularly with the latest cloud-based Enterprise Agent Desktop solution to be implemented by Salmat in all of its Australian and New Zealand contact centres.

Donn said Kana, working closely with Salmat, would 'go to market quite aggressively,' in June when Salmat released a major new upgrade to its cloud-based enterprise contact centre technology solution. Donn said the Australian market is an important plank in the company's APAC-wide growth strategy, with the majority of its business in the region currently in the Australia and New Zealand market, along with significant business in other countries like Indonesia, Singapore and Hong Kong.

An overwhelming 78% of small businesses in Australia are planning to increase their focus on social media in the coming year, according to a new survey.

The Bibby Barometer, made up of research by Bibby Financial Services Australia, found that almost half of small businesses are using social media to raise brand awareness and source new customers, while 40% are using it to generate new sales and 44% to provide networking opportunities, effectively contributing to business growth. Of those businesses surveyed, as many as 65% report that social media has helped their business grow over the past 12 months.

"Social media is increasingly being used as an extra communication channel to raise small business' profiles and reach new and existing clients," Bibby Financial Services Australia's Gary Green said. "A third of the businesses surveyed said that social media has helped them improve customer service and stay ahead of competition and as many as 22% have used social media to recruit new staff."

The New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB) is reportedly cutting 54 customer service jobs from its Auckland contact centre.

NZRB is selling the centre's building and moving the work to Wellington and Christchurch. Staff at the Auckland centre are expected to be made redundant in October.

The board said most of the workers were part-time or casual. Len Richards from the Service & Food Workers Union said TAB has obligations to look after its people. "I'm not sure whether laying them all off in this way is meeting the requirements of the Racing Act," Richards said.

Telcos need to view social media as more than just another marketing channel or risk being left behind by the media's potential, according to a new study.

A recent global Lithium study found that only 44% of telcos engage in social customer care, leading the social customer experience software firm to brand communication service providers socially immature. "Too often, social is considered just another marketing channel as opposed to a new paradigm for doing business," Lithium co-founder Lyle Fong told reporters on a recent trip to Australia.

"For companies to truly gain the benefits of social, and to really integrate the customer mindset into the organisation, social needs to be more strategic and integrated deeper into the day-to-day workflows of the organisation," he said. The number of communication service providers using social media as a customer service tool is set to hit 64% in two years, the study found.

Chinese mobile company Huawei has launched its first contact center in South Africa to support local customers.

The center will handle queries regarding Huawei smartphones, home gateways, tablets and mobile broadband "to provide customers with user-friendly mobile device experiences", the company said. "The creation of this call center is a result of Huawei's growth in the South African market and is part of our entry strategy into the consumer space with our new smartphone offerings," Huawei's Larking Huang said.

The contact center will offer additional technical support over and above what is offered through the individual operators offering Huawei's devices. "Having our own local call center now enables users to receive direct feedback from Huawei on any queries they may have. This reduces the amount of time in which queries are processed, resulting in increased customer satisfaction," Huang said.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore is leading a year-long pilot project to promote home-based work and encourage local companies to create flexible working conditions for employees.

Using ICT solutions from telco Singtel, the pilot will allow home-based sales executives to use cloud-based contact center technologies to handle enquiries from home. In addition, Rainforest e-Learning, an SME providing education services, is developing a learning management system to help home-based teachers deliver lessons to students through video conferencing and e-learning using connected devices.

The adoption patterns of home-based workers will be studied throughout the pilot, and the packaging of existing products changed to better cater for them. The pilot aims to help the 258,000 economically inactive residents between the age of 25 and 54 rejoin the workforce and contribute to Singapore's economy.

Indian outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been selected by the UK-based water utility Southern Water to implement a customer service and revenue transformation program.

"The program will combine front and back-end technology deployments with internal process redevelopment," TCS said. Southern Water will benefit from enhanced customer service capabilities, improved cash collection and debt management and will see a reduction in operating expenditure, it added.

"Southern Water supplies water across some 4,450 sq km, and TCS has provided us with a roadmap for more flexible and efficient service delivery within this extensive area," said Southern Water chief customer officer Darren Bentham. "The CRM system we're deploying for Southern Water will help in the drive to provide industry-leading customer services, while data governance and analysis tools deliver better intelligence back into the business," TCS' A S Lakshminarayanan said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has awarded an eight-year managed services contract to Fujitsu to provide a Microsoft CRM system to issue Australian passports.

Fujitsu's contract involves services, hardware, CRM implementation, program management, systems engineering and enterprise architecture. The Passport Redevelopment Program (PRP) is part of the Australian government's commitment to deliver a contemporary passport system with more a more secure, efficient and responsive service.

It will introduce a number of new services and streamline passport application processes using Microsoft CRM workflows for bulk scanning, case management, fraud control, workflow and passport printing solutions. "DFAT is committed to continuous improvement and we are constantly looking for ways to improve our process and services" DFAT CIO Tuan Dao said in a statement.

Australia's leading Customer Experience Consultancy and Analyst firm, Fifth Quadrant, recently announced the appointment of Claire Chow to lead the Customer Experience Design & Customer Co-creation division. Claire has a background in Customer Experience Strategy and Design and has worked on projects that have utilised customer centred design techniques as well as big data to underpin recommendations and inform customer experience strategy and management.

Claire is a seasoned consultant with a body of solid methodologies and practical experience across a broad range of industries and organisational structures, working with brands such as Toyota, Lexus, Weight Watchers, CBA and Expedia.

She has completed the Stanford Graduate Business School Customer Focused Innovation and Design Thinking program, studied Law and Asian Studies at UNSW and is completing her MBA with Deakin University.

Claire will work with Fifth Quadrant's private and public sector clients to introduce Customer Experience Design Thinking (CEDT) techniques as part of broader enterprise-wide Customer Experience Strategy across 8 key channels: voice, face-to-face, online, social media, mobile apps, face to face, video and gamification. An integral part of CEDT is Customer Co-creation which involves innovative methods of customers and employees designing products, services and interaction experiences together.

CEO of Fifth Quadrant, Dr Catriona Wallace, stated, "Claire's appointment solidifies Fifth Quadrant's position as the most innovative Customer Experience consultancy and research firm in Australia. Our research shows that to truly be competitive organisations will need to develop coherent and integrated multi-channel Customer Experience strategy. The greatest value of these strategies is unlocked when customers are involved in the process."

Claire can be contacted at cchow@fifthquadrant.com.au or on +61 2 9927 3399.

The mayor of the New Zealand city of Nelson says a move to attract contact centres to the area aims to provide 100 to 300 jobs paying at least $NZ 50,000 plus in the first year.

Nelson Mayor Aldo Miccio has met with the CEO of NZ outsourcer Gen-i, Tim Miles, Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule and Xero CEO Rod Drury to move the initiative forward. Miccio said Gen-i, which had offices in Melbourne and Sydney, would put a business model together during the next month, with input from the two regions, then test the model with companies in Australia and New Zealand and take it to the market.

The main sales pitch to the Australian companies is that New Zealand is 40% cheaper, mainly in employment costs, with lower wages and superannuation. Miccio said the aim of the contact centre initiative was to attract 100 to 300 relatively high-paying jobs to Nelson, earning $50,000-plus in the first year, and to increase that number year on year.

The Darwin Police Service will employ an extra 20 customer service staff as the incoming Country Liberals Government strengthens the commitment to law and order in the Territory.

"Labor left a mess with policing in Alice Springs. They under-resourced policing and we are fixing up their legacy of neglecting Central Australia," Chief Minister Adam Giles said. "I can announce that the police call centre in Darwin will get 20 more staff to help manage call centre case loads."

The Darwin police contact centre has been the target of criticisms over delays in its response times. "Policing is front and centre for the Country Liberals Government and we have a clear direction on making services and resources available as required.

The Pharmacy Support Services (PSS) hotline will expand to Western Australia making the anonymous service available in five states and territories.

The hotline offers counselling to pharmacists struggling with stress, health issues and practice matters. PSS president John Coppock hopes the service will be available to all Australian pharmacists in 2014.

"We are taking the expansion one state at a time to ensure that appropriate planning and quality assurance is in place," Coppock said. "We also have to ensure that sufficient funding is available."

SUBWAY Restaurants' service commitment has been recognised with New Zealand's Quick Service Restaurant of the Year award.

The award recognises SUBWAY's "commitment to providing superior customer service in an increasingly competitive industry." SUBWAY's head of marketing David Herrick said the New Zealand chain has worked hard to provide a point of difference to other quick service restaurants through outstanding customer service.

"Over the past 12 months we have strived to increase our focus on customer service," Herrick said. "We have implemented a unique customer feedback system called tellsubway.co.nz, which allows every single customer to give feedback on their experience in our restaurants."

Transfield Services has secured an extension of its wide-ranging outsourcing contract with Victoria's Mornington Peninsula Shire council.

Transfield will provide customer service and community engagement services as well as building, furniture, signs, parks and roadsides services in its asset management and maintenance services contracts. The council as signed three expanded 10-year contracts, extending one of Transfield's longest running relationships, now in its 15th year.

"We are thrilled to be able to continue to apply our expertise in long term asset management principles to the Mornington Peninsula Shire, in one of the company's longest running relationships," said Transfield CEO Graeme Hunt. Transfield Services also recently won the Silver Award from the Asset Management Council for its application of asset management principles with the Mornington Peninsula Shire.

The Indian government has plans to set up specific contact centers for the investors looking to start business ventures in the country.

The corporate contact centers will streamline the methods of supplying information, while providing grievance redressal services to companies and other stakeholders. The centers are expected to be up and running by September under the administration of the Corporate Affairs Ministry and will be known as Corporate Seva Kendra.

The initiative is part of the Indian government's efforts to strengthen interaction with corporates and ensure faster compliance with various requirements, amid concerns over the companies finding it difficult in doing business. The centers will provide a wide range of information to companies and answer their queries about corporate filings, information and statutory requirements.

Japanese mobile operator KDDI says it will open contact centers throughout Southeast Asia marketing outsourcing services to Japanese and local companies seeking Japanese-style customer service.

The company's contact center subsidiary KDDI Evolva will first establish a base in Bangkok this month, expanding to India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia in the next two to three years. The centers will hire locally, offering services in the local language as well as in Japanese and English.

KDDI will train workers in Japanese-style services. While each center will start off with a few employees, expanding seats on demand, the company aims to have a total of 300 customer service staff in place after three years.

Russian software company, Noda Contact Center Solutions, has set up business in the Philippines, hoping to expand its footprint into Central Asia.

Andrey Zaitsev, CEO, Noda Contact Center Solutions, announced the firm’s entry into the Philippines at a recent press conference in Manila, which he says is part of Noda's strategic expansion plans in the BPO industries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Noda offers software solutions geared to automate in-house and outsourced contact centers. Since its foundation, Noda has successfully developed and implemented its contact center solutions in more than 300 call centers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. According to the company's official figures, the total volume of workplaces in these contact centers is more than 10,000, serving over 10 million customers.

The Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts group has opened a contact center in the city of Guangzhou servicing customers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

The center offers a toll-free service for making inbound and outbound reservations, while the group's Golden Circle members can also contact the center for all their requirements. The customer service staff will offer assistance in Putonghua, Cantonese and English languages.

"With 40 hotels in Greater China and more in the development pipeline, China remains a key focus in our group," said Shangri-La Chief Marketing Officer Kent Zhu. "Our new dedicated customer contact center will help us better serve our guests and enhance their overall booking experience."

Telecom NZ subsidiary Gen-i will undertake a reorganisation of its Australian business that could see major contracts abandoned or shifted.

Telecom NZ said up to 120 employees of Gen-i Australia would be made redundant as part of a strategic review into the unit, as it shifted focus to large corporate customers with "specific trans-Tasman ICT service requirements". The reorganisation comes only months after the subsidiary signed a five-year contact centre deal with Commonwealth Bank.

The company will reportedly move some existing customers to AAPT, another Telecom NZ subsidiary. A Telecom NZ spokesman said affected customers were being notified but would not clarify whether Commonwealth Bank's five-year contract would be kept under Gen-i Australia. Gen-i employs 2,500 staff across Australia and New Zealand.

iiNet has connected more than 10,000-customers to Australia's National Broadband Network across fibre, satellite, and fixed wireless services.

iiNet Chief Executive Officer Michael Malone said the milestone reflects the iiNet Group's support of the project and customer service experience in connecting customers to super-fast broadband. "We've hit our stride when it comes to connecting people to the NBN quickly and smoothly, and getting access to Australia's best internet with iiNet is hassle-free," Malone said. "Best of all, no matter what NBN connection our customers receive, they can bank on getting our awesome customer service and support."

"New customers can be confident connecting to the NBN with iiNet because we make the process simple, quick and jargon-free. We'll also recommend the best plan for our existing customers to ensure switching to the NBN is easy," Mr Malone said.

Jetstar CEO Jayne Hrdlicka says a tighter focus on customer service will help the Qantas-owned low-cost carrier stand its ground against rivals Tiger Airways and Virgin Australia.

Hrdlicka told reporters that Jetstar's level of customer service had not kept pace with its rapid growth and was now a key priority for the group. "The customer is much higher on our agenda than in the past," she said.

Jetstar has announced the launch of an online chat service which allows customers to have questions answered through instant messaging with service agents. The service, trialled in 2011 to help customers who were booking holiday packages, has now been rolled out following positive feedback.

Masters Home Improvement has launched what it claims to be a customer service first for it's industry, the 'ultra-handy' new Masters Home Improvement iPhone app for renovators.

The hero feature is its 'Chat Now' functionality that offers real-time customer service. "We've taken the innovation of our popular in-store customer service buttons, where a staff member will respond within one minute of being called, and moved it into the digital world," says Melinda Smith, Director of Masters.

Aside from Chat Now, the app also features; Product Finder, where users shop for more than 30,000 products and search through 19 categories to buy on the spot; Projects, a practical library of 'how-to' videos, articles, and step-by-step instructions on a range of projects; Scanner, a price comparison tool; Inspire Me: a trend-spotting device; Store Finder: find the nearest store, how to get there and opening hours and more.

Outsourcer Oceania Customer Interaction Services (OCIS) will close its contact centre just outside the capital Suva after losing a major contract.

OCIS CEO Heath Lee confirmed its Australian clients have ended their agreement with the company, which has affected Fiji operations. Lee said because of this the company will be unable to trade in Fiji and Australia.

Some 174 staff have been made redundant and the facility is scheduled to close from April 3. All staff have been notified of the closure and will receive a redundancy package.

Adelaide-based People's Choice Credit Union (PCCU) is preparing major customer service overhaul to meet online competition.

PCCU MD Peter Evers told reporters the credit union was bedding down a restructuring of its personal loans processes after realising the market had moved. "We (previously) applied a traditional branch call centre type application and approval process to an online world," he said.

He said after re-engineering the contact centre process over the past 18 months, "we are now taking some of those things and taking them back into the branch and the call centre to make them better." He said a lot of people gather information (about mortgage lending) from the internet but don't necessarily want to complete a transaction online.

Government contact centre Studylink is reportedly struggling to cope with the number of enquiries from students their about loans and allowances.

The help line has dropped nearly 300,000 calls in the last five months, and students' frustration is mounting as they struggle to get answers to their questions. Head of Studylink Susan Kosmala told reporters it is unfortunate some students have trouble getting through.

"That's not the service we aim to provide. We are continuing to make improvements to answer as many calls as we can," she said. In the last five months Studylink has answered nearly 430,000 calls, according to figures published by TVNZ, but a further 300,000 weren't answered. The figure is actually an improvement of more than a 100,000 on the same time last year.

Travel industry customer service IT specialist Travelport has extended its contract with New Zealand travel agency, Brooker Travel Group.

The agreement will see Brooker Travel continue to use Travelport's Galileo solution and give its agents access to Travelport's suite of industry-leading products. Travelport says it is aimed at improving operational efficiencies via solutions such as the Travelport Smartpoint App, Travelport ViewTrip Mobile and Travelport Rooms and more.

"At Brooker Travel we believe that travel technology, coupled with unparalleled customer service, is the key to our success," said Brooker MD Andrew Carmody. "We were one of the first travel agencies in New Zealand to implement a GDS reservations system and our long-standing relationship with Travelport has been very successful."

13 March 2013 -Social Development Minister Paula Bennett has welcomed a deal which has provided two weeks paid full-time work experience in the Census call centre.

"Work and Income and Telnet agreed on a deal to recruit 222 beneficiaries for the Census call centre, providing valuable on-the-job experience."

"Sixteen people have already been given fulltime positions as a result," says Mrs Bennett.

"Telnet told us they valued attitude and personality over prior work-history, which also provided opportunities to those with no previous work experience."

Work brokers screened potential recruits and Telnet through its sister company Callcentre People, carried out interviews and induction seminars before the 222 started work at the end of February.

"More than 100 of the recruits were under 25 years old and 36 had been on the DPB or Sickness Benefits previously," says Mrs Bennett.

"This gives them valuable work experience, a reference to take to their next interview and contacts in the workforce. And given almost all advertised jobs ask for work experience, 222 people will now be able to tick that box."

"This is for the most part, a short-term job, but clearly worthwhile."

Reflective of the diverse labour market, several recruits were able to provide phone support in multiple languages.

Sixty recruits will also have an extra week's work. Between 20-30 will continue working till the end of March, with some permanent positions also available.

"Already sixteen people have secured full time positions with Telnet."

Up to 30 places on a Skills for Industry training programme with contact centre Telelink will be available for those who complete work on the Census project. This is another opportunity for entry-level training and employment.

A separate agreement with First Security has seen 32 beneficiaries offered positions as security guards. Both deals illustrate how proactive Work and Income are when it comes to work opportunities.

7 March 2013 - A record 75,000 calls were fielded by more than 300 contact centre staff during the peak 3 day Census period, according to contact centre operator Telnet.

More than 200 temporary staff were hired to answer calls and electronic queries during Census. Telnet turned the Ballroom of the Stamford Plaza Hotel in the middle of Auckland City into a temporary “Pop Up” contact centre containing almost 200 seats.

Telnet managing director John Chetwynd says most of the temporary staff were sourced from Work and Income New Zealand and did an outstanding job Telnet worked closely with Work and Income New Zealand to source staff and enable those who were out of work to showcase their skills. “Recruiting staff from WINZ has worked remarkably well. We have got some really good people and we hope this opportunity will help them get started out on some more permanent work. We have already identified about 15 of them who will be staying on with us.”

Chetwynd says what was unique about the Census contract was its scale. “We began with no staff a few weeks ago and expanded rapidly to 300 staff taking calls on Census day. It has been an amazing contact centre experience for everyone involved. The average wait time for the 40,000 people ringing the Census line on Census day was an impressive 4 seconds. From a contact centre perspective that’s a great result.”

The idea to establish a temporary contact centre at the Stamford Plaza was conceived about 18 months ago. We essentially built on our home worker friendly technology and added a dedicated Vector fibre link between Telnet’s office in Queen Street and the Stamford Plaza to handle the significant load. The end result was one virtual contact centre operating between the Stamford Plaza and Telnet. “We built the seats in the Stamford Plaza in just three days. And in a few days, we’ll remove it all.”

Multilingual staff were recruited for eight different languages including Maori, Mandarin and other Asian and Pacific Island languages. Chetwynd says callers to the centre were either seeking information about the forms they needed or about how to answer certain Census questions. Telnet’s comprehensive knowledge management systems enabled staff to satisfy queries within an average of 3 minutes. Interestingly the top questions were from people travelling on or around Census day and those seeking help to fill their Census forms in online.

Chinese solar power product manufacturer JinkoSolar has opened its first sales office in Tokyo.

The office will serve as a centralised sales and service hub for JinkoSolar's Japanese customer base. "Japan has taken a leading role in the global development and utilisation of this clean and sustainable energy solution," said JinkoSolar chairman Xiande Li. "With our new base in Tokyo and continued collaborative efforts with local and regional partners, we will strive to promote the long term development of the solar industry in Japan."

JinkoSolar Chief Marketing Officer Arturo Herrero said JinkoSolar is committed to providing its Japanese customers with the highest quality products and swift customer support. "As a reliable and effective solar partner across the globe, we take pride in providing stellar customer service. Having a physical presence in Japan serves as a critical asset for our customers and demonstrates our commitment to the market."

India's Infosys has expanded its global footprint with a new BPO center in San Jose, Costa Rica.

The center will house more than 100 agents initially providing services in the strategic sourcing and procurement area for Procter & Gamble, the world's largest consumer packaged goods company. Infosys will soon offer the entire range of BPO services in Costa Rica for its global clients, in areas including finance and accounting, human resources management, analytics, legal processes, customer relationship services, marketing, and supply chain management.

Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla Miranda said the Infosys investment is very significant for her country. "We look forward to a mutually beneficial and long-standing relationship with Infosys, to promote growth in the country and to strengthen the position of Costa Rica as one of the most competitive sites for foreign investment."

The Indonesian capital of Jakarta has launched a contact center for residents looking for information about hospitals across the city.

Residents can call both landline and mobile phone hotline numbers to obtain information such as available facilities or vacant rooms at various hospitals, or request an ambulance. The single hotline number eliminates the need to call or visit each hospital individually to get the information needed.

Nine hospitals have been included in the project, with the Health Agency of Jakarta's Dien Emmawati expecting 92 hospitals across the city to be integrated by next month. "We only have four lines at the moment, so some callers sometimes need to wait to get a response," said Emmawati, adding that the agency would add more lines in the near future.

US cloud-based compliance and information security solutions company Trustwave will enhance its customer management in the Philippines with a new Security Operations Center (SOC) in Manila.

The new Security Operations Center enhances Trustwave's ability to serve clients headquartered in Asia-Pacific, in addition to large, multinational businesses with operations in the region. The new, secure Manila facility houses the infrastructure and staff necessary to deliver customer service, threat monitoring and device management to Trustwave's clients.

"Adding a Security Operations Center in the Asia-Pacific region was a logical next step in the growth and evolution of Trustwave Managed Security Services," said Trustwave's Michael Petitti.

Australian timeshare holiday provider Classic Holidays is reporting extremely high customer service figures to start 2013.

Customer response surveys for January report satisfaction levels well above 90% when resort guests were asked if they would recommend the resort to family or friends and if they would return to that resort in the future. For Gold Coast-based Cedar Lake Country Resort, an exceptional 100% of those surveyed in January said they would return to or recommend the resort.

"Classic Holidays is an extremely supportive, fun and creative group of hard working professionals; it's like one big family. The company culture is one that can't be matched. This is truly a company that puts people first, manages from the heart and cares for the community," Cedar Lake Country Resorts' Julie Lee said. Gold Coast-based Classic Holidays manages 19 resorts and clubs across Australia catering to nearly 50,000 members.

On demand interpreter company ezispeak is talking up its cloud-based contact centre solution from Interactive Intelligence as a more effective means of managing its customer care requirements.

Ezispeak opened 18 months ago providing instant phone and video-based interpreting on demand as a means of overcoming the costly logistical challenges and delays previously incurred by services relying on face-to-face interviews. "Today the majority of the market is made up of on-site interpreting services where you get people (who) speak a particular language physically travelling to a dedicated location to provide that occasion of service," ezispeak chief executive Rebecca Haynes told News Limited.

Hayes said its Interactive Intelligence Customer Interaction Centre platform allows ezispeak to manage all inbound calls and automate multimedia queuing and routing processes. It includes comprehensive reporting to help management continually improve the customer experience. Haynes says the platform allows the company to provide instant connectivity between multiple parties that require an on-demand interpreting service, which can make a difference in an emergency situation.

A State Government report has found that most Melbourne residents are satisfied with the customer service offered by their local councils.

The study indicated that 9% of residents rated their council as very good, 40% as good, 36% as average, 9% as poor, 4% as very poor and about 1% couldn't say. Monash Council had the highest approval rating out of all Melbourne councils, scoring 71% and higher than the statewide average of 60%.

Municipal Association of Victoria president Bill McArthur said the council satisfaction surveys were a way for councils to understand what their residents liked and disliked. "It certainly gives an indication of the areas that the councils need to take more notice of and to improve the transparency of the operation and the accountability to the community," he told reporters.

Statistics New Zealand is expecting up to 35% of census forms - about two million - to be submitted via its new online facility.

Helpdesk were readied this week on a Statistics number 0800 CENSUS to give first-line assistance, and any problems they couldn't answer were escalated to staff from Datacom, which is managing the digital census processing. Statistics manager of census development Sarah Minson says census staff expected 200-300 calls may be escalated from Statistics' contact centre to Datacom during the busy period on census day.

Minson said the actual computing resource is provided by Revera through the government's infrastructure-as-a-service network, from fully replicated datacentres in Wellington and Auckland. New Zealand planned a census in 2011, but it was postponed following the Christchurch earthquakes.

Optus upped its face-to-face customer service with the opening of 10 'yes' pilot stores across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

The telco also plans to revamp 100 of its stores from April, with an additional 33 new stores added to the network within 12 months. Optus says the move will see the company employ more than 200 new staff in the retail department.

Optus sales managing director, Rohan Ganeson, said the announcement is a significant step in making customer experiences a priority and encourages feedback from its customers. "Easier, simpler and better is what our customers have been telling us they want. These stores are an opportunity to deliver a better experience and the feedback from our pilot stores will be invaluable in helping us shape the experience for the rest of the transformation," Ganeson said. Optus also claimed to be working on a revamp of its website and apps to make them more user-friendly, as part of a larger objective to deliver the best customer experience possible - whether it's in store or online.

British smart meter company Bglobal has sold its Australian CRM subsidiary Utilisoft to customer care company Hansen Corporation.

Utilisoft Australia provides data management, software and process solutions to customers in the Australian energy market. Hansen is an independent provider of billing, customer care and IT solutions to the telecommunications, electricity, gas and water industries.

Bglobal said the sale of Utilisoft Australia will allow it to focus on its remaining UK businesses and continue to develop its 'meter to cash' smart meter services platform.

Computing company Hewlett Packard has formed a new quality control and customer service group in China.

HP has merged two of its post-sale customer support centres into the newly formed "Quality and Service Centre" to provide 24/7 support to customers in China. The newly established group will monitor all aspects of HP's production chain to guarantee high quality design, manufacturing, logistics, and customer service for its products in the China market.

HP currently has 1,100 authorised service stores in China and plans to boost the number to 1,500 in 2013 with expansion mainly in low-tier cities and rural areas. The company, the world's largest PC maker, announced last Thursday that its first fiscal quarter ending Jan. 31 declined 16 % over the same period a year earlier to $1.2 billion - the results were better than expected and revenue also beat forecast despite a 6% drop to $28.4 billion.

ProComm Services, a new Help Line-Call Centre for telecommunications services in Tonga was officially launched by Princess Angelika last week at the Tungi Collonade, Nuku'alofa.

The centre will respond to requests for help and information regarding telecommunications. It is part of preparations for Tonga's scheduled link up to a fast international under-water telecommunication fiber optic cable network in July, that will speed-up internet connections and open up new opportunities for business.

At the launch, the Managing Director of ProComm Services, Sisi-Kakala Fine said that with her co-director Tevita Kilisimasi Ha'apai they had already recruited 24 young Tongans, "and most of them are school leavers." The CEO for the Tonga Communication Corporation, Rizvi Jurangpathy told Matangi Tonga that as part of their preparation for the arrival in Tonga of the telecommunications fiber optic cable network in July they had invited enterprises since August last year for an expressions of interest to set up and operate the Help Line-Call Centre for Tonga.

Singapore is in the midst of Social Media Week, with the city-state hosting some 40 events exploring trends and possibilities surrounding the social media platform.

The global conference is taking place across 26 cities, with the Singapore event bringing together businessmen, marketeers and members of the public to explore social media trends and their impact on business, society and culture. Events in Singapore include forums on how the platform can be used to promote social causes and shape industries.

"Social media has really transformed the way people talk to each other, how businesses are now talking to consumers," said Samsung Asia's Damien Cummings. "It's really broken down the barriers between big brands, big faceless brands and how customers interact with them. It's become the new force of customer service."

Mobile telco Vodafone Australia will return contact centre work from its Indian arm after receiving an Australian government cash incentive.

Vodafone will create 750 contact centre positions in Tasmania as part of the telco's renewed focus on customer service, said Vodafone CEO Bill Morrow. Vodafone is not expected to close its Indian outsourced arm, instead leave its IT and administration functions in the country.

To help facilitate the move, the Australian government committed $4 million for the move, while the Tasmanian state government will add another $850,000. The announcement goes against the current practice of western companies outsourcing back office jobs to developing countries because of the lower pay and the significant number of English-speaking workers.

Outsourcer Contact Centres Australia (CAA) is expected to shortly open its first New Zealand contact centre in the Wellington CBD.

The centre is expected to create some 100 local jobs by July 2013 and the company plans to be able to employ up to 200 staff from across the Wellington region within two years. CCA currently employs about 550 staff in Sydney servicing a range of Australian public and private sector clients, with a focus on NGOs.

CCA will operate from Wellington as Contact Centres New Zealand (CCNZ) and decided to locate in Wellington after several interactions with regional economic development agency, Grow Wellington. CCNZ will begin to take and make calls on behalf of Australian clients and intends to grow the business with New Zealand clients.

Carnival Cruise Lines has extended its contact centre hours for the Carnival Spirit liner to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The move is designed to provide guests and agents with constant access to the dedicated customer service team. Carnival Cruise Lines says the change highlights commitment to providing superior guest service at a time that best suits Australians' busy lifestyles, as well as strengthening its commitment to support its agent partners.

Carnival Cruise Lines Australia and New Zealand director Jennifer Vandekreeke said she is confident the change will be a major help. "We know Aussies lead busy lives and we also know holiday inspiration can strike at any time," Vandekreeke said. "For these reasons, and as part of our ongoing commitment to quality customer service, we will now be available for guests and agents whenever they need us."

Domino's Pizza New Zealand has introduced a new app that allows customers to rate their feedback in real time on Facebook.

The company designed the new application to improve the overall service to consumers by allowing customers to rate their end-to-end experience with the brand. The order ratings will be displayed in real time on the Domino's Facebook page, allowing about 200,000 fans to view the score and customer comments for their local store.

Domino's New Zealand GM Josh Kilimnik said the Store Ratings application demonstrates Domino's commitment to transparency, accountability and continual improvement to the overall customer experience. "We have taken big steps over the past five years in improving the service and operations of our stores, and this is the next step for our stores to perform even better," he said. "For the first time ever, our customers will be able to provide real time feedback by rating their experience with our business."

Low cost airline Jetstar has apologised to the family of a man killed in a shark attack in New Zealand over treatment received from its customer service centre.

Adam Strange, a film director, was killed last week when he was attacked by a shark off of a popular tourist beach in New Zealand. Strange's mother attempted to get an immediate flight to Wellington but already had a flight booked for a week later. The woman's sister reportedly asked the airline to have some compassion and change the flight.

New Zealand media reported the woman was placed on hold for 10 minutes to talk to a supervisor before being told she would pay a flight change fee of $265 or pay for a new ticket. She was told the airline would refund the fee if it received documents proving the change was made for compassionate reasons. In a statement, Jetstar said it appreciates the woman's treatment would have been a stressful situation and "regrets if the service received by her relative from our contact centre caused further distress. We have contacted the relative and apologised for the way the call was handled."

Mortgage company State Custodians has taken the overall prize for best customer service at the Australian Home Loans Awards, saying it is an affirmation for a non-bank, online based model.

State Custodians director of operations Heidi Armstrong says the key to good customer service is to treat people as individuals, rather than as a 'type', and pay attention to their requests. "We are an online lender and rarely see people face-to-face, but we understand that different people have different service expectations."
State Custodians says it relies heavily on positive reviews and referrals from existing customers to build up business and remain viable.

"We take a very active approach in listening to our clients' feedback," said Armstrong. "Our clients are smart people. We know they have generally done some research to find out about State Custodians. Therefore, when they speak up and make suggestions for change, we don't just listen, we act." Other customer service gold winners were ME Bank and the Greater Building Society.

Mobile telco Vodafone Hutchison Australia has announced 750 new customer service jobs at its Hobart contact centre headquarters.

The expansion has been helped by a $4 million investment by the federal government and will result in more than double the staff numbers at the contact centre, which currently employs over 680 people. The Tasmanian Government is providing $850,000 for infrastructure costs and waiving payroll tax for Vodafone's new employees.

Tasmania premier Lara Giddings said the expansion was one of the biggest jobs announcements in the state's history. "The investment by Vodafone to double their Tasmanian workforce up to 1500 employees is a massive boost for the economy," Giddings said. Vodafone expects the employment targets to be achieved over the 2013-14 financial year.

Air New Zealand has been named best major airline in the Pacific for on-time performance, by flight and information services website FlightStats.

Air New Zealand is also one of four finalists in the global Major International Airlines category. The awards recognise airlines for delivering on a key element of customer service - the ability to meet passengers' expectations of arriving at their chosen destination on schedule.

Air New Zealand COO Bruce Parton said the award is shared by the thousands of staff across New Zealand and around the world "who work hard every day to bring all the required elements together to ensure flights get away on time". "Not only are we the best in the Pacific at getting our customers to where they need to be safely and on time, we do so without compromising the truly world-class customer service we pride ourselves on," Parton said.

Low cost carrier AirAsia's has rolled out two new customer service innovations in the Philippines.

Philippine customers can now phone the easy-to-remember hotline number 742ASIA (742 2742) as well as pay for products with cash at convenience stores. "To provide optimum customer care service for our guests, AirAsia is launching two new significant innovations," AirAsia. Commercial head Freddy Herrera said. "We have a new customer hotline that is easy to remember and we are also rolling out our cash payment partner with 7-Eleven store for our passengers who want to avail of our online promotions and other privileges, but would like to pay in cash instead of using their credit cards."

Herrera said Filipinos will embrace the new concept of paying cash for airline tickets via its payment partners option because of its simplicity and convenience. More than 800 7-Eleven stores nationwide will start accepting cash payments for AirAsia on February 28. AirAsia's new Philippine hotline number started on February 25.

Aspect Software has recently announced an equity partnership with back office optimisation software and services expert eg solutions, plc.

Aspect a leader in workforce management, offers capabilities to align people's time and skills for best-in-class customer interactions with the contact center. The eg partnership creates the ability for Aspect to ensure that the people, processes and tasks that support these interactions across both the front and back office can optimise the total customer experience.

The agreement provides Aspect exclusive distribution rights to eg's products and services in the Asia Pacific and Americas regions and formalises the partnership model for both companies to address customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Changi Airport Group (CAG) has paid tribute to its front-line staff at an Annual Airport Celebration ceremony.

Singapore Minister for Transport Lui Tuck Yew presented 21 Changi Airport Service Awards to individuals, teams and the outstanding organisation in five award categories - Service Personality of the Year, Outstanding Service Staff, Outstanding Service Team, Outstanding Custodial Staff and a new category, Service Partner of the Year. The Changi Airport Service Awards were introduced in 1994 and have remained a major feature of CAG's quality service management program.

"2012 was an exceptional year for Changi Airport," CAG CEO Lee Seow Hiang. "We crossed a milestone with more than 51 million passenger movements and received 30 Best Airport accolades. These outcomes are possible only with the commitment and enduring efforts invested by our more than 200 airport partners, whether they are government agencies, airlines, ground-handling agents or tenants."

Lawyers are preparing to mount a class action against Vodafone after years of complaints about the mobile telco's customer service and coverage.

Law firm Piper Alderman on Monday announced plans to proceed with the action but did not reveal further details. Vodafone said it was aware of the potential class action, but said the law firm has not contacted Vodafone directly since it first threatened action in 2010, nor has it sought to discuss the claims of any customers it represents in the class action with Vodafone.

The legal move comes more than a year after Vodafone said it was working hard to improve its service following a damning report that outlined more than 12,000 complaints ranging from patchy network coverage to poor customer service. Since first announcing in December 2010 its intention to launch the class action, Piper Alderman has received more than 23,000 registrations of interest to participate from Vodafone contract holders.

Macquarie University has rolled out a campus-wide SugarCRM solution via integrator InsightfulCRM.

InsightfulCRM is responsible for developing, hosting and managing a CRM solution for Macquarie University to help improve its relationships with over 44,000 students, academic staff and commercial partners, as well as prospective students. Macquarie University's CIO Marc Bailey said SugarCRM has enabled the university to build better stakeholder relationships and increase their focus on student experience and retention in a highly competitive education sector.

"When we looked at how to introduce customer relationship management ideas and technology in a higher-ed context, we realised that interaction and adaptability are what really matter," said Bailey. Although there are off-the-shelf solutions to educational CRM, at the bottom of the iceberg there is a multiplicity of integration targets where generic approaches just don't fit. Open source, in this case SugarCRM, delivers value from both worlds - generic where you can be, custom where you can't."

Business-focused telco Next Telecom has won the Australian Gold Customer Service Award for 2012 for the second year running.

The Australian Customer Service Awards uses an online customer survey tool to collect and analyse feedback organisation's customers and grade their responses using best practice customer service standards as a benchmark. "After 5 years of operations, winning this award again is a testament to the organisations mission to be the leader in service in this highly competitive environment," Next Telecom CEO Officer Ryan O'Hare said.

"While most telecommunication companies claim their service levels are the best, our less than 10 second answering, advanced billing, pricing, knowledge and overall award winning customer service sets us apart." Next Telecom recently launched its new corporate headquarters in North Sydney "enabling it to continue planned growth and adopt technology advances that will maintain its leading service position".

ShoreTel unified communications solutions deployed to more than 3000 local government users in last 12 months.

Unified communications company ShoreTel says it is servicing 3000 new users as it continues to gain market share in the local government sector. The company says it has more than 50 councils currently considering ShoreTel as their business communications solution.

"We've had phenomenal success since we started to actively target the local government sector in mid-2011," ShoreTel ANZ MD Jamie Romanin said. "Local government IT departments need technology solutions that meet their criteria without adding a burden of complexity to the operation, and ShoreTel provides the ideal solution with powerful and integrated business communications combined with a simple and elegant systems architecture and management interface."

Telstra has announced plans to cut around 650 jobs at its directory services unit Sensis as part of a restructuring away from its traditional print-based model to a digital media business.

Telstra said on Wednesday it planned to set up a new digital customer management centre and outsource some customer service functions. "Until now we have been operating with an outdated print-based model - this is no longer sustainable for us," Sensis Managing Director John Allan said in a statement.

Allan reportedly told union officials that "Australians will get better customer services from Manila or India. They have better technology and innovation." Allan told Fairfax media, "the vendors that we are considering provide services for customers that go beyond our service today, such as 24/7 operations and unique technologies that assist in processing efficiencies, which they do for many directory businesses around the world".

Thailand's contact center is increasingly competing with customer service heavyweights India and the Philippines in the outsourcing market.

The Thai contact center outsourcing market is estimated to be worth US$88.5 million in 2012, and is expected to reach US$151 million by the end of 2017, according to Frost & Sullivan. Among those aiming to capitalise on Thailand's market potential are India's Servion Global Solutions, which opened up an office there in January.

Thailand will play a very important part in the region's growth because of the local and international opportunities it is being presented with, said Abhijit Banerjee, Servion's vice president and regional head for Asia-Pacific. Banerjee said Thailand was experiencing a massive economic boom, especially with international opportunities being opened up. He noted the country had recently signed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) trade treaty, which specifically paved the way for the opening of business opportunities in growth markets such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

Westpac Bank has apologised for an online and telephone banking services glitch that disrupted services on Monday, upping other customer service channels to meet demand.

Westpac had earlier confirmed that the services had been offline and that it was working as rapidly as possible to correct the problem. "All of our online banking and automated telephone banking services have now been restored," Westpac spokeswoman Supreet Thomas said.

Thomas said Westpac had extended its contact centre opening hours until 9.30pm Monday and also opened earlier on Tuesday to help its customers. "We sincerely apologise to our customers for the inconvenience and encourage customers to call their local bank manager or our customer contact centre if they have any questions."

A new Indian service is helping marketing companies connect to potential customers via a "missed call".

ZipDial offers clients a marketing offer with a toll-free phone number that consumers can dial into, but instead of having to wait to connect with a customer service agent the call rings once and disconnects. The caller then receives a text message with more information on the marketing campaign. Services helped by ZipDial include mobile number verification for e-commerce ventures, mobile banking polls and customer feedback surveys.

Co-founder Valarie Wagoner says that compared to Facebook, ZipDial drives between 2-5 times more engagements across all customers and in a time period that is at least twice as fast. "Zip Dialling is a 100% accessible interaction," Wagoner said. "So we see fantastic results like makemytrip.com increasing their feedback responses from less than 0.5 percent to more than 10 percent."

Indian-based travel BPO specialist InterGlobe Technologies (IGT) has opened a new customer service center in the Chinese city of Guangzhou.

The 150-seat facility is designed to expand IGT's operations and accelerate its globalisation process. It is positioned to offer BPO and IT outsourcing services to travel corporations worldwide who are focusing on growing markets in the Asia Pacific region. The Chinese center comes after IGT' opened facilities in Dubai and Manila in the last few years.

The Guangzhou center will provide customer service, airline reservations, flight disruption support, back office services, multi-language support and consulting in the Airline, Travel Management (TMC) and Hospitality industry. IGT already has a client base comprising of large TMCs and Airlines in the geography. "China's current outsourcing market is growing significantly as China has the talent pool and cost structure and is the most sought after market today," IGT CEO Vipul Doshi said. "Our decision to set up base at Guangzhou adds significant value to the China business and professional landscape and gives us access to internationally benchmarked business processes."

The Malaysian government has expanded its 1Malaysia One Call Center (1MOCC) to incorporate 25 ministries and agencies into the project.

1MOCC was set up in November 2012 to create a single point of contact for citizens to get in touch with participating government departments and ministries via telephone, SMS, fax, email and social media. The first phase of the project involved 21 agencies, including the Prime Minister's Department, Malaysian Immigration Department and the Road Transport Department.

The second phase includes organisations such as the ministries of tourism, education, women and health. Citizens call to make enquiries, file complaints or give suggestions and feedback about any of the participating ministries. The third phase is expected to be launched in March, and will cover all federal and state agencies.

While Indian cities still dominate as preferred outsourcing destinations, the Philippines has strengthened its position as a leading alternative, according to a recent report.

The Tholons list of world's top 100 ITO hubs found Manila moved to third place behind Bangalore and Mumbai as a preferred outsourcing destination, replacing Delhi and breaking India's monopoly of the top three spots. Furthermore, another Philippine municipality, Cebu City climbed one place to number eight on the list while five of the country's other centers made it into the top 100.

Global economy and investment consultancy Oxford Business Group One says one of the advantages the Philippine was over its rivals is its easy access to the United States market, reinforced by shared historical and cultural ties and an ample supply of skilled workers with a good command of the English language. The Philippine BPO sector is expected to earn at least $25 billion by 2016.

Tata will open a new facility in the English city of Liverpool this year, creating and safeguarding up to 300 jobs.

The investment was announced as British Prime Minister David Cameron visits India during the UK's biggest-ever trade mission to the subcontinent. Tata Consultancy's new facility will deliver services to the Home Office, following a multi-million, multi-year contract which it won in November 2012 to manage the technology needs and support services of the new Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

"Tata has played a transformative role in the UK and I'm delighted that their consultancy service is now opening a delivery center in Liverpool creating 300 new jobs," Cameron said. "This will make a real difference to the local economy and further strengthen the company's ties to the UK." The new Tata center will begin operating in July.

The federal government has issued a tender request for contact centre services as the first step in its $198 million aged care gateway plan.

The aged care gateway will attempt to create an entry point for the aged care system and enable timely and reliable information to be accessed by older people, their families and carers. A key element of the initiative is a new My Aged Care website, which will consolidate information on ageing and aged care services. This will eventually include quality indicators and a rating system for aged care services.

Healthdirect Australia will be in charge of developing and managing the My Aged Care website and the sourcing and procurement of contact centre services. According to the briefing notes, the contact centre "will be required to utilise and integrate with a Commonwealth, core ICT system to support delivery of Aged Care Gateway services". The government's current Aged Care Australia website will be decommissioned following the introduction of the My Aged Care website. The current national number for information on aged care, 1800 200 422, will be used by the aged care gateway's national contact centre.

IBM has officially opened its new outsourcing Delivery Centre in New Zealand at Auckland's Unitec Institute of Technology.

The facility, formally opened by Prime Minister John Key, will prepare students to work in the digital economy and provide businesses with access to new skills in mobile and analytics, and advanced technology. IBM anticipates that the centre will employ up to 400 people within the next two years including full-time and part-time professionals, as well as Unitec graduates and current students.

The partnership will be based on IBMs successful model at the Ballarat Delivery Centre in Australia. The new Delivery Centre in New Zealand is part of IBMs global network of more than 50 centres and will leverage IBMs "global expertise in delivering innovative business process outsourcing and services to clients locally and internationally".

Two thirds of the 442 complaints received by the Airline Customer Advocate in its first six months were resolved in the customer's favour, according to new research by the body.

Complaints about cancellation and refund requests totalled about a third of inquiries for all airlines, followed by flight delays at 18%, fees or charges, website problems and then disputes over terms and conditions. Tiger Airways reportedly attracted the most complaints between July and December 2012, followed by Jetstar. Qantas and Virgin prompted the least complaints.

Tiger had 2.17 complaints per 100,000 passengers for cancellation and refund disputes, while Jetstar scored 1.44, Qantas at 0.16 and Virgin had 0.14. According to the annual report, customer complaints were resolved within two weeks on average. Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the results showed reform in the industry had been a success, with complaints resolved quickly and effectively after support from airlines as well. "For the first time airline customers have a real alternative when they need their complaints resolved," he said.

The mayors of New Zealand cities Nelson and Hastings have announced a plan to attract more customer service jobs from Australia to cost effective provincial New Zealand.

In a joint election-year release yesterday, headed "Mayors ready to fight for local jobs", Aldo Miccio and Lawrence Yule said they'd been working with Wellington technology entrepreneur Rod Drury, who had suggested basing technology contact centres in the regions. The mayors said they would be working with their economic development agencies on a strategy to "bundle together services and promote these to Australian businesses - finance and insurance companies, for example".

Yule said the contact centres were usually 24/7 operations so there could be capacity for many new high-value jobs, and an economic boost to the whole community. "We know our regions can offer great value that can attract Australian companies."

New Zealand's Contact Energy says its customer service centre roles are safe from reported plans to lay off about 100 of its 1100 staff by the middle of the year.

Contact Energy 's job cuts are part of a wider plan to chop $40 million in yearly costs. Contact Energy's head office has 270 staff and its retail operation has 150 people in Wellington. The two sites are being combined, with retail staff moving into the head office building in coming months. Contact Energy also employs 100 contact centre staff in Levin and 130 in Dunedin.

Contact Energy said while the whole business was being looked at, it did not expect any "material" cuts at the contact centres. "We will be taking great care that any of the reductions don't impact on the reliability and safety of operations or customer service," a spokesman said. Contact Energy was not considering outsourcing the call centres to other countries.

On-demand hire-car service Uber is hoping a proposed deregulation of the Australian taxi industry will allow more room for its app-based customer service model.

Since its launch two years ago, the San Francisco company is operating in 26 cities around the world, with 100 luxury cars available in Sydney since launching in October, and 15 vehicles in Melbourne. Once customers download the Uber app and register their details, they are able to see available cars onscreen as they move about the city and order one.

All Uber drivers must have a current hire-car licence, insurance, and pass a personal interview and city knowledge test, while customers are able to rate them at the end of each trip. While passengers await the arrival of their Uber car, the app allows them to see the driver's photograph, licence plate number, and review "star rating". Uber general manager in Sydney, David Rohrsheim, says the feedback works both ways, with drivers also able to rate passengers, creating a greater sense of accountability. Uber's hire cars are generally 30% more expensive than a present cab fare, with Uber taking a 20%.

Analysis of the entrants in the 2012 Telstra Australian Business Awards indicate that most of the top SMBs have a comprehensive business plan that includes a strong focus on customer service.

According to the NSW Business Chamber's analysis, most of the 2012 entrants have covered possible risks of their online activities through secure passwords, anti-virus software, unidentified emails and offsite back up of data. Every entrant, 90% more than 2011, have maintained and utilised some form of customer database, 89% of entrants reviewed supplier performance and benefited from better customer service, reduced costs, increased reliability and better quality products.

Australian businesses looking to enter the 2013 Telstra Australian Business Awards will receive a free 70 page Business Health Check report that evaluates the business' performance against international standards, current legislation and accepted industry best practice. Noel Niddrie, director of Winangali Pty Ltd and the winner of the 2012 Telstra Queensland Business of the Year Award said, "the opportunity to take a fresh look at your business and have it assessed by experts is priceless."

Westpac Bank is reportedly considering offshoring roles from its South Australian mortgage processing centre.

New reports say Westpac told workers, including 70 at its Lockleys mortgage processing centre, that it was reviewing their jobs with a view to moving them to India and the Philippines. "We've started a consultation period that will run until the end of February," Westpac spokesman Paul Marriage told reporters. "If we do decide to go ahead there will be an impact on some jobs in Adelaide."

"Should we proceed we are committed to supporting people through the change and make it a priority to redeploy as many people as possible or retrain our staff into new roles," the spokesman added. Labor MP for the Adelaide seat of Hindmarsh, Steve Georganas, said workers at the Lockleys contact centre had for years told him they were terrified of losing their jobs. "Banks need to wake up and realise offshoring is bad for workers, bad for customers and bad for Australia," he said.

Global customer contact solutions company Allied International Credit (AIC) has opened its newest location in Manila.

AIC currently has seven offices throughout North America and the United Kingdom. The decision to expand offshore was not to replace any of its current operations, but to provide its clients with additional, cost-effective solutions to service collection and care programs.

"Our Manila office becomes a key strategic location that will complement our existing sites," AIC's Kenny Johnston said. "We are positive our current and future clients will realise the benefit of further service options and that Jason has the leadership and experience to manage this new and exciting phase of AIC's growth."

Chengdu plans to build a tourism contact center as the Chinese city was voted among the top five in a national ranking of cities based on tourist satisfaction in a China Tourism Academy survey.

The centre will deal inquiries, complaints and emergency response for visitors in the latest customer service focused initiative by the city. The city established information centre in South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong and does promotion and marketing in seven major overseas tourist sources, including Japan and Singapore.

Smart tourism information retrieval systems are installed in any Chengdu hotel with a three-star ranking or higher. The system is supported by a database of around 400,000 entries about the city's tourism sites and related services. The local tourism authority estimated that the city received 122 million tourists over the last year, increasing 26.1% compared with 2011. More than 1.5 million of them were from overseas.

SriLankan Airlines will upgrade its customer service IT systems to a solution from the global travel industry specialist the Amadeus IT Group.

The deal, which is reportedly the first of its kind for Amadeus in the Indian subcontinent, will enable both SriLankan Airlines and its sister airline, Mihin Lanka, to adopt Amadeus' IT suite in order to manage its reservations, ticketing, inventory and departure control processes. At the same time, the agreement between SriLankan and Amadeus will help facilitate the airline's entry into the oneworld global alliance.

Under the terms of the agreement the two companies will work in close co-operation to begin the migration process from SriLankan's existing passenger service system to Altéa, with the first phase of the migration, covering the reservations, inventory and ticketing modules. Migration to the Altéa departure control system module is planned to commence in the first half of 2014.

US-based outsourcer Technosoft Corporation says plans to hire 800 new staff in India.

The Technosoft Corporation is also expected open its new 400-seat development centre in Chennai soon. "Globally we plan to hire around 1,000 people by mid-2014 for our two operations - software services and healthcare BPO," Technosoft Corporation CEO Rajiv Tandon told reporters.

"Eighty percent of the new hiring will be in India," he added. "The company will soon inaugurate its new development centre near Chennai." The company already has three development centres in Chennai and one in Bangalore with around 1,600 employees, of which 1,000 are in India and 600 in the US.

A consumer study by US-based software company Zendesk has found that Australian customer service is the best of the best with 93% customer satisfaction.

Zendesk's latest Customer Satisfaction Index measures customer happiness across 65 million consumers in 137 countries. The Zendesk study also pointed to research by recruitment company Randstad that found that Australia has among the happiest employees in the world. "There is something of a connection between countries with happy employees and countries that are providing the best customer service," Zendesk said.

"Canada (93% satisfaction), Australia and Germany (88%) have high rates of happy employees and some of the highest customer service scores," the company said. "On the other hand, France, China and Turkey have some the lowest rates of happy employees and also have low scores on the customer service satisfaction index."

The National Rugby League (NRL) and the Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASADA) have established an anonymous contact centre as part of its efforts to flush out drug cheats.

In the wake of a report claiming the widespread use of illicit substances in Australian sport, the NRL and ASADA are calling on players and officials to call the new hotline and provide information on drug use in rugby league. "Players will be able to provide the confidential information, receive advice relating to anti-doping concerns and come forward with information that may reduce the level of any sanction," a statement said.
"Any member of the public will be able confidentially provide information on doping issues through the existing ASADA Hot Line 1300 027 232 or they can log on to www.asada.gov.au," the statement said.

"Players can contact 1300 550 485 on a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week basis to talk with an Intelligence Manager at ASADA who will be available to confidentiality collect information,'' a statement issued to the Sunday Telegraph read. NRL boss David Smith urged players and the public to provide information to assist in the investigation.

Customer service centres set up to handle New Zealand teachers' payroll problems have been swamped with calls.

The centres took more than 800 calls in the first two days after the first pay round of the school year, with hundreds of teachers expected to be underpaid or not paid at all. Ministry of Education officials have manually paid 86 teachers this week after "discrepancies" in their pay packets, but the number of total errors was expected to be in the hundreds.

A ministry contact centre received 228 calls on February 6 and a further 102 calls and 197 emails on February 7 from teachers, principals and payroll administrators. Payroll company Talent2's contact centre also fielded more than 500 calls since the pay round last week.

Cosmetic company owner Napoleon Perdis has warned department stores against cutting back on staff and training unless they want to push customers online.

Perdis was quoted by Fairfax Media as saying that stores need to invest in staff and improve the consumer experience or customers will have no reason to shop in store. "Department stores are going to have to bite the bullet further with increasing their staffing levels so that customers feel there is a reason to go in to them. It's expensive upfront, but not expensive long term," he said.

Perdis said there has to be a major incentive for a woman to go in the department store and "feel beautiful". Perdis says Australian department stores desperately need to train their staff beyond using a cash register. "You have to actually reinvest in humanity to give you the returns," he said.

The IT Service Management Forum Australia (itSMF) and HDAA (formerly the Help Desk Association of Australasia) will join forces to co-produce the LEADit 2013 conference and exhibition.

The partnership will help expand Australia's largest IT Service Management Conference and Exhibition to cater for help desk and service and support professionals. Under the partnership, LEADit 2013 will feature a larger presence for HDAA, access for HDAA members, an extended range of speakers and additional content on service desk and support issues.

"It has long been understood that service desk and support operations are critical to the effective implementation of ITSM improvement strategies," itSMF's chair Kathryn Heaton said. "Therefore, it is only logical to extend the value of our conference by including designated content on this complementary area of IT." LEADit 2013 is itSMF's 16th National Conference and will be held in Canberra from 7-9 August.

National Australia Bank has deployed an automated contact centre testing solution from Cyara to help it monitor and evaluate its customer service while consolidating IT.

NAB will use Cyara for testing, monitoring and simulating agent and customer experience, as well as its IVR and contact centre systems and applications. "Using Cyara's automated suite for our contact centre virtualisation project significantly lowered our testing costs and, more importantly, reduced the risk of customer service impact as we made changes and moved to one virtual platform," said NAB's Graham Cronin.

NAB used Cyara's suite of solutions for pre-and post-migration, benchmarking existing customer experience and documenting and managing application and systems changes across 36 different contact centres while they were consolidated to one virtual system. "Our business stakeholders were comfortable using Cyara because of what Cyara revealed to them - invaluable information about their own customer experiences," said Cronin.

New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is installing the Microsoft Dynamics CRM (CRM) software as part of an upgrade of its customer service.

The new solution is expected to help the MBIE to simplify its interactions with customers, reduce costs and keep its organisation better informed about opportunities to improve service. The two-phase implementation into MBIE's Christchurch-based service centre began last month, with the full roll-out to be completed by mid-2013.

"This gives us a clearer picture than we've ever had before of not just the issues we need to pay attention to, but also the time taken and cost to resolve them," said MBIE's Jeremy Dickson. Dickson said one of his aims was to eliminate the need for people to follow up on, or re-explain, their initial enquiries or contacts with the Ministry.

Telstra says its renewed focus on improving customer service is largely responsible for the continued growth of its mobile communications business.

Telstra signed more than 600,000 new customers for its mobile services in the past six months, especially for its 4G internet network. "These results have been achieved through what I would say is a sustained and disciplined focus on our strategic priorities and, very, very specifically, on improving customer service which is such a key priority," Telstra's CEO David Thodey said.

"While it's still a long way to go, it's sort of the heart of what we do," Thodey added. Telstra also spent nearly $2 billion over the half-year on new technology and expanding its network.

Energy retailer Australian Power & Gas Company Limited has entered into an agreement with global payments company, PayPal to expand its offering to customers.

The deal will allow Australian Power & Gas' over 340,000 customer accounts to pay bills online using PayPal online and reduce Australian Power & Gas' transaction costs to process payments. "This is an important relationship which opens up access for Australian Power & Gas to PayPal Australia's 5 million active accounts," said Australian Power & Gas CEO James Myatt. "We're delighted to be the first energy retailer to enable customers to pay bills using PayPal."

Under the agreement, payment information is managed electronically reducing manual handling, mail and paper transaction costs. Customers will also be able to pay bills in instalments at times of their choosing, as an alternative to lump sum payments at the due date.

Dimension Data New Zealand has partnered with Desktops as a Service (DaaS) company Desktone to offer cost-effective, full-featured virtual desktops as a cloud service.

Dimension Data will offer the Desktone virtual desktop platform to New Zealand companies and government agencies to help them better support corporate and remote workers. The move comes as the rapid adoption of mobile computing and other enterprise initiatives has created a need for a desktop solution that's scalable and reduces operational costs and complexity.

"Organisations are increasingly embracing cloud computing for its flexibility, efficiency and ease of use," Dimension Data New Zealand's Leigh Jackson said. "At Dimension Data we've been aggressively building our portfolio of cloud services with solutions like Desktone's multi-tenant virtual desktop platform that help customers improve performance and lower IT costs."

ME Bank has launched a new customer service initiative by installing a workplace banking kiosk at Telstra's Melbourne's CBD contact centre.

The kiosk measures five metres square and acts as a miniature bank branch that can operate on an employer's worksite. The kiosk includes a video phone to access ME Bank's contact centre, a private office space for meetings with a banker, an ATM, and access to Internet banking.

"ME Bank is taking banking to the customer, rather than making them come to us," said ME Bank sales group executive Ian Hendey. "The Kiosks combine face-to-face and digital banking, and address the difficulty many people have finding time to go to their bank."

Hosted voice and data communications provider MyNetFone says it has significantly expanded its Australian-based customer service and support operations.

The company has shifted customer service into larger premises within the group's Sydney headquarters to meet substantial growth in MyNetFone's Residential and Business (SMB and Enterprise) divisions. The expansion will specifically be in the customer service and technical support contact centre, which has increased its staff numbers by 20% compared to last year.

"Contrary to recent industry trends, MyNetFone Group strongly believes in onshore support and service," said CEO Rene Sugo. "Together with our substantial investment in Australia-based Research & Development, our dedication to local customer support forms the foundation of our commercial success."

New research indicates poor customer experience could cost companies 20% of their annual revenue.

The Oracle survey of 75 senior Australian executives found that organisations recognise that not offering a positive, consistent and brand-relevant customer experience would have a significant impact on their bottom line. The study also showed that the main obstacles for implementing customer experience locally were technology-related.

Oracle Australia's Chris Bosch said a great customer experience is being able to engage with a customer's bank or telecommunications provider through any chosen channel for any service. "It's also to get consistent, clear and accurate information that helps me make a decision," he said. "Realising that I'm one customer even though I have a few products is key." Some 21% of respondents said they had implemented advanced customer experience programs, while 37% had none; 31% were getting started with a formal customer experience initiative.

Melbourne-based online clothing retailer, The Iconic, has reportedly outsourced its customer service operations to India.

The Iconic has been offshoring parts of its email customer service to Hyderabad since December, according to Fairfax media. The report quoted the company's MD Adam Jacobs that redundancies down the track were not related to the Indian offshoring.

"We are looking to reduce our team in Sydney by five to eight roles, which represents a small percentage of our full team," he said. Jacobs said there was a "reduced" need for the customer service team. "It has reduced due to concerted efforts to create a seamless customer experience, meaning less customers now need to contact us with queries/issues," Jacobs said.

Timeshare exchange accommodation provider RCI Pacific is reconfiguring is customer service numbers as part of a global restructuring of the group.

RCI provides timeshare holiday exchange accommodation at more than 4000 resorts in 100 countries. About 60 staff as the company's Bundall office on the Gold Coast were told their jobs would go as part of the changes, which see customer service centre functions relocated to the company's Singapore office.

RCI Pacific managing director Charisse Cox said employees affected were largely back-office and member-service staff at the contact centre who would be offered assistance to find new employment. "Globally, we are looking at where efficiencies can be made all our offices and for this reason it was decided to move the back-office functions to RCI Singapore," Cox said.

Sydney telemarketing company Strategic Outsourcing Solutions has opened up an offshore contact centre.

The new contact centre has been set up in conjunction with one of the leading telemarketing companies in the Philippines, opening up a new partnership for the business. Strategic Outsourcing Solutions offers options for companies who are looking to open up a telemarketing business to further their client base and research. This has been proven to assist companies with marketing solutions and has led to inspiration for new research in the retail, health and construction sectors.

The company have worked closely with a number of prestigious companies and have sourced out offices and telemarketing businesses within Australia, India and the Philippines. Strategic Outsourcing Solutions says its new office in the Philippines is one of the largest established telemarketing businesses in its region.

Apple will reportedly open a research and development facility in Shanghai, which may also double as a customer service hub.

Apple has eight official Apple Stores in mainland China, and China Business News claims the new facility is a done deal. The report says the center will be an Apple R&D and procurement management facility. Apple is yet to confirm the move.

Jobs listings reveal a lot of Apple jobs posted on third-party recruitment sites for the Shanghai area, including positions such as AppleCare team manager, SPS business analyst, and an admin assistant for the Apple Online Store. The recruitment vacancies have led to speculation that the Shanghai base could be also act as new customer service hub.

The Asia-Pacific market is tipped to be a major driver of strong growth in the global outsourcing industry for 2013.

New Frost & Sullivan research says preferred locations for service sites are India, China, The Philippines, and Malaysia followed by Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. In 2012, the uncertain global economic conditions, persistent struggle in the Europe markets and sluggish growth in the US combined with tamed growth in China, India and Brazil to affect the outsourcing industry as a whole.

The Asia-Pacific market outlook is prominently positive due to their domestic growth potential and with accelerated momentum they are likely to gain further from global outsourcing. However, Latin America is looking to benefit from the near-shore trend and is likely to come up as competitor to APAC destinations for North American contracts.

Globe Telecom Philippines is set to upgrade its customer service with a central IT infrastructure system, powered by Oracle.

The new system is expected to improve customer services such as billing and promos registration. "Globe decided to move away from the existing IBM-based middleware infrastructure and choose Oracle Fusion Middleware solutions to modernise its IT infrastructure," Globe said.

Globe's Henry Aguda said the upgraded system will also create a better customer experience because of its business center and contact center integration. This will allow Globe customer representatives in authorised business centers in malls to know any queries a subscriber has made with the contact center, he said.

Indian outsourcer Servion Global Solutions (SGS) has entered the Thailand market by setting up a new office in the country.

SGS is hopeful that 50% of its revenues will come from the Asia Pacific region, which currently contributes 25%. "This move is aimed at establishing a business presence amid high demand for call center technologies in that market on the back of growing popularity of mobile devices and high internet penetration," the company said in a statement.

"With the office in Thailand, we will help organisations to stay focused on their core business; while we take over management of customer interaction processes and add dimensions to cater to the changing landscape," SGS VP Abhijit Banerjee said.

Building materials company Boral has pledged its customer service will be unaffected by plans to cut 700 jobs from all levels of the company to reduce costs.

Boral has announced that 700 staff will go from functional, support and management positions, with 200 of those redundancies having already occurred late last year, and the rest expected to be completed by March. Boral CEO Mike Kane said the changes should not affect customer service, as the redundancies are concentrated in back office, managerial and support activities.

Kane says doing nothing was not a serious alternative, with shareholders unhappy about a recent cut in dividends. "I've been looking for ways to enable Boral to be more responsive to our external markets and customers, and to ensure Boral remains competitive at a time when the building and construction sector is facing serious challenges, especially in Australia," he said.

Fairfax Media is reportedly in the process of offshoring much of its contact centre work to New Zealand.

Once it is completed, the bulk of the company's newspaper and magazine subscriptions and classified ad bookings will be handled by US outsourcer Teletech's customer service centres in Auckland and The Philippines. The move was announced to staff late last year and will involve redundancies, but the exact number of jobs has not been confirmed.

Fairfax employs staff at its contact centres in Sydney and Melbourne, although some of its subscriptions work had already been outsourced. Fairfax announced last week it is continuing to shift editorial sub-editing jobs from Australia to its wholly owned New Zealand division, Fairfax Media NZ.

Tiger Airways has received a largely positive response from customers after admitting on social media it is "extremely disappointed" with its contact centre service and promising change is on the way.

The budget airline posted a message on Facebook outlining its own disappointment at the centre's service problems, including long delays, and said it would be moving to a new outsourcer on February 1. "We want to apologise to our customers, we are extremely disappointed with the current levels of service you are experiencing when trying to call our call centre," it said.

"We are moving to a new call centre provider on 1st February to ensure you receive the standards of service that you deserve and thank you for your patience in the meantime. Thank you and sorry." A Tiger Airways spokesperson told reporter the new contact centre is an important move for the airline. "Customer satisfaction is a key priority for Tiger Airways Australia and we strive for continual improvement in this area."

Qantas has offered some check-in and customer service staff voluntary redundancies after losing a multimillion contract with Air New Zealand.

Qantas said Air New Zealand advised in November it would not renew the contract for ground handling services when the current arrangement expired in March. Qantas in response has called for voluntary redundancies among its check-in and customer service staff.

"We don't expect there will be any compulsory redundancies," a Qantas spokesman said. The number of redundancies was expected to be low but the airline is yet to determine exact figures.

Australian online retailers have been urged to concentrate on customer service to ensure they retain and build on their share of the online sales market.

According to research by MasterCard, two in three respondents said they shopped online at least once a month. Overall, 12.6 million adult consumers have shopped online during the last 12 months.

MasterCard Australia VP David Masters said it was up to online retailers themselves to "deliver where overseas retailers cannot - (through) service (and) delivering a personal approach."

A survey of small to medium businesses has found that telcos would benefit by following the lead of airlines by distinguish between premium-paying customers and "economy" customers.

The study of 260 businesses with fewer than 20 employees indicated that 29% per cent of small business owners suffered the same customer service and complaint-handling issues experienced by personal consumers. Complaints ranged from the length of customer service phone calls (22%), being on hold (18%), being passed between departments (9%) and having to call multiple times (7%).

"The vast majority of respondents use business-grade services. By paying a premium for business services, there is an implicit understanding that as a business customer they would enjoy a higher level of customer support," the report's author, Shara Evans, said. Evans urged businesses to purchase a mobile broadband "dongle", or obtain a fixed broadband service from multiple providers using different technologies to their business being impacted when offline.

Stellar is looking to hire another 100 customer service officers to work in its new Maroochydore contact centre.

With the assistance of the Sunshine Coast Council, Stellar has organised two more information sessions for prospective employees to find out more about Stellar, its job requirements, its global organisation and its benefits.

The company's Maroochydore centre has already employed more than 100 people. The centre provides support for its five-year contract with the Australian Taxation Office.

Telstra has launched a new marketing campaign with a pledge to continue improving customer service.

The campaign, which uses Sydney's New Years Eve celebrations as its backdrop, comes after the telco poured one billion dollars into the area over four years. Telstra's Inese Kingsmill told reporters the campaign comes after Telstra recorded improvements in key customer service indicators.

"Satisfaction is trending upwards and complaints are trending downwards despite the fact that we have added more customers," Kingsmill was quoted as saying. Telstra has won two million new customers in the past two years while complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) have dropped by 10% in the past six months.

Logistic supplies company CHEP has introduced a range of customer service initiatives based on the results of its annual customer survey.

The company's CHEPedia.chep.com website has been expanded to provide customers with easy-to-access information to simplify day-to-day administration, control and management of their CHEP equipment. CHEPedia also offers on-line training for Portfolio Plus (an online equipment ordering and management system), including a step-by-step guide to accessing reports, an invoice training guide, and an overview of the recently launched account reconciliation functionality.

A customer dispute management framework has also been launched on CHEPedia.chep.com that enables customers to engage with CHEP to investigate transactional disputes with trading partners. CHEP's quarterly Customer Forums are face-to-face customer events designed for the company to work closely with customers to help address supply chain issues and promote best practice.

US-based Citibank has unveiled a new "smart banking" ATM in Asia that allows customers to do almost all of their banking without visiting a branch.

The Citibank Express machine, revealed in Citibank branches at Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, is equipped with an online banking connection, video-conferencing and biometric capabilities for customer identity authentication. A customer can start a transaction on a computer or mobile device and complete it on Citibank Express-and vice versa.

"Since Citi's founding in 1812, we have applied our passion for innovation to connect clients to the world," said Jonathan Larsen, Citi's Global Head of Retail Banking and Head of Consumer Banking, Asia Pacific. "Citibank Express is our most recent example of this innovative spirit and a big step toward our goal to be the world's digital bank. We believe it can significantly impact the way people bank across the globe."

New Zealand's DB Breweries has upgraded its customer IT to include SAP's latest web channel experience management (WCEM) software.

DB is partnering with integrator UXC Oxygen to roll out a number of new SAP solutions aimed at improving business efficiency. The web shop, which services DB's trade customers, went live on time and on budget in December 2012.

DB's Mike Rawson, says the brewer recently upgraded its core SAP system and is now commencing a program of CRM work to further strengthen key customer service functions. Rawson says the web shop will help DB better service customers by providing them with a more direct and consistent means of engagement with the brewer. "Customers will be able to order from us through the web shop at any time of the day or night – not just during business hours," he said.

Health fund HCF has improved its customer service to dental customers by rolling out an integrated, networked electronic patient record across its 94 dental centres across Australia.

The records system, developed by Sydney-based company Centaur, allows for the storage of patient records and electronic medical imaging, Peter Sandyford, head of dental services for HCF told reporters. "A lot of practices have an electronic medical record," he said.

"The difference with ours is it can follow the patient between our various surgeries because the system is connected at the back end." Patients can attend any one of HCF's dental centres and have their patient records available. "If they ring our call centre, and an appointment is available at another centre to where they would usually attend, their records follow them," Sandyford said.

Using the internet to provide customer service has become a favoured tool in Hong Kong, according to new research.

A survey of 500 people commissioned by the Hong Kong Association for Customer Service Excellence (HKACSE) found that 71% had received customer service online. According to the survey, a high level of public awareness and usage of social media has allowed businesses to more successfully provide customer service through social media. Electronic products and food and beverages were the highest-ranked industries in the survey for providing customer service through social media.

"Online services provide the customer with broad services such as answers to inquiries and basic information," according to HKACSE executive director Pauline Chan. "They complement the traditional [channels] of customer service, such as phone lines, which are used for more detailed and personal services."

Indian outsourcer Infosys reports it has received an order from British Telecom to provide its newly launched software product which it says helps businesses save costs in their customer-service operations.

The product, AssistEdge, will allow contact center agents to reduce their average call-handling time by up to half by helping companies maintain a historical database of customer interactions across platforms like email, chats, telephone and social media and present it to contact center agents on a single window. Infosys VP Gopal Devanahalli said Infosys has also received an order for AssistEdge from the U.S., but declined to name the client.

Using context-passing capability, AssistEdge integrates the customer history from various channels and presents it to the contact center agent within a single window dashboard. It also features a self-care engine. Equipped with interactive text, visual, and video troubleshooting mechanisms, it also offers recommendations from relevant social forums and communities for peer-to-peer assistance. AssistEdge incorporates an intelligent routing algorithm that analyses and directs queries requiring expert assistance, in real time, to the right expert based on parameters such as skill, geography, priority, and workload.

Embattled New Zealand-based online storage and sharing entrepreneur Kim Dotcom will re-enter the web market with a new cloud storage offering backed by a local contact centre.

The new mega.co.nz will launch with 50 gigabytes of cloud storage for all comers and a global customer support line. Australian-based domain name registrar Instra will reportedly manage the contact centre with an initial 15 to 20 staff.

Instra CEO Brian Clarkson told reporters the company has signed up to deliver Mega's customer support from a contact centre in Hamilton, New Zealand. Clarkson's hope is that most enquiries come by email, as Instra has installed a customer service application tuned to handling email enquiries. "We have contingency plans to put more staff on," he added. "We're going totally into the unknown."

Staff at Philippine-based customer service outsourcer Magellan Solutions have reached out to 65 families whose houses were lost to fire on Christmas day.

In the wake of the tragedy that left residents of St. Joseph in San Juan City homeless during the Christmas season, team members from the company's Culture Committee, Marketing and Human Resources Departments immediately extended their assistance to this district. Magellan Solutions Outsourcing Inc. responded and coordinated with local authorities to distribute relief goods to families who lost their homes to the fire. "As part of its community service initiatives, Magellan Solutions organised an event at the Hall of Corazon de Jesus district in San Juan City, and gave away hundreds of gift bags containing groceries and other indispensable items," said Magellan's Roslyn Ong.

"Magellan Solutions Outsourcing Inc. is always open to working with communities in nearby districts and cities particularly during disasters as part of the company's outreach programs," Ong said. "In these times, coordination of efforts remains important to ensure that we are providing the help needed by people as soon as possible."

Customer service IT specialist Oracle has opened a new Sydney datacentre to meet customer demand for its hosted CRM solutions.

Oracle set up its first Australian datacentre in 20101with its on-demand CRM platform. Speaking at a press conference in Sydney, Oracle global president, Mark Hurd said that the second datacentre will support the company's strategy to build out the cloud, as well as address data sovereignty concerns from its local customers.

"We hope you will also look at it as an investment into the Australian market, and it shows our commitment to this market," he said. Hurd said that the vendor is also able to mix and match its offerings should customers want to host a portion of its Oracle applications on-premise or in a private cloud.

Public health authorities are being urged to use social media better as a customer service tool in spreading emergency messages and advice.

New research conducted at the University of Sydney suggests Twitter is an ideal way to disseminate important, sometimes urgent information about public health. But Professor Robert Steele said many government health organisations aren't tweeting enough.

"One of things we noticed in our research was that government Twitter accounts had been quite successful in disseminating information - they have more followers on average and their messages are more re-tweeted," he told Australian Associated Press. "But we also noticed that government accounts tweet less."

Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin has warned telco and utility companies using door-to-door sales maybe inviting a negative customer response.

Chetwin said door-to-door sales calls are ramping up and extending into Sundays, making them a good way to annoy the public and lose business. "If it's annoying on Saturday, it's probably doubly so on Sunday," she said.

Legislation due to pass in NZ Parliament this year will toughen rules around door-to-door sales to guarantee cancellation rights for 10 days and restrict solicitations to "reasonable hours".

Chinese-based Biostar Pharmaceuticals has opened a new contact center in the city of Xianyang.

Biostar is a manufacturer and marketer of pharmaceutical and health supplement products in China for a variety of diseases and conditions. The new contact center responsible for incoming inquiries and orders, as well as informing customers about drug promotions, introducing customers to new drugs, gathering customer feedback, and, if so requested, connecting them with doctors for further consultation.

The contact center staff are also responsible for outreach activities, including contacting medical product distribution agencies throughout China about product promotions, signing new distribution agreements and negotiating renewals. "Since the call center became operational, our staff has been handling over 300 customer calls daily," Biostar's CEO Ronghua Wang said.

The BPO division of India's Infosys is engaged in discussions with domestic Chinese companies to help them expand their operations globally.

"We are taking our value proposition to Chinese companies to make them look better in terms of driving efficiency and also help them expand into other countries and continents," Infosys BPO CEO Swami Swaminathan told reporters. The profile of services provided by Infosys BPO like finance and accounting, human resources outsourcing, legal process outsourcing, and sourcing and procurement, and its global reach means that the company can tell Chinese companies that it can provide the entire back-office operations as they expand globally.

Swaminathan said Infosys is currently holding discussions with some Chinese companies from segments including FMCG, manufacturing and services to assist them in globalising their operations. Infosys BPO's China operation is serving as a delivery center for multinationals to expand in the Chinese market. It currently has 850 people within a center in Hangzhou and will soon open a second unit in Dalian.

The Contact Centers Association of Malaysia (CCAM) will host more than 200 Asian contact center leaders at the 4th Annual Contact Centers Asia Summit in March.

The March 19-20 summit at Kuala Lumpur will focus on emerging customer service trends including the rise of social media, live chat, web, media and smartphones, as well as the approach to workload distribution such as staffing, metrics and analytics. "As the effects of the slowdown started receding in 2010, spending on customer service resumed among enterprises," Frost & Sullivan has reported. "In 2010, to meet rising customer demand, the region recorded an 8.5% growth in contact center agent seats, and by 2017, it is expected to have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 9.5%."

The summit is part of Customer Management IQ's global event series aimed at providing a platform for the forefront of contact center trends and deriving the experiences of successful contact center operations and technology. Confirmed attendees include senior authorities from CCAM and decision makers from companies including Singtel, Marina Bay Sands, DHL, Westpac, Maxis and AXA.

The Philippines predicts its country's BPO sector will attract revenues of up to $25 billion and an employee base of 1.3 million by 2016.

The Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) Roadmap 2011-2016 found the Philippine BPO industry is the fastest growing and one of the country's main promoters of economic growth. The IT-BPO sector projects growth at 20% in 2013.

Data at the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) and Global In-House Center (GIC), showed there are today 493,000 Filipinos employed in the contact center industry, and the number is expected to increase to 567,000 this year. BPAP and its partners developed the roadmap, from interviews with industry stakeholders, a survey of over 200 outsourcing firms, and research. The study said the industry can grow from $9 billion in annual revenues and 500,000 direct hires in 2012 and $20 billion and 900,000 employees by 2016 if present situations are sustained.

Air New Zealand plans to outsource some of its contact centre operations in a bid to cut costs.

Under the proposal, about 70 temporary customer service staff handling domestic and short-haul inquiries will be outsourced to computer giant IBM's "New Zealand Delivery Centre" being established with Auckland's Unitec Institute of Technology. The airline estimated the move will save about $3 million a year.

Air New Zealand says the partnership with IBM would boost its contact centre capability and enhance customers' experience. "This would offer the benefit of a part-time workforce which can be called upon at short notice to ensure extra support is provided to customers and staff at times of high demand," it said.

The Community and Public Sector Union claims that budgets cuts had led to a dramatic drop in customer service levels for a range of government departments.

The union says customers are frequently having to wait more than an hour in Department of Human Services offices, which provide Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support services. In its pre-budget submission, the union also says people are routinely waiting up to 90 minutes for calls to be answered during peak periods and there was a backlog of 98,000 claims to be processed, including 45,000 applications for Family Assistance.

The CPSU said 5400 jobs had been cut from the public sector since late 2011.The union's submission called for "no further overall reduction in federal public sector staffing levels in the short term and growth to meet increasing demand for services in the medium to longer term".

Defence Bank has launched what it says is Australia's first video banking system for its 90,000 members.

The service uses technology provided by US vendor uGenius, which was recently acquired by payments technology giant NCR. Defence Bank CEO Jon Linehan said the video service is initially targeted at members wanting to conduct loans and credit card-related transactions.

"Many Defence force personnel are living in remote areas, or might not have the opportunity to attend a branch," Linehan told reporters. "The video banking allows them to conduct business face to face." To use the video banking system, customers book a session online, and then point their browser to a specific address at the booked time. A video-equipped customer service representative then takes the video call at the bank's Melbourne contact centre.

Insurance company Suncorp and its subsidiary AAMI has taken to the road to streamline customer service to victims of last week's Tasmanian bushfires.

Suncorp has set up mobile claims units and sent in teams of assessors and customer service staff to speed through the claims relating to the fires after more than 100 properties were destroyed. The Tasmanian bushfires had already led to insurance claims worth more than $42 million in the first few days, but this is expected to grow as homeowners are increasingly allowed back to the fire-ravaged areas.

It is estimated that AAMI and the Royal Automobile Club of Tasmania command about 80% of the Tasmanian insurance market between them. "It's a watching brief at the moment. Each day the claims are going up a little bit but it's not huge from an overall financial perspective," a Suncorp spokesman said.

Lindeman Island's owner will set up a dedicated contact centre and a new website as part of a marketing blitz designed to raise awareness of the Queensland resort.

Chinese-born Australian citizen William Han plans to spend $200 million overhauling Lindeman Island in the Whitsundays from a cheap and cheerful partiers' paradise to a high-end luxury destination targeting locals and the rapidly expanding Asian market.

Han reportedly plans to redevelop and upgrade the existing 228-room resort and build a new six-star facility on another part of the island. China is Australia's fastest-growing, highest-value international visitor market, with more than 600,000 Chinese tourists arriving this year to spend more than $4 billion.

The New Zealand Ministry of Justice has been forced to backtrack after a glitch in its text message customer service.

Almost 30,000 New Zealanders reportedly got a surprise text message from the Ministry of Justice on Monday telling them to urgently get in contact. The ministry says it sent out messages to 29,600 people with outstanding fines, asking them to call an 0800 number to pay them.

However, through human error, some people who had already paid their fines were also texted. A spokesperson said they have sent out a second text, telling those people who have no outstanding fine to disregard the message. The Ministry's contact centre was jammed with extra calls Monday and staff said there were delays of about 20 minutes a call.

Customers have taken to the phones and social media to voice their concerns after Virgin Australia's migration to a new ticketing and check-in system encountered some glitches.

Users reported error messages when attempting to search for and book flights on the Virgin Australia website over the weekend, as well as problems logging into Virgin's Velocity Rewards website. Virgin's contact centre was flooded with complaints and customers reported wait times in excess of two hours to change booking details over the phone.

While the airline repeatedly posted on its social media pages that its staff were "aware of the problems and working hard to resolve the issues as soon as possible," customers posted their frustration. "On hold for 40 mins now, after being abandoned by my first operator. Terrible, terrible service," wrote one frustrated customer on Facebook, while another sent evidence of his wait: a screenshot from his mobile revealing the two hours he had been waiting on hold.

Cloud-based CRM company Zendesk says it signed its 1,500th Australian customer since opening its Melbourne office in September 2011.

Retailer Cotton On became Zendesk's 1,500th customer as the company announced its 25,000th customer globally. "Australia is an important market for us and we are committed to helping our customers improve the service they provide," said Zendesk's Michael Hansen. 2012 was an exciting year for us, we opened our new development centre in Melbourne, expanded our team and launched the new, improved Zendesk."

With almost 90 percent of Zendesk's Australian customers falling into the small to medium-sized business category, Hansen said he expects the company's focus on SMBs to be a continued in the next 12 months. "What Zendesk provides is an easy to use customer service solution that is quick to set up, requires little training, scales up with your business and offers incredibly good value for money," he said.

Cloud-based Social CRM and brand surveillance company Artesian Solutions has been named as the winner of CRM Idol 2012 for EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), Asia and Australia.

To win the award, Artesian participated in a rigorous vetting of references, a live demonstration of its software in front of multiple judges and the production of a professional video presentation that demonstrated its vision for the future of the Social CRM industry. As winner of CRM Idol 2012, Artesian has been recognised for its highly experienced team and extensive knowledge of the CRM and business intelligence industries. In particular, judges commended Artesian’s ability to transform how organisations engage with customers by providing B2B businesses with the ability to effectively uncover relevant information about customers which can be used to enhance communications and personalise the sales lifecycle.

"CRM Idol really inspires you to aim for your best," Artesian CEO Andrew Yates said. "This competition has given us the opportunity to be tested by judges who themselves are helping shape our industry, and also to be compared with the most innovative and deserving companies in our space."

Chinese travel company Ctrip has recorded improved productivity, lowered attrition and operating savings after a nine month experiment with customer service teleworking.

Ctrip, was looking to save money on real estate costs and cut turnover when it asked 996 employees in its Shanghai contact centre if they’d be interested in working at home four days a week. Of the half its workforce who were interested in working from home a lottery was held to choose agroup of just over 100 staff to telecommute.

A group of academic economists at Stanford and Beijing Universities monitored the experiment and found several positive results. The performance of the home workers went up dramatically, increasing by 13% over the nine months of the experiment; attrition fell sharply among the home workers, dropping by 50%; home workers also reported substantially higher work satisfaction; and Ctrip estimated it saved about $2,000 per year per employee working at home.

The Philippines Social Security System (SSS) has lengthened its contact centre operations from 16 hours to 24 hours every weekday to offer greater access to over-the-phone updates about contributions, benefits, loans, and other SSS transactions.

SSS president Emilio de Quiros Jr said that with longer contact centre hours, members, regardless of their time of work, can contact the SSS about their claim status, membership data, list of requirements, and other SSS concerns. "Local employees with regular 8-to-5 work hours, security guards and contact centre agents on graveyard shifts, and even overseas members in different timezones can all find a time convenient for them to make an SSS phone query from Mondays to Fridays," De Quiros said.

He said that the SSS contact centre receives over 46,000 calls every month. "Apart from status verification, our team of 25-member service officers also responds to queries on procedures such as how to apply for benefits and remit contributions. We also receive phoned-in information about employers that don't remit SSS premiums and other complaints," he added.

Mobile carrier Vodafone India has introduced a new live chat customer service initiative.

The service enables Vodafone users to chat with customer service agents in real time to post queries and address network problems. Vodafone says the live chat capability helps the customers to reach the customer care services quicker the phone calls.

The live chat option is available via the right pane in the support page on the Vodafone Website. By clicking the option a pop-up window appears inviting users to enter their name and Vodafone number and start an instant chat with an agent. The service is currently available from 9am to 6 pm from Monday to Saturday.

More than half of Australians prefer to use a smartphone app for routine customer service inquiries, according to new research.

The Nuance Communications study found customer increasingly expect to be able to use their phones as an "always-on" customer-service channel for services such as checking an account balance from their bank or confirming a flight schedule. Convenience and round-the-clock availability were the two biggest drawcards for using an app for customer service, Nuance Asia Pacific's Jason Stirling said.

"Australians are no longer asking for innovation in customer care, they expect it," Stirling said. "The face of customer care has changed and the companies that keep pace will not only improve customer loyalty, but they will also gain a clear competitive advantage over their industry peers." Almost 60% of respondents admitted they have positive perceptions of a company that offers a customer service app, while 69% would tell a friend about their positive app experience.

The contact centre company that operates Australia's Do Not Call Register has been fined $110,000 by the Australian Communications and Media Authority after making telemarketing calls to numbers listed on the register.

Outsourcer Service Stream Solutions provides contact centre services to several organisations and government agencies, including the operation of the Do Not Call Register on behalf of the ACMA. An ACMA investigation found the numbers were incorrectly included on a Service Stream Solutions calling list used during a 10-week campaign arranging installations for energy-saving products.

Service Stream Solutions made over 7,000 calls in the period and the problem was not identified because the list wasn't re-checked against the register. ACMA requires calling lists to be checked against the register every 30 days. Service Stream Solutions has undertaken to engage an independent consultant to review its calling list processes and train its telemarketing staff about their Do Not Call obligations, as well as auditing and reporting on the compliance of its future telemarketing campaigns.

The Mitre 10 and Mitre 10 MEGA hardware stores in New Zealand are offering customers a unique customer feedback solution.

Customers are now able to provide specific feedback on their experience in store, the service and the range of products following every purchase. Checkout operators, docket messaging and in-store signage direct customers to a specific webpage where customers can rate their experience, while a unique transaction code found on the docket opens the survey to individual customers.

The 'My 10 cents worth' program launched in late September and customers have responded at an average rate of around 1,000 per week. "It's a unique tool and is providing us with invaluable feedback at individual store level as well as nationally," Mitre 10's Dave Elliott said.

The NSW government will overhaul its customer service in the wake of a report that found the state's public is Australia's most dissatisfied with its government.

Details obtained under freedom-of-information laws by Fairfax Media, the report found fewer than one in five people were "very satisfied" with the quality of service in NSW. The survey of 1000 citizens and 208 businesses found the 69% satisfaction rate lags behind the 90% -plus ratings in Tasmania and South Australia.

To fulfill its election promise to improve service, the NSW government will push ahead with an overhaul of its offering. The first contact centre, at The Rocks, will start hiring staff by March and will be operational shortly after with a single telephone number. Eighteen Service NSW centres will open from mid-next year.

US crane manufacturer Manitowoc has improved its customer support in Australasia with the opening of a new contact centre in Sydney.

The centre is staffed by Manitowoc engineers and technicians and contact centre will provide 24 hour, seven days a week customer support for Manitowoc dealers and customers in the region. It is able to organise on-site support, training and technical assistance as well as dispatch spare parts.

"As we expand our operations in Australia and New Zealand, we remain committed to helping our dealers and customers get the most from their cranes," Manitowoc country manager Brad Cooper said. "This new channel of communication will improve our services and meet the specific needs of customers and dealers across the region."

New Zealand resort chain Waiaua Bay Farm has implemented Yellowfin's Business Intelligence solution to improve customer service and enhance operational efficiencies.

Yellowfin's BI solution has been introduced across the chain comprising three separate retreats - The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs, The Farm at Cape Kidnappers and Matakauri Lodge. The solution's self-service technologies have allowed the group's operational and financial managers to more efficiently and independently monitor business performance.

"Ensuring exceptional customer service standards, while safeguarding financial viability, is paramount to our success," said senior finance officer for Cape Kidnappers, Paul Sanders. "Yellowfin is helping us better achieve those goals."

ACE Insurance will open a major training facility in Brisbane early next year as it sharpens its focus on customer service.

The CBD facility will serve as a development academy for ACE division Combined Insurance. The focus of training will include customer service, personal development, business leadership and compliance. Combined specialises in accident and health insurance sold directly to customers through a network of authorised representatives.

"Training and development has always been the cornerstone of success at Combined Insurance," said ACE Insurance executive VP Des Bosnic. "Our investment in this brand new facility is testament to our strong performance and development culture. It demonstrates our commitment to improving the customer experience and the job satisfaction of our team."

CyberSource, a Visa company, has signed an agreement with China's national airline Air China, to provide payment gateway and fraud management services for its international sales and service hotline in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the Philippines.

CyberSource's fraud-management technology and processes feature the world's largest fraud detection radar, and include over 250 tests for fraudulent activity, all in the space of a couple of seconds. The solution is a critical element in Air China's strategy to increase its share of the regional market by extending its high quality, customer experience to each new market, immediately upon service inception. In a statement, Air China said: "Our aim is to continue to provide convenience to overseas travelers. As part of our offering, Air China's customer service staff will provide the traveler's itinerary over the phone and when the traveler is ready to proceed with payment, we will switch the call to the IVR system, supported by CyberSource and the traveler can continue with card number entry and the ensuing checks to complete the payment process."

In October, Air China served 160,100 regional and 526,400 international passengers. Air China's 800 hotline number, will also be rolled out gradually in four other markets, Taiwan, UAE, Thailand and India.

The Bank of Queensland (BOQ) is the latest financial services company to pursue social media and other forms of online engagement to serve customers across more channels.

BOQ CEO Stuart Grimshaw told the bank's annual genera; meeting the top item in the bank's strategy is "multi-channel optimisation." That means "serving our customers in the way they wish to do business with us--be it face-to-face in-branch or through a broker, over the phone, online or via social media," he said.

"As customers' preferences change, we need to make sure we keep up with them, otherwise we won't attract any new customers and we risk losing our existing ones," Grimshaw said. "Choice is the key." He said online channels could even gain the bank customers in areas without Bank of Queensland branches. "That may be in Queensland or it may be interstate where millions of potential new customers live."

Product Review website users have rated ISP Dodo as the worst brand of the year after anger at its slow speeds and service delays.

Nestle was voted second worst, with whitegoods company Simpson coming in third. Product Review marketing manager Samuel Williamson said bad customer service and poor quality products were the most common complaints.

"With Dodo it was things like waiting weeks for internet set-up, slow internet once it finally was set up," Williamson said. Dodo CEO Larry Kestelman told reporters he was "absolutely gutted" by the rating but the feedback from Dodo's overall client base was mostly positive. "All I can say is Dodo attracts a lot of first-time users of the internet and we do our best to get customers up and running in a timely matter."

Industrial relations agency Fair Work Australia (FWA) has been forced to stop using a centralised contact centre as part of measures to cut spending by $7 million.

Documents obtained by News Limited under Freedom of Information laws show the Department of Finance rejected a bid by the tribunal to run a second successive multi-million-dollar deficit this financial year. It recorded a $3.9 million deficit last financial year. An FWA spokeswoman confirmed the tribunal's telephone service was also "being decentralised with calls now taken in all states, rather than a central call centre".

FWA general manager Bernadette O'Neill, in a letter to Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten in May, said the budget pressures were the result of a number of factors, including "a significant increase in legal costs to support investigation and litigation".

Indian outsourcer Servion Global Solutions plans to open an office in Thailand next month to capitalise on the country's booming contact center industry.

"Thailand is the largest market in Asean for contact centers," said Abhijit Banerjee, the vice-president for Asia-Pacific operations. The move will be aimed at establishing a business presence amid high demand for contact center technologies in the Thai market on the back of growing popularity of mobile devices and high internet penetration.

Banerjee the uptake and increased use of mobile devices is prompting more and more business operators to upgrade their existing conventional contact centers to new-generation facilities. He said the launch of the Asean Economic Community in 2016 will serve to make Thailand even more attractive to foreign investors due to the country's strategic geographical location and competitive labour costs.

Korean Air has won the World's Excellence in Service award at the World Travel Awards (WTA) Grand Final Ceremony 2012 in New Delhi.

The airline was also named the World's Most Innovative Airline, voted by travel and tourism professionals worldwide. Korean Air is the first airline to be awarded World's Excellence in Service since the category was introduced 2010, and past winners include luxury companies within the hospitality sector.

"We continue to strive to fulfill our commitment to providing excellence in flight and have recently introduced new and innovative services to make our passengers' onboard experience even more enjoyable," said Korean Air's Jangsoo Kim. World Travel Awards group senior VP Kevin Taylor said Korean Air has been one of the stand-out brands of 2012, continuing to boost earnings and grow market share, thanks largely to its "unparalleled commitment to customer service".

Sydney-based online fashion retailer The Iconic says it is experiencing a bumper Christmas thanks largely to its commitment to service.

The Iconic says its sales have quadrupled in recent weeks to nearly 5000 orders a day. At the heart of its business model is the high standard of service, with three-hour delivery in Sydney, overnight shipping for the other capital cities and up to 100 days to exchange a purchase.

Next year, the company plans to introduce a system where orders could be tracked and delivered to a customer's location by mobile phone. "We have a lot of items at the same price as our competitors, but that's not our main difference, it's the service," co-owner Finn Haensel told reporters. The Iconic also features free overnight shipping for products over $20, an active contact centre, a live chat option, and an advisory blog.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone will reportedly sell its outsourcing arm SPi Global Holdings in a bid to reduce debt.

PLDT chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan told reporters the company had found a preferred buyer to acquire 80% of SPi Global, which has over 18,000 employees in the Philippines and four other countries. "It's an excellent business and (SPi Global CEO Maulik Parekh) has done an excellent job increasing its value," Pangilinan said.

"The decision to sell came when we were still negotiating to buy (broadcaster) GMA 7. That deal never happened, but we decided to push through with the sale of SPi," he said. Pangilinan said PLDT would keep 20% in SPi and was willing to contribute to its future expansion.

Accounting software provider Xero has opened a new Australian headquarters in Melbourne to support its growing local customer base.

The new Xero headquarters in the suburb of Hawthorn is set to create more than 25 ICT jobs for Victoria to accommodate the company's expansion in Victoria and around Australia. "Xero has tripled its revenue and customer numbers in Australia in the past 12 months, with more than 32,500 paying customers," said Victorian Technology Minister, Gordon Rich-Phillips.

Founded in Wellington, New Zealand, Xero provides a platform for online accounting and business services for small and medium-sized businesses. Xero's Managing Director in Australia, Chris Ridd said the new office would allow the company to help partners and independent software vendors with desk space, providing support for cloud start-ups and fostering growth in the industry.

Chinese outsourcer DYXnet Group has been awarded Person-to-Person (P2P) Telemarketing Code of Practice (CoP) Certification by the Hong Kong Call Centre Association (HKCCA) for second consecutive year.

DYXnet says the certification recognises its achievement in "providing premier contact center outsourcing services". DYXnet CEO Lap Man said telemarketing is a difficult undertaking to balance between helping a company with sales and service, and maintaining a positive impact on its brand.

"On one hand, it can help extend the reach of customers, generating more businesses and improving efficiency," Man said. "However, on the other hand, it might have negative effects on the company's revenue and ruin the company's brand if the telemarketers performed inappropriately or delivered inaccurate messages to recipients. With the introduction of P2P Telemarketing CoP, it greatly helps the contact center industry to strengthen its self-governance and its service quality," Man said.

Indian customer service specialist Infosys BPO has won an Information Technology Services Marketing Association (ITSMA) Gold Award for Marketing Excellence for its efforts in social interactive media.

Infosys BPO received the international award during the ITSMA 2012 Annual Conference in the US. ITSMA, a leading marketing association for technology, communications, and professional services providers, recognises best-in-class marketing programs with its annual marketing excellence awards.

Infosys BPO's Gautam Thakkar said the award reiterates his company's efforts in creating "considerable value and brand equity with a highly focused campaign for our stakeholders in the social media space". "We will continue to focus on such innovative initiatives that aim at creating a social media presence to drive and sustain community engagement," Thakkar said.

The Philippine Department of Science & Technology (DOST) has launched training software to teach aspiring contact center agents to speak better English.

The software, Learning English Application for Pinoys (LEAP), is a computer-based training system and a supplementary tool to prepare high school and college students for the customer service outsourcing industry. The program was developed in a bid to help the Philippines regain its footing as a stronghold of English language competency.

"The DOST supports the LEAP in the hope of raising the level of skills and competencies of Filipinos working in the BPO industry or seeking employment in the BPO industry or any other industry for that matter," said DOST secretary Mario G. Montejo.

US-based outsourcer Sutherland Global Services will buy Indian healthcare BPO company Apollo Health Street Ltd.

The acquisition, expected to be completed by February 2013, will help Sutherland consolidate its position in the $38-billion global healthcare BPO market. It will help Sutherland to consolidate its services portfolio across payer, provider and health IT services.

Sutherland employs 30,000 people in 35 centers around the world including the US, India, the UK and Canada. Apollo chairman Dr Prathap C. Reddy said the combined capabilities of both companies will create a "compelling value proposition for our clients."

Research Report Synopsis by Chris Kirby

In November 2012, VHT released the Online Shopping Customer Experience Study. The research investigated the online purchase experience of consumers across various devices including smartphone. By evaluating the shopping habits of consumers this report reveals the pain points consumers have to endure and their consequences for organisations.

A survey of 400 US consumers identified the following key insights:

• 91.8% of consumers own more than one device (including desktop computer, laptop, netbook, smartphone, tablet, eReader).
• The top three most often used devices for online shopping and purchasing are laptop (42.8%), desktop (37.5%) and smartphone (12.5%).
• Nearly half of consumers (45%) are browsing online on a daily basis.
• The top three categories consumers are purchasing online are Apparel (79.8%), Books (68.0%) and Household Goods (63.5%).
• Nearly half of consumers (47.8%) spend $0-$100 per month with a further third (32.8%) spending an average of $101-$250.
• The top 3 retailer websites visited are amazon.com (23%), Walmart (16%) and ebay (15%).
• Nearly 6 in 10 (59.8%) of consumers report that they have been frustrated or had problems trying to make online purchases.
• The top three frustrations expressed by consumers are ‘having problems correctly reading and using the captcha (60.3%), ‘having trouble using promo codes, gift card redemption, or with other discount’ (46.0%) and ‘the product was back-ordered’ (32.2%).
• In addition nearly two thirds (59.8%) of consumers attempting to make an online purchase said they ‘Had been frustrated trying to obtain help to solve an online purchase problem.
• When consumers experience an issue, 37.7% report they will leave the site or give up, 34.3% will seek further assistance, whilst 25.5% will shop elsewhere.
• In most instances, consumers who seek further assistance will call customer service (46.3%) and a further third (35.4%) will use web chat to contact customer service.
• When presented with a solution that provides a service whereby consumers can click or tap within the website/app to receive an immediate or scheduled callback from customer service, nearly half (49.8%) rated this as extremely desirable and nearly two thirds (63.3%) reporting they would be extremely likely to use it.
• Nearly two thirds of consumers (61.5%) report they would be ‘very likely’ to purchase more products through a website or app that offers a click or tap customer service help solution.

This report highlights there is significant opportunity for organisations to alleviate some of the frustrations consumers have when shopping online. The key conclusions highlighted include:

• Consumers regularly experience issues when shopping online that often requires additional follow up with customer service via the contact centre or web chat. These issues can lead to a lost sale and potentially negative perceptions of the retailer. Therefore there is a real commercial opportunity to helping consumers connect more easily to customer service by providing technology that bridges the gap between the website/app and customer service more effectively.
• Further, retailers should consider that online shoppers use a variety of devices. The online shopping experience, then, should be optimised across devices and screens to provide a streamlined path to assistance.

 

Customer service and trusted brands are motivating the majority of online shoppers to spend their money with Australian retailers this Christmas.

New research from Mastercard shows that 98% of Australians prefer to buy from local retailers, as long as the price is comparable with those overseas. MasterCard Australia country manager Andrew Cartwright said 59% said faster delivery was a key driver to 'Buy Australian', while 46% said it was important to deal with retailers they know and trust.

"So local retailers have the advantage over overseas competition in delivery and after-sales service but international online retailers are overwhelmingly favoured when it comes to price," Cartwright said. The study found that some two out of every three Australians shop online at least once a month, with 89% of adult Australians (12.6 million) having shopped online in the last twelve months.

Timeshare company Classic Holidays says it has seen a direct correlation between its expanded customer service program and its improved customer retention and acquisition.

Classic Holidays says it is now the largest privately owned timeshare company in Australia with a membership of more than 45,000 families. It says its recent move to a new 100 seat contact centre has allowed it to bolster its customer service outreach and expand upon its service levels.

"We have devoted an enormous amount of time and resources to our customer service outreach, which is the backbone of our success," said Classic Group Ramy Filo. Classic Holidays won the 2012 Australian Timeshare and Holiday Ownership Council's Excellence in Service award. "The fact that we are winning national and international awards at the same time that we're servicing more members than ever before shows that consumers appreciate our efforts and keep coming back to our resorts."

The federal government has revamped its customer interactions with the introduction of a smartphone app connecting to the National Health Services Directory (NHSD).

The free app, which functions on both Android and Apple devices, enables users to locate emergency health services, pharmacies, doctors and hospitals all across Australia. The app can also provide directions via Google Maps.

Developed by the Council of Australian Governments, the NHSD contains approximately 14,000 service records. The directory will be "expanded over the next 12 months to include more detailed information and cover more types of health services, such as allied health providers," federal health minister Tanya Plibersek said in a media statement.

Kennards Hire has introduced a new customer service module to showcase service history and safety records of hire equipment online.

Described as a first for the hire industry in Australia, Kennards says its customer service has been taken to a new level by allowing customers to inspect records online. The initiative enhances safety, speeds up the job and cuts the amount of paperwork.

The online portal is accessible by customers through the use of a smart phone, tablet, laptop or PC. Customers will be able to see a full service history, Certificate of Test and Examination, operator's manual, risk assessment, pre-delivery checklist and online operator safety checks of the equipment for hire. Customers can also access user guides, equipment videos, maintenance schedules and insurance details.

National Australia Bank has dramatically ramped up its online customer service with the opening of a "social media command centre".

The command centre will be open seven days a week in the lead up to Christmas and consist of seven staff from the bank's digital, marketing and corporate affairs team. The agents will monitor and respond to the 5000-some comments the bank's social media channels currently receive in an average month.

NAB's Sam Plowman told reporters the investment, in which the bank has partnered with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, has been made to improve the customer service experience no matter the channel. "This state-of-the-art centre will complement our award-winning customer contact centres to make banking with NAB easier and more accessible for our customers. Our customers don't switch off on weekends, and now neither do we," Plowman said.

Customer service IT company StayinFront will provide Melbourne-based pharmaceuticals and complementary medicines manufacturer Probiotec with a CRM and Analytics solution.

Probiotec GM Dusty Stringer said the company's expansion strategies for its Australia-wide distribution network and retail customer base required the support of a sophisticated, but easy to use, automated CRM and sales order functionality. The solution is integrated with 4Solutions' B2B e-commerce solution HSN (Health Supply Network) for streamlined order processing.

Stringer said his company's national sales team would leverage the StayinFront EdgeCG SaaS solution on iPad touch devices. StayinFront's Australian MD Kerrie-Anne Turner said the company will provide training specifically tailored to the Probiotec team's requirements. She said the scalability of the StayinFront solution would enable Probiotec to easily roll out the same system for additional divisions such as its Sports Nutrition team.

New Zealand Telecom customer bombarded social media with complaints this week after being unable to reach the telco's contact centre during a broadband outage.

The outage, which began at about 1am Thursday, could have affected up to two-thirds of Telecom's broadband customers, or about 300,000 households. Full services were not restored until about 8am. Customers took to Twitter to voice their frustration, with tweets like "Argh, internet down. Telecom recorded message gives no indication of when it will be back up," and "Get on it, Telecom_nz. Bc nobody is answering the phone customer service!"

Telecom said the fault was caused by systems maintenance. About half of Telecom's broadband customers previously lost service for about two hours on November 30 because of another early-morning fault that the company said occurred during scheduled maintenance on a computer server.

New Zealand telco TelstraClear has won the contract to standardise Auckland Council's contact centre operations.

The contract is intended to bring together the customer service operations from the eight councils that were amalgamated to form the Auckland Council two years ago. Auckland Council manager of customer services Nigel King said the systems that were inherited at the time of amalgamation no longer serve an organisation of the council's size. He said they will be replaced with a single cost-effective model that will serve its need for the foreseeable future.

The council estimates that its investment in the contact centre solution will have an overall benefit of $7.3 million in savings, as well as making its customer contact systems more efficient. TelstraClear was last month bought by Vodafone, which has been delivering mobile voice and data services to the council for two years.

The New Zealand arm of ANZ bank will relocate much of its customer service functions as part of a major upgrade and centralisation of its Wellington operations.

The moves, which comes after ANZ announced plans to discontinue its National Bank brand, will see Wellington staff shift from nine separate buildings to one. About 1200 support service staff, including contact centre, collections, recoveries, banking operations and Eftpos New Zealand teams, will move to the new ANZ Centre Wellington.

Chief operating officer Craig Sims said ANZ would also be upgrading its properties in other centres over the next four years and 15 new branches would be opened in the next two years. "As the new ANZ our goal is to have the largest and most convenient branch network in New Zealand."

Government aid agency AusAID has helped the Zimbabwe city of Bulawayo improve its customer service with a new contact centre.

The Mayor of Bulawayo, Thaba Patrick Moyo, said the centre, the first such facility in the country, would improve communication with residents and stakeholders. The opening of the centre was also an indication of the city's commitment to improve service delivery.

"The Australian Government has been pleased to support BCC (Bulawayo City Council) work to improve services to residents," said AusAID representative Claire Chivell. The contact centre initiative also assisted Bulawayo city to win the national public sector award as the most customer focused local authority because of its excellent customer service initiatives.

More and more Australians expect to be able to use mobile phone applications for routine customer service functions, according to a new study.

The Nuance Mobile Attitudes report, indicates that mobile apps are the "next formidable force in customer care", with more than half of Australians surveyed admitting they preferred to use a company's app for routine enquiries. Nuance's General Manager Asia Pacific Jason Stirling said the study showed that Australians are no longer asking for innovation in customer care - "they expect it."

Stirling says Australia's increasingly mobile lifestyle and always-on expectation for customer care has been attributed to the shift by consumers to using company-provided mobile apps, with the survey revealing that the convenience and 24/7 availability are the two biggest advantages of a mobile application for customer service. "The face of customer care has changed and the companies that keep pace will not only improve customer loyalty, but they will also gain a clear competitive advantage over their industry peers," Stirling said. The survey showed that almost 60% of respondents admitted they have a positive perception of a company that offers a customer service app, and 69% said they would tell a friend about their positive app experience, with ease-of-use the number one reason why a company is deemed to have the best customer service app.

Customer service departments that cannot remember the past are doomed to losing customers for their employers, a new survey shows.

As reported by Business News Daily, the survey of more than 2,200 U.S. customers ages 18 years and older, tired of being treated like strangers when they deal with customer service representatives, say their biggest gripe is clueless customer service reps. Three-quarters of those who have ever called customer support reported frustration because the representative didn't know the customer's history with the company or organisation, according to an online survey sponsored by Sugar CRM.

For many customers, poor customer service causes more than just complaints. It can lead customers to take their business elsewhere, the survey found. More than half (52 percent) of respondents said they ultimately decided not to buy a product or service from a company due to a negative experience with a sales representative.

Customer service and mobile payment are among the most promising sectors to start a business according to a new Chinese survey.

The China Start-up Report 2012 published by Entrepreneur magazine, found 42.97% of business investors were attracted to customer service, health care and mobile payment. The previous most popular fields of e-commerce and social networking websites decreased to 12.33%.

According to the report, over 60% of Chinese entrepreneurs start their business with their own savings or money borrowed from their friends and family. Only 19% of entrepreneurs can access financial credit, 10% can obtain government subsidies and 12% get financing from angel investors.

Datacom has won the contract to manage the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) SCAMwatch contact centre.

Under the two-year contract starting December, Datacom will offer personalised assistance by phone to individuals who wish to discuss and report an issue or concern in relation to any scam or potential scam. SCAMwatch provides information to consumers and small businesses about how to recognise, avoid and report scams. The ACCC publishes this website to help consumers recognise and prevent scams.

"We are thrilled to be working with the ACCC who play an integral role in the regulation of fair market trade," said Datacom MD Kirsty Hunter. "We are focused on putting in place services that deliver tangible policy outcomes for the ACCC that assist them in their plight to reduce the impact of scammers on the community."

Online travel booking site Expedia will reportedly offshore its Australian customer service to India.

Expedia has terminated its seven-year support contract with outsourcer Salmat, ending its relationship with contact centres in Sydney and Melbourne from April, according to the Australian Financial Review. The company will move the majority of Australian contact centre operations to India under a contract with Interglobal Technologies.

The Sydney and Melbourne centres were used to conduct support for the travel booker's operations in Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia. Expedia already outsources much of its contact centre work to Egypt, Philippines and El Salvador.

Toyota and Honda have overtaken Subaru as Australia's car makers with the most satisfied customers.

The third annual JD Power Asia Pacific Australia Customer Service Index Study measures overall satisfaction with the vehicle service experience at authorised service centres based service quality, vehicle pick-up, service advisor, service initiation and service facility. The study found that a positive pre-service communication experience assisted in creating a highly satisfying overall service experience.

Customer satisfaction improved when people were given an estimate of how long a service will take, as well as when they were notified by the dealership of when their vehicle needed servicing. "Owners prefer to be updated by the network on their service due dates, as well advised during vehicle drop-off of the time to pick up the vehicle. These simple steps help to create a positive first impression about the network's ability to deliver a quality after-sales experience," JD Power Asia Pacific's Mohit Arora said. Brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus, BMW, Peugeot and Volvo were not included due to an insufficient sample size.

IT giant IBM will add at least 10,000 jobs in the Philippines over the next three years as part of plans to expand in the country's BPO sector.

IBM Philippines president Mariels Almeda Winhoffer said the expansion would bolster the country's position as a key component of IBM's global operations. Winhoffer said IBM presently had between 10,000 and 15,000 workers in the Philippines.

"We will more than double that number by 2015," she said. Most of the jobs will be in the company's analytics outsourcing operations. Part of the first phase of expansion includes the establishment of a new BPO facility that would handle support for the company's "social business" software offerings to North American clients.

US-based outsourcer iQor has opened a New Delhi Customer Care Center of Excellence as part of an expansion in the region.

The new center consolidates iQor's presence in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), combining three existing facilities into one location. The new Center will employ nearly 1,200 agents providing customer care services, as well as high-value, non-voice processing solutions for clients around the world."

The facility will support clients for iQor's intelligent Connection, Process, and Intervention solutions. "By bringing more than seven years of experience in India under one roof, we can offer a new level of solution development and service delivery integration to our clients," iQor's president Norm Merritt said. iQor also plans to expand its US and Philippine centers in 2013.

Jabra latest release SPEAK™ 510 speakerphone with Bluetooth allows users to be seconds away from virtual meetings and hands free conversations on the go giving flexibility for mobile workers.

In the workplace mobility is becoming more important in order to attract and offer employees the possibility of working from anywhere to enable a better work/life balance. This generation of employees defined as Generation Mobile has grown up with Internet access, social networks, mobile phones and the "always on" lifestyle. Generation Mobile is profoundly changing the way the world communicates and interacts at work and the devices that support the increased request for more mobility are in high demand. In Frost & Sullivan's recently published 2012 Enterprise Mobility Report, more than 25% of businesses rate mobility to be either their top priority or a very important priority in 2012.

Jabra ANZ Managing Director, Fulvio Toniotti explains, "Mobility and connectivity between people on the move is the key to a successful business in today's global world. The Jabra SPEAK™ 510 helps to optimise productivity by intuitively enabling one-to-one and smaller group conference calls at any time and in any place."

Customer service outsourcing is fast becoming a major employer in the troubled Indian state of Kashmir as the region begins to take advantage of modern technology.

At least 20 privately-run contact centers are registered with the Jammu and Kashmir government's Information Technology Department. While the companies face a host of challenges, their presence heralds a modernisation of the state, Abdul Hameed Punjabi, head of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce, told reporters.

The Kashmir Valley has been at the center of a decades-long dispute between Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, often punctuated by violence. Zahoor Ahmad Rather, owner of Kashmir outsourcer PC Planet Technologies, said the aim behind investing in the BPO sector is to improve the community. "The first and foremost aim was to provide employment to the youth of the Valley," he said. "Looking at the ratio of the jobs available and the unemployed people in the state, I thought of setting up a sector which would provide immediate jobs to the people," he said.

Almost half of the chief financial officers (CFOs) from 14 countries interviewed for a recent survey perceive China to have poor or limited understanding of the importance of customer service.

According to the BDO Ambition Survey 2012, a high of 47% of CFOs had a poor perception of Chinese service, well above the global average of 26%. This China figure is the highest among the top 20 countries in the index followed by Russia with 42%. The US topped the survey with just a 5% negative perception, followed by the UK with 8%.

"This year's BDO Ambition Survey shows that BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries still lag in customer service in the minds of foreign investors, whereas investors consider that western countries are able to give a comprehensive customer service," BDO Hong Kong chairman Albert Au said. "Although providing competitive price to customers is the key competitive advantage of BRIC countries, they should improve their quality of customer services in order to attract more overseas investment and at the end, strengthen the bargaining power in pricing among the markets."

Japan's Transcosmos inc and Indonesian company Salim Group have set up a joint venture to operate a contact center in Indonesia.

Salim Group owns a variety of companies in Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines across a wide range of industries, including the CBN ISP company in Indonesia. Transcosmos expanded its services into South Korea in 2000 and into China in 2006, and in more recent years into the western regions.

Due to the increase in the middle class purchasing power and consumption demands, transcosmos has speculated that Indonesians will not only need more contact centers, but have a demand for quality services. Transcosmos hopes to apply its know-how in increasing sales to corporate clients and also cost-reduction solutions, while CBN would offer its infrastructure technology and business experience and its know-how in the local market.

Malaysia Airports has launched a campaign to search for two Smile Ambassadors as part of its efforts to boost customer service.

The search will be conducted among staff at all retail, services and food & beverage outlets at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and KLIA's Low-Cost Carrier Terminal. Titled 'Touch', the campaign seeks to assist retailers and frontline staff at KLIA to "cultivate world-class customer service practices through structured service standards and guidelines, assessment and recognition".

"Malaysia Airports has been extremely focused in transforming our international airports into lifestyle destinations," Malaysia Airports senior general manager, commercial services Puan Faizah Khairuddin said. "We have, thus far, looked at our Airport Commercial Models, our product and services offerings and our pricing. Having strengthened our 'hardware' in terms of brands and products varieties, we now look at enhancing our customer service delivery to complete the total customer experience."

Customer service learning platform Kalibrr has announced the second stage of its online training program.

The first phase of the program launched in April started out as a training platform for helping users develop the skills necessary to qualify for a job in the Philippines' BPO industry. Kalibrr COO Dexter Ligot said the second phase is "what online training should look like - simple, attractive, and results in getting a job."

Kalibrr has partnered with BPO companies to create assessment tools and curricula based on their specific needs. After users graduate from the online program, Kalibrr arranges a job interview for them with one of its partner companies.

Internet forums are advising Apple users to shout and swear if they want their calls to the company's helpline to be escalated from an automated response to a human agent.

The Reddit forum is advising Apple customers that contact centre program is able to recognise swear words, and interprets this as a warning sign that a customer is unhappy. It then transfers that customer to a human operator who apologises and attempts to ease any anger.

However, one Reddit user, a former Apple employee, warns that such actions, while initially satisfying, may ultimately cause more delays. "Doing this will get a human on the line, so will hitting zero, but it doesn't get you to a person that can help you any faster. In fact, it will actually take longer to get to someone who can help you if you do this, he warned. "In the end all swearing/mashing the keys/hitting zero does is get you to a "call director", which is a person who will apologise to you and then transfers you to the right queue (ie put you on hold again in the same queue that the automated system would have if you had just cooperated with the automated system).

A prominent Queensland economist says contact centre queues and lengthy hold times are costing the state $700 million a year in lost productivity.

University of Queensland economist Professor John Quiggin said waiting time was robbing the state's economy of hundreds of millions of dollars each year through lost productivity and "valued time", based on the number of employed Queenslanders, an average "time cost" of $35 an hour and an estimated 10 minutes a week on hold. "Forcing people to spend long periods waiting on hold is a way of transferring costs from companies to customers and the general public," he said.

Quiggin also called for a new requirement for regulated monopolies to report average waiting times, saying "it would be helpful". However, Queensland University of Technology economics expert Dr Boon Lee said he believed there wasn't a loss in productivity due to workers being kept on hold and pointed to observations that most people tended to work in spurts.

The event that was supposed to save retailers' sales figures and introduce thousands of people to a new , online channel, buckled under the pressure of demand leaving only frustrated customers.

The Click Frenzy website crashed as soon as the 7pm sale began last Tuesday, and within minutes the websites of Myer, Dick Smith, Harvey Norman and many others had also been knocked offline or slowed to a crawl. Between 6pm and midnight that night about two thirds of the participating sites reportedly had issues. Some IT experts told Fairfax media the Click Frenzy organisers and some participating retailers used software and technology platforms that were widely known to be incapable of handling the demand.

They also said the when consumers were able to get on to the site and see the deals, many claimed that mostly they weren't bargains at all and they could find cheaper prices on international sites. Social media sites were also critical of the event as customers took to Twitter and a Facebook page "Click Frenzy Fail" quickly attracted more than 1900 'Likes' with its title "The fail that stops a nation".

"Contact centre rage" is on the increase in Australia and local businesses have been slow to address the issue, according to new research.

Professor Paul Patterson from the Australian School of Business is part of a research team which recently conducted a study of customer rage across Australia, the United States, Thailand and China. "You've only got to read comments in the media about why people are now shopping online," Patterson told reporters. "They're all saying the customer service levels in Australia are just so pathetic."

"Companies have not responded at all, certainly not in this country," he said, adding that almost all cases of customer rage stem from a sense of lack of fairness. "What happens to customers is some of their fundamental psychological needs get damaged, for example, our self-esteem, or threats to equity or fairness when you get cheated." Patterson said the worst offending businesses are the major retailers and telcos, where a focus on productivity increases is coming at the expense of customer satisfaction. He said that often means the person copping the rage of the customer is rarely responsible for aggravating them.

David Jones shareholders took the opportunity to complain about poor customer service at the retailers annual general meeting last week.

Some shareholders linked poor customer service with the drop in the company's profits. "I suggest your profitability is down due to a total and utter lack of customer service in your shops," shareholder Kevin Hughes told the meeting.

Chairman Bob Savage defended the retailer's customer service, saying the company had recently increased staff numbers after realising they had cut back too much, adding that staff numbers were based on customer traffic volumes. "We manage our customer service in relation to the volume of sales we expect at any one time," he said.

Auckland tertiary institute Unitec is partnering with IBM to build a service delivery centre at its Mt Albert Campus after the success of the IT company's collaboration in Ballarat, Australia.

The Unitec delivery centre, which is due to open in February, will support IBM deployments in Australia and New Zealand, creating around 400 jobs, 200 of which will be part-time roles for Unitec students. Students enrolled in Unitec IT courses will have access to paid career-related work experience, while earning credits toward their courses in an Earn As You Learn (EAYL) scheme.

The University of Ballarat Technology Park centre in regional Victoria was set up 18 years ago and is the model for the new centre at Unitec. Some 1500 IBM employees service accounts in Australia and New Zealand from Ballarat, with clients including the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Qantas, and Jetstar. Technology Park director Mal Vallance told reporters about 80% of the university's Bachelor of IT Professional Practice graduates who take part in the EAYL program go on to be employed by IBM once they graduate.

National Australia Bank expects to benefit from greater customer insights with the deployment of a new pay-as-you-go CRM system.

The system, hosted by Oracle in Sydney, will provide a single view of customers' business, personal and wealth management accounts. NAB's David Gall said the bank had done a lot of work to create a user-friendly interface that provided "actionable insights" to its staff.

"What it enables us to do for the first time is for all of our bankers to see the total relationship that NAB has with that customer," Gall said. "We're seeing (an opportunity) to do more with [business customers] on a personal level, around their wealth strategy and obviously the MLC suite of products, and also around their wholesale banking and markets activity - how they manage their foreign exchange and risk management products as well."

The chief executive of New Zealand telco CallPlus, Mark Callander, has hit back at a Kiwihost survey that slammed the customer service record of its Slingshot subsidiary.

Customer service training company Kiwihost released a survey earlier this month that accused the country's telcos of providing "shocking customer service", rating Slingshot lowest, with a "strongly negative rating" of -23. Callander said statements made by Kiwihost were very misleading and accusing it of "poor research standards".

Callander said Kiwihost's survey was only completed by 600 respondents and as Slingshot had about 10% of the broadband market, it was likely only about 60 of its customers were surveyed. He said Kiwihost's claims were dramatically different to CallPlus' own research - which involved randomly contacting 5000 of its customers each month - and showed Slingshot's customer satisfaction had been trending upward. "We have 150 proud contact centre staff based in New Zealand doing an amazing job and providing great service."

New research indicates many Australians are prone to disregard the advice of healthcare customer service agents not go to hospital and still attend hospital emergency departments.

According to a Becker's Hospital Review study published in the Medical Journal of Australia, about half of Australian patients who contacted a contact centre about medical conditions, still went to the emergency department. The study, which used data from national health contact centre Healthdirect Australia, looked at patterns among patients at Royal Perth Hospital in Western Australia from August 2008 to April 2009.

Appropriate referrals to the hospital by the contact centre's nurses required either that a patient was admitted to hospital, was transferred to another hospital, was seen by an inpatient health team for an assessment, was referred to an outpatient clinic or needed radiological or lab investigations. Some 72.9% of healthdirect-referred patients had "appropriate" referrals, compared with 73.8% of self-referred patients and 89.7% of GP referred patients, the study said.

Hong Kong-based car maker Geely Auto says it's preoccupation with customer service has seen it awarded the top-level 5-star Diamond Rating from the Customer Contact Center Standard (CCCS) for its contact center.

Geely earned CCCS 5-star standard certification in 2009 and has worked toward the 5-star Diamond certification since then. Geely and Faw-Volkswagen are the only companies to reach the top level in China's auto market, with Geely the only homegrown brand.

Geely says its contact center has continuously improved its service orientation and can now customise services to different customers to highlight customer value. It has also established a fully-fledged management system for strategic planning, infrastructure, performance, personnel, operation and process to "further promote its service quality and professionalism in order to optimise both customer value and company value".

Car hire company Hertz has launched the car sharing club Hertz On Demand in Sydney in a bid offer a more flexible customer service option.

Members of the car sharing club have 24/7 access to a fleet of self-service vehicles placed throughout Sydney, which are bookable online. There is no annual membership fee, and customers can hire a car for as little as $6.00 per hour, including insurance, fuel, maintenance and cleaning.

Currently Hertz On Demand has 30 spaces in locations around Sydney, which will increase to 100 by 2013. Vehicles are installed with an RFID reader for SmartCard identification, giving each member keyless-entry to the cars. If during their trip members need help, have questions, or would like to extend the length of their rental, they can contact the Hertz in-house Member Care Centre based in Australia via the hands free in-car communication technology.

Indian outsourcer Infosys BPO has announced that it will establish a customer service center in Costa Rica to serve the American market and support its growth in Latin America.

The new center is expected to be fully operational by January 2013 and reportedly provide customer service for one of the world's largest consumer packaged goods companies. "Even though it's a small country, the quality of universities and the number of students they graduate is high," said Infosys Latin America's Humberto Andrade noted. "It's enough talent to fulfill the growth expectations we have."

Infosys is expected to initially employ 150 staff at the center. While Infosys is entering Costa Rica as a BPO, it is expected to offer higher-end IT functions in the future. Infosys already operates centers in Monterrey, Mexico and the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte.

Super fund-owned ME Bank has selected a Cisco and NetApp FlexPod for VMware solution to help transform its customer service IT.

ME Bank a private cloud built on the FlexPod for VMware and Cisco Unified Computing System, Cisco Nexus switches, NetApp MetroCluster Solution and VMware vSphere 5 Solutions to help the company better serve its customers. ME Bank said the new IT will help to hasten delivery of new services to customers, while having the flexibility to respond to changing market demands.

"ME Bank plans to grow its business by continuing to provide customers with innovative products and an unrivalled service experience," Cisco Australia and New Zealand's Courtney Dodds said. "By selecting Cisco and NetApp FlexPod for VMware for its private cloud computing platform, ME Bank will gain new levels of business agility that will make it easier to support this growth and speed delivery of innovative new services to customers."

Mobile device company Motorola Solutions plans to open a Global Solutions Support Center and Network Operations Center in Penang, Malaysia to foster improved customer service in the region.

Motorola vice-president for Asia Pacific, Phey Teck Moh told reporters last year the Malaysian government's policies, aimed at developing the nation into an emerging knowledge-based economy, have made it ideal for global multinational corporations to explore and invest in the country. The company said both new centers will lend support for talent development and technology transfer in Malaysia.

Motorola's largest research and development center and manufacturing plant for radio products in Asia are already located in Penang. The center also provides critical system support and solutions development for customers across Asia.

New Zealand-based online accounting firm Xero is reportedly considering a capital raising from investors to fund a new customer service centre in the United States' mid-west.

Xero CEO Rod Drury said the Wellington firm would further step up its investment drive to become the leading global provider of cloud-based accounting software, while revealing a near doubling of its interim net loss to $7 million and forecasting a bigger second-half loss to come. "If we suddenly found the US started to take off, then we might want to put a call centre in the mid-west that just dialled for dollars'," Drury said.

Drury said interest in cloud-computing from would-be investors overseas would make it easy for the firm to raise more capital at "a pretty good valuation" if required. Even without the contact centre, Xero plans to take on about another 100 staff. We haven't completely put our foot on the throttle in the US yet. But the buzz about Xero feels quite good," he told reporters. "We are now being presented as the real challenger to (online accounting market leader) Intuit in the US."

Online payment company PayPal is taking entering Australia's offline customer service market, offering customers at several merchants the ability to pay for purchases using their PayPal accounts and their faces.

The solution allows customers to check into a merchant's location so the counter employee can see their picture on the screen of a point-of-sale terminal. The customer service agent then selects the customer's picture and the charge is placed on the customer's linked PayPal account. PayPal Australia and New Zealand MD Jeff Clementz said that by using the app, merchants can provide personalised service to regular customers and also reward them with loyalty programs. Additionally, retailers can connect with individual customers and recognise repeat visits and loyalty.

Upon integrating the solution, PayPal's millions of account holders in Australia are immediately enrolled and can pay at participating retailers using PayPal. PayPal said four small retailers in Australia will pilot the solution with more partners coming on board in the next few weeks and months.

The Philippines' ongoing boom in customer service outsourcing is helping drive strength in the country's real estate industry.

Rick Santos, chairman of Philippine property company CBRE, said property sales and leases will remain strong next year, driven by demand for commercial space, particularly from the business process outsourcing sector. "We are now experiencing the best real estate market in the last 20 years. It took two decades to get the stars aligned, but now, we're looking at sustained growth and success," Santos said.

The BPO Association of the Philippines expects the outsourcing sector to be worth $25 billion by 2016. "The Philippines is one of the most cost effective outsourcing destinations in Asia ... Manila is now a strategic location for multinational companies and banks as it supports and runs the world's businesses out of the Philippines," Santos said.

SingTel will extend its own proprietary Optus customer service retail outlets as it looks to better compete with Telstra.

Singtel CEO Chua Sock Koong said Optus is changing how it sells to consumers, adding customers will see more Optus-branded distribution channels. "Over the years, we've probably taken the workforce down about 10%, but we've continued investment in customer-fronting staff."

SingTel's Australian unit wants to consolidate more retail sales under its own brand. Optus will end the license of partner Boost Tel from January, according to a statement. A distribution agreement with TeleChoice, SingTel's biggest third-party retailer in Australia with more than 150 outlets, will end in March so the company can focus on its own network by adding 33 stores, it said.

The growth of social media and mobile customer service will offer new challenges of implementation and integration, according to new Fifth Quadrant research.

The Fifth Quadrant 2012 Customer Service Industry Market Report found that 69% of Australian based organisations have already implemented social media as a channel for customer service, while 23% have implemented smartphone apps. The challenge now is how effectively organisations address the supporting business processes and skill levels of social media customer service representatives.

"The challenge for Australian business is that they typically do not consider multichannel customer experience as a strategy, hence these new channels lack integration, they do not have accurate revenue and cost models and there is poor data analytics. This has resulted in a sub-optimal channel deployment and as the research shows, ultimately, a sub-optimal customer experience." Fifth Quadrant MD Dr Catriona Wallace said. But while social media and smartphones were fast growing service channels, the Fifth Quadrant report found that the predominant share of the 22 million daily customer interactions handled by contact centres is still handled by live agents (52%), while social media's share of contact handling is 0.2%.

Cloud-based customer service software provider Zendesk, has announced a new partnership with eBay company Magento to deliver a fully-integrated and comprehensive customer service solution for eCommerce.

A simple configurator enables eCommerce sites to be up and running with customer service capabilities in a matter of seconds. This two-way integration allows Zendesk customer service agents to access consumer data from the Magento eCommerce platform seamlessly, and vice versa. Because customer views are available in both platforms, sales and customer service agents can choose their preferred platform while staying up to date with all customer interactions.

"Our new integration with Magento helps online retailers bring their sales and customer service teams together to deliver the type of customer experience that exceeds expectations and drives new business," said Zendesk's Michael Hansen. Magento's Jeff King said Zendesk provides an easy way for his company's retailers to access customer service capabilities that can help enhance their shoppers' experience, "which therefore lead to a stronger brand and bottom line for our customers".

The shift by Australian contact centres toward cloud-based solutions will gather pace from 2015, according to a new report.

The Frost & Sullivan report found the contact centre market in Australia is expected to experience a major transformation as cloud-based solutions and mobile devices change the way organisations provide customer service. Cloud-based contact centre solutions are expected to gain momentum in the next three to five years while traditional on-premises models will decline as most organisations baulk at committing to long contract terms in a rapidly changing technology landscape.

"While organisations value the level of control offered by on-premises models, cost constraints and flexibility (in terms of scalability and pricing) requirements are causing organisations to evaluate alternative options at the time of a new deployment or upgrade," Frost & Sullivan's Anand Balasubramanian said. "Organisations are becoming increasingly inclined towards deploying hosted and cloud based solutions."

The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH) group has consolidated its customer service technology with a Verizon Terremark cloud-based solution.

HSH said it realised that centralising its IT infrastructure would better align its processes and systems in support of its customers. The company decided to adopt a hybrid public/private cloud computing infrastructure that enables it to leverage additional capacity on demand during peak booking periods.

By eliminating the need to maintain servers at the company's many locations around the globe, HSH's central IT team has been able to focus its efforts on accelerating the development of new services for both guests and staff. "We provide our discerning guests with world-class hospitality and unparalleled guest services throughout the customer experience," said HSH's Shane Izaks. "A robust, secure and reliable IT infrastructure is critical to delivering this, whether in terms of supporting our Web presence, our reservations system, our in-house service delivery or our ongoing customer interactions."

Korean-based car maker Hyundai has opened an Asia Pacific Hyundai Training Academy in Malaysia with the aim of improving customer service in the region.

The training academy is designed to assist dealers' sales and service staff achieve a more professional and systematic approach to customer handling and management, which will subsequently result in higher customer satisfaction. The training program covers customer service training models and simulations, customer care practices, sales consultancy skills and team building activities.

"The effectiveness of the training program will be monitored and tracked on a quarterly basis based on customer satisfaction surveys," Hyundai's Kim Hoo-Keun said. "The findings will then be used as the foundation for developing and operating subsequent training programs."

Indian mobile carriers face fines for providing poor customer service and giving incorrect information under amendments by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

TRAI has issued an amendment with provisions to impose financial penalties of up to 1 million rupees (US$18,300) on mobile phone service providers that do not meet quality of service benchmarks. Like landline service providers, the TRAI said mobile companies will be judged on the benchmarks for Customer Service Quality Parameters, and a rate of 50,000 rupees (US$915) per parameter breached will be levied.

Under the parameters, "not more than 0.1 percent of bills issued should be disputed over a billing cycle" of postpaid subscribers. It also states there should be no more than one complaint for every 1,000 customers regarding metering, charging, credit, and validity, and the billing dispute should be resolved within a month by the operators.

US-based outsourcer iQor will expand its operations in Manila's Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ) with a new contact center creating up to 1,000 new jobs.

iQor opened its first facility in the CSEZ in 2006 with just 50 employees and has created more than 2,500 jobs since then. The company plans to hire 500 new employees immediately after the expansion is completed in early 2013.

"The quality of the workforce and the superior support and service iQor employees provide to our clients and their customers continues to be the main driver of our expansion efforts in the Philippines," said iQor president and CEO Norm Merritt. "We've received a tremendous amount of support from local officials and the Clark Development Corporation. I want to thank all those who've worked so hard to create a business-friendly environment. Your efforts are paying off for Clark."

US customer service IT company LivePerson has agreed to acquire Australian cloud-based customer contact company ENGAGE.

"Our acquisition of ENGAGE will enhance our ability to offer intelligent engagement solutions to businesses in the Asia Pacific region," said LivePerson CEO Robert LoCascio. "ENGAGE has been a reseller and champion of LivePerson solutions for several years, in addition to having its own successful hosted contact centre solutions, which complement LivePerson's offerings. Our common mission to help businesses connect meaningfully with consumers makes the ENGAGE team a natural addition to the LivePerson family, and a valuable asset as we seek to drive growth in the region."

ENGAGE supports the sales and service strategy of enterprise level companies to meet changing consumer needs and expectations. ENGAGE provides sophisticated cloud-based services that uniquely support several customer contact solutions including voice, live chat, SMS and social media, allowing businesses to connect with consumers in multiple channels. The acquisition is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2012.

New Zealand's Key Research will create fifty new roles with the opening of a new contact centre in its home city of Tauranga.

Initially operating with 20 seats, the centre is expected to expand to 50 within the next year, Group chairman Michael Hooker told reporters. Key bought outsourcer Pulse Business Solutions in 2008, and the expanding Pulse serves a number of Australian market research agencies as well as end clients.

Founded in 1993, Key Research also bought Perth based market research firm West Coast Field Services earlier this year, and Hooker said he aims to buy two more Australian research firms on east and west coasts before turning his attention to the broader Asia Pacific region. Key Research now boasts around 100 staff in Tauranga, 80 in Pulse's base in Oamaru and 110 in Perth.

Retail customer service is suffering as a result of the rising cost of penalty rates for Sunday staff, according to a new study.

Monash University's Sunday Trading in Australia report found the high cost of double-time Sunday wages means retailers are often reducing the number of Sunday staff or rostering on cheaper, less-qualified workers. The study also found that highly paid Sunday employees were often left worse off overall, as retailers paid more per hour but cut shift lengths to compensate.

The research follows months of intense pressure on the Government from retailers to abolish the higher Sunday rate. Businesses say they are being "pushed to the wall" by penalty rates, which can add up to an extra $100 in the pay packet of the typical Sunday worker and can see some casual waiters paid up to $40 an hour.

The lobby group representing Australian telecommunication companies has warned that SMS technology should not be considered a safe means of verifying the identity of customers during a banking transaction.

Communications Alliance chief executive John Stanton, representing Telstra, Optus and Vodafone, took the step of declaring the technology insecure in the wake of numerous reports of Australians being defrauded via a phone scam. "SMS is not designed to be a secure communications channel and should not be used by banks for electronic funds transfer authentication," Stanton told reporters.

SMS authentication is used by three of the four largest Australian retail banks as a preferred mode of second-factor authentication for transactions to unfamiliar accounts. Several banks have rolled out physical token authentication to business customers, but retail customers usually have to ask for such devices to get one for their accounts.

Customer service is not expected to suffer as a result of plans to encourage up to 12% of Australian public service (APS) employees to engage in teleworking.

"To inform delivery of this goal, a select number of APS departments and agencies will conduct a series of telework trials commencing in the first half of next year," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Monday at the launch of National Telework Week. The national digital economy strategy white paper released last year said the government wanted Australia to "have at least doubled its level of teleworking so that at least 12% of Australian employees report having a teleworking arrangement with their employer".

The government's commitment was welcomed by technology industry players, with ISP iiNet noting its own teleworking program for contact centre workers already had participation in the region of 15% of staff. It said the 'Work from Home' program has demonstrated a very positive impact on customer service delivery and has also been a driver for increased staff satisfaction.

Toyota Financial Services New Zealand (TFS) has beefed up its customer service with the deployment of Interactive Intelligence's all-in-one IP business communications software suite.

Toyota is using Customer Interaction Center (CIC) to manage the telephony requirements of its national customer contact centre and Auckland-based main office, along with the co-located Auckland Sales Office of sister organisation, Toyota New Zealand. CIC went live in August and Toyota says it is already delivering an improved flow of calls and new self-help options resulting in "a better experience for customers and less double handling of calls by staff".

In addition, the ability to contact specific staff more directly is providing time-saving benefits to callers in regular contact with TFS. "We wanted the ability to add functionality for more complex call centre capabilities and to record calls or play disclosure statements as required for compliance reasons," TFS' Glenn Armishaw said. "We also sought integration with our CRM package and core receivables systems, plus looked for 'future proofing' as best possible."

The New Zealand chief executive for ANZ is confident his customers will remain loyal as the bank shuts down the National Bank brand.

Some National Bank customers are expected to be lured away by competing Australian-owned banks such as Westpac, BNZ or ASB, who are ramping up their marketing. David Hisco says customers will stay because the incorporation of National Bank creates a better proposition.

It's "the power of two", according to commercials by Patrick Jane (Simon Baker), the actor from US series The Mentalist, who is the face of the bank in Australia, New Zealand and 30 other markets.
ANZ has said it will phase out the National Bank brand over the next two years. Rather than the expected loss of frontline staff due to the closure of the National Bank, Hisco says the opposite will be the case. "With two different banks we reached 78%," he said. "With (the) merged banks allowing us to open new branches we'll reach 90% of New Zealand, spending $100 million along the way."

Australian non-profit organisations are increasingly turning to social media to boost fundraising and connect with potential donors.

With uncertainty still lingering around the world economy and a tightening local job market, Australian Non Profit Organisations are constantly evolving to find the best way to compete for the charitable dollar. Melbourne's Charity Nursery Incorporated (CNI), which provides free work space and fund raising services to other non-profits, has turned to social media to power its Chupa Chup Exchange initiative.

In a bid to raise funds, the CNI's Chupa Chup Exchange started with one lollipop, which was exchanged for a Nokia mobile phone. The phone was exchanged for a freshwater pearl and the trades continue to gather value. The campaign relies on the ingenuity and networking abilities of people on social media for publicity.

Commonwealth Bank has announced progress in a significant replacement and refresh program of its ATM network.

In an effort to upgrade its frontline customer service, the bank says it has so far refreshed over 1,260 ATMs across Australia, including 40 new deposit ATMs. The Commonwealth Bank ATM network handles up to $115 million withdrawals and one million customer transactions daily.

Commonwealth Bank's Michael Cant said the ATM network revamp is the latest way the Bank is making banking "easier, convenient and personalised for Australians." "Each Australian has different needs when it comes to banking," Cant said. "From mobile payments and online banking, to our ATM network revamp, Commonwealth Bank is committed to offering our customers a variety of ways to conveniently access and manage their money across different channels. We're also introducing a range of features, to ensure that our customers can have a more personalised ATM experience."

Chinese online retailer 360buy.com has upped its customer service and paved the way for new growth with a managed contact center solution from Orange Business Services.

France Telecom-owned Orange Business Services' contact center solution supports 5,000 360buy agents in China at the country's largest e-commerce Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) contact center. The solution will use multimedia channels and text-to-speech in addition to traditional voice to sustain the business expansion and customer service excellence of 360buy.

"A new agile contact center infrastructure was mandatory, not only in order to meet today's needs, but also for our future expansion plans," said 360buy's Jacky Cheng. "Customers do not only require the voice channel for customer support; they also want multimedia channels such as web chat and e-mail."

Hobsons Bay City Council says it has dramatically enhanced its ability to communicate with constituents after switching from analogue to IP telephony.

Hobsons Bay customer service manager Suzanne Paterson said since the success of the analogue to IP switch in mid-2011, the council now plans to add web chat to open a further channel for customer interaction. Before the transition, the west Melbourne council was using an outdated switch-based telecom system that required Hobsons Bay to request help from its telco whenever it needed to make any change.

"With the old technology came old [customer service] practices for using phone systems," Paterson said. "People were using their voicemail on their mobile phones" rather than the phone system and there were "old setups that didn't really facilitate much capacity for change," she said. Making matters worse were inconsistent practices across different departments. The council plans to add Web chat to its customer service channels later this year in response to an "increasing number of requests coming through our customer service inbox," Paterson said.

Computing company Hewlett-Packard has launched a hosted IT help desk offering called HP Service Anywhere.

HP says Service Anywhere provides a work area for help desk personnel to document and resolve IT problems within an enterprise. "We believe that SaaS as a delivery model and as a business model makes sense for many of our customers," HP's Lee Nackman said.

HP said that unlike on-premise IT service management (ITSM) software, Service Anywhere customers will not have to worry about upgrading the software, nor applying patches. Scaling the software to handle additional users should be eased through the cloud approach as well. The service also has a number of social media features, including Internet chat with multiple users and a directory listing of expertise.

Leading ISP iiNet says it will be able to improve its customer service after selecting BMC Software's Remedy IT Service Management 8 (ITSM8).

BMC's integrated Remedy ITSM8 platform provides significant out-of-the-box capability, requiring minimum customisation. This is expected to enable iiNet to enhance its customer service systems, as well as develop new offerings for initiatives such as the National Broadband Network.

"iiNet's strong focus on incident, problem and change management processes has led us to partner with BMC Software," said iiNet's Craig Nicol. "The new software will allow further operating efficiencies and help to make customer support, change management, asset management and request management even more integrated."

Japanese retail property company Aeon has established Malaysia as the regional customer service and business headquarters.

Aeon is currently operating in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and the group is looking to make its mark here Malaysia in the "hypermarket sector." Aeon Southeast Asia customer service general manager Nagahisa Oyama stated, "Asia remains as a promising investment area for the Aeon group as rising incomes and discretionary spending here bodes well for its retail business."

"We plan to expand to Southeast Asia due to the potential growth market," Oyama said. Carrefour Malaysia is the first retail company in Asia to join the Aeon group within Southeast Asia and the group is looking to promote the group's chain of retailers to expand operations in the region.

New Zealand telecommunications company Orcon expects to reduce staff as a result of its merger with Kordia Networks.

Some 50 jobs are expected to be cut at the Orcon contact centre, with roles outsourced to the Philippines. Kordia says it expects the former Orica staff will be quickly employed elsewhere.

Kordia CEO Geoff Hunt says Australian provider iiNet, which also has an Auckland contact centre, is keen to employ the Orcon workers. "Hate to make people redundant but in this case I think call centre people, most of them will find jobs readily in the Auckland area," Hunt said.

Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy Stephen Conroy has praised the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) for its role in a reduction in consumer complaints during the last financial year.

According to the TIO s 2012 Annual Report, the body received 193,702 new complaints in 2011-2012, a 2% reduction compared with the previous year. The TIO Complaints made against the three major telecommunications companies - Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone - declined in the last quarter of 2011-12, while consumer satisfaction with the TIO in hearing and resolving complaints is over 90%.

"The impressive decline in customer complaints reflects the importance of the TIO, as well as the industry s commitment to improving its customer service and complaints handling processes," Conroy said. "As an independent referee of telco complaints, the TIO not only ensures that complaints are heard and resolved, they are a permanent reminder to service providers of their obligations to their customers."

New Zealand insurance and financial services company Public Trust says its focus on customer service is to thank for its strong result in 2012.

Chairman Trevor Janes said Public Trust had been transforming its business to match its customers' needs and to be relevant to a wider range of New Zealanders. "Building blocks are being put in place to ensure Public Trust will help New Zealanders grow and protect their assets in ways that best suit their circumstances," he said.

Public Trust recorded a third successive net profit for the year ended 30 June 2012. "We have ongoing initiatives underway to continue to improve customer service and strengthen our position as we work towards our goal of being the leader in the New Zealand trustee services market," Janes said.

Cloud-based CRM company OneSaas has introduced a new customer-friendly website and partner program.

The changes are designed to make the integration, synchronisation and automation of product, sales and CRM data across more than 50 cloud-based and on-site software services both simple and end-user friendly. With 39% of SMEs expecting to be using one or more cloud services within three years, OneSaas said businesses are looking for ways to automate the data-driven workflow processes between accounting, billing and invoicing, email marketing, e-commerce, point-of-sale, event management, and CRM systems.

"By providing behind-the-scenes automation, OneSaas eliminates the need to manually duplicate data, saving time that translates directly to the bottom line, and ensuring that all systems have synchronised, up-to-date information," the company said. OneSaas has also introduced a global partner program, which lets professional services providers such as accountants, web developers and business and IT consultants add OneSaas connectivity to a suite of disparate services for bundled service offering.

The Philippine government is launching an initiative that could see customer service centers set up in prisons and run by inmates.

The program, dubbed BILIB I.T., aims to give convicts new skills to raise their chances of employment and returning to society upon release. "We'll see if we can try building call centers inside jail facilities to help these detainees utilise their training and gain employment," Senator Alan Peter Cayetano told reporters.

Cayetano said scholarships for IT courses would be awarded to an initial 200 qualified inmates, with plans to double the number. According to Cayetano, those who might be part of the program include people who have served their sentence but prefer to live inside the penal community due to lack of skills necessary to rejoin the work force, detainees who have minimum security, and those inmates with sentences not longer than six years.

Apple's voice-activated customer service assistant, Siri, has been told to keep some of its help to itself.

Siri, which helps Apple users find services in their area, reportedly responded to enquiries such as "Where can I find hookers?" or "Where can I find escorts?" by listing the nearest locations, mostly bars and clubs. Prostitution is illegal in China, and Apple has since discontinued those listings.

Siri's help in finding adult services prompted almost nine million of comments from users, becoming a hot topic on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. One user of Sina Weibo pointed out that Siri seemed to be more efficient at finding brothels than restaurants that serve typical Chinese dishes.

Indian outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has jointly won the SAP Award of Excellence with Australian energy company AGL for best run value realisation.

AGL's Project Spectrum is a major initiative to transform AGL's billing processes and services. The goal of the project was to move all AGL customers into a single instance of SAP.

"We are pleased to receive this award from SAP, one of our key industry partners, for the major transformation project we have completed with AGL, who are a long standing and valued client," said Deborah Hadwen TCS Australia and New Zealand CEO. "Project Spectrum is a great example of how the technology and expertise of SAP and TCS combined to create industry-leading solutions that assisted AGL to improve its business infrastructure and capabilities."

Indian outsourcer Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) says it will set up a new integrated BPO campus in the city of Indore.

The campus will be located on a 100-acre (40-hectare) property with construction of phase I expected to be completed by March 2016. The campus is expected to provide direct job opportunities to 10,000 customer service and IT professionals, with an estimated 10,000 indirect job opportunities in support functions.

"Indore has the potential to become another big hub for knowledge-based industries like IT and BPO with its strong eco-system of universities," TCS executive director S. Mahalingam said. "Our investment will help catalyse further development of the talent ecosystem as well as help upgrade the civic infrastructure in the area."

Airlines Virgin Australia and Qantas have won major awards at the International Customer Service Month celebrations.

The awards, staged by the International Customer Service Professionals (ICSP) since 2003, are judged on a range of international customer service best practice measurements. Virgin Australia won the ICSP International Outstanding Business Award, while Qantas Inflight Customer Service Manager Elio Pilatti won the Outstanding Individual Award.

ICSP CEO Tricia Olsen said Virgin Australia's entry focused on the airline's training and development of its people, which was the forerunner to the airline's current branding campaign. She said Pilatti has been an outstanding inflight ambassador for Qantas for 17 years "consistently providing exceptional customer service."

Cloud-based customer service software provider Zendesk has announced the debut of Zendesk Voice in Australia.

Zendesk says the new offering allows customer service organisations to set up cloud-based contact centres in minutes, at a fraction of the cost of conventional voice systems. Zendesk is also offering Australian subscribers the ability to provide their customers with the option of calling a national telephone number.

"Zendesk Voice fully integrates phone conversations and messages in the world's leading customer service platform," Zendesk's Asia Pacific MD Michael Hansen. "Through Zendesk Voice, agents can resolve issues quickly and easily and companies can provide faster, more effective and cost-efficient customer care."

The healthcare customer service segment is becoming a major driver of growth for the Philippine outsourcing industry.

Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippines president Juanloz Botor said the sector is expected to grow sharply over the next four years on the back of strong demand from developed countries. "We are still up for the challenge of achieving the targets set out in our Road Map 2016: $1 billion in revenue and 100,000 full-time employees," Botor said.

At present, there are about 25,000 Filipinos working in the healthcare outsourcing sector, generating revenue of almost $300 million in 2011.The Philippine healthcare outsourcing sector now offers various services including clinical data management, disease management, revenue cycle management, pharmacy benefits management, electronic medical records, medical claims recovery, patient education, insurance processing and quality assurance.

New Zealand foreign exchange broker ThinkForex has been awarded for Best Forex Customer Service at the prestigious UK Forex Broker Awards 2012.

The inaugural UK Forex Broker Awards present a clear representation of the best performing Forex brokers in the industry. "We are so delighted that we won the Best Forex Customer Service award," said ThinkForex MD Faizan Anees. "We are honored to be recognised for our strong customer service and we would like to thank everyone who voted for us."

Both foreign exchange traders and the private investment community were given the opportunity to cast their votes for Forex brokers they believe exhibit the highest level of performance. Auckland-based ThinkForex includes live chat, phone and email communications as part of its customer service platform.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has highlighted the major shift toward better customer service in the telecommunications industry in newly-released annual report.

The ACMA says the centrepiece of the focus on consumers is the new Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code, a culmination of the Reconnecting the Customer public inquiry. "The new code is a world-class, consumer-driven blueprint that requires improved disclosure in advertising and point-of-sale," ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said. "It is supported by better complaints-handling processes, improved customer service and, importantly, the introduction of spend management tools."

The report also hailed the new Mobile Premium Services Industry Code, which came into effect on June 1 creating protections for people using premium SMS and MMS services. The ACMA said the number of complaints about mobile premium services recorded by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman fell by around 85% from their peak of almost 10,000 in the September 2008 quarter to just over 1,470 in the June 2012 quarter.

Many Australian retailers aren't yet at a place where they can compete with offshore online competitors, or even local businesses that only operate online and at lower costs, a new report has found.

The Experian Marketing Services report found that many retailers are still slow to adopt a multichannel model, with 53% saying they have no online sales channel and only 20% saying they have had online sales channels for more than two years. Just under three quarters of retailers get less than 25% of their sales from online - a finding the report says indicates retailers are yet to value online as a valuable sales channel of service point.

"Overall, the research points to reluctance among Australian retailers to invest in eCommerce," the report found. "Experian's experience indicates that, in general, there appears to be reluctance among retailers to divert attention (and budget) away from traditional sales channels that have always performed well."

Australian commuters are the most satisfied with customer service and products onboard Singapore Airlines, according to an Airline Satisfaction Report.

The study, conducted in August 2012 found up to 90.8 percent of Australians said they were satisfied with Singapore Airlines, followed closely by Air New Zealand with 89.6 percent. Qantas was in fifth place with 80.5% of Aussie travellers expressing satisfaction, while Thai Airways was sixth.

Despite the dip, Qantas remains ahead of the International Airlines satisfaction average, which remains at 77%. Researcher Jane Ianniello said Qantas recently announced alliance with Emirates Airlines will do much to build back customer relations. "The challenge for Qantas is to discover the factors that impact on their customers' satisfaction," Ianniello said.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank CEO Mike Hirst says some of the public anger directed at Australian banks is justified and the only way to counter it is to treat customers well.

Hirst told a financial services conference in Sydney the hostility came from the way banks had treated their customers, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s when they closed branches and raised fees. "I think you combat it by doing the right thing as a bank," he said.

Hirst said the banks needed to better educate the public on how they were funded and clearly explain why they did not always pass on the Reserve Bank's rate cuts in full. "The industry hasn't done a very good job at explaining to the public how it works," he said.

Australian agribusiness company Elders has launched a new service, Agsure, powered by NetSuite providing the first nationwide eCommerce store selling farm supplies.

Agsure uses NetSuite's SuiteCommerce for managing its entire business cycle, including CRM, eCommerce, financials, supply chain, inventory, distribution, order management and marketing. Agsure now has real-time visibility of its entire business to support timely inventory refreshes and seamless interactions with customers using contact centre, Internet and smartphone.

"Farmer buyer behaviour is changing; they're shopping around, researching online and are looking to buy at a time, and price, that suits them," said Elders' Mark Geraghty. "Elders has always been in the business of offering solutions to help farmers get the most out of their operations and Agsure offers an alternative that hasn't existed in the Australian market until now."

The New South Wales government is looking to improve its customer communication through a consolidation strategy and new technologies, says NSW Customer Service Commissioner Michael Pratt.

Pratt, who has a banking background, became NSW's first customer service commissioner in July was charged with creating an entity called Service NSW to improve interactions between people and their government. Pratt said the banking industry is ahead of government by a "decade" on service delivery.

Recent data shows that only 69% of people in NSW are satisfied with the government's service delivery, Pratt said, the lowest rate among all Australian states and well below 93% in Tasmania. Pratt said consolidation is a key element of his strategy, adding NSW government currently has 380 shop fronts, 30 contact centres, and more than 900 websites and 8000 phone numbers. "From a consumer point of view, contacting government is a nightmare," he said. "From a government point of view ... I see cost opportunity."

The New South Wales Police Force has signed NEC Australia to a multi-million dollar support and maintenance contract.

Under the terms of the deal, NEC Australia will maintain and support the multi-vendor voice and data systems for Australia's largest police force, across more than 500 urban and regional stations in NSW, including its corporate offices in Sydney and Parramatta. The contract is designed to improve the reliability of customer services for NSW Police's core communications functionality, including its 000 Support Centre and the Police Assistance Line, managing incoming emergency calls from the public.

The arrangement builds on NEC Australia's eight year tenure, delivering voice platform and services to NSW Police Force and helping the organisation manage technological and operational change. The three-year contract with NSW Police contains two one-year extension options and covers all the organisation's telephones, PABX units, the Genesys call centre system, Cisco Call Managers, Cisco switches, routers, firewalls, wireless LAN, and IP networks.

Australian customer service specialist Salmat has launched a cloud-based solution that enables contact centre staff to manage inbound and outbound customer queries via telephone, email, the web and social media.

Dubbed "Reach" the scalable, pay-as-you-go solution allows businesses to select what features they need depending on demand and ramp up or down when necessary. Salmat said consumers are demanding choice and flexibility when it comes to customer service, and businesses are struggling with how to best service their customers across so many channels. It also monitors social media platforms, websites and forums, as well as inbound call centre queries, to alert contact centre staff of trending service issues.

Salmat said large businesses and SMEs can now outsource their customer service needs to a Salmat contact centre, or access the technology through a hosted solution without the need to invest in expensive networking equipment or software. "By creating deeper and longer lasting relationships, Reach empowers Australian businesses to take control of how they communicate with their customers," said Salmat CEO Grant Harrod.

Cloud based contact center specialist 3CLogic has expanded its operations into the Asia Pacific marketplace with the opening of a regional office in Singapore.

The move comes as a result of 3CLogic's exponential growth and the opportunity to leverage the APAC market. "Expanding into the Asia Pacific region reinforces 3CLogic's commitment to meeting our customers' needs worldwide," said 3CLogic CEO Raj Sharma. "It is consistent with the company's strategy to drive growth and strengthen its position as the industry's premier cloud based contact center provider."

3CLogic Asia Pacific president Steven Wong said with the APAC headquarters in Singapore, the company aims to achieve its commitment to "serve and provide support to our valued customers."

Australian credit card users are far happier with their customer service than those of Indonesia, India, Singapore and China, according to a global survey.

When it comes to satisfaction, only 14% of Australians are unhappy with their credit card provider, compared with 63% of Indonesians, 60% of Indians and more than half the Singaporean and Chinese consumers surveyed by electronic payments group ACI Worldwide. And despite almost a third of Australia credit card users falling victim to fraud in the past five years, only 3% had switched credit card providers.

"Apparently, the Aussies are far more forgiving or just don't expect better treatment from another company," the survey said. By comparison, 45% of Indonesian credit card users had changed providers after being deceived despite having a much lower rate of payments fraud.

Bank of Queensland (BoQ) says it is deploying a new cloud-based CRM system in a bid to dramatically simplify and add flexibility to the way it deals with customer accounts.

BoQ says it is already currently implementing a new Salesforce.com CRM system for front-line staff. It says the platform is a "low cost front-end system" which would deliver "enhanced sales performance & improved workplace efficiencies".

Among other benefits, the system is expected to cut down the number of procedures required by staff to create new accounts. In addition, it will feature a better ability for branch staff to focus on sales activities, and will free up resources in BoQ branches by removing some existing processes.

German company Bosch will open a regional outsourcing centre the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu.

The new centre will provide support to Chinese clients with issues relating to customer service in particular, and also with specific processes in the areas of finance and accounting, purchasing and human resources management. These processes include order processing, invoice auditing, accounts receivable management, delivery management and customer feedback and claim management.

Bosch will also focus on technology-related services such as technical helpdesk and IT support. "By opening this branch in China, we are expanding our international network to include a strategic growth market in which we want to establish ourselves as an international service provider in the area of business process outsourcing," Bosch's Robert Mulatz said.

Brisbane City has started to equip its water crews with tablets computers equipped with a mobile workforce management tool to dramatically streamline customer service.

The FOCUS tool from FieldTec is fully integrated with the Council's systems and streamlines communications among the field crews, the dispatchers, and the contact centre staff with messaging very similar to SMS, except in more detail. The real time communication and flow of information allows Brisbane City Council to provide better service to its customers.

When using the FOCUS system, work crews can go directly to job sites without having to start their day by going into the main office. FieldTec says the simple user interface allows the field crews to direct their attention to completing their work, instead of stopping to do reports. Together, these features lead to expeditious completion of jobs, which improves customer satisfaction.

A leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for talent acquisition announced today that it has expanded its regional presence to better serve the APAC market.

US-based Avature is looking to expand its user base in the Asia Pacific region and strengthen its consulting and support of existing global and regional customers. "We are excited about being on the ground in Hong Kong," said Dimitri Boylan, founder and CEO of the company. "From here we will begin to build out a team of professionals to better support the region and be more responsive to local market needs and challenges."

Julian Boylan, who will head the Hong Kong office, said Avature's user base in China and Japan has been growing steadily over the past few years and its multinational customers have indicated that this trend will continue. "Now that I am here we will focus on improving our Asian language user interfaces and our local language parsing to better serve the different Asian markets."

Australian fleet management company FleetPlus has selected BMC Software's Remedyforce Service Desk solution to meet the demands of double-digit growth.

By adopting the cloud-based BMC Remedyforce Service Desk solution the company has secured more transparency into its service desk operations, and acquired a solution able to grow in sync with FleetPlus. In addition, the solution has also introduced greater rigor, discipline and transparency, "improving service levels and reducing risk".

The previous approach to service desk management involved staff emailing their requests to the help desk. About 500 tickets per month were generated as a result, but only a fraction represented genuine service requests. It was clear that such service management processes weren't going to scale with FleetPlus as it continued to grow, but the company did not want to weigh itself down with a large capital expenditure for a new system.

Internet security specialist Norton has launched a Hindi-language customer service support line in India.

The company said the new offering is in line with its ongoing commitment to "simplifying and improving support experience for customers". In addition to its existing English-language support, Norton customers in India can now call a toll-free number to access customer support in Hindi from 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m., Monday to Friday.

"We are constantly evaluating our business strategy and looking for new ways to provide value-added services to our customers and improve their overall experience of Norton products," Norton India's Ritesh Chopra said. "We are confident that providing the option of customer support in Hindi will increase our outreach throughout the country and help us to better address the needs of our customers in India."

New Zealand Telecom will expand its customer service, by delivering Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) to its business customers with a Polycom unified communications solution.

NZ Telecom will use the Polycom RealPresence Platform to power hosted video offerings, benefiting from the unique open-standards approach of the platform. The VaaS offerings will deliver face-to-face communication and collaboration capabilities to customers through a subscription based model, providing businesses with access to the full suite of Polycom's video systems, including availability over tablets and mobile devices.

"In today's competitive market, New Zealand businesses are tasked with finding the most efficient and cost-effective ways to accelerate operations," said Telecom Group's Leanne Buer. "We work alongside a broad range of corporate, government and business customers who are looking for new ways to connect with customers and staff who are on the move or working remotely."

The Philippine government is helping the country's outsourcing industry develop more talent to fill its contact centers by providing over US$ 24 million in funding for education and talent development.

Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) president Benedict Hernandez has said that a "dwindling talent supply" and low retention rate are two problems that the industry needs to address. Senator Edgardo Angara Hernandez told the recent International Contact Center Conference and Expo the potential talent is there, but needed to be made "ready with the right skills set or willing to join the industry".

Contact Center Association of the Philippines executive director Jojo Uligan said agents account for the single biggest source of business competitiveness and success for contact centers and similar BPOs. "A call center's ability to sustain the growth and development of its workforce is, thus, equivalent to sustaining business competitiveness and success," he said. "Our business is our people. Without them we have no business."

As more people in Asia communicate online in their native languages, companies are facing the need to rely on multilingual analytics to understand and engage with customers in the region.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Asia-Pacific's Charlie Wood told reporters social networks developed in Asia have grown in stature to the extent that platforms such as Sina Weibo are going global. Together with the region's fast-growing economy, Wood said these factors make Asia an important market in terms of native language data processing and analytics.

"They also emphasise the power of analytics on customer service across multiple languages and geographies," Wood added. "Global brands such as airlines and telcos need to understand the global voice of the customer, and the predominant languages spoken (by customers) in the various markets," he said.

IT analysts Ovum say many CEOs and senior executives still fail to see how social media adds value to their overall customer relationship strategy.

The Ovum report found that skeptical senior managers are therefore reluctant to invest internally or externally in the social media concept, even though it does not require a huge investment. "Social media often only requires a minuscule fraction of the seats and revenue required for traditional channels, yet it can provide enterprises with valuable real-time market data," Ovum's Margaret Goldberg said. "However, enterprise executives are yet to see this value."

Goldberg said more customers are using social networks to voice complaints and praise. "This is a trend that will continue as the generation that grew up with social media matures," she said. "Social media is a horizontal technology in a vertical structure that, if used well, can help a company position itself more competitively."

Australian online surf and fashion retailer SurfStitch is expanding its overseas customer service with Oracle ATG Web Commerce.

Launched in 2008, SurfStitch first selected Oracle ATG Web Commerce in 2009 to support its rapid expansion. Since then, the solution has helped SurfStitch convert more than its average daily 30,000 unique visitors into buyers, generating larger orders and promoting more repeat visitors.

In addition, SurfStitch uses the Oracle applications to closely monitor sales and visitor behavior, providing insight with which to quickly respond to market conditions and customer activity and helping to ensure it increases customer satisfaction. "SurfStitch prides itself on delivering the highest levels of customer service and satisfaction," said SurfStitch director Lex Pedersen. "As a pure-play business, we have to get our e-commerce offering right, in order to deliver on our promise both for our brands and our customers."

Telstra chairman Catherine Livingstone has defended the telco's move to offshore some of its contact centre operations to the Philippines, saying they provided the flexibility with the same level of service.

Speaking at Telstra's annual general meeting, Livingstone said by offshoring, the telco can better manage call volumes, with the Philippine centres held to the same standards of customer service, privacy and security as their Australian counterparts. CEO David Thodey said the need for contact centres was diminishing as an increasing number of Australians used the internet to interact with Telstra. "Interestingly, more than 30% of all interactions we have with customers are now online and that figure will be closer to 50% by the end of this financial year," he said.

Telstra shareholders were also told that while about 2000 local contact centre jobs have been lost, it has been offset by the creation of the same number of jobs in other fields including social media, web design, IT and network design. "During a year in which call centre staff numbers fell, our employee numbers stayed almost exactly the same," Livingstone said.

Customer service outsourcer TELUS International Philippines (TIP) has handed out its latest grants to six non-government organisations (NGOs) as part of the company's corporate social responsibility initiative.

TIP Community Board Chairman Javier Infante distributed over US$10,000 to six charities; the Philippine National Red Cross, Rizal Chapter, Project Pearls, Unang Lingap Kapwa Philippines, Empowering Communities with Hope and Opportunities through Sustainable Initiatives Foundation, Alay Pag-asa Christian Foundation and Childhope Asia Philippines. After the initial grant of US$10,000 given to Philippine Legitimate Stage Artists Group in August, TIP made it known that they were still looking for other organisations that needed their help.

Infante praised the six charitable organisations for their individual advocacies while reiterating TIP's commitment to assisting them. Each charity applied for one-time funding for projects in the areas of health and wellness, education and sports, and arts and culture.

Vodafone India has launched its first Vodafone Angel store in Mumbai, managed and run completely by female employees.

The Angel store initiative is in line with Vodafone's endeavour of "encouraging diversity and inclusion at workplace". The Vodafone Angel Store has only women staff members, including security, pantry staff, customer service resources as well as management level personnel.
The Vodafone Angel Store will continue to provide the customer service catering to both, male and female customers.

"We believe economic empowerment of women is a great building block in social development," Vodafone's Arvind Vohra said. "Vodafone India has always laid great emphasis on equal rights and opportunities for our employees and our policies encourage women employees to aspire for and achieve their career ambitions."

Major Asia Pacific brands are leading the world when it comes to investment in tools to meet the needs of the "digital mobile consumer".

Consults company TCS surveyed 664 executives across the globe, and reported that the average firm expects to spend $17.9 million on mobile technologies, marketing, customer service and similar areas in 2012. That figure declined to a low of $13.5 million in Latin America and $1 million in North America, but rose to $20.1 million in Europe and $22 million in Asia Pacific.

The respondents expected annual expenditure on these activities to hit an average of $23.2 million in 2015. Asia Pacific again led the spending, posting an anticipated expenditure of $26 million. By category, energy companies boasted the highest levels of investment today, at $30.8 million each, with telecoms firms on $28.6 million, airlines on $27.2 million and automakers on $22.3million.

ANZ Bank's New Zealand operations say no frontline jobs will be affected as it phases out its National Bank brand and merges adjacent branches.

National Bank's black horse and green branding are licensed from the UK's Lloyds TSB under an arrangement that expires in 2014. Dropping the National Bank brand will see the bank reduce total branches to 280 from 300 in New Zealand.

The merged brand will be known as ANZ Bank New Zealand and will be "the best of both banks" with ANZ's strength across the Asia Pacific region and National Bank's reputation for customer service, CEO David Hisco said. The bank said while workers such as technology contractors would come to an end as the project winds up, no frontline jobs would be affected. "For most National Bank customers it will be business as usual - they will see the same people, just wearing a different uniform," ANZ said.

ANZ Banking Group has revealed a range of new customer service technology initiatives including video conferencing equipment at 43 remote branches.

The program, dubbed Banking for Australia, will also see 800 new look ATMs introduced at branches and a live chat feature on anz.com to enhance customer service channels. The Cisco videoconferencing technology will give remote and regional customers greater access to specialist advice, the bank said.

"A key pillar of ANZ's super regional strategy is maintaining a leadership position in Australia and the Banking in Australia program is about investing in our business to make it easier for more Australians to bank with ANZ, while also simplifying the way we do business," ANZ Australia CEO Phil Chronican told reporters. Mobile apps to be launched include a mobile wallet for Android phones and Transactive for corporate cash management.

Australia is still the region's biggest market for BPO as new research tips the Asia Pacific market (excluding Japan) to reach $9.5 billion in 2016, up from $5.9 billion in 2011.

The Gartner data found largest BPO consumer in Asia Pacific in 2011 was Australia, with a market size of more than $4.63 billion, over 3.5 times larger than the second largest India ($1.26 billion). It said the fastest-growing BPO markets within Asia Pacific will continue to be led by China and India.

"The Asia Pacific BPO market is still relatively underdeveloped and underexploited (with the exception of Australia and New Zealand) when compared with other markets or regions," said Gartner's T J Singh. "This presents opportunities to BPO service providers that are willing to invest in the region. Asia/Pacific is an immature market for BPO services. No one provider dominates every type of BPO service, and very few BPO providers can successfully demonstrate true regional or Pan- Asia Pacific BPO capabilities for multiple processes."

The Australian retail industry should be concentrating on service rather than blaming its woes outside factors, according to an internationally accredited strategy expert.

In her whitepaper, Breakthrough Growth Opportunities in Australian Retail, Robynne Berg states that retail executives who continue to blame their current profit woes on external factors, including online retail, market fluctuations, GST thresholds or the economy, have no one but themselves to blame. Berg blamed poor Australian retail performance on the endemic problems of poor customer service, ignorance regarding today's consumer and a persistent discounting mentality.

"Unless retailers change their business models and embed an innovative culture they will continue to become less sustainable," she said. Berg pointed to retailers including Harrods in the UK, Apple Stores and Zara who have adapted innovative business models and put customers at the centre of their strategy resulting in exceptional revenue, profit and customer loyalty.

Australia's largest retailers have mostly rated poorly in a new customer service survey by consumer advocate group Choice.

While Harvey Norman scored the poorest customer service rating, Choice said the majority of stores surveyed provided a "frustrating" shopping experience, with staff frequently ignoring customers and showing a lack of product knowledge. Struggling department stores Myer and David Jones also received poor report cards. In particular, shoppers consistently complained of sales assistants engaging in conversation with each other while they waited for service.

Bunnings was the stand-out performer, with shoppers reporting "friendly, helpful and knowledgeable" staff. Big W, Target and Dick Smith also received largely positive feedback. "Retailers who are laying the blame at online shopping for poor sales without also reviewing things within their control, like improving customer service, are not helping themselves in this increasingly competitive environment," a Choice spokeswoman told reporters.

IT company Cisco has extended its partnership with the National Broadband Network (NBN Co) that will see it provide technology that supports customer care and operational functions.

In late 2010, a consortium led by Cisco was awarded the contract to provide NBN Co with a data centre platform. Together with its technology partners EMC and VMware, Cisco was commissioned to build a scalable platform to run essential applications, including customer care, billing, service provisioning, network management, inventory management and fulfillment systems, as well as a web portal to support customer self-service and the corporate website.

The latest contract is for the supply of Multi-Protocol Layer Switching on Cisco routers and firewalls to support NBN Co's National Connectivity Network (NCN) in a deal estimated to be worth up to $38 million over five years. In particular, the NCN will play a key role in activating and assuring services as homes and businesses across Australia connect onto the NBN.

Community CPS Australia has been named Australia's Best Credit Union in the 2012 Mozo People's Choice Awards, just four months after receiving Money magazine's Credit Union of the Year award.

The Mozo Awards, organised by the Mozo website, saw more than 25,000 banking and finance customers across Australia rate almost 180 financial institutions, judging them on overall consumer satisfaction, price, features, customer service, convenience and trust. Community CPS chief executive officer Robert Keogh said the award was nationally regarded as the most comprehensive consumer report card on the Australian financial services industry, and receiving the top award was an exceptional achievement.

"Winning the Mozo Award and being recognised as Australia's Best Credit Union for the second time this year is great feedback that we are meeting consumers' needs in a wide range of categories," Keogh said. "This award is mainly the result of our staff's exceptional work, who go above and beyond consumer expectations, and of our members' ongoing support and feedback, which helps us to tailor our products and services to meet the highest standards."

Telstra, Western Power and Edith Cowan University were the big winners at the Customer Service Council's (CSC) national awards announced last month in Perth.

The CSC said the awards were "deserved recognition of exceptional efforts in 'raising the standards' to provide outstanding customer service excellence." The CSC runs the Annual Award Program to encourage individuals and organisations to achieve and promote customer service excellence, innovation, and best practice.

"Best Practice" covers the key elements of customer satisfaction around response times, quality and depth of service including product, people and process, along with staff satisfaction, innovation, communication, technology, customer access, reporting and other key areas, the CSC said. The assessments are carried out during June, July and August followed by the Awards Event "Raising the Standards".

CSC 2012 winners for Outstanding Customer Service Excellence:

Small Enterprise or Division of Business - < 50 FTE
Gold Medal: Edith Cowan University Contact Centre
Silver Medal: Loans.com.au
Bronze Medal: Landgate - Perth Office

Medium Enterprise or Division of Business - 50 to 100 FTE

Gold Medal: Western Power Customer Service Centre
Silver Medal: Teletech - Aussie Homeloans and St Andrews Australia Customer Service Centre
Bronze Medal: Multi Direct Charity Fundraising Contact Centres

Large Enterprise or Division of Business - > 100 FTE

Gold Medal: Telstra | Connect@717 - Melbourne Contact Centre
Silver Medal: iiNet
Bronze Medal: Computershare Communication Services - Client Services

Western Australia's Department for Child Protection (DCP) has contracted Fujitsu to support its PeopleSoft CRM system.

The DCP has a network of social workers across the state working to provide care for children in need and their families. "We deliver some of the most critical statutory services for the community in Western Australia," the DCP's Cheryl Barnett said in a statement. "Our staff require a high level of skill, commitment and resilience."

With Fujitsu on board to support the PeopleSoft CRM system, DCP will have support for its remote workforce, Barnett said. One of the key reasons Fujitsu received the contract was for its ability to resource large scale, application specific support in Western Australia.

Managed IT, service desk and professional services company Applaud has upgraded its help desk ticketing system with BMC Software's Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) solution.

"The biggest benefit we're getting is being able to service our managed service customers a whole lot better by managing the lifecycle of their assets properly and helping them quickly remediate any problems", said Applaud's Mark Richards. "BMC Remedy has allowed us to give our long-standing customers the confidence that we're maturing as a business and growing with them. If you can deliver a consistent ITIL-standard, outsourced managed service that in itself is a differentiator because there are not too many companies that can do it."

The volume of tickets handled by the Applaud service desk is typically 6,000-7,000 per month from its 15 customers. Because of this, the improved end-to-end ticket management has delivered the greatest benefit. Measured by mean time to repair, ticket management has improved substantially.

Moving customer service functions online is an effective method of providing cost savings to companies, according to the Singapore-based Asia Pacific head of Message Systems, Mark Johnson.

Johnson told reporters that moving part or all the customer service capabilities online helps companies reduce costs because an agent is able to conduct multiple chat conversations with customers simultaneously, opposed to the one call he is able to take at any one time over the phone. He added that for problems relating to hardware, software and mobile handsets, online support can be a better medium to resolve consumers' issues.

But Johnson warned that online support should not be the only channel for customers to get assistance, and should be part of a complete support program that includes support tools such as live video chats, instant messaging, forums, and contact centers. "If a customer's computer or Internet connection is down, or if the company's website or server is down, a pure online model without a contact center is useless and can lead to disastrous customer backlash," he said.

Wellington's Rydges Hotel has won the Supreme Champion title at this year's Hospitality Association of New Zealand (HANZ) Awards for Excellence.

Rydges Wellington won awards for Excellence in Customer Service and Best Accommodation Hotel en route to taking out the supreme national award at an industry dinner held in Wellington last week. Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Bruce Robertson said while many businesses in the hospitality sector were finding it hard to continue trading profitably, others like Rydges Wellington were prospering with smart strategies.

"Those points of differences showcased by award winners like Rydges Wellington include service offerings, delivering customers a totally unexpected yet far superior experience to what they were anticipating, providing an ambience or atmosphere far removed from the local competition, and embracing new technology," Robertson said. Rydges Wellington GM Simon White said the hotel has concentrated its efforts on customer service through guest recognition programs and making itself available to our guests. "That in turn gives us the opportunity to continually improve the hotel product through guest and staff feedback," he said.

Outsourcer Stellar is set to hire around 200 people for its new contact centre for the Australian Taxation Office on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

Stellar confirmed in a statement on its website that it will manage the new centre, with the local council reporting the 200 new jobs figure. The contract should be worth around $68 million over five years with services beginning this January.

The council is to hold four career information sessions are to be held in three locations across the local area from October 8-10 in a bid to find suitable candidates for the new centre.

As Vietnam's economic growth remains among the highest in Asia, the Southeast Asian nation is improving customer relationships to create greater loyalty, brand recall and profitability.

Frost & Sullivan APAC's Dao Thi Minh Thao said Vietnam's efforts are leading to an impressive growth in its contact center industry, which was estimated to be worth US$4.2 million in 2011 and is expected to reach US$11.4 million in 2018 with a growth rate of 15%. Thao said basic applications like ACD, CTI, IVR, and call monitoring are still leading the trends in the Vietnam contact center market.

"ACD is the biggest contributor that accounts for almost 40% of all applications and is still growing at a fast rate as majority of contact centers' primary purpose is to support incoming voice calls," Thao said. She added that most contact center projects in Vietnam are deployed by banks, financial institutions and Telco service providers. "These sectors require a high level of customer care; large seat numbers are needed to always be available to serve customers."

New Westpac Chief Executive, Australian Financial Services, Brian Hartzer says the bank's best strategy for success starts with the basic notion of looking after its customers.

Harzer has spent the first month on the job talking to people to get a feel for what staff think and where the bank should go from here. He also agrees with the regulator push for banks to work harder at regaining the public trust.

Harzer has returned to Australia from three years running Royal Bank of Scotland's retail bank in London. He told reporters British banks went astray because they concentrated too much on their shareholders by chasing higher returns that meant minimising capital. He said a sustainable bank needs to look after community, regulators, shareholders and, most importantly, customers.

Most New Zealanders rate their bank highly and the country's banking sector rates well above other service sectors, according to a new survey.

The survey of 13,000 people conducted by Consumer NZ found in August that banks outshone other industries with an overall satisfaction rating of 92%. By comparison, similar surveys found satisfaction for electricity companies was 78% (June 2012), with 72% for internet service providers (December 2011) and 55% for appliance retailers (May 2012).

"Banks put a huge effort into customer service and it's great to see this reflected in the survey results," New Zealand Bankers' Association chief executive Kirk Hope told reporters. "The high level of satisfaction with our banks shows how competitive the sector is. By providing excellent service, banks work hard to attract and keep their customers. This is good news for New Zealand households and businesses."

The Jiangsu Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) has established a video contact center with Avaya solutions to boost its customer service.

Bank clients will now be able to interact with customer service agents through video-enabled computers placed in the outlets of the ABC Jiangsu Branch. Avaya one-X Communicator is integrated in the computers and customers can connect with agents with just one click. The video contact center agents are equipped with Avaya one-X Agent which can support video communication, and helps agents drive first call resolution and high customer satisfaction.

Enterprise bank customers can access the video contact center service from their own video-enabled devices, such as computers and IP telephones. The bank plans to install video-enabled ATMs in about 100 locations in the future, which will also integrate Avaya one-X Communicator.

The Asia Pacific BPO market (excluding Japan) is forecast to reach $9.5 billion in 2016, up from $5.9 billion in 2011.

The Gartner data found the largest BPO consumer in Asia Pacific in 2011 was Australia, with a market size of more than $4.63 billion, over 3.5 times larger than the second largest India ($1.26 billion). It said the fastest-growing BPO markets within Asia Pacific will continue to be led by China and India.

"The Asia Pacific BPO market is still relatively underdeveloped and underexploited (with the exception of Australia and New Zealand) when compared with other markets or regions," said Gartner's T J Singh. "This presents opportunities to BPO service providers that are willing to invest in the region. Asia/Pacific is an immature market for BPO services. No one provider dominates every type of BPO service, and very few BPO providers can successfully demonstrate true regional or Pan- Asia Pacific BPO capabilities for multiple processes."

While Australian consumers have some of the lowest customer service expectations in the world, new research shows they are also more likely to share their experiences with others.

The latest American Express Global Customer Service Barometer found that 80% of the consumers surveyed agree small, independently or locally-owned businesses "provide a more personal customer service experience", while 37% strongly agree. More than three quarters feel small businesses "understand their customer better" than large companies, while a third strongly agree.

When it comes to waiting on the phone for service, Australians are prepared to wait, on average, 14 minutes before hanging up, putting Australia in third place behind India and Mexico. However, compared to last year, consumers tell significantly more people on average about their customer service experiences, both good and bad. On average, consumers tell 15 people about their good experiences (up from nine in 2011) and 24 people about their bad experiences (up from 16 in 2011).

Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are the biggest growing markets for Philippine contact centers in the last two years, adding to the main American market.

According to the Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) mid-year report, the US remains the biggest market, with seven of 10 contact center employees providing voice call services to Americans. American English still accounts for 75% of the languages spoken by customer service agents. However, British and Australian English are slowly emerging as the second and third largest languages spoken by at least two out of 10 voice agents.

"This expansion to new markets reinforces the growing brand awareness and equity of the Philippines as the premiere voice service provider for the world," the CCAP report said. The remaining languages spoken by Philippine contact centers are Filipino, Spanish, Japanese, German, Mandarin, French, Korean, Bahasa, Thai and Singapore English.

Boutique financial services provider Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has upgraded its customer service with Noble Systems' ShiftTrack Workforce Management (WFM) software.

Noble ShiftTrack WFM provides the Bank with an industry-leading solution for managing and scheduling its contact centre workforce to improve customer service. With more than 1.5 million retail customers via a national network of more than 500 customer service outlets, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is one of Australia's largest financial services providers.

"We are pleased to partner with an iconic Australian brand like Bendigo and Adelaide Bank," said Ashley Clayton, head of sales for Noble Systems' Asia Pacific region. "Deploying the ShiftTrack WFM solution in their contact centres will optimise efficiency and speed customer service activities."

American auto giant General Motors is dramatically increasing its Indian customer service levels as part of a push to boost its presence in the country.

The car maker is planning to operate a minimum of 300 showrooms and a same number of servicing units across India. With an aim to provide its customers an outstanding service, the company has introduced several new initiatives like a centralised 24x7 contact center, which will answer to the customer queries and will also provide a detailed preview of the products and services offered by the company.

"This is part of GM India's goal of expanding the accessibility of our products and becoming a volume player in the market," said General Motors India MD Lowell Paddock. "Like our existing state of the art facilities, our new sales points and service outlets will set benchmarks for sales, service and customer satisfaction." General Motors presently operates 279 showrooms and 272 servicing units in India.

As more and more consumers turn to social media for customer service, IT company LogMeIn has launched Twitter integration and social media management capabilities for its BoldChat online customer engagement offering in Australia.

Designed to help businesses and customer service agents manage the rapidly growing number of customer interactions on Twitter, the new capabilities complement BoldChat's multi-channel suite for web chat, email, SMS, and click-to-call features. With the new capabilities, customer service teams can use a single, unified tool to manage customer conversations across online, mobile, email, phone, and social channels, while providing a comprehensive view of customer interactions.

BoldChat Twitter Management comes standard with the BoldChat Enterprise edition, and is immediately available as a free update to BoldChat Enterprise customers. "Twitter is quickly becoming a go-to channel for customer engagement, but to date, managing these customer conversations has meant trying to turn a social media marketing tool into a customer service tool," said LogMeIn's Steve Castro-Miller. "BoldChat Twitter management is designed from the ground up for engaging and managing customer conversations."

The National Broadband Network (NBN Co) has opened its Gold Coast-based contact centre to take calls on questions about the roll-out of the superfast broadband network.

The call centre, first announced in April, is located in Varsity Lakes, and will employ up to 130 people to take enquiries from the general public, property developers, and businesses on the government's NBN roll-out. "This is another example of the Gillard government's investment in the National Broadband Network creating local jobs and boosting local economies," Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said.

The opening and ministerial welcome comes despite a recent run-in with the Gold Coast mayor over treatment of NBN Co executives. Last month, Conroy called for Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate to apologise to delegates from NBN Co who had travelled to the Gold Coast to explain the NBN roll-out in a council meeting. Tate cut NBN Co executive Darren Rudd off after he had only been speaking for 8 minutes, stating that the agenda was "too full" for the day.

New Zealand tertiary institution Otago Polytechnic has had its customer service recognised with an Australasian-wide award for its IT Service Desk.

Otago Polytechnic received the Excellence in Student Administration and Customer Service honour at the Association for Tertiary Education Management (ATEM)/Campus Review Best Practice Awards in Adelaide. Otago Polytechnic's IT Service Desk not only offers support to the Polytechnic's staff and students, but is also contracted to provide the same service to Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology staff.

The service is accessed through an 0800 number and utilises remote control tools that allows Service Desk staff to administer solutions to any computer. "It's a free service at Otago Polytechnic and we believe we are the only Polytechnic or Institute of Technology in New Zealand offering this to both staff and students," says Information Systems and Support Customer Support Manager, Colin Armstrong. "We are now in our second year of providing support to NMIT, and the institute is very happy with our service."

Perth Airport had admitted to deficiencies in its customer service, pledging a massive investment to turn its offering around.

Airport chief executive Brad Geatches admitted "we deserve the flak" because the experience at the airport was very poor in peak periods. "International arrivals is the worst experience of all," Geatches said. "We rate our customer service as C in peak periods but much better at other times."

"The $750 million we are investing will see As all round," he said. "The terminal developments we have under way will make a dramatic difference. The new regional domestic terminal, which opens early next year, is looking great." In the past five years, the number of passengers using the main terminals has leapt 44% to 12.6 million for the year to June 30.

Telstra CEO David Thodey has told retail shareholders that the company expects to reduce the number of contact centre employees over the next five to 10 years, as customer service moves online.

Telstra announced in August it would shed 651 jobs across Australia, with the company closing customer service centres in Lismore and Townsville, with a number of Sydney and Melbourne jobs outsourced to the Philippines. Speaking at a retail shareholder event in Sydney last week, Thodey said that as more and more Telstra customers begin to interact with the company online, rather than over the phone, more jobs will likely go.

"You will continue to see our call centres decline. That's just the way of the world, unfortunately," he said. "We are seeing a reduction in call volumes, and we are moving people to an online experience. The numbers in our call centres will continue to reduce over the next five to 10 years, because most people would like to be online."

As local governments across Australia renew their efforts in connecting with their residents, Toowoomba Regional Council has been named the best small contact centre in the national ATA awards.

The council's team overcame a strong field to emerge national winners of the 2012 Contact Centre of the Year in the category of under 30 fulltime employees. The centre beat Adelaide City Council, as well as UniSuper and Teachers Health Fund to the award.

The team also took out the implementation category ahead of the National Australia Bank and Sunsuper. Customer services portfolio Leader Cr Anne Glasheen said the award reflected on the high level of customer satisfaction achieved by the team.

ATA Award Winners

Contact Centre Champion of the Year - Operations Category:

Julie Ireland - Smart Service Qld

Contact Centre Champion Year - People Category:

Danielle Warrak, FlexiGroup

Contact Centre Teleprofessional of the Year:

Damian Jeffrey - A&G Insurance Services

Contact Centre Team Leader of the Year:

Dimitra Panagos – CommInsure

Contact Centre Manager of the Year:

Ben Lamb, FlexiGroup

Implementation Category & Contact Centre of the Year - <30FTE:

Toowoomba Regional Council

Contact Centre of the Year - 31-80 FTE:

CommInsure

Contact Centre of the Year - 81-150 FTE:

O'Brien

Contact Centre of the Year - > 150 FTE:

National Australia Bank

Last week saw the return of the ATA's Australian Contact Centre Summit. The annual conference, held at the Hilton Brisbane, featured presentations from such accomplished public speakers as Charlie Brown, Technology Editor of Channel Nine's Today Show, and Rachel Robertson, the second woman in history to lead an Antarctic research expedition to Davis Station. 

The two-day event was compered by A&G Insurance Services' Mark Deighton who introduced the ATA's new CEO, Fiona Keough, and welcomed to the stage Dan Gregory who gave the first keynote speech of the conference. Mr Gregory spoke of the continual increase in customer expectations and the convergence of marketing and customer service functions. The current challenge for the customer service industry, as he pointed out, is how to successfully represent an organisation’s brand and values through each service interaction.

Linda Simonsen, CEO of Futurepeople, gave a very educational speech which discussed the importance of Emotional Intelligence in the work place (the ability to identify, assess and control the emotions of oneself and one's staff) and revealed a revolutionary approach to motivating employees. Comminsure's Nikki Bower followed with an excellent case study which divulged how to drive a better staff and customer experience through process excellence and how to implement an effective Continuous Improvement programme.

The general consensus from delegates was that this year's ATA Contact Centre Summit was an extremely beneficial event for all Contact Centre management and supervisory staff looking to collaborate with industry peers and discuss common challenges and solutions. We hope that next year’s event will be just as insightful.

Australian consumers are increasingly relying on smartphone apps, social media and websites over traditional customer service channels, according to new research.

The latest Avaya Asia-Pacific Customer Experience Index found that 60% of Australian consumers look to resolve their queries via a company's website before calling a contact centre. This number is even higher among Gen Y consumers, at 72%. Web chat usage has also increased, and the number of Australians who believe they will be using web chat in the next few years has increased from 14% in 2011 to 20% in 2012.

Avaya said the reason behind the growth of smart phone and portable web usage included convenience, fun to use, good for simple queries, and easy to use. "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 Australia and New Zealand MD Tim Gentry said.

A study by Chinese travel company CTrip has found that basing customer service agents from can lead to significant increases in productivity.

The research, that randomized 250 CTrip contact centre employees, designating some as telecommuters for four days a week and asked others to come into the office every workday for a nine-month period. The study found that telecommuters ramped up their performance by 13%-9.5% attributable to taking fewer sick days and breaks, and working more minutes per shift. 

Job attrition rates among the telecommuters dropped by half, and they reported more work satisfaction. CTrip also saved approximately $2,000 per employee. CTrip undertook the study as it considers a company-wide work from home policy to decrease high attrition rates and cut down on office costs.

Global IT giant Citrix has acquired New Zealand's privately-owned cloud-based service desk Beetil.

Beetil's mission is to streamline technology costs through cloud-based incident tracking, end user self-service, configuration, change management and release management functionality. The acquisition will help Citrix with the expansion of its GoToAssist cloud-based support product line into the region. Beetil, meanwhile will have the opportunity to offer its solutions to Citrix's customer base.

"We founded Beetil to deliver a better cloud-based support and service management experience based on the best practice ITIL framework," Beetil CEO Dan Lee said. "We succeeded by delivering a complete support desk tool that is easy to use, easy to learn, and easy on the pocket."

Cloud computing, social media and demand for a new kind of customer service are transforming the contact centre industry landscape toward a "Heartonomics" revolution, according to a new report by FuturePeople Recruitment.

FuturePeople's Heartonomics Report is a guide specifically for Australian contact centre managers that helps them understand and take advantage of the "current contact centre revolution". CEO Linda Simonsen said the contact centre industry is in the throes of massive change, as the rise of technology and both staff and customer needs challenge the way the contact centre industry has always done business.

"To meet the two core changes of technology and people, the industry must put a philosophy like Heartonomics at the core of their priorities. I define Heartonomics as the economic value of genuine human connection," Simonsen said. Heartonomics report includes of case studies and interviews with contact centre industry leaders, like Daniel Bergan, Head of Contact Centre Operations, Australian Financial Services, Westpac Group and Paul Cahill, Director Consumer Services, Telstra Customer Sales & Service.

A group of staff members from the Fiji Beach Resort and Spa have attended a one-week attachment at sister Hilton resorts in Australia managed in an effort to improve customer service.

The educational trip gave the eight participants an opportunity to experience the lifestyle at one of Fiji's core markets. Fiji Beach Resort and Spa training manager Eremasi Rova said the objective of the trip was to get exposure to Australian service standards in related departments and a familiarisation with Australian culture.

"The eight individuals are members of the Panorama team currently in the final phase of a two-year management trainee program," Rova said. The participants spent at least four hours of attachment daily observing and 'buddying' with Hilton counterparts in Australia to identify some best practices that they could bring back with them to the Fiji property's operations.

Indian outsourcer Firstsource has become one of Northern Ireland's largest employers after announcing the  creation of nearly 100 new customer service jobs in Londonderry.

Firstsource has six centres in the UK _ two each in Belfast and Londonderry in Northern Ireland and one each in Middlesbrough, England and Cardiff Wales. The Belfast centre employs 800 staff and Londonderry has 1,200. The extra staff will handle calls for pay TV company Sky.

The New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) economic development agency has selected US-based FreeCRM.com for the government workplace.

NZTE will use the FreeCRM.com SaaS solution to advise and handle inbound and outbound relationships with establishing firms within New Zealand wishing to work with and in the nation. The FreeCRM.coms web-based CRM tool offers contact center automation, call tracking and outing, and knowledgebase attributes.

Companies that engage with the NZ TE interact by means of internet tools and conventional channels such as inbound telephone, fax, and mail. FreeCRM.com is expected to manage all the interaction channels.

The Philippine contact centre industry expects to boost its revenues to nearly $15 billion by 2016, sustaining its lead over rival India.

Contact Center Association of the Philippines head Benedict Hernandez said the Philippines, continues to attract major global companies looking to base their customer service in the country. "The reality is we have established ourselves as the pre-eminent brand in call centers," Hernandez told reporters.

During an Economic Managers meeting this week, Hernandez said that the entire industry _ voice-based and non-voice-based _ created 638,000 direct jobs in 2011. He said those numbers were expected to reach 1.3 million direct jobs by 2016. Philippine call centres were also expanding their market from being predominantly English-speaking to other languages including Spanish, Japanese, German, Mandarin, French, Korean, Bahasa and Thai, he added.

Riviana Foods has adopted StayinFront’s EdgeCG SaaS CRM and Analytics solution to streamline its customer service.

Riviana Foods is an Australian-owned manufacturing, distribution, sales and marketing company and one of the largest and most successful food importers. The company has 500 products under its portfolio, including some of the country’s most well-recognised brands.

Riviana Foods selected the StayinFront EdgeCG solution as a full-function, hosted package with the technical flexibility to deploy to a retail grocery team using Android devices, as well as to food services reps, who require higher quality presentation capabilities on iPads. “With StayinFront consumer goods CRM software available on Android devices and iPads in the field, we believe our teams will impress our customers on every level,” said Riviana Foods’ Steve Weston.

New Zealand's Rotorua District Council (RDC) has taken out top spot in the ALGIM (Association of Local Government Information Management) Customer Centre Awards.

RDC was named Ultimate Local Government Customer Service Centre in recognition of best practice in customer service among New Zealand local authorities. RDC's Roanna Dunn said the council's customer centre had clearly ticked all the right boxes with the panel of judges.

"This year's awards received the most entries ever so our team is absolutely delighted to have been named New Zealand’s Ultimate Local Government Customer Service Centre," she said. "Our mission is to strive for excellence, continuous improvement and value for customers, in line with the council's Vision, Mission and Values statement, and that really struck a chord with the judges."

South Korea is considering opening a customer service centre to handle questions from citizens who believe they are victims of crimes committed by U.S. servicemen.

A South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs official says a decision on whether to open the centre will be made after the 2013 budget is finalized later this year, said a top official with the ministry's status of forces agreement team. The official told reporters the contact centre was being considered after last year's assault of a South Korean teenager, a crime that sparked nationwide protests against U.S. Forces Korea.

South Korean media have reported that the centre would be staffed by lawyers, though the ministry spokeswoman would not confirm those reports. If established, the center would also advise citizens who say they suffered property damage because of US service activities, such as environmental pollution from bases or a military plane crash.
 

Outsourcer Stellar has announced it has been selected to manage contact centre services in partnership with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The ATO sought a partner who will maximise value while increasing operational flexibility and agility particularly during seasonal peaks. Stellar Customer Solutions Specialists will manage ATO enquiries throughout the year and will also support extra volume in the lead up to and during the busy tax time period.

"We are thrilled to have been awarded this opportunity with the Australian Taxation Office and look forward to forging a long term relationship based on excellent service outcomes, transparency and innovation," Stellar CEO Melissa Hamilton CEO said. "The Stellar team is looking forward to working with our new partner."

While Australian organisations spent fairly 'liberally' on Unified Communications from 2008 and into 2009, many have since employed greater scrutiny on their investments; reconsidering large scale deployments and opting for a piecemeal approach.

According to Frost & Sullivan, this strategy has lengthened the sales cycles for channel partners, which are forced to reduce their dependency on a few major deals in favour of a greater number of small-medium deals. Cloud based UC or UC as a Service (UCaaS) will be one of the key enabling factors that will drive widespread uptake of UC. Traditional on-premise applications, while adequate for the demands of previous decades, often struggle to meet the real time communication and collaboration needs of current users. Cloud based access is already having the effect of making UC available to a wider range of organisations and end users.

Frost & Sullivan predicts the Australian UC market will grow at 8.6% from 2011 to 2018. "The overall UC market is expected to be worth $1 billion by 2016 with the largest adopters, BFSI (Banking & Financial Services Industry) and Government sectors accounting for 40% of this revenue. Other sectors driving growth during the forecast period include professional services, education, healthcare and mining", said Frost & Sullivan’s Anand Balasubramanian.

Chinese electronics firm CHC Navigation has extended its customer service portfolio by opening a new Canadian Service Centre.

Located in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, the centre is equipped to meet the needs of Canadian partners and customers that require flexible and reliable training and repair services. "Our Canadian Service Center provides customers with the highest level of confidence by using only OEM parts and applying our same stringent quality standards," said CHC CEO George Zhao.

The centre offers end-users quality in the maintenance of and training on their GNSS and GPS/GIS receivers. Zhao said the entire staff at the centre have completed factory training, are highly motivated individuals, and have several years of real-world experiences in designing, building and repairing advanced radar tracking systems and GNSS systems to support the end-users in North America.

US-based insurance claim management company Crawford & Company has entered into a joint venture with Call Centre Services to provide 24-hour access to an expanded contact centre in a bid to respond to client needs in Asia-Pacific.

The Singapore-based Crawford Call Centre Services will offer first notice of loss reporting, and claim and policy enquiries. The centre can also accommodate additional capacity as needed, and handle emergency claim instructions during catastrophe events like the earthquake in Japan and 2011 floods in Thailand.

The technology used in the centre will interface with Crawford's claims system to provide greater efficiency and faster assignments to adjusters. "The on-going investment in our call centre will ensure that we continue to meet or exceed performance standards for our clients," said Crawford’s Richard Martin.

US-based online daily deal company Groupon is testing a new approach to customer service by hiring agents in India to answer emails currently handled by Chicago-based employees.

Groupon is building a customer service team in Chennai that will supplement Groupon's 300 to 400 customer service agents in Chicago. The plan is to take advantage of time zone differences and handle email inquiries around the clock. Groupon says it has no plans to reduce U.S. staff.

Groupon will use the trial to assess whether the India-based agents can deal effectively with customers. "We built our brand in the U.S. on customer service, and you need to have that experience no matter where the team is based," said Groupon's Julie Mossler. "We will experiment with it, and see how it goes."

A senior lecturer at Melbourne's RMIT University says ISPs should be providing greater transparency over National Broadband Network (NBN) processes to help customers gain a better understanding of the initiative's benefits.

Mark Gregory of the school of electrical and computer engineering said better customer service could be provided through secure customer portals for the NBN, allowing customers to view active installations to monitor where the installation process is at. "This would provide a better understanding of the roll out and give the public a way to participate in the roll out," Gregory said.

"A new level of customer service transparency should be implemented," he said. "Customers should be able to see service orders online at each step of the process." Gregory said having a web portal for customers would help to dramatically reduce the number of complaints in the telco industry, with the telco industry way behind other industries in regards to product tracking.

Japanese credit card company JCB International (JCBI) has set up the JCB Plaza Call Center to provide free travel support in multiple languages.

The new center provides services in English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese to all JCB card members on a 24/7 basis. The phoneline also offers travel related support, including hotel, restaurant, car rental reservations and show tickets, as well as lost/ stolen card support and other emergency support.

JCB cards are issued around the world in partnership with local banks and other financial institutions. Currently JCB cards are issued in 16 countries and territories with a total of about 77 million JCB card members including 11 million outside Japan, primarily in China, Korea and Taiwan, with growth rates in the double digits over the past five years.

Software company Microsoft plans to ramp up its customer service numbers in China as part of a 1,000 employee hiring spree over the coming year.

The expansion is an attempt by Microsoft to better compete with rivals Apple and Google in China's fast-growing mobile internet market. Microsoft said that the new employees would be spread across its customer service, research and development, and marketing segments.

Additionally, Microsoft is building a large cloud computing center in Shanghai that will employ around 600 more employees. China's e-commerce market is growing at a double-digit percentage rate and nearly 400 million people in the country surf the Web using mobile phones and other devices.

New Zealand's Earthquake Commission (EQC) has defended itself after reports of customer dissatisfaction over ongoing claims for loss or damage.

EQC GM of customer service Bruce Emson said the September 4, 2010 earthquake in Christchurch forced 22 EQC staff to respond to an event 15 times the size of the previous biggest event - Inangahua in 1968, which generated 10,000 claims. Emson said, "EQC is now working its way through 460,000 claims, made up of 690,000 individual exposures - numbers matched only by Hurricane Katrina." He added, "To put that number in further context, it is more than double the number of every claim for every type of natural disaster in EQC's history prior to September 4, 2010."

Emson said the NZ Press's comprehensive survey of EQC customer satisfaction, showing that where claims for building damage are concerned, about half our customers are unsatisfied, mirrored EQC's own periodic customer satisfaction surveying, "but are no more acceptable for that". "Insured Kiwis have no choice but to be EQC customers, and that means we need to work harder than our private insurer counterparts to provide a quality customer experience."

Global outsourcer the Serco Group has successfully renewed its BPO contract with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to provide contact centre services to Australian taxpayers, businesses and tax professionals.

Under the five-year contract, Serco, in partnership with the ATO and other suppliers, will be responsible for providing advice and responding to enquiries relating to tax numbers, refunds, business activity statements, debt management, return submissions and tax information packs. It is also anticipated that there will be opportunities to expand these activities to support additional communication channels.

Serco, and previously Excelior which was acquired by Serco in November 2011, has been providing these services on behalf of the ATO for the last four years from its contact centres in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania. On average, these centres handle over a quarter of a million customer engagements each month, consistently meeting their performance targets for quality of service. In the last two months, six Serco employees have been awarded 'Gold Call' status, the ATO's highest accolade for this work.

Customer service training company Signature Worldwide will launch its training programs in Thailand soon by adding Professional Training Service (PTS) as its local licencee.

As Thailand's hospitality industry continues to grow rapidly, Signature and PTS plan to play a key role in the continued development of local resources, as well as extend their training services to nearby countries within Asia Economic Community. PTS will offer training and services combined with native knowledge of Thailand's needs.

Licensee, Viwat Phongsathorn has found tremendous benefit in not just providing training in Thailand, but being part of Signature Worldwide's international presence. "We provide a great deal of confidence (to customers) when we tell them we are part of a company that has been in business for over 25 years, not only for the amount of experience, but also for the ability of adapting and growing in this changing world. For Thailand, this [adaptability] is essential to being in business," said Viwat.

Global outsourcer TeleTech is looking at an aggressive hiring of banking and finance-skilled customer service agents at its Cebu operations.

TeleTech says the new agents will be tasked to provide unparalleled service delivery levels for the largest financial services institution in the world. TeleTech is one of the largest and most geographically diverse global providers of technology-enabled business process outsourcing solutions.

It currently has over 45,000 employees across 68 delivery centers in 16 countries – with 14 sites located throughout the Philippines. TeleTech says it designs, enables, manages, and grows customer experiences that drive shareholder value.

Queensland's Townsville City Council has won the Government Contact Centre 2012 Summit award for the Most Innovative Project for its recent implementation of IMC Communication's livepro Knowledge Management solution in its customer service centre.

Townsville City Council's Megan Leavy said the livepro implementation had streamlined customer service processes and supported business continuity. "Since implementing livepro there have been numerous positive impacts on the CSC business," she said. "One of the key impacts is the reduction in Average Handling Time (AHT) and on-hold time; our AHT is now down by an average of 8 seconds and on hold-time has decreased by an average of 12 seconds per call."

Leavy said livepro has helped the council simplify its processes around complex service requests, reducing the amount of errors made by customer service representatives. Reducing errors has made it easier for other business units to complete service requests and thus helped to strengthen the relationships between the CSC and other business units. "Also, by providing basic training to the other business units, they now better understand the role of the CSC and are able to provide Customer Service Representatives with real-time updates and alerts directly through livepro," Leavy said.

The Victorian Government's Environmental Protection Authority has upgraded its service technology by deploying version 7.0 of German software company SAP's CRM platform.

The EPA protects the state's environment through regulation, granting licences for industrial activity, conducting environmental audits, monitoring the environment and setting standards. SAP said the EPA had been looking to conduct a technology refresh program that would underpin its operations for the next 20-30 years, including delivering an "integrated and holistic" view of its clients, stakeholders and communities to help deliver on its corporate objectives, as well as improving its overall organisational performance.

SAP's CRM 7.0 platform will be deployed to fulfil functions such as client management, which will assist the EPA with its compliance efforts. "At the end of July 2012, EPA went live with the first phase of the transformation program, and it has proven to be a great success," SAP said. "The SAP CRM solution supports EPA in the execution of its duties and centres around customer service, core approvals and licensing, compliance inspections and the generation of regulatory notices."

Westpac's New Zealand arm has extended its seven-year deal with outsourcer Gen-i in a new two-year contract for contact centre, data, voice, contract management, mobility and access services.

Gen-i said the contract extension was worth more than $NZ50 million ($A38.5 million), with a spokeswoman noting that it did not add any new services to the existing deal. She said the new contract was to be managed by Westpac New Zealand, outside of a vendor management team that the Westpac Group recently established in Australia under its multi-sourcing strategy.

The contract extension came in addition to Gen-i's 2011 contract to host Westpac New Zealand in its new data centre in Auckland. Gen-i's spokeswoman said the build was completed on time and on budget, early this year, and migration of Westpac's production systems from an existing IBM data centre was underway.

Danish-based cloud-based help desk software Zendesk will open new offices in Southeast Asia as it looks to capitalize on the region's fast growing markets.

Zendesk has grown over the last few years and it has always enjoyed the support from Asian customers. According to Zendesk's Michael Hansen said the company's customers in Asia come primarily from Indonesia, Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, as well as the Philippines. He said Zendesk's Philippine customer's growth has tripled last year.

Due to the huge growth in the Asian region, Hansen said Zendesk is actively seeking to strengthen its foothold in Southeast Asia, with plans to set up offices in Manila and Singapore to provide more support to its Asian clientele. Zendesk allows organizations to engage customers no matter where and how they want to connect. Zendesk supports multiple customer service channels including voice, the web, email, Twitter, online chat, blogs, community forums, knowledge bases, and more.

The Australian division of technology distributor Ingram Micro has launched the MaintenanceNet Service360 cloud-based service contract management platform and complementary Auto Quote solution as a high-value tool for its reseller partners across the Asia-Pacific region.

The solution, which is already in place in the US and Canada, is offered free of charge to Ingram Micro channel partners and has been branded for Ingram Micro Australia as the Cisco Services Portal, powered by MaintenanceNet. It is designed to automate the administrative tasks of creating service renewal quotes and to ensure that partners can quickly take action on "low-dollar" service contract renewal opportunities.

"Low-dollar contract renewals require constant attention because of their sheer volume, and staying on top of them is a complex process for our partners," Ingram Micro Australia's David Lenz said. "Auto Quote is a channel enablement tool that eliminates the time and hassle of tracking ongoing service expirations and sending renewal notices to customers. With this new automated capability, our resellers are able to sell more services, increase renewal rates and keep a better pulse on customer needs."

New research indicates that not only is positive emotion from sales staff contagious to a customer, but that a satisfied customer also improves the salesperson's mood.

The Government Contact Centre Summit (GCC) in partnership with the Customer Contact Management Association (CCMA) has announced the 2012 Government Contact Centre Excellence Awards Winners.

IT Company Interactive Intelligence says companies need to ensure customer service is not an afterthought with mobile applications as it investigates how mobile devices are impacting customer satisfaction. 

Web-based service Matchboard launched earlier this week. Matchboard matches buyers and suppliers working under the mantra, "Smart Sourcing for Sales, Service and Back Office".

The National Australia Bank (NAB) is considering a trial of work-from-home customer service centres by the end of the year after rolling out an IP -based virtual contact centre platform last month.

NAB moved 3200 agents – including customer service and help desk staff – off legacy PABX systems in July under a three-year program. NAB’s head of network services Graham Cronin told a Genesys customer conference in Sydney last week that the platform moved the bank away from a traditional "bricks and mortar" structure to a more flexible, customer-centric environment.

He said NAB's contact centres were in an "old world" prior to the virtual contact centre rollout, citing capacity constraints, high real estate costs and ageing technology as reasons for change. Coupled with the bank's AccessNAB thin client application, Cronin said the platform could allow contact centre staff to work from home. "We haven't put anyone in a home agent site yet," Cronin told reporters. "It'll be a trial that the business will now come and talk about."

A new Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code- developed by the Communications Alliance (CA) and registered by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has come into effect.

Polaris Communications has announced the release of the Soundshield Wireless Headset – the world's first wireless headset designed specifically for contact centres.

The City of South Perth has gone live with a customer service solution for local government from global provider Kana Software.

Solving customer issues at their root cause is key to Hilti Australia being named a finalist for Excellence in Customer Service in the 2012 BRW Private Business Awards.

Hilti develops and manufactures products for the construction, mining and energy industries. The company has 22,000 customers in Australia, many in very remote locations.

Hilti has reduced common complaint areas by 50 per cent, and solves 80 per cent of customer issues within 24 hours to reduce downtime for customers.

"Many of our customers operate in the demanding conditions of the construction industry and depend on our products and services for their continued productivity," says Paul See, National Customer Service Manager, Hilti Australia.

"Downtime can cost customers thousands of dollars a day so the quality of our support is critical. However, customer service goes beyond solving the issue at the time and our team goes the extra mile to investigate the root cause," says Mr See.

Over the past 12 months, Hilti has focused on providing more customised service solutions to meet each customer's needs and more fully understand the cause and effect of their issues.

The 24-strong customer service team is split into two tiers, with all incoming calls answered by one of the dedicated inbound team who aim to resolve requests or issues on first contact. Complex cases are referred to a specialist problem-solving group.

"The benefit of the two levels of support helps Hilti funnel more serious issues into a smaller group, where it is easier to identify recurring problems," says Mr See.

When things go awry, such as slow or incorrect delivery of products to customers, Hilti doesn't stop at just getting the customer back up and running, but also works with suppliers and logistics partners to determine how the issues arose and how they can be fixed.

"There are times when our reputation is dependent on third party operators. We set customers' expectations on delivery standards, so we need to help our partners deliver on our promise," says Mr See. "Having customer service and logistics integrated together further simplifies the problem-solving," he says.

Hilti actively seeks information on customer satisfaction by commissioning external customer satisfaction surveys, conducting customer 'sensing' reviews and taking note of anecdotal feedback from the sales team in the field.

"Customer service is not just about dealing with complaints. We gather and analyse large amounts of information on our customers to ensure we understand their challenges and concerns and can improve our support service," says Mr See.

Delivering excellent customer service is not just a business target, but core to Hilti's commitment to excellence in every area of the business.

In 2012, Hilti was also recognised as an Aon Hewitt Best Employer for the second consecutive year.

"Our employees are passionate to work at Hilti and our customers can pick up the phone, whatever their concern, and know that we are willing to help," concludes Mr See.

Following on from the recent release of the Soundshield 4G Acoustic Safety device, Polaris Communications is proud to announce the release of the Soundshield Wireless™ Headset – the world's first wireless headset designed specifically for contact centres.

The name 'Soundshield' is synonymous with unsurpassed acoustic protection, so it's no surprise that the Soundshield Wireless Headset provides a level of acoustic safety not available in any other wireless headset. Just like the Soundshield 4G, it uses a two-pronged approach, protecting headset users from both long term hearing damage and acoustic shock which is caused by sudden and unexpected loud noises or acoustic shrieks.

In addition to providing the unique, reliable acoustic safety for headset users that Polaris is famous for, the Soundshield Wireless offers even more features to create a better overall communication experience. Wayne Guest, Polaris' Managing Director, explains: "We wanted to design a wireless headset that connects with the contact centre agents. Our aim was to create a headset that enables them to control their calls quickly, easily and intuitively; as well as provide them with a safe and comfortable headset experience. Our design also encompassed the needs of the contact centre managers and team leaders; providing them with quick and simple side-by-side or remote supervisor coaching or training."

With a heavy focus on 'the user experience', Polaris surveyed hundreds of contact centre workers and analysed their work practices in order to get a better understanding of what is important to them. This extensive research provided them with the tools to develop the intuitive user interface which is found in both the Soundshield Wireless Headset and Soundshield 4G Acoustic Protection device.

Polaris also recognised the importance of HD Wideband sound and ensuring that headset users experience a clearer, crisper and more intelligible sound through their headset. With telecommunications and PCs progressively switching over from narrowband to wideband sound, the Soundshield Wireless is designed with HD wideband sound quality up to 8kz, the widest wideband technology of any wireless headset. This allows for a much higher voice and audio quality.

While some contact centres use softphone telephony exclusively, others still use traditional desk-phones with the use of softphone applications a distant concept. However, most contact centres require some form of PC audio access whether it be for E-learning or even Quality Assurance Training. With this in mind, the Soundshield Wireless includes dual connectivity that enables headset users to easily switch between PC and Desk-phone.

"We believe that when it comes to wireless headsets, the Soundshield Wireless is in a league of its own. It provides contact centres with the 'total package', for both its contact centre agents and managers," comments Wayne Guest.

Going forward, Polaris will continue its development based on customer feedback; always striving to enhance the user experience and offer a contact centre product that will increase productivity while providing the contact centre agent with the best acoustic protection possible.

Townsville City Council (TCC) has won the category of 'Most Innovative Project' for the Government Contact Centre 2012 Summit Awards.

This win recognises their recent implementation of livepro® Knowledge Management into their Customer Service Centre (CSC) to streamline customer service processes and support business continuity.

The Award was announced last night at the Government Contact Centre Excellence Awards Gala Dinner held in Sydney and co-hosted by the CCMA.

The prestigious Government Contact Centre Awards recognise the achievements of contact centres and individuals who are at the cutting edge of the industry. The Most Innovative Project Award is for a project that has delivered technology or process improvements which have had a positive impact on customer service and the business at large.

Megan Leavy, Executive Manager Customer Service, Townsville City Council is delighted with the win. She describes some of the benefits the Townsville CSC has realised through this project:

"Since implementing livepro® there have been numerous positive impacts on the CSC business.

"One of the key impacts is the reduction in Average Handling Time (AHT) and on-hold time; our AHT is now down by an average of 8 seconds and on hold-time has decreased by an average of 12 seconds per call.

"livepro® has helped us simplify processes around complex service requests, reducing the amount of errors made by Customer Service Representatives. Reducing errors has made it easier for other Business Units to complete these service requests and thus helped strengthen the relationships between the CSC and other Business Units. Also, by providing basic training to the other Business Units, they now better understand the role of the CSC and are able to provide Customer Service Representatives with real-time updates and alerts directly through livepro®.

"Training time for new inductees has been reduced and further time and cost savings in this area are expected in the future. With livepro®, knowledge gaps can be easily identified; enabling targeted training for further cost savings and customer experience improvements.

"Finally, this project also supports TCC's disaster response capabilities; livepro® in the Cloud means that critical knowledge can be accessed anywhere via an internet connection and web browser, enabling CSC staff to work remotely or another Council to access the TCC knowledge in times of crises," explained Mrs. Leavy.

The livepro® team is thrilled TCC has won the 2012 Government Contact Centre Most Innovative Project Award.

A social media expert says Australian marketers need to stop treating sites like Twitter and Facebook as a contact centre and start seeing them as a sales tool.

Jeff Jordan, senior product manager for social media at Adobe told reporters the growth of interest in social media as a marketing and communications channel needed to be backed by a better understanding of what brands wanted to accomplish. He said companies needed to make the jump from seeing it as a way to deliver simple messages to being a fully-fledged revenue source.

"The first stage, which is the stage we are in currently, is to help social media marketing become a mature, robust, predictable ROI (return on investment) mechanism," Jordan said. "(We need to) take it from where it stands currently for most companies as a customer service arm, which is a valuable use for it, and turning into a revenue-generating marketing channel the same way paid search and display (advertising) and things like that are - tying all that social media marketing goodness back to revenue."

ComputerCorp has selected US-based CRM cloud service provider FreeCRM.com to provide 200 remote agents access to automate its sales force, customer service and field service technicians.

As well as providing sales force automation tools, deal pipeline tracking and reporting, tracking sales goals and commissions, the FreeCRM.com solution manages customer support, task management and events, call tracking and automated marketing. FreeCRM.com says the ability for field service reps, sales people and customer service to all use one integrated system raises business efficiency and ROI.

FreeCRM.com is one of the world's leading on-demand CRM providers for businesses worldwide. FreeCRM says the solution is available to any business wishing to automate their sales and customer support without the need for any special software.

Japan's Fujifilm Holdings has signed a definitive agreement to buy Australian customer service company Salmat's BPO division.

The BPO division encompasses Salmat Document Management Solutions, its 11 subsidiaries, as well as Salmat Asia Limited. Salmat said the BPO division would be "better suited to an owner with global reach and broader outsourcing ambition". The company said the divestment marked the beginning of a broader partnership with Fujifilm that would exploit the parties' geographies and services. "For Salmat, this is a potential opportunity to drive growth by bringing our customer communication services and solutions into the Asian market with a highly credible provider."

The deal, which is subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board, is expected to be completed in mid-October and includes an 18-month transition agreement. Salmat's business covers retail catalogues, door-to-door sales force, contact centres and a digital business built on a grab-bag of businesses (including the shopping portal Lasoo) acquired from the troubled Photon for $75m. Salmat said its traditional business was in a strong position because it occupied "leading market positions" and was protected by "high barriers to entry in major markets".

A German contact centre is offering frustrated people a new swearing hotline to blow off steam by abusing an operator at the other end.

The "Schimpf-los" ("swear away") service was created by two German entrepreneurs who realised everyday people need an outlet to release their pent-up frustrations. "With us you can blow off steam, no strings attached. We don't judge people who are angry," co-creator Ralf Schulte told reporters.

When callers find themselves lost for words, customer service operators goad them with provocations such as, "That's the third time I've heard that today - is that all you've got?" The service costs 1.49 euros (US$1.85) a minute.

Regional New Zealand's Hamilton Airport has introduced online booking for its car parking, making it the first regional airport in New Zealand to offer the service.

The airport is using Chauntry's Parkspace system, which allows it to offer customers the convenience of online booking without making additional investment in infrastructure or technology. Airport users can access the automated car park booking service directly from the airport's website.

The Chauntry system, supported by a dedicated customer service team, is also used by Auckland and Wellington airports, New Zealand's main international hubs. "We are extremely pleased to see this in operation at an airport such as Hamilton, because it demonstrates that regional airports with a clear focus on service and commercial growth can achieve their objectives with the right partners in place," said Chauntry CEO Theresa Hughes.

Indian outsourcer Servion Global Solutions says it plans to explore opportunities in China as part of its strategy to take its services in the market.

"We are looking at China," Servion CEO K Balakrishnan told reporters. Due to various reasons, including the language barrier, China, Hong Kong and Korea were also "tougher markets" for the company to enter, he said.

Noting that developed markets have become "saturated" in the customer service space, Balakrishnan said Servion has a presence in many developing countries in Asia Pacific region, apart from the US and Europe. "The Indian contribution is about less than 30% (of the company's revenue)," he said.

Interactive Intelligence has signed a purchase agreement to acquire Bay Bridge Decision Technologies, a U.S. supplier of contact centre forecasting, capacity planning and strategic analysis technology.

Bay Bridge's long-term forecasting and planning technology helps contact centres optimise delivery strategies, agent resources, and performance by getting the right number of agents, in the right place, at the right time, to deliver better service. "This acquisition enables us to bridge the gap between our basic workforce management features, and the advanced forecasting and planning capabilities in the Bay Bridge products, so we can now offer a true strategic planning solution for mid-size and large contact centers," said Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO, Dr. Donald E. Brown.

Bay Bridge is a privately-held company founded in 2000. Interactive Intelligence purchased the company in an all-cash transaction effective Aug. 1, 2012.

Japanese credit card company JCB International (JCBI) has set up the JCB Plaza Call Center to provide free travel support in multiple languages.

The new center provides services in English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese to all JCB card members on a 24/7 basis. The phoneline also offers travel related support, including hotel, restaurant, car rental reservations and show tickets, as well as lost/ stolen card support and other emergency support.

JCB cards are issued around the world in partnership with local banks and other financial institutions. Currently JCB cards are issued in 16 countries and territories with a total of about 77 million JCB card members including 11 million outside Japan, primarily in China, Korea and Taiwan, with growth rates in the double digits over the past five years.

KANA Software this week launched its KANA Express multi-channel web customer service solution aimed at mid-sized businesses.

KANA Express offers comprehensive and end-to-end customer service and interaction management capabilities delivered via the cloud using a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. "Mid-market companies must match or exceed the level of customer engagement of their enterprise peers to stay competitive and relevant, yet are especially challenged in doing so due to smaller budgets and IT staffing," said James Norwood, CMO for KANA. "KANA Express offers exceptional multi-channel web customer service functionality with the requisite reliability, ease of use, proven low total cost of ownership (TCO), and rapid return on investment that only the cloud can offer, enabling mid-sized businesses to successfully execute on their customer experience strategies."

A single, integrated platform ensuring consistent customer service across all channels including phone, email, live and automated chat, web self-service, and social media, KANA Express unifies customer contact records and knowledge resources and automatically delivers contextual help and information when and where it is needed. The solution is scalable to handle hundreds of thousands of transactions a day, even for businesses with as few as 20 call center agents.

Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes says customer service is still an important part of the retail business and admitted he made a mistake when he slashed staff numbers to cut costs.

Over the past few years, he said, Myer had increased staff numbers and implemented more training to improve customer service. Brookes also predicts traditional big retailers will embrace internet service and retailing to the extent that they will the top 10 shopping sites within five years.

"If we produce a list in three years of the top ten internet sites in Australia, it will be dominated by Myer, DJs (David Jones), Kmart, Target, the Just Group, the existing group of retailers" he said. Brookes said Australian retailers had been slow to move into online shopping, due partly to the higher costs involved in delivering goods in a geographically large country with a relatively small population.

Unified communications company NSC Group has been selected by NICE Systems to become the contact centre IT company's first platinum partner in Australia.

NSC MD Craig Neil said the decision to partner with NICE was driven by the needs of customers. NICE, develops technology that helps analyse interactions and transactions in the contact centre space.

The NICE SmartCenter portfolio includes workforce management, call recording, customer feedback and quality management applications, which are designed to help contact centres enhance agent productivity and performance, bolster inbound sales revenue and strengthen customer loyalty. "There's a lot more to it than simply installing the software," Neil said. "And this is why NSC's consulting-led approach to providing solutions for our customers is such a good fit with NICE.

The New Zealand Labour Party says massive redundancies at the Internal Revenue Department have taken a huge toll on frontline customer service.

"The IRD plays a critical role in maintaining the overall health of the economy and yet we've got people waiting for hours to have their calls answered, with many giving up completely," Labour's State Services spokesperson Chris Hipkins said. "In the past four years the IRD has dished out over $31 million in redundancy payments. Clearly that's having an impact on its customer service record, particularly in the regions."

Hipkins said statistics show that people are waiting for two and a half hours just to have their phone calls answered by the IRD's contact centre. "Increasing numbers of Kiwis are getting so frustrated they're just giving up completely. Last year over one million people hung up before their call had been answered. A further 260,000 gave up after being placed on hold."

Online foreign exchange trading service OANDA Asia Pacific will expand its operations in Singapore to provide customer support to its increasing customer base.

OANDA Asia Pacific has tripled its operations in Singapore in the last two years and the new office marks four years of operation in the city state. "OANDA is investing in our Singapore and Asia operations to respond to the market needs," said OANDA Asia Pacific's Marion Lang.

OANDA has tripled its operations in Singapore since 2010, which the company attributes to strong client relationships that stem from the company's commitment to providing outstanding customer service. "We are known for our technology and our commitment to transparency in the marketplace, which we feel is essential for helping traders understand the markets better and trade with more confidence," OANDA's Stuart McPhee said.

Officials at the Philippines Labor and Employment Department (PLE) say the defeat of the United States Call Center Worker and Protection Act is a boon for the country's BPO sector.

The act would have prohibited US companies from setting up contact centers in foreign countries. PLE secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday said the defeat at act is a welcome development that augurs well for the Philippine's burgeoning business process sector.

"While we have been vigilant and proactive in implementing measures that could mitigate the impact of the legislative proposal had it been pushed into a law, the US Senate decision is very much welcomed news," Baldoz said. "This means that more BPO companies can expand their businesses in the Philippines and generate the much needed employment for our local workforce."

Cloud CRM company Rackspace Hosting has upped its local customer service with the launch of its first Australian datacentre in Sydney to offer "Fanatical Support" to the US company's ongoing growth in Australia.

Rackspace says it has its own global benchmark for tailored customer support levels. Its customer service experience called Fanatical Support, provides personalised service 24/7, 365 days a year. "Our local customers have learnt that Rackspace is synonymous with the latest in innovative cloud hosting solutions, but the key success driver that really sets us apart from the competition is our focus on service by providing customers with Fanatical Support."

The datacentre will allow Rackspace to offer local dedicated hosting and managed solutions to larger IT contracts. It will also serve as a launch pad for Rackspace's own, OpenStack-based Open Cloud platform, which is also expected to launch into the local market. Rackspace entered the ANZ market in 2009 and has been building a significant customer base since.

South Korean electronics company Samsung will increase its face-to-face service in Australia with the opening of its Australian experience store in Sydney.

The store, to be operated by Australasian Mobile Telecommunications Group (AMT), will open this week at 450 George Street in Sydney, near Apple's Australian flagship store at 367 George Street. The store is to be the first of many planned by Samsung according to a job advertisement on the Seek website.

The Seek job ad says Australian Retail Management Services has teamed up with Samsung to open and manage a number of new stores in Australia. "We currently have full-time customer service and sales opportunities available in our brand new Samsung store located in Sydney CBD." Australian Retail Management Services is a subsidiary of AMT.

Facebook and Twitter are South Korea's favourite online service tools according to a survey.

The eMarketer survey found Facebook was nearly a unanimous choice for customer engagement among South Korean companies with about 90.8% using it. Twitter was also popular, ranking second with 77.5% of companies engaging in microblog marketing.

eMarketer said that as mobile web usage in Korea continues to rise, that this tendency in social media marketing will only continue. Blogs and YouTube were next with 65.8% and 35.8%. The survey suggests most companies (67.5%) are using social media to "improve customer communications and relationships."

Regional telco specialist Southern Phone has beefed up its customer service technology with Noble Systems' ShiftTrack workforce management.

Established in 2002, Southern Phone is owned by 41 local councils as nationwide provider of mobile, home and business telephone and Internet services. "Providing excellent customer service means ensuring we have the right personnel in place at the right time to serve the needs of our customers," Southern Phone operations manager Jenny Allen said. "That's why we chose to deploy the Noble ShiftTrack WFM solution. It allows us to accurately forecast call volumes, predict how many staff we require to meet our service levels and schedule staff with matched skills at each location."

Noble says ShiftTrack WFM provides predictive and analytical features that allow the telecommunications provider to maximise results from their team of customer contact specialists. "Southern Phone chose to work with us not only for the effectiveness of our product, but also for our commitment to support their long-term growth," said Ashley Clayton, head of sales for Noble Systems' Asia Pacific region. "We're excited to serve a company designed to meet the telecommunications needs of Australia's regional population."

Australian telco Telstra has announced plans send hundreds of customer service roles from Australia to Asia.

Telstra says it will cut more than 650 jobs as it prepares to shut down two contact centers and consolidates a range of roles into other existing centers. More than half of the jobs are being sent offshore, mostly to the Philippines.

Telstra has now cut more than 1,000 jobs this year and the company cannot guarantee no more cuts will be made. "We operate in a fast moving, highly competitive market," a Telstra spokeswoman said. "To keep pace with this changing environment and remain competitive, like every business we're constantly reviewing the way we work to identify opportunities to improve customer service and simplify our business."

Australian telco Telstra has announced plans send hundreds of customer service roles from Australia to Asia.

Telstra says it will shut contact centres Melbourne, Sydney, Lismore and Townsville, with services to be taken up by existing centres. Overall, the telco is cutting 422 Telstra jobs, along with a further 229 outsourced roles as it consolidates a range of roles. More than half of the jobs are being sent offshore, mostly to the Philippines.

"We operate in a fast moving, highly competitive market," a Telstra spokeswoman said. "To keep pace with this changing environment and remain competitive, like every business we're constantly reviewing the way we work to identify opportunities to improve customer service and simplify our business."

The Shanghai subsidiary of Japanese outsourcer transcosmos Marketing Service has been selected as China's Best Customer Service Company for 2011-2012.

The award evaluation, conducted by the China Services Trade Association customer service committee, is designed to select the most outstanding company in all levels of customer service. Because the winning company is selected through a rigorous and detailed investigation and evaluation process, this has become the current accreditation standard for measuring the customer service level of businesses.

In the course of the investigation performed for the selection, challenges of the subject companies are identified and the important scientific basis for improving service quality is provided to them, and therefore many companies participate as a means to detect problems and improve services. Since the establishment of transcosmos China in 2006, it has developed businesses in the rapidly expanding Chinese market including contact center services for customer support and internet marketing services, and it is now providing services for many global businesses.

America's Virtual Hold Technology has demonstrated a new solution to enable customers to request a callback from customer service through internet-connected smartphones, televisions and other devices at the Genesys G-Force Asia Pacific conference in Sydney.

VHT's Conversation Bridge is a multichannel callback solution that launches callback requests to connect customers with live-service when they have reached a self-service dead end. The Conversation Bridge blends automated support with the human touch by offering access to live agents when customers are contacting them through channels such as mobile apps, social media and websites using devices such as smartphones, internet-enabled televisions, game consoles and store kiosks.

"Today's demonstration shows that companies can offer an easy and efficient way to satisfy customers who have tried to help themselves but have run into an obstacle and require human assistance," VHT's Robert Brazier said. "Whether your customers are trying to make a purchase or reservation, solve a problem or manage an account, there's no reason to leave them stranded and frustrated in a self-service dead end, no matter what channel they are using. Providing callback with context is the solution."

Copying and printing specialist Xerox Corporation is in the process of renaming Indian ACS (Affiliated Computer Services) business to Xerox Services.

US-based Xerox has carried out the name change in the North America and is in the process of doing the same in other markets across the globe. ACS currently has 75,000 people globally of which around 10,000 are in India.

Three years after acquiring ACS for, Xerox is now aggressively integrating the services business. In its global marketing and branding communication, ACS is already being referred to as Xerox Services.

Airlines PNG has recruited a new Airports Manager to implement a new customer service strategy for the carrier.

In a statement, Airlines PNG said Mike Wells says he has over 30 years airport management experience with Qantas and Virgin Australia in customer service and business improvement. It says Port Moresby, Lae, Mt Hagen and Brisbane Airports are key sites for the airline to address its service strategy.

Wells' brief will be to build and develop world class customer service and customer support programs at the airports. These programs will be rolled out to other ports in the airline's network, which has been recently expanded.

The Australian tourism industry has been encouraged to target early retirees, Chinese students and indigenous Australians as employees in a bid to boost often-criticised service standards.

"You have a pool of Australians out there who are work ready - people who have retired early and the share market is down," said Federal Tourism Minister Martin Ferguson. "We have to start to think about employing these people in a variety of positions."

Ferguson also wants to see a greater focus on indigenous tourism in Australia, with subsidies for the training and employment of indigenous people. And with China as the fastest-growing market for Australian tourism, Ferguson also sees an opportunity to recruit Chinese students living in Australia, who are permitted to work up to 20 hours a week as part of their visa conditions.

Welfare agency Centrelink has deployed more than 700 extra service staff after experiencing a big increase in waiting times.

Centrelink receives around 150,000 calls each day, roughly 38 million a year, a figure that has jumped by seven million a year in the last eight years. Human Services Minister Kim Carr said increased demand comes as a result of changes in economic conditions, changes to the social security system, and the growing complexity of calls.

"I have asked the Department to redeploy staff to call centre activities to meet increased waiting times, and deal with peak demand," Carr said. "The government secured the jobs of 600 skilled call centre staff with an additional $206 million in the last Budget. To deal with peak time this year Centrelink put on an additional 720 positions since March. I have now asked them to go further to address the unprecedented demand for assistance," he said.

China's Biostar Pharmaceuticals, will set up a contact center as its new business to customer sales platform.

The company plans to open, staff and equip a customer service center in the city of Xianyang in the next 30 days. Operators assigned to the center are all professionally trained sales staff and will be mainly responsible for answering customer calls and accepting orders.

"The establishment of the call center adds a new dimension to our sales model as it is an innovative measure in the PRC (People's Republic of China) pharmaceutical industry," said Biostar CEO Ronghua Wang. "The call center will inform customers about drug promotions, introduce new drugs, take and handle order fulfillment. The staff will also contact customers as the refill date approaches."

A social media expert says Australian marketers need to stop treating sites like Twitter and Facebook as a contact centre and start seeing them as a sales tool.

Jeff Jordan, senior product manager for social media at Adobe told reporters the growth of interest in social media as a marketing and communications channel needed to be backed by a better understanding of what brands wanted to accomplish. He said companies needed to make the jump from seeing it as a way to deliver simple messages to being a fully-fledged revenue source.

"The first stage, which is the stage we are in currently, is to help social media marketing become a mature, robust, predictable ROI (return on investment) mechanism," Jordan said. "(We need to) take it from where it stands currently for most companies as a customer service arm, which is a valuable use for it, and turning into a revenue-generating marketing channel the same way paid search and display (advertising) and things like that are - tying all that social media marketing goodness back to revenue."

Contact centre industry veteran Fiona Keough has been appointed the CEO of industry association the ATA.

In her time as interim ATA CEO, Keough has guided the association through a challenging four months, impressing the ATA Board with her capacity to lead, inspire and innovate. "The board needed to adopt a process in order to appoint the next CEO of the ATA and, on this basis, consulted with a number of industry recruitment specialists, outlining the key attributes and competencies the role required," acting ATA chairman Malcolm Angell said.

"We initially appointed Fiona to assist us while we went through our process. To say she has impressed the board with her performance would be an understatement," Angell said. In accepting the role, Fiona Keough said the ATA board and national office, in consultation with the state chapters, have laid the foundation for the ATA's future growth and development. "I can't wait to implement those plans and take the organisation to new levels of membership, success and leadership," she said.

Contact centre industry veteran Fiona Keough has been appointed the CEO of industry association the ATA.

In her time as interim ATA CEO, Keough has guided the association through a challenging four months, impressing the ATA Board with her capacity to lead, inspire and innovate. "The board needed to adopt a process in order to appoint the next CEO of the ATA and, on this basis, consulted with a number of industry recruitment specialists, outlining the key attributes and competencies the role required," acting ATA chairman Malcolm Angell said.

"We initially appointed Fiona to assist us while we went through our process. To say she has impressed the board with her performance would be an understatement," Angell said. In accepting the role, Fiona Keough said the ATA board and national office, in consultation with the state chapters, have laid the foundation for the ATA's future growth and development. "I can't wait to implement those plans and take the organisation to new levels of membership, success and leadership," she said.

A German contact centre is offering frustrated people a new swearing hotline to blow off steam by abusing an operator at the other end.

The "Schimpf-los" ("swear away") service was created by two German entrepreneurs who realised everyday people need an outlet to release their pent-up frustrations. "With us you can blow off steam, no strings attached. We don't judge people who are angry," co-creator Ralf Schulte told reporters.

When callers find themselves lost for words, customer service operators goad them with provocations such as, "That's the third time I've heard that today - is that all you've got?" The service costs 1.49 euros (US$1.85) a minute.

Regional New Zealand's Hamilton Airport has introduced online booking for its car parking, making it the first regional airport in New Zealand to offer the service.

The airport is using Chauntry's Parkspace system, which allows it to offer customers the convenience of online booking without making additional investment in infrastructure or technology. Airport users can access the automated car park booking service directly from the airport's website.

The Chauntry system, supported by a dedicated customer service team, is also used by Auckland and Wellington airports, New Zealand's main international hubs. "We are extremely pleased to see this in operation at an airport such as Hamilton, because it demonstrates that regional airports with a clear focus on service and commercial growth can achieve their objectives with the right partners in place," said Chauntry CEO Theresa Hughes.

Interactive Intelligence has signed a purchase agreement to acquire Bay Bridge Decision Technologies, a U.S. supplier of contact centre forecasting, capacity planning and strategic analysis technology.

Bay Bridge's long-term forecasting and planning technology helps contact centres optimise delivery strategies, agent resources, and performance by getting the right number of agents, in the right place, at the right time, to deliver better service. "This acquisition enables us to bridge the gap between our basic workforce management features, and the advanced forecasting and planning capabilities in the Bay Bridge products, so we can now offer a true strategic planning solution for mid-size and large contact centers," said Interactive Intelligence founder and CEO, Dr. Donald E. Brown.

Bay Bridge is a privately-held company founded in 2000. Interactive Intelligence purchased the company in an all-cash transaction effective Aug. 1, 2012.

Australian telco and travel customers are experiencing longer than usual call waiting times due to the floods in the Philippines capital Manila.

Telstra, iiNet, TPG and Jetstar all use Manila-based contact centres and have had to reroute calls elsewhere as the deadly flooding and have prevented staff from getting to work. Almost two weeks of heavy rain triggered the flooding which has displaced some 500,000 people who have piled in to 500 evacuation centres.

Power, water and communications have been restored as floodwaters started to recede, but now residents face the task of fixing their houses. "Some of the staff up there have had difficulty in getting to work, as a result of flooding, so we have had to reroute traffic to other centres and make changes to rosters," said iiNet's Steve Dalby. "It's had a temporary impact, but I believe it is largely behind us now."

Despite reports of delays and closures, the Contact Centers Association of the Philippines (CCAP), says customer service operations were barely disrupted floods in Metro Manila last week.

"Operations were normal as of Wednesday. Although it was not 100% normal, operations were still ongoing," CCAP president Jojo J. Uligan told reporters. He added that companies who encountered problem with manpower, channeled calls to other locations that are not affected by the flood.

Uligan said each contact center company had a preparedness plan in place in case of calamities. "We notified our business partners around the world so they could take necessary steps to assist the staffing situation," Mr. Rizzo added. "We routed calls to other locations when possible."

Australian consumers are embracing mobile banking as increasing numbers make use of customer service apps.

Westpac has more than 1.4 million customers using its mobile banking services, according to News Limited, while National Australia Bank has recorded more than 1 million app downloads. Now mobile phones account for 36% of NAB's 900,000 daily internet banking log-ins. ANZ has 700,000 registered users of its goMoney iPhone app, which it launched in 2010. It will release an Android goMoney app this month.

St George Bank joined Commonwealth Bank by launching a Pay to Mobile application last month that lets consumers send money to a person by using their mobile phone number. Mobile banking usage at St George Bank, along with its fellow Westpac subsidiaries BankSA and Bank of Melbourne, is growing at 10% per month, with customers logging in 4 million times a month via their phones.

US mobile technology company Motorola Solutions has beefed up its Australia customer service with a new Innovation Centre in Melbourne.

Motorola Solutions says the centre will be a place where its partners, software developers and customers can access a range of its current and upcoming technologies. The goal is to spark collaboration and discovery for business and government, on how these solutions can be deployed to benefit them.

Motorola Solutions says the Innovation Centre would enable its partners and customers to tap into Motorola's global investment in Research and Development of US$1billion. Motorola will showcase its public safety and retail solutions at the centre, including a future of policing augmented by sharing real time voice and video.

Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes says customer service is still an important part of the retail business and admitted he made a mistake when he slashed staff numbers to cut costs.

Over the past few years, he said, Myer had increased staff numbers and implemented more training to improve customer service. Brookes also predicts traditional big retailers will embrace internet service and retailing to the extent that they will the top 10 shopping sites within five years.

"If we produce a list in three years of the top ten internet sites in Australia, it will be dominated by Myer, DJs (David Jones), Kmart, Target, the Just Group, the existing group of retailers" he said. Brookes said Australian retailers had been slow to move into online shopping, due partly to the higher costs involved in delivering goods in a geographically large country with a relatively small population.

New Zealand's Inland Revenue Department (IRD) is celebrating the success of its new voice recognition technology.

The IRD last week issued a statement which said that over 400,000 taxpayers in New Zealand have already signed up and begun using the Department's voice recognition system Voice ID. The new Voice ID system allows taxpayers to access their accounts by telephone with the IRD by answering a series of simple questions over the telephone instead of entering a traditional pin number.

Every individual's voice is unique like a fingerprint, meaning that that the Voice ID system is extremely secure. The Voice ID system has been operating since November 2011, and now more taxpayers using Voice than the traditional PIN system, and the feedback from individuals has been largely positive.

The New Zealand Labour Party says massive redundancies at the Internal Revenue Department have taken a huge toll on frontline customer service.

"The IRD plays a critical role in maintaining the overall health of the economy and yet we've got people waiting for hours to have their calls answered, with many giving up completely," Labour's State Services spokesperson Chris Hipkins said. "In the past four years the IRD has dished out over $31 million in redundancy payments. Clearly that's having an impact on its customer service record, particularly in the regions."

Hipkins said statistics show that people are waiting for two and a half hours just to have their phone calls answered by the IRD's contact centre. "Increasing numbers of Kiwis are getting so frustrated they're just giving up completely. Last year over one million people hung up before their call had been answered. A further 260,000 gave up after being placed on hold."

South Korean electronics company Samsung will increase its face-to-face service in Australia with the opening of its Australian experience store in Sydney.

The store, to be operated by Australasian Mobile Telecommunications Group (AMT), will open this week at 450 George Street in Sydney, near Apple's Australian flagship store at 367 George Street. The store is to be the first of many planned by Samsung according to a job advertisement on the Seek website.

The Seek job ad says Australian Retail Management Services has teamed up with Samsung to open and manage a number of new stores in Australia. "We currently have full-time customer service and sales opportunities available in our brand new Samsung store located in Sydney CBD." Australian Retail Management Services is a subsidiary of AMT.

Telstra's feat of signing 1.6 million new mobile customers in 2012 financial year has been attributed to the telco's customer service strategy.

The new emphasis on customer service has made Telstra "less the ogre or monopolist that it used to be seen as some years ago," Gartner analyst Geoff Johnson told reporters. BuddeComm analyst Paul Budde said that the boost in Telstra customers came with a cost as the company spent $1 billion on its customer service campaign to win back customers and is making less money per customer than in the past.

"The company has indicated that (its customer service) campaign is over and that they are increasing mobile charges obviously with the aim to increase their profit margin," Budde said. "It will be interesting to see how that will pan out."

US LED technology developer Luminus Devices has opened a support office in Taiwan in response to growing demand in the Asian market.

The office offers sales support, customer service, field application engineering, and operational engineering to Luminus' key customers, suppliers and contract manufacturing partners in Asia. The Taoyuan County facility is expected to be responsible for managing Luminus' current relationships and future business opportunities in display, entertainment and specialty lighting vertical markets across Asia.

"We have seen our business in Asia grow dramatically over the past few years in each of our vertical market segments," said CEO Keith T. S. Ward. "The Taiwan office is central to Asia, which is the hotspot for LED technology and manufacturing, and it will only enhance our ability to provide world class innovative solutions for our customers."

Virgin Holidays returned its trade calls from India to the UK as part of changes to its agency support and to help it exploit an expected post-Olympics tourism bounce.

The change in policy comes amid a number of improvements to the Virgin trade website vhols4agents.co.uk this month. Virgin said the initial shift of calls to Indian had been a bone of contention and the decision to use the UK customer service team would be well received.

Virgin is convinced many holidaymakers still intend to travel this year and that the end of the London Olympics will prompt a rash of bookings. It said the call center move would help speed up response times and the quality of its service.

US cloud computing company Akamai Technologies has expanded its Asia Pacific customer service with new offices in Taipei, Taiwan and Melbourne, Australia.

The two new offices will allow the company to better service existing customers in those regions and expand its footprint within the fast-growing APac market. Akamai now has 36 regional offices around the world providing sales, services and support for its global customer base.

In addition, Akamai has strengthened its regional leadership team with the recruitment of new country managers in Japan and Korea. Akamai serves over two dozen customers in Taiwan including Eva Airways and SNSplus, Inc. The opening of a Melbourne office and investment in local staff also demonstrates the company's commitment to growing its presence in Australia in the years ahead. Akamai has an existing office in Sydney.

The Asia Pacific region continues to soar as the preferred offshore contact center destination, according to global consultancy Frost & Sullivan.

In a statement ahead of an analyst briefing on the Asia Pacific market for contact center solution providers in Singapore later this month, Frost & Sullivan said intensifying focus on quality customer service has also raised the interest of domestic enterprises across Asia Pacific.

"To meet rising customer demand, the region recorded a 9.7% growth in contact center seats ... in 2011. This in turn raised investments in contact center applications," Frost & Sullivan said. "In an increasingly competitive market, organisations in the region started to leverage on customer service as key differentiator. Such focus helped investment on the advanced features/capabilities to be added on contact centers in 2011."

The Beijing Capital International Airport has launched a new customer service hotline with access guaranteed even under extreme weather conditions.

The new hotline has expanded handling capacities so that fewer callers will have to wait when the line is engaged. It will offer more customer-friendly services, such as flight timetables, lost and found enquiries and special arrangements for vulnerable people such as seniors and pregnant women.

The previous service line, which opened in 2006, has attracted complaints for long waiting times and difficulties accessing it during peak periods. The line answered an average of 25,000 calls a day in 2011, with a peak of 34,100 calls a day.

Bell Helicopter and the Cessna Aircraft Company have expanded their Asian customer service by opening a new regional service center in Singapore.

The new facility offers customers a one-stop shop for repair, completion, fulfillment, maintenance and customisation solutions. "The grand opening of our Asia Pacific service center brings to life a vision of providing exceptional support to our current and future customers in this important growth region," said Bell Helicopter CEO John L. Garrison.

Bell Helicopter and Cessna envision the center as a regional hub for response to customer needs in Asia Pacific. "Over the years Bell Helicopter and Cessna have grown into global companies," Garrison said. "We've accomplished this by successfully gearing our operations to serve a diverse and expanding customer base in addition to providing innovative, affordable mission solutions tailored to our local customers.

The International Standard for Service Excellence (TISSE 2012) will be available to Indian organisations for the first time later this month.

TISSE is recognised as the global quality mark in West Asia and more recently has begun to be adopted in Asia, America, Australia and Europe. It is developed and governed by the UK's International Customer Service Institute (TICSI).

Gurgaon-based consulting firm Hexagon is the exclusive implementation partner of TICSI, UK for India, while their Certification Partner for the final audit leg is the British Standards Institution (BSI, India). The third party certification from BSI ensures that there is no conflict of interest and enhances the credibility of the standard and its implementation, Hexagon claimed. TISSE ensures that organisations will be in a better position to provide a higher level of customer service along with effective feedback management to monitor all of the communication channels including social media which are under the organisation's control.

Japan's Nippon Life plans to bring the practice of post-sales services to the Indian insurance industry through a partnership with local firm Reliance Life.

Nippon Life Insurance president Yoshinobu Tsutsui told reporters customer service activities make for a key element of the company's insurance business in Japan and it would look to reciprocate the same in India. Post-sales service is a widely prevalent practice in a host of consumer-focussed businesses, including consumer goods and home appliances, and involves a continued relationship between the company and its customers through maintenance and advice-like offerings for years after the actual sale.

Post-sales services are not available in the Indian insurance industry, although some other financial services segments like banking do offer such offerings in form of financial advisory services for certain customers. "We make it a rule (in Japan) that all our sales people visit every customer at least once a year periodically," Tsutsui said, adding that such visits also help in selling new products to the existing customers and in acquiring new clients.

US-based CRM company Pegasystems is targeting Asia as a major area of growth as the region continues to build its customer service offerings.

Pegasystems India VP Suman Reddy Eadunuri told reporters the company has been looking at countries like China, Japan and Thailand in the Asia-Pacific region for growth, with India as its natural next step. "Though India also throws up an opportunity, we still don't have a full-fledged sales team here," he said, adding the company will likely offer a dedicated team chasing Indian clients by 2013.

Eadunurisaid Pegasystems has been "delaying its India focus with a plan" and is now setting its sights on government projects in India. The company recently expanded its Hyderabad facility to accommodate close to 250 people, taking its total employee count in India to 501.

The Philippines presidential palace has advised that contact center service agents cannot be made to go to work amid heavy monsoon rains that have been battering Manila.

"If your employer insists that you go to work, they must be able: (1) to guarantee your safety and (2) pay extra for your attendance," said Abigail Valte a spokesperson at Malacanan Palace, the official presidential residence. Valte was reacting to reports saying that some BPO companies were "forcing" their employees to report to work despite floods in Metro Manila.

The rains have suspended work in several outsourcing centers as the rains inundated many parts of the region. Benedict Hernandez, president of the Business Process Association of the Philippines, agreed with Valte's position, saying the BPO workers can always decide to skip work should circumstances not allow them to report to their offices. However, he said that there are critical services that need to be up and running even at the height of disasters, in which case companies have the discretion to discontinue operations.

Philippine customer service company SPi Global has earned a spot among the world's top 100 outsourcing companies for the 7th consecutive year.

The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP), the global standard-setting organisation and advocate for the outsourcing profession, has recognised SPi Global for excellence in its 2012 Global Outsourcing 100 list. "Being in this prestigious list for seven consecutive years is proof of our long-term commitment to excellence," said SPi Global President and CEO Maulik Parekh.

"SPi Global was cited for its demonstrated capabilities in the areas of customer engagement, company, best practices, employee management, and executive leadership. This recognition belongs to our employees who worked so hard to maintain our enviable standing in the industry and to our client partners who have entrusted us with value-add processes in transforming their business." The 2012 Global Outsourcing 100 recognises the world's best outsourcing service providers. The rankings are based on applications received and evaluated by an independent judging panel organised by IAOP.

The State Bank of India (SBI) is diversifying its customer service in remote areas with the opening of 56 "ultra small branches" in the country's north east.

The ultra small branch (USB) is a new concept where customer service agents operate with devices like laptops while accessing the internet or mobile software along with photograph and fingerprint bio-metric devices to open accounts. With this new system in place, an official of an SBI Link Branch can visit these outlets once a week at a designated day and time to process existing accounts, service queries and create awareness of the bank's different services and products.

SBI has plans to complete 100 USBs in the coming months and to convert its customer service points in a phased manner in the current financial year. The aim is to include the vast section of society within the banking services fold with at least one savings deposit account, credit linkage, remittance facility and insurance products.

American outsourcer TelVerse Solutions has launched a new customer service center in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.

The contact center will offer back office, voice, and knowledge process outsourcing services to clients primarily from the United States and Europe. TelVerse said the market advantage for Nepal over India and the Philippines includes its ability to provide the same world-class technical infrastructure that top BPO companies provide, as well as very neutral English accents, allowing for excellent customer service to English speaking countries.

"It is time for a new market to open in the BPO sector and the current market saturation in the Philippines and India is paving the way for the TelVerse value proposition," said TelVerse CEO Ryan Cole. "After much market research, we found that Kathmandu, Nepal, is the diamond in the rough we had been searching for."

Senior marketers from across the Asia-Pacific are meeting in Singapore this week to discuss the findings of a new study on how companies can engage with customers in a more personal and relevant way via big data analytics.

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, which represents more than 6,000 senior marketers in more than 110 countries, teamed with analytics software company SAS to assess the state of customer intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region. The report "Improve Every Marketing Move," found when it comes to improving the customer experience through better market listening, responsiveness, and leveraging of data and actionable insights, most of the region’s senior marketers felt they were not there yet, but working toward it.

Marketers report being overwhelmed by growing volumes of customer data emanating from research, retail, Internet, social media, financial, company help desks/call centers, and internal line of business sources. But the resulting data is now offering them new ways to improve the customer experience, increase satisfaction, engender loyalty, and be more responsive to the needs and requirements of their different customer segments.

Apple stores in China are using a reservation system for customers wanting to buy its newest iPad in a bid to avoid the consumer reaction to the launch of its 4S iPhone.

Irate customer threw eggs at a Beijing store, while hundreds of others left disappointed after failing to buy the new phone. This time customers needed to make a reservation between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. local time to buy the new iPad.

The sales approach contrasts with previous launches, when customers would wait in line at Apple stores to buy the devices on launch day. In the past, massive lines of people, numbering in the hundreds, would extend outside the stores, with customers hoping Apple would have enough supplies to meet the demand.

Australian Stock Exchange company ASX Limited says it experienced a 45-minute wait on a help desk line when its trading system crashed on October 27.

As part of the regular supervision reports the Australian Securities & Investments Commission produces on the ASX, it was revealed that when the ASX system failed just after trading opened at 10.05am, it called service provider NASDAQ-OMX's overseas help desk. But "while contact with NOMX was initiated within 15 minutes of the incident occurring, it took over 45 minutes for a NOMX support person with a requisite understanding of the trading system's underlying code . . . to be brought in to assist", the report said.

The help desk is understood to have been either in New York or Stockholm. The outage ended up lasting four hours on what was also an options expiry day, causing extra difficulty. In its report, ASIC said it had asked the ASX to make sure its service provider had an office in Australia to shorten the response time.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) hopes to improve customer service and efficiency with new Sage ERP Accpac and Sage CRM solutions.

The integrated software is being used to manage the AGPC's substantial annual budget and will contain all data relating to corporate customer sales and sponsorship relationships. It has replaced separate financial and customer relationship management (CRM) packages, and numerous independent spreadsheets.

The AGPC is the statutory authority responsible for both the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, and the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. As a government agency, "corporate customer data is crucial as the corporation derives a significant proportion of revenue from the sale of corporate entertainment packages and corporate sponsorships for each event."

A team from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) will visit India later this year to evaluate standards of Indian customer service and IT providers amid their growing role in overseeing functions for the country's largest four banks.

An APRA spokesman told the Australian Financial Review that all new and existing outsourcing arrangements must adhere to Prudential Standard CPS 231, which came into force on July 1, and ensure that APRA has access to the offshore operations relevant to all Australian lenders. According to the report by the Australian Financial Review, the team will assess the operations of companies that outsource for the financial services players, the Indian operations of other multinational IT suppliers, and the ring-fenced operations of Australian institutions, such as ANZ Banking Group.

The APRA team will travel to India in the final quarter of 2012 under the leadership of the head of IT risk, David Pegrem. Commonwealth Bank of Australia technology chief Michael Harte said CBA had been involved in outsourcing and off-shoring activities for more than 14 years, and that APRA's wish to monitor the situation on the ground should be applauded.

Consumer electronics company Bush Australia has outsourced its warranty after-market service business in Australia to Dutch company Teleplan.

Teleplan has developed a centralised service solution for Bush Australia which will be fulfilled by Teleplan's operations in Sydney. The in-warranty service solution encompasses customer contact centres, logistics, swaps, refurbishment and repair.

Teleplan said Bush Australia realised its customer satisfaction can be improved through its after-market services and chose Teleplan because of its track record with leading manufacturers of electronics. "We understand our customers' needs and look forward to provide a pleasing service in the future. Teleplan will play a key role in this process as our newly selected service partner", Bush Australia MD Daniel Todd said.

The Chinese contact centre market is expected to overtake Australia as Asia Pacific's second most lucrative industry by 2017.

The Chinese market reported a total revenue of US$116.8 million in 2010 and will be worth US$255 million by 2017. Much of the revenue over the next three years will come from system upgrading and expansion activities by existing customers.

Lu Shui Shan of consultants Frost & Sullivan said another driver for growth in China is the increasing awareness and adoption rate of advanced applications such as work force management, speech technology and other multi-media applications. Also, the increasing demand of other unified communications solutions will drive the market in the long run, while, local vendors use relatively low pricing to attract a larger number of customers.

Chinese telco China Unicom has announced plans to build its China-ASEAN regional information communication center and regional headquarters in Nanning.

The new Nanning headquarters will include a southwestern regional service outsourcing contact center; an international comprehensive communication hub; a regional international communications service gateway; an international direct data channel; and a southwestern regional IDC and cloud computing center.

The new facility will reportedly be China Unicom's fourth international communications service gateway following those in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. It is also a special regional international communications service gateway targeting the ten countries of Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Fairfax newspapers group reportedly plans to outsource some customer service operations as part of its cost cutting strategy.

The Crikey.com news website reports that Fairfax will put some of its inbound and outbound customer service operations out to tender later this month. While Fairfax has not revealed which teams' tasks will be outsourced, Crikey says it's clear some contact centre staff will lose their jobs.

Fairfax has announced it will cut 1,900 jobs as part of a restructure designed to address falling revenue in the traditional media industry. Some 60% of the job cuts are expected to come from outside the company's editorial and printing press employees.

Foreign travelers have a very mixed view of Australians and their service, according to advertising and brand specialist Russel Howcroft.

Howcroft chief executive of Y&R Brands and a regular on television's The Gruen Transfer, told the National Tourism and Events Excellence Conference in Melbourne new global research on Brand Australia weren't particularly encouraging. The research indicated that, while Americans see Australians as carefree and rugged, they don't think Australians deliver quality or good value. Chinese think Australians are "stylish and classy", but not very helpful, while Indians feel Aussies are daring but also arrogant. The British, meanwhile, see Aussies as "charming and independent", but untrustworthy.

Howcroft said 80% of foreign markets viewed Australia as "different", 60% had knowledge of the country, half thought Australia was relevant to them but only 30% held Australia in high esteem. With the high Australian dollar and the cost of coming to Australia Howcroft said the quality of Australia's "the product just isn't up to it, according to much of the feedback I've been getting for years." "So much of the 'product' is what we call service. It's not rocket surgery. In my opinion, too many people in the customer service side of tourism are being dragged in off the street without specialist training. And it just doesn't cut it for the industry to be whingeing about the mining industry stealing all its best staff."

US data center specialist Geist has opened its first Asia office the Chinese city of Shenzhen to better serve its Asia Pacific customers.

Having a presence in China will help Geist engineers and service representatives better understand customer requirements in Asia the company said. They'll be able to provide real-time support and more effectively solve any issues they encounter now and in the future.

"We chose Shenzhen because it's very centrally located," said Geist Asia MD Jason Christie, "We can easily serve our customers in Beijing or Singapore, Tokyo or Sydney." Geist Executive VP Brad Wilson said Geist's goal was to provide excellent service to each of its customers, and has made it a priority to create an office "with the people and resources to provide the region with comprehensive data center solutions".

iiNet, Australia's second largest DSL broadband provider, celebrated last week after being awarded a gold medal for its Home/Remote Agents program at this year's Contact Centre World Best Practices Awards – Asia Pacific Region.

The ISP's home agent program currently employs more than 120 staff who work almost exactly as they would from the office – taking customer sales, support and billing queries and completing order processing work. Since the program's inception in 2008, iiNet has seen a trend in improved customer satisfaction, along with staff satisfaction and productivity. Work from home staff have also reported reduced absenteeism, a healthier lifestyle and improved work/life balance.

Mat Conn, iiNet's General Manager of Customer Service, said the recognition at the World Best Practices Awards confirms that offering staff the flexibility and freedom to work from home provides benefits all round. "Customer service is at the forefront of everything we do at iiNet and with proven service results, as well as happy staff with increased tenure, it's a great program to invest in and nurture," Mr Conn said. "Looking forward, we've got plans to grow our home agent program and see more than 20 per cent of our workforce working from home on a regular basis."

Indian outsourcer Sundaram Business Services (SBS) has expanded its customer service and back office presence in the Australian market by winning two new customers.

The company recently signed two new outsourcing deals in Australia and is targeting to grow its Australian business by 50%. SBS has signed a deal with an unnamed Sydney-based company to undertake mortgage processing work from India.

In a separate deal with a Melbourne-based research company, SBS will undertake high-end equity research work. It has also won deals with several new pension fund administrators and accountants across Australia.

Interactive Intelligence has partnered with TechnologyOne to deliver a combined unified IP business communications and CRM solution to Australian and New Zealand public sector organisations.

The companies say the integrated solution being developed will help streamline communications and provide an enhanced customer experience by embedding Interactive Intelligence features, such as click-to- dial and presence management, within TechnologyOne's CRM application. "Our integrated solution will give contact centre agents a single interface to manage both customer interactions and information for faster, more effective service," said Interactive Intelligence MD for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Brendan Maree.

TechnologyOne will offer the joint solution to its public sector customers, which include Australian and New Zealand education departments, as well as local, state and federal government councils. "Our partnership with Interactive Intelligence will benefit public sector customers who want more business value delivered by fewer vendors," said TechnologyOne Executive Chairman Adrian Di Marco.

Customer service solutions company Jacanda has joined unified communications company AGC Networks to provide Indian companies with tailored customer service solutions.

The partnership enables contact center agents to connect to customer data in a simplified and consistent way regardless of the channel, "creating more effective customer interactions while reducing operational costs". Jacada and AGC Networks offer a comprehensive set of customised contact center solutions "designed to enhance the customer experience across multiple channels, as well as directly impact operating costs and improve employee retention".

"BPOs in India are being asked by their worldwide customers to provide innovative customer service solutions as their interactions with these organisations become more complicated due to multi-channel communication options and the rapid growth of call center applications," said Jacada's Guy Yair.

KANA Software a global leader in customer service solutions has acquired the award-winning process-based contact centre provider Ciboodle from the Sword Group.

The Ciboodle acquisition adds new complementary product offerings and industry expertise, extending and enhancing the overall KANA value proposition - particularly around agent desktop, business process and case management in the contact centre, and social CRM communities on the web - and comes on the heels of KANA's acquisition of Trinicom, a provider of cloud-based web customer service and customer interaction management, announced April 2012, which expanded the company's market reach to mid-sized businesses globally via software-as-a-service (SaaS).

"KANA is creating a new global customer service leader that is increasingly the choice for mid-sized and large enterprises alike," said KANA President and CEO Mark Duffell. "With the acquisition of Ciboodle, we are bringing together two significant enterprise players in the customer experience management arena with strengths in depth for both the contact centre and for web customer service."
Continuing to operate under the KANA name, the newly combined entity will have more employees and office locations across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific from which to support a growing base of customers numbering some 900 organisations.

Technology consulting and services company Kiandra IT has been recognised for outstanding customer service, winning the Service Excellence Award at Australian Business Awards.

The Australian Business Awards encompass the private, public and non-profit sector organisations in Australia with comprehensive business and product award categories. Kiandra IT MD Cameron Brookes said it was gratifying to be recognised for providing a superior customer experience, which was the foundation on which Kiandra was established.

"Being named as a winner is a reflection of our success in providing seamless IT solutions for our clients, as well as reporting strong, sustainable growth and focusing on initiatives that will drive the company into the future," he said. "This recognition belongs to the dedicated team of people we have, going above and beyond every day for our clients."

An Australian man claims he was put on hold by a Qantas customer service line for 15 hours - so long he managed to read an entire managerial textbook.

Andrew Kahn told Fairfax newspapers he phoned Qantas to confirm plans to travel to New York, and was placed in a queue with a recorded message saying someone would be with him as soon as possible. "I wanted to find out what exactly they meant would be as soon as possible," said Kahn.

After some time had elapsed the Adelaide businessman said he did not want to surrender his place in the queue and left the call rolling while he went onto other things - "surfing the net and working". The call was placed at 7.22pm on Wednesday evening and Kahn said he finally hung up at 11.01am on Thursday without speaking to anyone. "I hung up in the end simply because I had had enough," he said. Qantas declined comment, although it told the newspaper it had no record of someone being on hold for 15 hours that day and "the longest wait time was 17 minutes".

Public Transport Victoria (PTV) says customer satisfaction with Melbourne's public transport has slightly increased since December.

PTV's Customer Satisfaction Survey for the March quarter shows people are only slightly happier with tram, train and bus services compared to the end of last year. Customers ranked trains, trams and buses an average of 63 points out of 100 for this quarter. The last survey, customers ranked public transport 62.7 points.

A sample of randomly selected people were asked to rank public transport - train, tram, bus, coach and taxi services out of 10. Interviewees were asked to indicate their usual public transport usage, as well as their level of specific aspects of public transport and the service overall.

National Australia Bank has revamped its customer service systems by replacing nine PABX systems with one web-based virtual contact centre.

NAB chief information officer Adam Bennett said it was the first time in Australia that a phone-based network of its size had been replaced with a web-based virtualised system. The new system will service 3000 operators in 36 contact centres.

Bennet said NAB spent three years implementing the system at a cost of $30 million and the bank expected the virtual contact centre to save 30% of ongoing costs. He said the new system included scalability and the ability to implement virtual PABX infrastructure in a new locations immediately. "In the future agents will be able to work from other locations, including their homes," Bennett said.

Nasscom Foundation, the social development arm of Indian BPO association Nasscom, is leading a recruitment drive for people with disabilities.

The project is expected to create over 2,000 jobs for disabled candidates in the BPO and IT industries over the next two years. Some Indian companies are now recognising the benefits of a diversity policy and are more open to recruiting people with disabilities, according to Nasscom.

"India has 5.5 million disabled youth in the 12-24 years age group, yet only a few corporates have taken initiatives to create workplaces that recruit and welcome people with disabilities," Nasscom Foundation CEO Rita Soni said. "However, diversity is seen as a very strong business case to drive job creation for people with disabilities in India."

Australia this month welcomed its first airlines complaints watchdog aimed at improving customer service and giving consumers a new tool to determine who to fly with.

New Airlines Customer Advocate Julia Lines says while customers should try resolve their complaint with the airline first, carriers that fail to respond to consumer complaints will now be named and shamed. The body's website went live on July 1 covering complaints regarding flight delays or cancellations, telephone or internet reservations, customer service at the airport or in-flight, baggage services.

People are also welcome to raise issues like fees and charges, safety and security, airport lounge facilities, frequent flyer program terms and conditions, discrimination and services for customers with specific needs and requests for refunds. Lines ranked to top consumer complaints as flight delays, cancellations, telephone reservation services, fees and charges, baggage services and loyalty frequent flyer schemes. Lines said "we will be reporting publicly on the complaints we receive".

Unified communications specialist Noble Systems has relocated its Sydney office to the city's CBD to better accommodate its fast-growing staff and support operations.

The regional headquarters supports clients and staff throughout the Asia Pacific, including Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Singapore. "While we didn't move very far, the new location is much bigger and better suited to our operational and training needs," said Noble Systems Australia MD Paul Luketich.

"As one of the largest and fastest-growing contact centre technology providers in the region, it was essential to find a space that met our needs while keeping us in the heart of Sydney's dynamic business community," he said. The new Sydney location is expected to meet significant training demands while maintaining sales, support and leadership functions.

Fashion chain Noni B has attributed its strong rise in profit to a focus on customer service basics.

The 30-year-old womenswear retailer expects net profit for the 2012 financial year will come in between $2.5 million and $2.7 million, up from $200,000 in 2011. Joint managing director David Kindl said the result was largely aided by improving the way store staff deal with customers and the fashions they sell.

"It's is one of the greatest differentiators we have," he told reporters. "Customers should be made to feel very welcome and be able to find something they are looking for and that fits. ... Then hopefully they will buy it and leave with a smile on their face."

The NSW government is promising improved customer service for commuters with the franchising of Sydney Ferries.

The Harbour City Ferries consortium, made up of Transfield Services and Veolia Transdev, has begun the $800 million, seven-year contract to maintain and operate the ferry services. NSW Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian said handing over the operations of the ferries had been a smooth transition.

"Customers won't notice the difference in the next few weeks," Berejiklian said. "But we're confident that they will notice the difference in the months ahead when customer service is enhanced and we provide additional parts of our great waterway."

The NSW state government will open about 100 "one-stop shops" to bypass queues and contact centres at various departments and allow people to deal with 210 state government services.

The Service NSW centres will be in cities and regional centres, with concierges greeting customers and directing them to the counter they need to do anything from renewing their driver's licence to applying for a beekeeper's permit. The centres will open from 7am to 7pm weekdays and 9am to 3pm on Saturday, accompanied by a 24-hour phone service, and a new internet portal.

Premier, Barry O'Farrell has also appointed NSW's first customer service commissioner, Mike Pratt, to oversee the service across the NSW public sector. "Increasingly, private sector organisations are moving to deliver their products and services across a range of distribution channels such as contact centres, internet and branches to make it more efficient for consumers and to improve the customer experience," Pratt said. "The citizens of NSW rightly expect their government to do likewise, and it is pleasing to see the government moving to deliver services in a much-improved and integrated manner."

Online businesses in Australia are failing to engineer their customer offerings to capitalise on the worldwide nature of the web, according to new research.

The annual Sensis e-Business Report found that while 87% of SMEs with an online presence sold goods and services to local customers, overseas customers made up just 5% of their main e-commerce customer group. Some 27% of SMEs reported at least some sales to overseas customers, unchanged from the previous year.

Report author Christena Singh said the report showed that Australian small business were grappling with how to use the internet to target overseas customers. "If small businesses want to make the most of the new world of mobile and internet-enabled customers, they really need to think strategically and put in place a strong digital business plan."

Telco Optus has won an award for demonstrated excellence in Consumer Commitment to Customer Service at the industry ACOMM Awards with its new web chat service.

The Optus web chat is a customer service offering which facilitates interaction online with customers and resolution of their enquiries in a live chat environment. Optus' Vicki Brady said the service has increased chat engagement with customers by more than 600% between April 2011 and February this year.

The service team has increased its chat engagement to almost 34,000 customers each month compared to 4,000 customers a year ago, Brady said. She said web chat provides "a greater level of convenience and control for customers seeking assistance with their products and services," and delivers a "personal, proactive approach to first contact resolution."

Philippine outsourcer Paxys has partnered with Canadian company Simpro Solutions to establish a joint customer service venture called Simpro Solutions Philippines (SSP).

Both parent companies have a 50% stake in SSP, which reflects the basis of their profit sharing in the new contact center, which is scheduled to open in September.

Paxys will operate and manage the joint venture while Simpro will take care of business and client development, according to a statement. "Paxys intends to leverage Simpro’s presence in Canada for seeking out target clients in the region," it said.

Magellan Solutions Outsourcing (MSO) of the Philippines has opened a new office in the United States to better expand its global footprint in North America.

"Through the years, North America has remained the biggest market for our contact center services," said MSO CEO Fred Chua. "Small and medium businesses in the United States are a rapidly growing market segment and have increasingly sought the use of customer service call center to spur growth and build better relationships."

Chua said MSO's US team will build a more impressive list of clients in the retail, manufacturing, legal, hospitality, IT support, academic, marketing, media and entertainment industries. Chua said aside from customer service, there is a strong possibility that more US-based companies will consider business process outsourcing (BPO) services in the future.

The Philippines' Social Security System (SSS) has opened a 16-hour customer service center.

The center allows members to enquire about their loans, contributions, benefits and other similar concerns beyond working hours on weekdays. "Employees manning the call center are trained to address a wide range of SSS enquiries," said SSS president Emilio de Quiros Jr. "With a 16-hour window for calls, we can entertain more phone queries so more members can avoid problems such as having incomplete requirements or not knowing the location of their covering branch when filing loan and benefit applications."

Enquiry facilities that provide round-the-clock services to members include the SSS website, Text-SSS and the self-service IVRS. De Quiros said Text-SSS had been expanded to cover enquiries on claim status, branch location and requirements for loans, benefits and registration helped boost the number of transactions and registered users.

QantasLink, the regional division of national carrier Qantas, has opened a new lounge and customer service facility at Brisbane's Domestic Terminal.

The new lounge offers access to two additional boarding gates, an easy-to-locate customer service desk and seating for 150 guests. QantasLink executive manager John Gissing said the gate lounge is a symbol of the strength the airline has garnered from the growing domestic market in recent years.

"QantasLink is committed to Brisbane as it is the gateway to 13 QantasLink destinations in Queensland which support the state's booming resource sector and world class tourism destinations," Gissing said. QantasLink is also celebrating being named Air Transport World's Regional Airline of the Year 2012' by launching a new element to its aircraft livery.

Placard-bearing protestors have signed a petition and a letter addressed to Brisbane's mayor demanding the council reverse its decision to close its Inala, Wynnum and Garden City customer service centres.

The cost cutting measure will slash frontline services such as settling rates, dog registrations and building searches, protesters said, adding the decision fails to recognise the growing aged population and non-English speaking residents who don't have access to the internet, credit or debit cards and readily available transport. Richlands Ward Councillor Milton Dick, who represents Inala, said his constituents needed access to council support, especially when 10 out of 11 suburbs in his area were paying some of the city's highest rates.

"This is a massive blow to our community and it means that some of our most vulnerable residents will have to travel further to pay their rates, dog registrations and to complete pensioner remission forms," Dick said. Brisbane Lifestyle Chairman Krista Adams said Council announced the consolidation of the three offices with its regional business centres at a budget meeting late last month.

The Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) says a recent survey found only 8.4% contact center representatives were able to answer customers' queries on initial contact.

The survey, undertaken by CASE in collaboration with students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic's School of Business and Accountancy, included respondents who made calls to customer service centers of banks and telecommunications providers or both in the six months before the survey.

On average, more than 70% of respondents agreed that contact center representatives did not have the knowledge to answer questions or provide accurate or relevant information. Some 46% of respondents had to call twice or more times to reach their contact center representative. CASE suggested that contact centers introduce a call-back feature for dropped calls.

SugarCRM has announced the addition of 12 new technology partners in Australia and New Zealand to sell, deploy and provide support for the SugarCRM customer care product suite.

SugarCRM has doubled the number of its ANZ channel partners since its Sydney office was established in June 2011, and has over 400 channel partners worldwide. The 12 new channel partners include: Baseline, Task Exchange, CloudTech, Holistec, Nexright, Genix, Evolution Marketing, Acceler8 and ISW who are an IBM Premier Partner.

SugarCRM ANZ MD Tony Hughes said the local expansion in SugarCRM's channel partner program is an important component of the company's aggressive growth plans this year. "On top of adding new channel partners to the mix, we will also be bringing on new employees to grow our business in the Asia Pacific region. We're looking forward to keeping our strong momentum going," Hughes said.

A Tasmanian parenting helpline says it is expanding its availability by transferring some calls to a 24-hour interstate contact centre.

News of the outsourced parent helpline comes as a national survey revealed one in five Australian mothers of children under the age of two has depression. Health Department deputy secretary for children Associate Professor Des Graham said the Tasmanian government used the national call centre, Health Direct, to "extend the hours and operation of the Tasmanian Parent Helpline".

"Since this is a phone-based service, the most important consideration is the quality of the service, not its location," Graham said. "All messages are treated seriously and responded to," he said. "Less urgent calls are referred back to the Child Health and Parenting Service in Tasmania, where appropriately trained and experienced staff can deliver an appropriate response."

Telstra chief David Thodey says retailers need to get back to basics and improve their service rather than blame their problems on the rise of online shopping.

"I think retailers need to be very careful that they don't just say it's all gone to an online world because that's not true," Thodey said. "There's still that experience in the shop that's really important."

Thodey did, however, concede the internet is changing the way Australians shop, posing challenges for traditional retailers. "People now when they're in a store will have their mobile phone with them and actually go and look at pricing or what's available on their mobile phone as well as having that retail presence experience," he said.

Australian telco Telstra Global has expanded further into business cloud services with the announcement of a Virtual Contact Centre (VCC) powered by IPscape.

Telstra says the deal is for the provision of services in Asia, with the Australian rollout yet to be announced. IPscape CEO Simon Burke told reporters the partnership with Telstra Global lets IPscape "focus on being a software company".

Telstra said the VCC service is the first enterprise-grade cloud application to be fully integrated into a global telecommunications portfolio. "Alongside Telstra Global's world class voice and data networks, it offers companies of all sizes access to a global multi-channel customer service experience with a single service level agreement," it said.

Virgin Australia has sent its cabin crew into a program called Elevate which includes an etiquette class designed to enhance the airline's customer service for business customers.

The program that covers everything from grooming, body language and wine-appreciate, stems from an effort to try and gain business customers from Qantas. Among the changes, the air crew has been asked to stop calling passengers, "mate" unless the passenger has given consent in the airline database and is a frequent flyer.

Virgin Australia group executive Mark Hassell has taken out the pool table in the Melbourne Airport lounge and replaced it with coffee baristas and a buffet to attract business clients. "We want to retain of the spirit that exists within Virgin service style and service behaviour, but put it in a context that is equally relevant for business-purpose and corporate travelers," he told reporters. Earlier this year flight attendants were also given whisper classes in which they learn to whisper in a calming way for Upper Class passengers.

Vodafone Hutchison Australia's (VHA) has pledged to improve its service in a bid to stem the exodus of customers from the mobile phone company.

VHA lost another 178,000 customers in the first half of its 2012 financial year, reducing its total customer base to 6.8 million. "These results speak very clearly to a need to refocus on the quality and consistency of the experience we deliver to our customers," VHA CEO Bill Morrow said in a statement.

"Our customers can expect to experience improvements in the network and customer service throughout the remainder of 2012, and we will make further announcements on our 4G (LTE) plans for next year," Morrow said. VHA has been struggling to overcome negative perceptions about its mobile phone service in Australia, amid network faults and claims of poor customer service. The company says a renewed focus on customer service has already led to a reduction in the number of complaints to the telecommunications ombudsman.

New customers service standards have been developed and launched by Whyalla City Council to ensure residents and customers continue to receive an improved level of service.

The new program details a clear level of service with associated timeframe to address enquiries and service requests. Whyalla City Council CEO Peter Peppin said it was essential that the council provided certainty of service delivery times to its clients. "Over the centuries we have seen the agricultural, industrial and technological revolutions and I see the 21st century as the customer revolution where customers rightly expect a high level of service coupled with a suitable turnaround time framework," Peppin said. "It is hoped that many requests could be finished through a one-shop approach."

Peppin emphasised that the new standards would not be a document "just sitting on the shelf", but would be promoted throughout its workforce and the community. "A report will be presented to council every three months indicating the level of compliance achieved in relation to the various new standards as part of its quarterly budget review process, with outcomes also included in council's annual report," Peppin said.

Supermarket retailer Woolworths will extend its insurance offering, promising an easy to understand approach to customer service.

Woolworths entered the insurance space in August last year with life and pet insurance, and will now add car and travel cover. The company has pledged to make its policies easy to understand, using everyday language and a simple three-step application process.

Woolworths head of insurance George Hughes told reporters that the company wanted to "make insurance easy, accessible and affordable for our customers." "Our first step into the sector with Pet and Life Insurance has been very successful and has exceeded our expectations."

Some 40% of Australians consumers feel that businesses fail to meet their expectations, according to new research.

The latest American Express Global Customer Service Barometer shows that Australians would happily spend, on average, an extra 12% if it meant they received better service. The study also found that two- thirds of consumers have abandoned a purchase because of a poor service experience in the past year, but more than half have spent more with a company because of a history of positive customer service experiences.

American Express Australia MD Lisa Vehrenkamp said the survey was a wake-up call for Australia that customers were not feeling appreciated and businesses were missing out. "With businesses competing for sales at a time when consumers are shopping around for the best deal, outstanding customer service can be the deciding factor in getting customers through the door," she said. Vehrenkamp said the tough economy over the past three years meant businesses often felt obliged to cut back on training staff to deliver good customer service, which ultimately further damaged their business.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) today revealed it will take on the likes of Apple and PayPal in the next generation payments market with the launch of its own Point-of-Sale (POS) tablet and iPhone attachments.

As reported by FST Media, CBA will provide the solution directly to retailers in a bid to bypass EFTPOS machines and other third party POS devices. The hardware consists of an Android 4.0-based tablet, called Albert, and an iPhone attachment called Leo. Both can accept credit card and Near Field Communications (NFC) payments and are fully mobile with 3G and WiFi technology built in as standard. Other hardware features include a camera for QR and barcode reading, and optional printers for receipts.

The bank also developed an application ecosystem called Pi, in collaboration with IDEO, which is open to third party developers to create a wide range of customised applications to meet the needs of different retail verticals. Ten applications have already been developed including a restaurant bill-split application, a loyalty club and a Small-to -Medium Enterprise (SME) analytics tool that will allow businesses to drill down into what credit cards customers are using and where they are located. "If there are no solutions on the market to resolve your needs, you need to make them," says Rosmarin. "Forty- six per cent of customer payments are at POS, and we needed to find efficiencies there. Customers want better customer experience, more personalised interaction, more security and they want to see intuitive technology."

US CRM agency Merkle has expanded its mobile customer service offering with the acquisition of Australian-founded 5th Finger.

5th Finger, founded in 2000 in Sydney and now based in San Francisco, specialises in mobile tools, as well as media and marketing for retail and pharmaceutical clients. Among its achievements is the development of a mobile platform called "RedShop" to create mobile websites and apps and tablet commerce, with differing products tailored to retail and the drug category.

"Our intent is to extend [5th Finger] to other verticals Merkle has expertise in," Merkle's Craig Dempster said. This is the third acquisition for Merkle in recent years after the purchase of Facebook marketing specialist Social Amp agency Impaqt.

Gympie's taxi company has returned its contact centre to the regional Queensland city in a bid to improve customer service.

Golden City Cabs managing director Jackie Fallon said shareholders in the business decided to revert back to a Gympie contact centre after 10 years of outsourcing to an out-of-town centre. Fallon said the move was all about improving customer service to Gympie residents after the business found that using an outsourced contact centre had hampered its ability to give great service to the local consumers.

"Our calls have dropped over the 10 years," Fallon said. "We found a lot of times the calls were made but the taxi never arrived and we couldn't do anything about it.... People couldn't rely on us." Fallon said the new call centre would allow the business to take back control. The new centre will cost the business more money, but she said it was worth it to be able to give personalised service again.

The ability of businesses to offer live chat customer service has become a real differentiator in the market, according to an industry commentator.

David Twigg of Brisbane-based Online Marketing Consultants told reporters that consumers generally have plenty of questions when they're looking to make a purchase." Good websites should be answering most of those, but no website will either be answering all questions or have every answer easily accessible," Twiggs said.

"Live Chat is a great innovation that not only stops customers drifting off to the competition but ingratiates great customer loyalty simply by the fact that you have offered that level of support. He said it also allows live chat operators to upsell by discussing differences and benefits of a higher priced offering.

Virgin Australia's customer service has won two major honours at the 2012 Skytrax World Airline Awards.

Virgin won the Best Staff Service award for Asia Pacific, as well as picking up the coveted Best Airline award at a ceremony in London. The awards were in recognition of Virgin's agility in beating established carriers to the award and for product and service that "clearly impressed passengers". The World Airline Awards are decided on by airline passengers from around the world, who judge their end- to-end airline experience in a voluntary survey.

Virgin Australia's Mark Hassell said the win was in part due to the carrier's recent branding refresh and repositioning. "Over the past eighteen months, we have introduced a range of new product and service initiatives designed to enhance the travel experience and we are pleased that they are making a real difference for our guests", Hassell said.

TelstraClear's Manila-based contact centre looks likely to be returned to New Zealand under the telco's proposed takeover by Vodafone New Zealand.

Vodafone NZ, the country's largest mobile operator, is set to acquire TelstraClear, the New Zealand subsidiary of the Australia-based Telstra Corporation, in a NZ$840m cash transaction. The acquisition will include TelstraClear's voice and data services, network infrastructure and customer base in New Zealand. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2012, subject to regulatory approvals.

Vodafone NZ CEO Russell Stanners, who will lead the combined company, told reporters that TelstraClear's offshoring would likely come to an end. "New Zealanders like to be serviced by New Zealand people," Stanners said. Last month, Vodafone previously confirmed its support for local service, announcing it would bring 100 technical roles, currently handled in India, back to New Zealand.

Cloud-based help desk software Zendesk has announced its Facebook solution now supports private messages.

The extension will allow companies to engage in private conversations about customer service issues without leaving the Zendesk interface. While more than 900 million people create 3.2 billion interactions on Facebook each day, customers do not always want their customer service conversations to be public.

"Communicating with customers via social media has created a fundamental shift in customer service," said Zendesk's JD Peterson. "There is a new generation of consumers who spend time on Facebook and use Private Messages as a replacement for email. Companies need to serve these customers just as they would on the phone or by email."

New Zealand phone counselling service Lifeline Aotearoa has replaced an ageing telephone system at its Auckland centre with the new Customer Interaction Center (CIC) software suite.

"We evaluated several vendors, but when we saw CIC we realised that the solution could provide Lifeline Aotearoa with critical functionality for skills-based routing as well as workforce management and enable the organisation to scale and build out its counselling service through internal control of the software," said Lifeline Aotearoa's Jody Lane. The organisation also intends to use the capabilities of Interactive Intelligence's CIC to 'hire out' the software and its own call centre staff when workloads are light.

Lifeline Aotearoa CEO Jo Denvir said: "We will also aim to increase our revenue base by tapping into CIC's new IP PBX functionality and offering contact centre resources for New Zealand business organisations requiring both inbound and outbound calling expertise at times when our call volumes are traditionally slack."

Telstra CEO David Thodey has reportedly warned his staff that the customer privacy breach that occurred over the Smart Controls scandal "must not happen again."

In a letter to staff published by websites last week, Thodey said revelations this month that Telstra had worked with Canadian software vendor Netsweeper to collect and monitor data from Next G mobile subscribers, created an "an impression that Telstra does not care enough about the privacy of our customers". "Our customers' trust is a commodity that's both precious and fragile," he said.

Thodey said "customer privacy is not negotiable", and that "the damage to our reputation was already done" despite Telstra reacting quickly to the news of the Netsweeper scandal. He added that "some of our customers may feel we have broken their trust" and "are entitled to feel that way", and that "it will take months of hard work to win back that trust".

China Southern's Australian service has welcomed its first Australian cabin crew to boost the airline's customer service offering.

The Australian crew will help serve an expected increase in local clients as the Guangzhou-based carrier continues to expand into the Australasian market. "Our aim is to improve communication and customer service for the growing number of English-speaking passengers on flights between Australia and Guangzhou," said the airline's Sydney-based HR development project manager Jane Cen.

"Initially it will be one Aussie cabin crew member per flight from Sydney and our main hub in Guangzhou, rising to at least one in each Economy, Premium Economy, and Business and First Class as new staff are recruited and trained," Chen said. "Our plan is to continue to recruit and train local cabin crew as long as passenger feedback indicates it improves their in-flight experience."

Australian contact centre veteran Joe Tawfik is helping Arabian Gulf organisations boost their customer service as head of Bahrain-based personnel outsourcing firm Silah Gulf.

"People in this part of the world are really short changed when it comes to customer service," Tawfik told a meeting in the United Arab Emirates. "The standards are really low. The quality is nowhere near best practice and nowhere near what you would expect."

Tawfik pointed to global research that found 35% of Gulf companies don't empower their contact centre staff to use their own minds to help customers with a problem - far higher than the global average. He said that kind of strategy leaves workers feeling like robots or human dummies and can also irritate customers. Silah Gulf is operating in Bahrain and Kuwait, with plans for the UAE.

Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has extended its contact centre outsourcing arrangement with Gen-i for another five years.

Gen-i Australia MD Paul Wilson said that high volume customer service solutions require IT systems that are both exceptionally reliable and able to cope with surges in demand. Wilson said Gen-i's team help Commonwealth Bank to "seamlessly roll out new technologies which will allow more flexible working arrangements, and streamline the introduction of new client services and products".

Gen-i has been contracting to CBA since 2,000 and handles over 100 million calls each year, with high levels of self service, and intelligently routes calls to over 1,500 agent representatives. The platform is built on the Genesys suite of products. "Gen-i is assisting the Bank to move away from premise-based PBXs and call management systems toward a SIP-enabled, cloud based, intelligent call management solution," Wilson said.

IT service management provider Axios Systems has been selected by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) to optimise business process efficiency, enhance customer service and help reduce the overall costs of support services.

From this month, DOC will implement a new organisational structure including the centralisation of support functions into 'shared service centres'. Axios' assyst Service Catalogue will support the new model - providing a centralised tool for the request and management of a range of support services.

Axios' assyst will coordinate service requests between the national office, five service centres and 55 offices located around New Zealand. Around 400 staff will use the system to manage the delivery of services to approximately 1,800 internal staff.

South Australian ISP Adam Internet has recruited 24 new customer service staff to its Adelaide office.

Adam Internet executive chairman Greg Hicks said while other organisations may look to increase resources interstate or overseas, as a South Australian based company, it feels it is important to recruit from the local community. "This not only supports local employment and the local economy, but we believe enables us to provide a better service to our customers," he said.

Hicks said the recent recruitment drive Adam Internet was not just looking to increase numbers, but has been careful to select the right people to complement the existing team. Many of Adam Internet recruits have a personal interest in communications and IT, with some of the new recruits also coming from within the industry.

Telstra Global has expanded further into business cloud services with the announcement of a Virtual Contact Centre (VCC) powered by IPscape.

Telstra says the deal is for the provision of services in Asia, with the Australian rollout yet to announced. IPscape CEO Simon Burke told reporters the partnership with Telstra Global lets IPscape "focus on being a software company".

Telstra said the VCC service is the first enterprise-grade cloud application to be fully integrated into a global telecommunications portfolio. "Alongside Telstra Global's world class voice and data networks, it offers companies of all sizes access to a global multi-channel customer service experience with a single service level agreement," it said.

The Australian Centre for Health Innovation is streamlining its customer service and communications while showcasing Amcom Software's solutions.

Amcom Software's solutions will integrate with the Melbourne-based centre's nurse call and other clinical systems, Cisco phone system and wireless IP phones, as well as smartphones. The goal is to show how advanced communication technologies can help organisations deliver excellent patient care while enhancing clinician and staff effectiveness.

"When lives are on the line, being able to demonstrate full-scale, real-life implementations of communications technologies in action can provide an exceptional way to showcase the effective, creative ways we've developed to solve customer's problems," said Amcom Software, Asia-Pacific GM John Jordan. "The Australian Centre for Health Innovation is a great way for us to do that and help make decisions easier for healthcare administrators and managers."

Afghanistan telco Roshan has been awarded the Asia Communication Award (ACA) for Best Customer Service Initiatives.

The award recognises Roshan's role in pioneering customer service in Afghanistan and establishing itself as an emerging market benchmark in customer care. Roshan became the first company in Afghanistan to receive ISO Certification for its customer care team in September 2011.

Roshan's customer service team beat six other finalists for the title, announced last week at Total Telecom's second annual ACA ceremony in Singapore. "For an Afghan company to be recognised for its high quality customer service represents an historic achievement, not only for Roshan, but for all customers in Afghanistan," said Roshan CEO Karim Khoja. "When Roshan began operations in 2003, the concept of customer care was virtually unknown in Afghanistan."

AirAsia has been named winner of the Air Cargo Industry Customer Care Award 2012 in Shanghai, beating the likes of Emirates, Qatar and Etihad for the title.

AirAsia received the award from UK-based air cargo news publication Air Cargo Week (ACW) after emerging first in a global survey that polled industry peers and shippers. Apart from the industry votes, AirAsia was also measured on three key criterions: proactive approach to customer service, effective strategy for problem resolution & defined and measurable customer care policy.

AirAsia won the same accolade in Munich, Germany last year, making it the first airline to have won the award two-years in a row and the first ever low cost carrier to be awarded this global recognition. "This award has debunked the myth that low cost means low quality. We have spent a great deal of time calibrating our processes which are now metronomic in nature," AirAsia's Sathis Manoharen said.

American security software company XYPRO Technology Corporation has opened an Australian office offering sales, support and around-the-clock customer service.

"Having a highly skilled and expert team in place that is dedicated to meeting the sales, support and professional services needs of the Asia Pacific region is a natural step forward for us in terms of our global expansion," said XYPRO President Lisa Partridge. "We have been actively marketing and supporting customers in the region through other channels, and expect to continue our growth through our new direct presence in the region."

Partridge said the APAC region enjoys a strong demand for the HP Integrity NonStop Server, on which our XYGATE Merged Audit solution is shipped, and we are now seeing a strong demand for other XYPRO products and services in the market. "Our stronger presence in the APAC region will serve that demand."

More than two thirds of consumers in the Asia Pacific region use the web as their first call for customer service by searching the internet before making a purchase.

A British Telecom and Avaya study found that 79% people in the region are 'shopper swots' who use the internet to plan and research before purchasing. Over half (54%) prefer self service to interacting with sales agents, and 79% said that they would buy more from companies that make it easier to do business online. The research found that consumers in Asia-Pacific countries are increasingly autonomous and able to manage their own customer relationships, signalling a pressing need for companies to embrace a new multi-channel customer service approach.

These autonomous customers are also embracing new technology faster than the organisations that serve them, meaning they want timely, personalised access to services wherever they are, at any time of day and through any device. "By connecting agents with the latest social media and unified communications tools, contact centres can share their knowledge across multiple sites to create 'networked experts' who are much more able to satisfy these more complex enquires from any communication medium a customer should choose," said BT's Andrew Small. "That's true customer service."

Companies need to formulate a multichannel service strategy to meet the needs of a new breed of "autonomous" customers, according to new research.

According to a joint survey by BT Global Services and Avaya, 79% of consumers indicated they planned their purchases and carried out their own product research before buying, even though they might be "time-starved". Nicola Millard, a customer experience futurologist at BT Global Services, told a briefing session in Singapore that customer autonomy was challenging existing customer relationship strategies of both companies and public sector organisations.

Millard noted that 54% of respondents preferred self-service shopping options as "no one tries to sell [them] anything", while 64% utilised social media more than 2 to 3 times a week. Additionally, consumers with smartphones were also "supercharged" by the information available in their hands, the study showed, as 81% of consumers with smartphones use online reviews to check on product quality compared to 68% for those without a smartphone.

Australian companies struggle to get the most out of their social media strategy, while others have more costly mistakes, inadvertently engendering ill will from customers, according to a new survey.

A Telsyte survey found that between 13% and 17% of staff time on public social networks is spent on customer feedback and interaction, suggesting companies have been quick to recognise the need for a social media presence that also serves as a conduit for customer service and expectations. "Companies are happy to market their wares through social channels, but they also take the user commentary seriously," said Telsyte senior analyst Rodney Gedda.

Gedda predicts the Australian market will see social media play a deeper role in how companies do business from this year onward. But organisations are warned that turning to social media can just as easily invite negative comments if the brand or offering is not right. "You have to take the good with the bad and don't expect a social or technological paradigm shift to cure all your company cancers."

Australia Post and Telstra will collaborate to develop an Australia Post Digital MailBox product to help promote and aid self-service customer care.

Acting like a digital vault for documents, the MailBox app is to feature 'bank-level security' to ensure customers wanting to pay bills, store files and receive emails can do so safely. The two organisations say the service will help users find documents and set reminders for bill payments, while the agreement between the two entities would see Australia Post offer Telstra customers access to the company's communication documents such as account statements and bills in the MailBox.

Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour said the development of the product aimed to increase Australia Post's market share. "If you go back a generation, Australia Post had a true monopoly on written communication," Fahour said. "Today, we have less than 1 per cent market share. We know that we need to offer a digital communication channel, simply because that is how citizens increasingly prefer to communicate."

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government filed a complaint against Japanese budget carrier Skymark Airlines after it posted notices which informed the passengers it would not accept complaints during flights.

Passengers were told to direct their complaints to public consumer centers. "We cannot condone an attitude of directing complaints about a company's services to public organisations," said Hirohiko Fukushima, the head of the Consumer Affairs Agency, which has requested the notices be removed.

Skymark's eight-point "Service Concept" guidelines were introduced aboard its aircraft in mid-May and stated that cabin staff would not help passengers stow their bags, that attendants were not required to use "polite language" when talking to customers, moreover, the crew's primary task is not to attend to passengers but to serve as safety personnel. "We will not accept any complaints made on-board. In case a passenger does not understand that, we will ask the person to leave so that we can take off as scheduled. If passengers have complaints, we urge them to contact our customer service center, the National Consumer Affairs Center or other related agencies," the notice added.

Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has selected an authentication framework from US company Entrust to provide security for its new line of consumer-banking applications on Apple and Android mobile platforms.

"Mobile devices are doing more and more heavy lifting in the digital lives of consumers and this includes conducting highly sensitive financial transactions," said BNZ's Nick Fantham. "By embedding the security credential within the mobile application, we have maintained a high level of security and sped up the login process significantly."

The Entrust IdentityGuard authentication framework and software development kit deploy soft-token authentication in BNZ's mobile applications. The one-time passcode authentication process takes place instantaneously and without the need for end-user interaction or involvement. Since launching its mobile apps, Bank of New Zealand has seen login volumes grow by some 250% in a very short timeframe.

Beijing rail commuters have taken to the internet to discuss their train service experience and plans to introduce a loyalty program.

An online survey on railway customer service posted on the website of the China Railway Customer Service Center was conducted by the center's Beijing branch from May 30 to July 5. Adult passengers who take trains from April 1 to June 30 with tickets issued in their real names can participate in the survey and may receive travel awards in a lucky draw. Prizes will be awarded in the form of credit.

Many commuters praised the rewards program as a progressive way for the railway sector to meet market demand. Some railway insiders say it is a signal that the Ministry of Railways will introduce its own rewards program for frequent rail travellers.

One restaurant in China is taking customer service technology to a whole new level with the introduction of robot service staff.

The Robot Restaurant in Harbin has 18 mechanical employees, including 'dumpling robot', 'noodle robot' and 'cooking robot'. The restaurant says its robotic staff are well trained, efficient and fast - and they don't expect a tip for their efforts.

When customers walk in, 'usher robot' extends his arm and welcomes them with the greeting: 'Earth person, hello!'. Once diners have placed their orders, the android contraptions get to work, before 'robot waiter' - running along tracks on the floor - carries dishes to the table. Entertainment is also provided, thanks to a singing robot, while an automated dog - which is allowed to sit on the tables - helps keep children occupied.

$19.4 billion financial services company, Citibank, serving more than 100 million customers in 40 countries has integrated LivePerson chat to improve customer service.

Citibank wanted to find a way to initiate dialogues between Citi customer service agents and customers and actually resolve issues via social media sites. "When we looked at banks and social, they all looked alike. The whole challenge was differentiating the service we provide to customers," Frank Eliason, senior vice president of social media at Citibank. Using LivePerson chat integration, an online engagement solution that facilitates live chats within Twitter, Citi customers are brought to a secure chat within Citi's website and can start discussing whatever issue they have with the agent.

Citi says it speaks with about 160 customers each week in conversations that originated on Twitter. Eliason says that although the number of customer interactions is about the same as before the LivePerson integration, more interactions are being resolved. "The interactions were more phone tag. We're getting in touch with the customer the way they want. It's something that's easier and fits the customer's style," he said.

Online auction site eBay Australia is revamping its customer service and help site to replace automated agent 'Emma' introduced by the company last year.

eBay revealed the plans in an announcement board post that a revamped customer service page is gradually being introduced, with the rollout to be completed next month. "Emma was retired because she was past her prime," an eBay Australia spokesperson told reporters.

The new customer site will feature a simplified design, as well as an enhanced option to ask an eBay representative to call you, complete with an estimate of how long that will take.

Genesys has announced the integration of Klout Score within its Genesys Social Engagement solution to allow organisations to better manage social media customer service.

By integrating Klout Score capabilities, social media and other customer service interactions can be prioritised by the customer's social media status and sent to the best available resource for resolution. For example, customers with a high social media status and influence based upon their Klout Score should be aligned with a specialised or social savvy customer service agent.

Klout Scores are a key indicator about an individual's social media status and influence and are rated on a scale between 1 and 100. Klout Scores are calculated using variables that include an individual's number of followers, frequency of updates, the Klout Scores of their friends and followers, and the number of likes, retweets, and shares. "By incorporating Klout within Genesys Social Engagement, we're empowering social savvy enterprises to engage their customers in a new conversation based upon business value and social influence," said Genesys' Merijn te Booij.

Telecom New Zealand's ICT division Gen-I has introduced a new managed end-to-end unified communications solution based on Microsoft's Lync platform.

The managed service is designed to boost customer service and solve the communications needs of government agencies and businesses, while reducing ongoing operational costs. "When speaking with the leaders of government agencies around Australia, I often hear that they are looking to significantly speed up the introduction of new frontline services, while improving employee productivity and getting the most from their existing systems," Gen-i Australia MD Paul Wilson said.

The solution is managed and supported by Gen i's 24 x 7 service desk to agreed service levels. "Gen-i has invested heavily to build our local Australian team over the last 12 years. Implementing and supporting unified communications projects requires technical expertise across networking, security, and desktop computing infrastructure," Wilson said.

Media reports say Housing New Zealand has had to hire almost the same number of customer service staff to run its new contact centre as it made redundant to set up its "more efficient" system.

The state corporation changed the way it operated in April, shutting its local office doors to its 200,000 tenants and members of the public with accommodation emergencies, and directing inquiries through a new customer service centre. The changes led to 70 frontline customer service positions being axed.

The centre was touted as being able to cope with 1million calls a year but has failed to keep up with demand after receiving 119,000 calls in April alone, 53,000 of which went unanswered. Housing NZ has apologised for waiting times of up to 40 minutes, although Housing Minister Phil Heatley has said the average waiting time was about eight minutes.

Indian outsourcer Aegis has expanded is global presence with the opening of a new customer service centre in Peru.

Aegis plans to hire over 800 employees in the first year and aims to reach a headcount of 2,000 in the second year. The site in the historical centre of the capital Lima, has three floors which include a 300-seat contact centre, meeting and training rooms and sections for administrative employees as well as break rooms.

"We chose to grow in Peru for its ease of doing business, skilled labor market and economic and political stability," Aegis Global CEO Aparup Sengupta said. "We are happy to become part of the community here and hope to offer the best customer experience to our clients." The Peruvian operation is Aegis' second in South America after acquiring Actionline de Argentina in October 2010, which has over 5000 employees and 5 sites spread out in different Argentine cities.

Indian outsourcer HCL Technologies has set up a customer service center in Manila, expected to employ up to 400 agents.

The center is expected to leverage the Philippine's time zone advantage to service the growing number of customers in various industries including financial services, healthcare in the region, HCL Technologies said. "This center reinforces HCL's objective to provide customers with next-generation BPO services," said HCL Technologies' Rahul Singh.

Singh said the plan for setting up the center in the Philippines was influenced by the country's growing prominence as a strong BPO services hub." HCL will work closely with several local universities in the Philippines to recruit young graduates.

Indian outsourcer RuralShores is set to replicate its regional based customer service model in Brazil and Kenya.

RuralShores, which has set up centers in rural areas employing local candidates, is working with the Rockefeller Foundation and the World BPO Forum to set up operations rural Brazil and Kenya. The company trains and employs rural youth who services to companies across the world.

RuralShores is in talks with several companies and is "currently training employees of two companies in program management and people management," RuralShores CEO Murali Vullaganti told reporters. The company currently employs about 1,200 rural youth across 12 centers in India and is planning to set up six more.

Interactive Intelligence has introduced a new software platform to help Businesses looking to develop their mobile customer service via smartphones.

Interaction Mobilizer enables organisations to brand their own mobile applications then publish them on the appropriate app store - Android, Apple, Microsoft etc - or offer them from their own corporate websites for users to download. Customers can log on using their Facebook ID, or using company-supplied credentials.

As well as performing integrated tasks in the app, users can request a call-back from a service representative, and be updated as to when this will occur. In these cases the customer services agent is automatically provided with contextual information such as the customer's name and what device they are using. Chat, text messaging and video will all be supported in future versions. "Customers are demanding more efficient ways to use their mobile devices for business transactions," said Interactive Intelligence CEO Dr Donald E Brown.

InterGlobe Technologies (IGT) has expanded its customer service outsourcing relationship with online travel company Webjet.

IGT has been providing contact centre services to Webjet customers in Australia and New Zealand since 2007. Under the new arrangement, IGT has expanded its back office support to boost the hospitality services of Webjet.

"We have been associated with Webjet for over four years now. We are delighted to take this alliance a step further by supporting Webjet's customer experience in the hospitality domain," InterGlobe CEO Vipul Doshi said. Webjet enables customers to search, compare and book domestic and international flights, travel insurance, car hire and hotel accommodation.

Sydney's Kogarah Council has given itself permission to upgrade its former two-storey library site to incorporate a customer service centre.

The structure of the unoccupied building will remain, but internal changes will bring it in line with Australian Standards. Kogarah Council's customer service centre on nearby Railway Parade will move to the renovated centre once work is complete.

The customer service centre will be located on the top floor while ground floor space will be made available for the Cancer Council. A "green roof" featuring plants will be part of the renovation, though the roof will not be accessible to the public.

Social customer experience specialist Lithium Technologies has announced the official opening of its Sydney office focused on the Australia-New Zealand market.

The new Australian office coincides with the opening of Lithium's Singapore regional headquarters, which together affirms the company's "strong commitment to growing its Asia-Pacific business". The company also announced that Indosat, Indonesia's leading telecommunications network and service provider, has signed Lithium to deliver a social community to its consumers and fans. Indosat joins a strong roster of existing Lithium clients in the region including Optus, Telstra and Vodafone Australia.

"Social, mobile and cloud have changed how companies must deliver the customer experience," said Lithium President and Chief Executive Officer Rob Tarkoff. "Consumers in Asia-Pacific are incredibly connected and their adoption of social, mobile and cloud technologies will clearly surpass that of other geographies."

Philippine based customer service provider Magellan Solutions Outsourcing has announced plans to expand its shared and dedicated services to meet growing demand from SMEs centers in the coming years.

"Small and Medium Enterprises are beginning to understand the importance of outsourced offshore customer service call centres in their operations," said Magellan CEO Fred Chua. "They'll be surprised with the vast potential that awaits them should they consider the Philippines for their operational process."

To meet the expected demand, Chua said Magellan Solutions is looking to double its workforce. He said the company's focus has been to serve the growing SME markets in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, EU and Canada. "Magellan is the best of both worlds. We're similar to large organizations wherein we're very process-driven and very structured, which is very critical for continuous improvement, and at the same time, we're very similar to small operations wherein we're very nimble and flexible," Chua said.

Malaysian commuters have been given the chance to offer feedback on cab customer service via a new application TaxiMonger.

TaxiMonger is a taxi booking and review application for mobile and internet that allows users to review and rate taxi drivers to represent the "voice of taxi passengers". "Whether it's a good or bad (experience), the need to get it out of his/her system would be a compelling reason for users to post taxi reviews in TaxiMonger," said cofounder Nizran Noordin.

Still in its trial stage, the site has close to 1,000 registered users and has built up a network of about 50 taxi drivers in Malaysia so far. In the coming months, TaxiMonger says it will be looking for channel partners to operate their taxi booking business in the rest of South East Asia, making the app a taxi contact center that runs on the cloud.

The New Zealand arm of global outsourcer Sitel is setting up a new customer service centre in Auckland.

Sitel is reportedly looking to hire more than 230 staff within three weeks to service a travel industry operator. BusinessDay reports the initial head count is expected to include 176 customer service and 55 support positions, all full-time roles.

It sites industry sources as suggesting the contact centre staff numbers could climb to as many as 500, depending on how the operation goes. The news comes as New Zealand's unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2012 rose to 6.7%, up from 6.4% the previous quarter.