1. Webgenies
2. SEORank
3. SEO Company Sydney
4. SEO Company Ltd
5. Switched on Media
6. Demonz Media
7. Wispa Group Pty Ltd
8. Mitash – Results Driven Interactive Agency
9. SMO Technology
10. Big Click Studios

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has installed two IBM XIV Gen3 storage systems to support its growing suite of customer service applications.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank storage team leader Greg Smith said in a statement that as new customer applications were deployed, the bank noticed a steady increase in bandwidth transfer and storage server utilisation. The systems will support file applications, Exchange, SQL databases and recovery applications. The upgrades also include IBM storage area network (SAN) volumes controller nodes for the Bank’s customer service operations.

"Our objective is to be the number one customer-connected bank in Australia," Smith said. "The main thrust of application development has been around knowing and understanding customers better."

The vast majority of hearing impaired New Zealanders feel the level of service in the local tourism industry needs to be improved.

Recent research by Auckland University of Technology found 90% of New Zealand respondents felt that service in the New Zealand tourism industry for people with hearing loss needs to be improved. "It's important for customer service staff to be patient and understanding, with some training about how to serve guests who are deaf and hearing impaired," said National Foundation for the Deaf CEO Louise Carroll.

"From a safety perspective, it's imperative that emergency alarms are visual as well as audible, and that all guests have access to public announcements. Staff also need to be knowledgeable about how to communicate with hearing impaired guests in an emergency." Most of the people surveyed would return to a business that had good services for people with hearing loss and recommend it to others.

Retailers risk alienating customers and incurring long lasting damage to their business as service standards slide, according to new research.

A report by ANZ Bank-owned Linwar Securities said poor customer service threatened to put retail businesses at a disadvantage for years as they struggled to rebuild brand loyalty. The report identified home appliance retailers as most at risk as consumers becoming more discerning at a time when service standards were slipping.

A team of Linwar analysts said customer service satisfaction ratings for appliance retailers had fallen from 65% in 2005 to 55% in 2011. "If customer service does suffer, retailers can expect that bad service will have a long-lasting effect," Linwar said.

Gobal CRM company StayinFront has helped Australasian supplement and sports nutrition manufacturer Vitaco to upgrade its customer service.

Dedicated to health and wellness, Vitaco recently formed a new national sales team to sell directly into Australian pharmacies. To support the new strategy, Vitaco is equipping the field with StayinFront EdgeCG on Windows 7 tablets to drive efficiencies and foster relationships with pharmacies.

Key to its decision to deploy StayinFront EdgeCG were the integrated analytics, KPIs and in-field dashboards that will provide Vitaco reps with everything they need to sell more and manage better. The availability of StayinFront's on-demand solution means that organisations like Vitaco can rapidly implement sophisticated CRM tools.

Australian and New Zealand organisations have attracted some of the highest levels of customer satisfaction in the world, according to a new survey.

Help desk IT company Zendesk has released its new global Customer Satisfaction Index, which indicated New Zealand is leading the world when it comes to service. Of the countries with high Gross Domestic Product, there is an interesting spread of customer satisfaction with New Zealand (95%), Australia (93%) and Canada (93%). India and France ranked the lowest with 70% and 57% respectively.

"More and more organisations in Australia and New Zealand are recognising just how important providing a good customer service can be in not only attracting new customers but retaining existing ones," said Zendesk's Michael Hansen. "Together our customers in Australia and New Zealand process around 6000 queries every day through Zendesk, so we are very pleased see them ranked at the top of the table for customer satisfaction and look forward to helping them continue to provide an excellent service to their customers."

IT giant Oracle has expanded its customer service portfolio after completing the acquisition of CRM company RightNow.

"The combination of Oracle's leading marketing, sales, ecommerce, search and business intelligence software with RightNow's leading service capabilities, helps companies power great customer experiences in a seamless, personalised way across all channels and customer touchpoints: including on the web, in a store, over the phone or via mobile devices," Oracle said in a statement. Oracle said the acquisition has been widely supported by its customers, with RightNow completing the largest subscription booking quarter in its history since the merger was announced.

Oracle will provide more details on the product strategy for the combined Oracle and RightNow offering next week.

Financial services company Suncorp says customer service will not be compromised by its decision to cut 71 jobs at its insurance arm to improve efficiency.

The back office roles will be handled by Indian firm World Network Services," Suncorp spokesman Chris Newlan told reporters. "We've identified a partner who we believe can conduct these back-office roles more efficiently than we currently can without compromising customer service."

Newlan said the positions being made redundant include roles in finance management and information support, but added that the company aims to redeploy those whose jobs were cut.

Australian businesses need to prepare for eight major customer service "megatrends" this decade to remain competitive, according to new research.

The eight trends were identified in the global Service "2020: Megatrends for the decade ahead" report from BDO. BDO Australia chairman Tony Schiffman said businesses are set to wage an ongoing battle to beat customer expectations, to adopt a range of new technologies and use customer service as a global competitive differentiator.

Schiffman said customer service has never been more important to business than it is now, as globalisation creates significant new consumer markets and aggressive new global markets. The eight "megatrends" are:

1. Global competition will drive up service standards
2. Companies must maintain service standards in the face of 'the need for speed'
3. Firms must learn to use the increased transparency brought by social media to their advantage
4. Companies must use new sources and types of data to rethink the way they track and personalise their service
5. Good employees will remain fundamental to good service but with technology as an enabler
6. More firms will outsource aspects of customer service to new kinds of specialists
7. The rise of the mass affluent and other customer segments will force companies to find new product or service niches
8. Customer expectations, including the purpose of the store, are evolving with new technology

Air New Zealand has introduced a new customer service initiative that asks passengers to name their price for a class upgrade on international flights.

The OneUp offer will give Economy or Premium Economy class passengers the chance to bid for an upgrade, if the seats are available. Air New Zealand has been trialling the system with passengers who purchased tickets in North America, the United Kingdom and Australia, but that will now be extended to include passengers ticketed from New Zealand to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Shanghai or Beijing, as well as passengers travelling between Los Angeles and London, and Hong Kong and London.

Where opportunities for upgrades exist, Economy and Premium Economy ticket holders who have booked directly with Air New Zealand either online, through the contact centre or at an Air New Zealand Holidays store may receive an email inviting them to make an offer to upgrade to the next cabin class. Passengers whose offers are accepted would receive email confirmation several days prior to travel.

Auckland Council is looking to consolidate its city-wide contact centre operation, a year on from amalgamation.

Auckland Council has issued a Request for Expression of Interest (REOI) seeking a consistent and stable contact centre solution across the city. The proposed solution must not have a single point of failure and it will need to integrate with Cisco CallManager. According to the REOI, the existing contact centre capability was established by the Auckland Transition Agency in October 2010. "Auckland Council inherited a call centre service delivery model which was designed to minimise service failure, whilst providing access via a single telephone number," the REOI says.

"This inherited model, which continues to operate, has call centres located in each of the legacy councils, multiple call centre systems supporting these locations and a single call routing solution." This has resulted in the 'complications' such as service capability being different in each contact centre. The REOI, which closes on January 20, 2012, is for a contact centre application that will include workforce management and quality monitoring, telephony and infrastructure changes or upgrades, professional services for the design, build and implementation of the contact centre solution, and ongoing operational support.

Broadband provider iiNet has warned against customer service complacency as complaints to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) are maintained at record levels.

iiNet CEO Maryna Fewster called on Mobile Service Providers to match the performance of Australia's leading service providers and focus on customers. "Good service is good business," Fewster said. "We've halved the number of matters escalated to the TIO this year by listening to our customers and resolving problems before they become full-blown complaints."

Less than 1.5% of new complaints to the TIO were about the iiNet group of companies, which include trusted brands Westnet and Netspace, as well as the former residential customers of AAPT. "iiNet has grown to become Australia's second largest DSL broadband provider because of its unique service culture and we believe this will become increasingly important as we move into mobile and television," Fewster said.

Melbourne Airport is upping its customer service with the launch of a new iPhone app for the technically savvy traveller and the recruitment of volunteers to help travellers.

"Our new iPhone app will help keep our passengers updated on flight information as they journey through our airport as well as provide valuable information to those welcoming or saying goodbye to family and friends," Melbourne Airport's executive general manager Simon Gandy said. He said the Melbourne Airport app provides users with real time flight information and maps of the terminal with walking times from different points.

Melbourne Airport is also trialling a new customer service volunteer program in the international terminal. "We know that travelling over the busy summer period can be difficult, so in conjunction with the Salvation Army, we've hand-picked a group of volunteers to be part of our Customer Care team," Gandy said. "The team's focus is to provide passengers with a "helping hand" by answering queries, giving directions and supporting our passengers at one of our busiest times".

Vodafone Australia faces $250,000 of fines from the Australian Communications and Media Authority if it fails to improve its customer care, network performance and privacy issues.

The ACMA has issued directions to Vodafone and its Vodafone Networks subsidiary requiring them to comply with the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code (TCP Code). An ACMA investigation found that both companies had failed to classify and analyse complaints as required by the TCP Code; failed to provide timely customer information about network performance issues in late 2010 and had poor systems in place for protecting the privacy of customers' personal details prior to January 2011.

"These directions are intended to make sure Vodafone remains focussed on improving outcomes for its consumers by increasing the regulatory consequences of any further breach," said ACMA chairman Chris Chapman. Chapman said that Vodafone has made positive changes over the course of this year, but warned that "from this point on, if either Vodafone company fails to comply with the TCP Code, the ACMA can approach the Federal Court seeking civil penalties of up to $250,000."

In early December 2011, Avaya and Salmat announced a strategic partnership with Avaya beating Interactive Intelligence in the tender process to become the leading supplier of technology solutions to Salmat, one of Australia’s largest contact centre outsource providers.

Avaya's success has come off the back of a long term engagement process lasting 18 months.

When asked about why Avaya had been successful, Avaya CEO Rob Wells immediately raised the topic of multi-channel. Wells stated, "Salmat are evolving their business. They see the need to be faster on their feet, more responsive to customers and more differentiated in the market by making sure that whatever media the customer feels is an appropriate media to use, can be deployed very quickly."

Wells also highlighted that one of the key success factors for Avaya was demonstrating the way they could build a close partnership with Salmat. Wells said, "This is an exciting deal because this partnership will allow Salmat to offer unique solutions in the market place, but it also allows Avaya to think about going to market in different ways."

Director Solutions Sales, Rod Maxwell also pointed to Avaya's strength of product offering, particularly Avaya’s Aura and SIP solutions as a factor that influenced their success. He stated, "Salmat see a lot of benefit in reducing infrastructure, the mobility of agents, the consolidation of contact centres and the unification of UC (unified communicaitons) functions into contact centres."

Wells also discussed the role of innovation as an important factor in the decision process. He stated, "Salmat recognises the leadership of Avaya globally in the contact centre market. This means we can demonstrate that we are focussed on significant R&D and product evolution". Wells continued, "Salmat liked that Avaya's R&D investment aligned very well with Salmat's, particularly around multi-channel and the underlying SIP architecture."

When asked about how Avaya's other outsourcing customers had reacted to the announcement Wells said, "All of our customers have access to the same capability, technology and R&D spend." Wells continued, "Nobody has picked up the phone and raised any concern. Our customers all work to their own business plans targeting different aspects of the marketplace."

It is clear that both Salmat and Avaya are aligned to the vision of delivering effective multi-channel contact centres through simplified and single platform solutions such as Aura. Wells concluded, "The partnership will evolve and evolve. Part of the excitement of this roadmap is Avaya being an integral part of Salmat’s future offerings." He continued, "The opportunity for Avaya is very significant. We have created an environment that is much simpler to deploy, meaning our clients can respond a lot faster to market needs."

From an Analyst perspective Fifth Quadrant will monitor this partnership with keen interest to assess if the combination of Avaya and Salmat can produce more innovative models of contact centre technology and outsourcing.

New research suggest Australia's retail customer service is suffering after less than half of the industry's employees say their organisation is working to retains its best staff.

Mercer's What's Working survey found just 41.9% of respondents from the retail sector believe their organisation does a good job of retaining its most talented people. Of the 70.9% of respondents who hold a non-management position, less than half feel their manager plays an active role in their personal career development.

Mercer's Rob Bebbington, said struggling retailers are failing to appreciate their key selling point, customer service. "Happy staff means happy customers," Bebbington said. "Without properly engaging with current workers and providing employees with adequate career opportunities, any hope for growth will be thwarted by disengagement and apathy."

Marketing and technology agency LBi has extended its CRM business into Sydney in response to fast-growing client demand.

LBi says the new branch will offer a combination of services to the Australian market including platform innovation, service design, branded content, mobile, CRM, social media, usability and analytics. The agency already has a strong presence in the Asia Pacific region with offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Mumbai.

"Opening up LBi in Australia is a hugely important move for us given the increasing demand for digital excellence from existing and potential clients," said LBi's Laurent Ezekiel. "As well as allowing LBi to tap into a booming domestic market, the move underlines our commitment to our existing customers who require our blended services on a global scale."

Counselling phone service Lifeline has gone live with a contact centre upgrade that enables it increase its call capacity by 250,000 per year.

Lifeline CIO Chris Hardy told reporters the project has been two years in the making. "We've upgraded and overhauled our entire infrastructure so that our system has better reliability, robustness and we've moved to a new provider," Hardy said. "By removing Lifeline's legacy systems and installing Microsoft Dynamics CRM and platform standardisation, the not-Dor-profit organisation is able to provide better information to its telephone crisis staff members. "We've upgraded our legacy environment to provide us with better call quality and better reliability around that," Hardy said.

"We've implemented a major DR (disaster recovery) environment which is off network, so is totally divorced from our production environment which is based on virtual contact centre technology," he said.

Outsourcer NRG Global Solutions has won the Rising Star category at the 2011 Queensland Top 400 Business Awards.

NRG Global Solutions' President Laurence Barlow said winning the award would not have been possible without a great team both in Australia and the Philippines. "The Australian business community is developing a better understanding and acceptance of Business Process Outsourcing," Barlow said. "I think the Global Financial Crises has pushed businesses to look for more innovative ways to manage customer service delivery channels, and this is where we come in."

Barlow said NRG's globally compliant contact centre facilities in Australia and the Philippines handle customer service end-to-end, from welcome calls' to debt collection' for many of Australia's largest banks, telecommunications and utility companies. "While it is true that most of the customer service work we take on is 'voice based', we are building out our service offerings using online chat support, text reminders, convenient payment gateways via iPhone, and an array of cloud computing applications that enhance and expedite the customer service experience."

New Zealand Telecom's retail division will deploy new Siebel CRM software in its contact centres around New Zealand and the Philippines.

Telecom will use Siebel Contact Centre to provide its customer service agents with a unified platform to view and handle calls from, and to manage customer information and product assets. The system also allows customers to track the progress of their issue online, in the form of a ticket.

Telecom's Trish Keith told reporters she hopes the $40 million project will improve customer relations. "We want to make sure our customers are getting the most out of their Telecom phone and internet services and to do this we need to use the best possible tools to help frontline staff understand customer needs and participate in genuinely helpful conversations," Keith said.

Telstra has reopened its customer self-service site after it was shut down following a major leakage of sensitive customer data.

The potentially massive breach allowed an Internet user to bypass the front-page security of the BigPond self-help site and access details of other users. The exposed site offered customer service-level access to customers of Telstra bundled products.

The information at risk included bundle information, telephone numbers, users' names and addresses, and reportedly users' login and password information. Telstra said it was made aware of a privacy breach about 4 pm Friday and disabled its site an hour later. As a precaution, Telstra also reset the passwords of around 60,000 customers.

Utilities CRM specialist Gentrack says it has won a deal to upgrade the systems at New Zealand energy retailer TrustPower.

TrustPower has renewed its long-standing contract with Gentrack, initiating a project to upgrade its core billing and customer information system to the new Gentrack Velocity platform. "New Zealand has a competitive and dynamic electricity market with many players and complex market transactions," said Gentrack CEO James Docking.

"It requires a strong level of expertise in order to deliver software to support these market processes and interactions - expertise that is hard to replicate for many of our competitors." TrustPower is also owner of one of Australia's largest wind farms at Snowtown, South Australia. The Gentrack Velocity upgrade project follows the completion of a similar project at Meridian Energy in Christchurch.

New Zealand's Grand Mercure Nelson Monaco has won the Franchise Customer Service Award at the Accor Pacific Franchise Awards in Sydney.

The property won the award for its "outstanding achievements in overall guest satisfaction". "Throughout 2011 Accor has welcomed 14 hotels, resorts and apartment style accommodation to its growing portfolio in key business and leisure destinations, with a further three due to open by the end of the year," said Accor's general manager of franchise hotels Dino Mezzatesta.

"It has been a busy and prosperous year for us and our franchise partners and we are thrilled to congratulate the winners of our very first Accor Asia Pacific Franchise Awards," Mezzatesta said. The group said each award category aimed to showcase the improvements, enhancements and developments of a Franchise property under the Accor umbrella, whilst at the same time recognising individual property performances and successes across Australia and New Zealand.

Regional banking group BankWest has scooped the pool in the Australian Financial Review's SMILES survey.

The Western Australian provider, now owned by the Commonwealth Bank, has preserved its own identity and apparently delivered on a three-year campaign to improve customer service. It was judged highest as a home lender and in day-to-day banking categories, replacing fellow small banker Bendigo Bank after four years as Australia's favourite provider with a 72% satisfaction.

Respondents said "old-fashioned" good manners, fast resolutions, competitive interest rates, conveniences such as 'express' stores that are open longer hours and mobile banking iPhone and Android apps made the difference for BankWest. The company is also Smart Investor's reigning Blue Ribbon Awards' Bank of the Year.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has turned to its customers to provide ideas on how to improve its service.

As part of the initiative the bank will run the IdeaBank as a competition designed to encourage innovative thoughts from those that use its services. A reward of $10,000 will be offered to whomever has the suggestion that receives the most votes from both customers and the leadership team within the company.

"Technology has played a critical role in our past 100 years of banking, helping us grow and continually improve, therefore it's only natural that we continue to invest in this channel to both differentiate our brand and offer stand out customer service, experience and now contribution," CBA's Andy Lark said. The platform will begin accepting ideas from its launch on December 8, with the theme for ideas said to be based around the "Future of Banking". In the meantime, customers can now sign up to be notified when the IdeaBank begins to accept ideas.

New Zealand's newly-formed Customer Experience Management Businesses Association (cemNZ) warns that firms that want to survive the economic downturn can no longer ignore dissatisfied customers.

cemNZ co-founder Paul Linnell said the downturn in the world economy has highlighted that businesses have had the luxury to either ignore or assign to a low priority unhappy customers. "I think the first problem is that businesses have been aware of problem but haven't realised how bad it is," Linnell said.

He said periods of sustained growth and relative abundance have allowed businesses to grow complacent about their customers. "The sort of research that cemNZ has done in New Zealand shows that 50% of customers have problems with the service they receive from their suppliers throughout the year." He said another issue is that in the past if a customer was unhappy with the service they received the message would be spread by word-of-mouth, but today people go straight to social networking sites to voice their concern.

Outsourcer Quantum Multimedia Communications has entered into administration, according to accounting firm Deloitte.

Quantum was placed into administration last month after a receiver was appointed. Although Deloite has not disclosed any of its clients, the business claims it services one of the largest telcos in the country, along with state local government agencies, and a major food manufacturer.

Quantum, or QMC, operates a number of contact centres in Australia and southeast Asia, operating the Link:Q business. The business also provides a number of virtual services, including message taking, registration, appointment bookings and virtual reception services, as well as telemarketing and market research work.

Poor customer service is biggest complaint from Australian shoppers, according to new research.

Synovate Retail Performance survey found that 24% of those polled said bad-mannered staff put them off shopping and a further 22% complained about staff who just "couldn't be bothered". Another 20% said that pushy staff were the most annoying and could make a trip to the shops "absolute hell".

When consumers were asked what they would change about the shopping experience, 13% asked for lower prices and 11% wanted more online choice. There were also calls for separate shopping times for children and teenagers and, in some cases, calls for all children and teenagers not to be allowed into the shops at weekends or in the afternoons. Comments also included a wish for more flexible and later opening hours.

More than half of Australian consumers believe their insurance and banking providers do not understand them or their communication preferences, according to new research.

The Thunderhead Australia study found that 56% of respondents felt that their provider communicated more on its terms rather than theirs, while 53% felt that communications were ill-targeted and designed to appeal to a broad audience rather than them personally. Most preferred email or phone to mail correspondence.

Some 39% said they are considering switching providers and almost a third of consumers are unlikely to recommend their provider to others. "Banking and insurance providers...need to understand not only the role of technology in their communications, but listen to how customers would like to be communicated with," said Thunderhead's Nick Smith." At the moment it's all one way traffic from provider to customer with little consideration for customer preferences."

Qantas customer service suffered a minor setback this week when its check-in system experienced a fault that left it unable to print boarding passes for almost three hours.

"Qantas airport kiosks have experienced some difficulties this morning. Minor delays as a result. Online check-in not affected," the airline posted on its Twitter page. A Qantas spokesperson told reporters the outage began at about 6.40am Wednesday when the Amadeus check-in system used by the airline experienced a fault hindering the printing of the boarding passes.

"We facilitated the boarding pass printing through our services areas which are just to the side of our kiosk where we've got a set of customer service managers that sit and they wrote them out on pre-printed cards and then sent passengers on their way," the spokesperson said. The system came back online at about 9am.

Outsourcer Salmat, has signed a five-year deal with Avaya to implement a communications platform across its Australian and New Zealand operations designed to improve customer call resolution.

The platform will include web self-service, call recording and integration with Salmat's internal communication systems. Salmat CEO Grant Harrod, said its customers will be able to connect with contact centre agents via phone, email or the Web and receive a consistent level of service.

Under the deal, Avaya will provide managed services to Salmat such as service level targets, network performance and support services. The rollout will commence in February 2012. Avaya's 2011 Asia Pacific Contact Centre Consumer Index found that more than a third of Australian consumers prefer to use methods such as web chat, rather than traditional phone conversations, to contact a customer service centre.

Consumer group CHOICE says airlines must not become too reliant on social networking and the web for their customer service.

Qantas customers stranded during the airline's lockout last month complained of jammed contact centre lines and inadequate communication from the company. CHOICE says that Qantas passengers in transit and those who were yet to travel were left "hanging on for hours" on call centre lines "with too many bereft of information or a helping hand".

"Qantas, and surely for that matter all airlines, need to ensure that call centres are properly staffed to cope with on-going inquiries from those requiring more than Twitter or Facebook information", CHOICE said. CHOICE says that the Qantas lock-out highlights the need for the creation of a travel industry ombudsman to investigate the complaints of the flying public.

Office products supplier Corporate Express Australia has moved to an integrated customer service with Splunk.

Corporate Express technology specialist Shaun Butler said the project has enabled the business to streamline its customer support systems. "Splunk was originally put in as a log aggregation enabler and there wasn't really anything else on the market at the time (that could do the same thing)," Butler told reporters.

Butler said the company has also reduced its IT department running costs thanks to the rollout. "It ingests the data and stores it in files - there are no databases or tables, and what it actually does is assigns structure... and the thing it cares about is time - it attributes everything with time"

News Limited's incoming CEO Kim Williams will apply his customer service experience from a decade running pay-TV company Foxtel, to the company's newspaper business.

News is pursuing a strategy of asking readers to pay for online content, putting Williams' knowledge of subscription television to good use. "I understand the acuity of the need to listen closely to the customer," he told reporters.

The Australian newspaper launched its paid content system this month, and other titles are expected to follow next year. News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch said as Foxtel boss, Williams made "strong representations and I am very strongly of the view that we must have media policy built from consumer needs".

IVR systems are increasingly featuring voice recognition of keywords and biometric identification as core features, delegates at the Voice Leadership Forum in Wellington this month were told.

The forum was told of the user experiences of automated voice at New Zealand's Inland Revenue (IRD) and Ministry of Social Development (MSD) as well as the Bank of New Zealand and Westpac banks. IRD moved from offering "virtual hold" for call backs to its current offering of recognising key words to route calls. If possible the customer is routed to a self-service option through voice-response or online.

MSD launched its voice biometrics service in June this year with the aim of reducing the time taken to become sure of a customer's identity. Enrolment is not forced, but a customer service agent will ask the customer if they would like to opt into the system. Identification by voice is successful 80 percent of the time.

Almost half of Australia's mobile phone users are planning to switch providers next year, with poor customer service one of the main factors.

A report by Macquarie University and SIM-card provider amaysim found that while half of the survey respondents said they found it hard to switch providers, 46% were planning to switch in 2012 with poor coverage and bad customer service among the most common gripes.

Only one in four consumers liked their mobile phone provider, but one-third of respondents were still planning to stay with the same company despite being unhappy with the service. Macquarie University senior marketing lecturer Dr David Gray said Australian mobile phone users were less satisfied than their European counterparts.

Sydney-based IT company MyCyberTwin has won the Rising Star Award at the 2011 Australian Technology Showcase Patrons' Awards in NSW for its online customer service application.

MyCyberTwin was launched in April 2007 after two years of planning and is beginning to achieve export success with its virtual online assistants. The assistants act as customer service agents on business websites and have the ability to converse with customers.

MyCyberTwin co-founders Liesl Capper and John Zakos found most chat robots were too hard to build and maintain, inaccurate, and unable to handle complex queries. "Having realised that the limitation was technology, not market appetite, we set out to build not only the most advanced chat robots but also to make a platform that anyone could use," Zakos said.

Australian consumers are less satisfied with all retailers and service providers than they were 12 months ago, according to new research.

The annual Smart Investor League of Exceptional Service (SMILES) survey, conducted by Financial Review Smart Investor magazine, found the most significant declines in service rating were among superannuation funds, down 8% in a year, and fund managers, down 7%.

The big four banks - Westpac, Commonwealth, ANZ and NAB - rated poorly, despite increasing their branch staff and structures. Mobile phone providers and life insurers also performed worse, with their rating dropping 5%, yet despite controversy following the Queensland floods in January, satisfaction with general insurers fell by only 3%.

US contact centre IT company LiveOps has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of New Zealand-based Datasquirt.

Datasquirt technology allows customers to communicate with businesses in real time across all major channels, including social, mobile, SMS, email, and web chat. Clients such as Royal Mail Group and Wokingham Borough Council in the United Kingdom are using the company's CONTACT solution to manage Twitter-based service delivery in their contact centres.

LiveOps CEO Marty Beard said the acquisition will allow LiveOps to expand its sales and engineering teams with world-class cloud contact centre expertise. "We are now well-positioned to lead the contact centre migration to the cloud with a social, mobile, and voice offering that will transform customer service," he said in a statement.

Wellington software firm Xero plans to expand its customer service numbers as part of its plans to become a world force in the accounting industry.

Founder Rod Drury said he would love to hire extra customer service staff. As well as 50 to 100 more people for its software development and testing team over the next year to 18 months.

Xero will move into new offices in March that can accommodate 180 employees. "As we look at supporting a million customers - and we think that is very achievable- we would be over at least 500 people."

Telstra says its customer service transformation project announced last year is about 50% complete.

Dubbed Project New, the plan is designed to simplify the company and improve customer service. Telstra's Robert Nason told a briefing. The slowest area was cultural change within Telstra which was only 30% complete.

Productivity, simpler prices and improvements to the Telstra operating model were more advanced, he said. Chief customer officer Gordon Ballantyne said Telstra was working with its customers to increase the number of bundles it has sold from 1 million currently to 2 million. This was because customers on bundled services were 52 per cent less likely to leave, he said.

A purpose-built customer service building has been completed in the regional NSW city of Batemans Bay.

The new Smart Centre will house offices from the Department of Human Services, with dozens of new jobs to be advertised within weeks. A government spokesman told reporters that staff from Centrelink, Medicare, CRS Australia and Australian Hearing would relocate to the building before the March 2012 opening.

"In addition staff from other Australian Government, NSW state government and non-government agencies will also relocate," the spokesman said. On-the-job training will be provided for all new positions, which will include customer service advisers and involve the handling of telephone inquiries or processing in relation to government benefits and entitlements.

Wine merchants, Laithwaites Wine People, has improved its customer service capability by rolling out a public Cloud offering across its new 35 seat Sydney contact centre.

Laithwaites, which sells premium wine to some 65,000 Australian customers, decided to deploy IPscape across its business as part of a technology-driven strategy to interact with its customer base. Customer service manager, John Matthews told reporters the rollout of IPscape was about cost efficiency and creating a positive relationship with customers across the business.

"When we first came to Australia, we used the services of an outsourced call centre, and it was a cost efficient thing for us to do at the time," Matthews said. "As the years went on, as we grew and as we had a greater requirement for more advisers, we decided that we wanted to bring our call centres in-house and make it at the heart of what we do."

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will look to deploy a new contact centre solution to boost its customer service ahead of an expected increase in calls prompted in part by the launch of the carbon tax next year.

The ACCC said the contact volumes at its Infocentre had risen 75% from 89,000 to 155,000 per year during the last three years, and is expected to rise by 30% to 40% within the next 12 months with the introduction of carbon tax and the launch of the Australian Energy Regulator's Retailer of Last Resort scheme. "The ACCC's Infocentre receives information requests, complaints and inquiries from consumers and businesses. This may occur via telephone, email, fax, letter, or through lodgement of online forms on ACCC websites," the ACCC said.

ACCC said the new system would be approached in two stages. The first would include sourcing a commercial off-the-shelf solution to enable the registration, recording, classification, management and reporting of inquiries, and a customer service operator's workbench to allow staff to quickly find relevant policy and procedures documents. Stage two could include building at the contact centre system to be used by other business units, and potentially integrate the contacts management capability with the wider management of cases.

The customer service of New Zealand's Palmerston North City and Horizons Regional Councils led them to be named joint recipients of the Initiative of the Year award at the Manawatu Contact Centre Awards.

The award recognised the efforts of the two councils in establishing a 120 seat customer service centre to receive and process Red Cross missing person enquiries in the wake of the February 2011 Canterbury earthquake. Horizons accepted a request to provide the service and teamed up with Palmerston North City Council and established a 90 seat contact centre, across three sites within three hours of receiving the call for assistance. As call volumes grew, the centre was expanded to 120 seats.

"We're thrilled to receive this award which recognises the efforts of the many volunteers who helped on the phones, the staff from both Councils who juggled their workload to help out wherever possible, and shows the rest of New Zealand what we can do here in Palmerston North," Palmerston North City Council's Mike Manson.

Suncorp insurance says it is recruiting an extra 100 customer service workers in Australia to offset a decision to offshore at least 50 processing positions.

"We've made a decision to partner with an external provider regarding a small number of back-office roles in different parts of Australia that we believe can be more efficiently performed by an external provider," a Suncorp spokesman told reporters. "We'll be making every effort possible to ensure those people are deployed into other areas of the company."

The spokesman refused to speculate on whether further jobs would be sent offshore in the future. "If and when we do make further decisions about further plans our employees will be the first to know."

Cloud software company Abiquo has opened a regional sales and support centre in Melbourne to service a growing customer and partner base throughout the Asia Pacific region.

The Australian centre adds to Abiquo's existing office network across the United States and Europe. Abiquo’s Alun Carp said that, as well as providing local time zone support for customers in China, Japan and Australia, the centre in will join centres in the US and Europe to providing 24-hour, follow the sun customer support.

"The opening of the new centre clearly demonstrates Abiquo's commitment to the region," said Josh Rubens, managing director of Cloud Solutions Group, a local Abiquo consulting partner. "Given the volume of demand for cloud solutions in the region, we are pleased to be working with a vendor that can support its partners and customers locally."

The Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) and the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) have jointly released the Australian Group Buying Code of Conduct to ensure better service for customers.

As group buying (which includes online coupon sites) grows into an established channel, ADMA and AIMIA and the industry have recognised the importance of developing a code of conduct specific to the group buying experience. The voluntary code aims to; ensure that consumers have access to products and service information they need to make informed choices; promote compliance within the industry with relevant laws including the National Privacy Principles and the Spam Act 2003; promote fair, honest, ethical best practice within the group buying industry; and increase consumer confidence in dealing with group buying platforms.

The Australian Group Buying Code of Conduct includes an independent, transparent and open complaint-handling process when consumers have been unable to resolve an issue with a group buying company in the first instance. The complaint process has been designed to encourage the group buying industry to resolve established consumer complaints. The complaint handling process will be managed by the ADMA Code Authority.

Australian integrator 3D Networks has won the Avaya Aura Contact Centre APAC Partner of the Year award.

3D Networks received the award for enabling Nortel customers to smoothly migrate to the new Avaya Aura Contact Centre offering. "It's been an exciting year of growth for us," said 3D Networks' Mark Whitfield. "The Australian contact centre market is looking for sophisticated solutions that not only address today's needs but set them up for future technological developments. Our partnership with Avaya helps us to fulfil those needs."

Avaya found the 3D Networks team showed an integrated approach to implement the solution as per customer priorities, ensuring business continuity during transition, and rapid return on investment. "Avaya values 3D Networks' ongoing commitment both as a Platinum partner and as a leading specialist in the Contact Centre space. We are delighted to be able to more formally recognise 3D Networks with this very deserving award" said Avaya Australia & New Zealand MD Rob Wells.

Australian businesses are cooling their attitude to offshoring customer service for the present time, according to new research.

A survey of Australian and North American and European senior executives by Ovum found that just 2% said they would look to offshore their customer service centres in the next 12 to 24 months, while only 10% said they would do so within 25 to 36 months. Meanwhile, a massive 80% said they had no plans to offshore their contact centres.

Ovum's Peter Ryan said four key issues concern enterprises when it comes to offshoring their customer service; quality of the interaction with end users, stability of the offshore destination, pressure from consumers to keep work in the domestic country, and fears over safety of data. "The issue over the quality of the interaction with customer service agents and end users is a key one," Ryan said. "Customers can quickly become frustrated if they feel their enquiry is not being dealt with quickly and effectively and take their business elsewhere."

Consumer group Choice claims Qantas's customer service was unprepared to cope with the needs of passengers stranded by the carrier’s decision to ground its fleet over the weekend.

Stranded Qantas customers complained the airline's phone services were not prepared to handle the volume of calls, with some customers on hold for more than two hours. "It would perhaps be impossible given the sheer scale of the disruption and distress that the call centre could come up to speed so quickly, but we say that's what Qantas should have borne in mind before they pulled the plug," Choice spokesman Christopher Zinn told reporters.

Zinn said it was not just the phone systems that failed. "People who get tweets or SMSs perhaps 24 hours after they should have done in terms of the customer charter telling them that their flight would be cancelled," he said.

Face-to-face contact in sales still delivers better service than online or contact centres, according to new research.

The study by consultants INSIDE STORY Knowledge Management asked consumers about the channels they use to find information, to source quotes and to buy products and services. The report found that consumers especially preferred face to face service on products that require explanation or which represent a more significant investment.

"Whilst many businesses will continue to look at migrating customers to 100% self serve solutions to reduce their service costs, the emphasis needs to be on getting the balance just right for your business and your market position," said INSIDE STORY MD Liane Ringham. "The dispositions and economics are clearly category dependent."

Aged care provider IRT says four years of development is behind its naming as winner of a Customer Service Institute of Australia's (CSIA) 2011 Australian Service Excellence Award.

IRT received the award as a national winner in the not-for-profit category last week. "We have been driving consistently exceptional customer service experience throughout IRT," CEO Nieves Murray said in a statement. "Our staff embraced this initiative."

Murray said quality customer service was vital to IRT's success. IRT's next step will be to gain accreditation under the International Customer Service Standard by 2013.

New Zealand mobile company 2degrees and founding shareholder, the Hautaki Trust, have launched a new program to help Maoris into customer service in the telecommunications industry.

The Hei Rere Mai (So You Can Fly) program involves career advice, paid scholarships and careers for Maoris. Maori students will be offered career advice to best guide them into the industry, while a scholarship will be made available to Maori studying towards ICT qualifications at Auckland University.

2degrees will recruit high school leavers into its customer care team, providing a structured career program whereby they study towards ICT qualifications and can progress into roles in other divisions in the company. 2degrees CEO Eric Hertz said once employees have shown a strong customer ethos they will have opportunities to study towards ICT qualifications on-the-job.

Commonwealth Bank has unveiled new mobile customer service technology it says will redefine the way Commonwealth Bank customers can pay.

CommBank Kaching combines peer-to-peer payments via the phone's contacts and email addresses, and in a world-first; social payments via a user's Facebook friends. "Mobile and online social payment is the next step in transaction technology. Already, more than half our 10 million customers own a smartphone, and Australians are 65 per cent more likely than the British to bank on their phones." said Commbank’s Michael Harte.

"Now, for the first time, Australian consumers will no longer have to rely on cash or cards to make payments to family, friends or even businesses." Figures reveal that in August this year, over 16 million logons were made to Commbank's online site, NetBank using a mobile device, a 229% increase from the same period last year.

Credit Union Australia (CUA) has outsourced the development and hosting of its new banking website to open source specialists Squiz, as it attempts to improve its service for younger customers.

The new CUA web site was developed to appeal to a younger demographic than the credit union's traditional customer base. "The design is very clean, which is in line with the aspirations of customers we were trying to attract," appointed Credit Union CIO David Gee told reporters. "These customers are in their thirties, about to get married and have kids or take out mortgages."

Next year, CUA will launch online banking apps for Android and Apple's iOS devices. Between the website and the new apps he felt CUA could appeal to this demographic "without alienating our current customer base", many of which still prefer retail customer service.

Unified Communications company Zeacom has announced the latest version of Zeacom Communications Center (ZCC), designed with customer service agent retention in mind.

Version 6.0 increases the number of global contacts in the desktop phone book to 10,000 and significantly improves their search ability with new customisable search categories and more meaningful search tags. "For example, operators can now create a category called 'back up' to identify assistants or alternative contacts for team members," said Zeacom. The result is faster call processing for customers while improving the whole user experience for the operator.

"Contact centres are turning to Zeacom to leverage advice and support to drive a higher return on their software investment," said country manager Stephen Sarjeant. "Working together means that a business' strategy to transform customer communications and the underlying business processes can be implemented faster."

IT giant Oracle will buy cloud-based CRM specialist RightNow Technologies to boost its customer service offering.

RightNow customers in the region include Telecom NZ and Virgin Mobile, while the US-based company has around 1000 employees worldwide, including a branch in Australia. "Oracle is moving aggressively to offer customers a full range of cloud solutions including sales force automation, human resources, talent management, social networking, databases and Java as part of the Oracle Public Cloud," said Oracle’s Thomas Kurian. "RightNow's leading customer service cloud is a very important addition."

RightNow says its Customer Service Cloud helps organisations deliver exceptional customer experiences across contact centres, the web and social networks. "RightNow is helping rid the world of bad experiences one consumer interaction at a time, eight million times a day," the company says.

Australian-based outsourcer Stellar will set up a new Europe division with Michael Lumsden as CEO.

"The new Stellar organisation in Europe will build on the success of Stellar in the UK where we have been servicing industry leading clients from the banking, insurance, telecommunications and utilities sectors for more than ten years," said Stellar global CEO John Hollingsworth. "The creation of a European arm signals an expanded geographic mandate for Stellar and recognises the growing market demand for pan European services."

Lumsden will relocate from Australia where he currently holds the position of Chief Strategy Officer for Stellar. Mary Graham, Stellar CEO (UK) will maintain a critical role in the European organisation, assuming the new position of Chief Operating Officer Europe.

Telecom NZ says its three-year strategy, Vision 2013, put in place at the end of last year has ensured strong customer service in a tough environment.

"We have been able to improve customer service while at the same time lowering costs," CEO Paul Reynolds told Telecom's AGM. The plan of Vision 2013 was to cut down on waste, such as placing clear instructions on broadband packs so that customers didn’t need to contact our call centres for assistance.

"It's about getting it right first time," Reynolds said. Telecom NZ is undergoing a demerger, which Reydolds said will make the telco's retail operation a "formidable force".

Vodafone will roll out a new customer service system to help capture the increasing number of social media communications it is experiencing with its customer base.

The new system will be implemented as part of Vodafone's One Connect strategy and will seek to capture tweets and Facebook messages along with more traditional email, voice and SMS-based customer enquiries. Scheduled to go live in March, the system will monitor social media as well as contact centre calls, emails to Vodafone Support, and posts Vodafone's Community eForum and route these to the customer service advisor it deems best able to respond.

Vodafone believes the strategy will improve response to customers and reduce the need to transfer calls to different service departments. The customer service system is based on Alcatel-Lucent Genesys 8.1 customer service technology.

The UK-based Serco Group has further expanded its global outsourcing capabilities by acquiring Australian customer service company Excelior from Skilled Group.

Skilled Group told the Australian Stock Exchange it has entered into an unconditional agreement to sell Excelior to Serco for $13.2 million. Skilled Group also said the sale of Excelior was in line with the company's strategy to focus on its core business after divesting the non-core assets.

Skilled Group provides labour and workforce services in Australia and New Zealand, while Excelior employs about 2,000 people across four contact centres. Serco recently bought Mumbai-based BPO Intelenet Global Services.

An unnamed Queensland shopping centre will soon be able to track its customer’s movements throughout the mall via their mobile phones.

The shopping centre is next month due to become the first in the nation to fit receivers that detect unique mobile phone radio frequency codes to pinpoint location within two metres. The UK Company behind the Footpath system, Path Intelligence, says it is also in discussions with other major Australian sites.

Path Intelligence national sales manager Kerry Baddeley said that no mobile phone user names or numbers could be accessed. "All we do is log the movement of a phone around an area and aggregate this to provide trend data for businesses," she said.

IT security and data protection company Sophos today says its global support services organisation, including Australia and New Zealand has attained Service Capability & Performance Support Standard certification.

Sophos received the honour after an extensive audit of its North American, UK and APAC support centres. The SCP Standards quantify the effectiveness of customer service and support based upon a stringent set of performance standards and represents best practices in the industry.

"Our global support staff's singular focus on the customer demonstrates a clear commitment to customer satisfaction and continues to act as a significant differentiator." said Sophos' Mike McGuinness. Sophos has an Australian contact centre, as well as offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Auckland.

Townsville City Council (TCC) in regional Queensland has implemented a SaaS knowledge management product from livepro for faster responses to its constituents' enquiries.

TCC executive manager of customer services, Megan Leavy said the council headed up the search for a system to help the large team to provide accurate and quick responses to questions ranging from "what night is garbage night?" through to survival information in natural disasters. "We had moved from a word based document system to a free shareware product and then to SharePoint, but the searching still remained chunky," Leavy said.

"The time it takes to get our staff 'job ready' when new or after leave will also be dramatically reduced," she added. Leavy said the product, integrated by IMC Communications could also help TCC interact with local councils in the region.

Australian consumers are among the most vocal in the world when it comes to sharing poor customer service experiences, according to new research.

The latest American Express Global Customer Service Barometer found Australians tell an average 23 people about bad service compared with the 10 people who will hear about a good service experience. Only Italians and Indians complain of bad customer service to more people than Australians.

The survey also found that 65% of Australians said they would always tell people about their bad experience. The research also found poor service can create lasting brand damage and Australia ranked first among those who said a bad service experience had the greatest impact on their impression of a company's brand.

IBM has renewed its IT outsourcing agreement with Westpac New Zealand, extending the partnership until 2017.

Under the agreement, originally signed in 2000, IBM will deploy new technologies improving both customer service and sustainability, and provide upgrades to existing systems. "The new agreement builds on our mutual experience since 2000 and will lead to an even closer alignment of IT services with the needs of Westpac's employees and customers as our collective team works together to deliver on the bank’s IT vision," said IBM NZ's Andrew Fox.

"The ongoing investment by Westpac in advanced technologies will positively differentiate its brand in many ways such as higher energy savings and improved customer service," Fox said. IBM says with new automation tools, the time to market for new IT solutions in the bank will improve and ensure the systems remain stable and secure.

Unified contact centre IT company Noble Systems has announced the acquisition of Melbourne-based workforce management (WFM) specialist Open Wave.

The transaction includes all assets and intellectual property including Open Wave's award-winning, functionally-rich ShiftTrack WFM solution. "Acquiring Open Wave's talent and technologies will enable us to offer the most dynamic and responsive WFM product in the global marketplace," said James K. Noble, Jr, President of Noble Systems.

"We welcome Open Wave clients and partners from Australia and around the world and look forward to continued growth and success under the Noble Systems brand."

Perisher snow resort is reporting excellent results after taking its customer service IT to the slopes.

The resort equipped its lift crews and IT department with Motion Computing F5v Tablet PCs to process lift passes, immediately changing the way the resort services its guests. Perisher's management team wanted to implement a paperless ticketing system and mobile computing solution to provide the more than 700,000 yearly skiers with even more efficient service and enhance the overall resort experience.

The lift crews rely on the tablet PCs as a portable interface to the radio frequency ID-enabled gates, showing real-time information on guest identity and ticket usage. "We've significantly upgraded our service at lift gates and the snow-sport areas. If there are any pass or gate issues, skiers and boarders don't have to go back to the ticket window; the lift crews promptly deal with it right there, improving efficiency and customer service," said Perisher's Michael Fanning.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority's (ACMA) proposes plans to eradicate mobile phone charges for 1800 & 13/1300 calls in a discussion paper released this month titled "Numbering: Calls to freephone and local rate numbers -The way forward". The decision will affect some 100,000 organisations that run 291,000 active free local rate numbers.

An Optus spokesman said the telco supported the views of the Communications Alliance, of which it is a member, while Telstra was non-committal but said it would continue to work ACMA on the issue. The telco continued to charge the call rates for mobiles but folded 1800 numbers into its recently-announced Freedom Connect plans.

In a survey, the ACMA found 36 percent of respondents could not recall the cost of calling a 13/1300 number from a mobile while a further 44 percent did not completely understand the costs of dialling a 1800 number.

Alcatel-Lucent is expected to announce the sale of the Genesys contact centre business to European private equity firm Permira over the coming weeks, for as much as $1.5 billion.

The sale is said to be part of the company's plans to focus on its core businesses such as selling equipment to major global telecom operators.

On July 20, Alcatel-Lucent had announced that it is exploring strategic options, including discussions with third parties, to enhance the future opportunities of its Enterprise business. Genesys, which sells software used in call centres and video conferencing, was acquired by Alcatel in 2000.

CEO of telecommunications company and internet provider Dodo says one of his most important discoveries since the company was launched 10 years ago is that telecommunications is about customer service.

Speaking at a lunch celebrating the 10th anniversary Dodo's launch as a dial-up internet provider in 2001, Larry Kestelman said running Dodo is "not about the blinking lights and how many servers you have". "For a consumer, that doesn't matter. It's all about service, systems, processes and their experiences with dealing with you," he said.

Kestelman referring to a time in 2007 when Dodo topped the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman list of telco complaints from consumers, saying "it's something you have to learn yourself on your own mistakes." "We had 400 people in Melbourne, we tried to recruit more staff unsuccessfully, and that's where we made the decision that if we are going to be here for the long term and we realised what a telecommunications business is all about.

Recently released research states that over 60 per cent of more than 4,000 respondents in 12 countries said that social media in the workplace represents a serious security risk - yet only 29 per cent report having the necessary security controls in place to mitigate it.

"We asked thousands of IT security professionals and most respondents agree that the use of social media in the workplace is important to achieving business objectives," said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute. "However, they believe social media puts their organisations at risk and they do not have the necessary security controls and enforceable policies to address the risk."

Even with the risks, social media presents a large business opportunity for collaboration, reduced expenses, and more efficient processes. While organisations believe that bandwidth has been diminished due to social media, companies that block social media are in danger of being left behind.

Auckland Council has joined the Crimestoppers tip-off phone line to boost public awareness and hopefully solve more offences.

At a meeting of the Community Safety Forum today it was revealed that the council has partnered with the crime-fighting service for six months. Since launching in New Zealand in October 2009, with the support of the former Manukau City Council, Crimestoppers has received over 15,500 calls, half of them from the greater Auckland area. A third of all calls have been actioned by police, and in the Counties-Manukau area alone they have resulted in 124 arrests and 19 warnings.

The council has asked Crimestoppers for intimate access to their operation including their contact centre and encrypted email service. The council also sought publicity material, advice and support on promoting the service and a Crimestoppers expert for speaking engagements. The pilot project aims to give the council key insights into the organisation and to see if their support will boost tip-offs, referrals to police and arrests.

Australian online shoppers and sellers will be the big winners from the most significant changes to Australia Post's parcel operations in its 200 year history.

Australia Post Managing Director and CEO Ahmed Fahour said Australia Post's response to the internet shopping boom includes new delivery options such as the ability for customers to collect parcels from an initial 100 extended hours locations across Australia and access parcel lockers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with customers receiving email and SMS notifications when their parcel arrives.

"We're listening to our customers. Australians are receiving more parcels than ever and many of our customers are rarely at home during the day and find it increasingly hard to get to a post office", said Fahour. "These new measures are additions to existing parcel services and come in response to a 10.9 per cent increase in parcel volumes over the last financial year - a figure which can be directly linked to Australians taking up online shopping in record numbers," he said.

Hardware retailer Bunnings Warehouse has been voted best customer service provider in Australia at the International Customer Service Professionals (ICSP) People's Choice Awards.

While Bunnings won overall, category winners included Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, Qantas, Woolworths, Origin Energy, RACV, AAMI, Medibank, Subway, Toyota and Australia Post.

ICSP CEO Tricia Olsen said the awards showed that companies that take customer service seriously were noticed, and viewed positively by their customers. "In an increasingly competitive business environment, Australian consumers expect high levels of customer service, and for their providers to be price competitive."

Malaysian-based carrier AirAsia says it has improved its service by investing in a New Zealand-developed airline management system.

The system, merlot.aero, will boost customer service by optimising AirAsia's aircraft and crew utilisation, making it possible for the airline to further improve its on-time performance and minimise costs. "AirAsia is committed to service excellence. We have chosen this state-of-the-art operational tool in our quest to offer our guests the best travelling experience," said AirAsia COO Bo Lingam.

"Merlot.aero more smartly forecasts, organises, predicts, measures and reports on daily aircraft and crew utilisation," said Merlot CEO Mark McCaughan. The system will be used by the entire AirAsia Group throughout the region and by its sister company, AirAsia X. The system will commence rollout in November, with the full implementation of the system expected to be completed by mid-2012.

The market for enterprise social networking in Australia is forecast to grow by more than 25% in the next three years as organisations embrace new customer service channels.

The report by Frost & Sullivan says early adoption is being led by the banking, professional services and education sectors - in part as a result of their need for communication and collaboration between multiple branch locations and mobile workers. Frost & Sullivan's Audrey William said the ability to collaborate and share information internally is one of the main reasons organisations are encouraging the use of social media.

"Over time, this approach will be extended to include customer-facing functions," William said. Frost & Sullivan is predicting more acquisitions and partnerships in the enterprise social media market, vendors in the in the unified communications, video conferencing, software and IT segments recently acquiring social media and collaboration companies to strengthen their existing offerings.

Blitz Credit Management has opened a new customer service centre in Perth.

The new office coincides with Blitz Credit Management's recent deployment of technologies including cloud computing and VOIP contact centre systems. "Our company is committed to exploring new technologies to assist in collections," Blitz MD Natalie Walker said.

"The new systems allow us to effectively service our client's high-volume debt collection requirements," she added. Blitz Credit Management specialises in commercial and consumer debt collection, credit information and receivables management services. "Our new premises have been purpose-built to support our growing business" said Walker.

The Victorian and New South Wales governments have joined to set up a customer service centre to allow consumers to "dob in" dodgy tradesmen.

The centre is designed to combat con men and gangs looking to rip off consumers with cheap and sub-par home repairs. Fair trading agencies across the country receive hundreds of reports of travelling con men ripping off consumers with cheap and dodgy home repairs every year.

NSW fair trading minister Anthony Roberts said all Australian governments were supporting new initiatives to stamp out what for too long had been considered civil offences. Dodgy offers of home repairs may include when a trader knocks on your door uninvited, the quote for repair work is cheap, cash-only, today only and you are pressured to accept it immediately and the person demands payment before work has begun.

Car rental company Europcar has announced a new online checkout service to improve the speed and efficiency of its customer service.

The eReady service allows Europcar customers to save time at the counter because they will have already activated their Rental Agreement online. Initial response to the service, which has been trialed with a number of European customers has been very positive.

"Saving time and making car hire easier are paramount to customer satisfaction which is at the heart of our philosophy," Europecar said in a statement. "With the eReady service, our customers will get a different, more efficient checkout experience at the counter, speeding up the overall car hire process. Not only does the customer benefit first-hand, but with more customers using eReady, customer service as a whole will be improved."

Online retain and auction site GraysOnline says it will dramatically increase its web-based customer service and shopping appeal with the launch of GraysOutlet.

GraysOutlet is a multi-category discount retail destinations offering up to 80% off retail prices. Grays CEO Cameron Poolman said his company's customer service team are on standby to answer any customer questions.

Poolman said he identified a gap in the discount retail market place for fixed price, branded product sold online, and GraysOutlet was born. "With over 88% of our customers happy to refer us to their friends, we saw an opportunity to bring our customers a new retail shopping experience with all the service they are used to receiving from GraysOnline."

New Zealand Post is re-introducing stamp vending machines as part of a pilot program designed to improve customer service.

Stamp machines have been installed in PostShop stores and within major shopping malls around Auckland. The machines will offer a variety of different stamps covering requirements for domestic and international mail.

"It's all about convenience, and anyone who's tried these new machines can attest to how convenient and easy to use they are," New Zealand Post's Mark Stewart told reporters. "If all you want is to buy some stamps, then, with these new machines, you can do that in a flash and be on your way."

European cloud CRM vendor Really Simple Systems has signed a deal with Zions Systems to offer its SaaS products to Australian companies under Zions 'SmallBusiness Essentials' range.

SmallBusiness Essentials (SBE) is a range of online tools designed to help small business and covers SBEbooks (bookkeeping), SBEsafety (OHS), SBEclients (CRM), SBEstaff (HR) and SBEtraining (training & development). Really Simple Systems will provide the simple CRM software to deliver SBEclients.

"When looking at products to complement our product suite and be integrated into our SmallBusiness Essentials range, we looked at a number products that met our strict criteria," Zions Systems MD John Given said. "Our partnership with Really Simple Systems will deliver world-class CRM functionality to Australian small business."

Australia's GoConnect and partner Priority One Network Group have arranged to buy a majority stake in Chinese CRM company Shanghai Reliance Information Technology (SRIT).

GoConnect and Priority One will each take a 40% stake in SRIT, which specialises in CRM, social networking, IT marketing and gaming. The company will be used to market the Priority One reward and payment system in China, through Shanghai Reliance's contacts with established e-commerce portals.

GoConnect said that while China has a huge internet population of 485 million and counting, the online loyalty reward market is still in its infancy. As part of the agreement, GoConnect will provide its IPTV technologies to Shanghai Reliance under a free license to help market the program, while Priority One will supply its payment and rewards system.

Online banking specialist ING Direct has won three gongs at the recent Mozo People's Choice Awards.

The awards are based on consumer ratings of companies' customer service, prices, features, and overall satisfaction levels. ING was rated Best Bank, Most Recommended Bank and Most Trusted Bank -more than any other company eligible for the awards.

ING Direct CEO Don Koch said the company is "incredibly proud" of the fact that it has earned the trust and respect of Australians. "We're particularly happy to be recognised with so many awards from those who matter most, our customers," he said.

Motoring group and general insurer NRMA says customers are prepared to more for better customer service.

According a recent survey of NRMA members, 70% of people would pay more if service was better. Of the 1200 members surveyed, 51% said they believed society has lost the notion of good-old-fashioned service.

"There's nothing wrong with the type of service we got back in the 50s," NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said. "If you want the upper hand on your competitor, maybe it's not so much about how snazzy your marketing campaign is or how low the price of your product is, maybe it's about the type of service you provide."

One New Zealand company has urged his fellow businesses to maintain their high levels of customer service beyond the Rugby World Cup.

Rotorua businessman Peter Duncan of wedding planners, The Wedding Guy, says businesses can't let customer service standards drop back to mediocre once the Rugby World Cup is over. Duncan, a two time winner of the Trust Power customer service category of the Westpac Rotorua Business Excellence Awards, says businesses that encourage their employees to LOL will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Duncan says LOL is more than the text abbreviation for Laughing Out Loud. "It stands for Love, Own and Lead," he said. "You need to love what you do and be passionate about it. You need to take ownership of building customer relationships. You need to lead within your own organisation." Duncan has been working with a range of local businesses to spread his customer service message and success, saying more consistent, cohesive service levels will benefit everybody in the city.

The Contact Centre Institute of New Zealand has announced the 2011 CCiNZ Contact Centre Award winners at a dinner held at the SKYCITY Convention Centre in Auckland.

Winner of the Contact Centre Manager of the Year – Over 50 Seats was Tony Summer of Meridian. Karen Sharp of the New Zealand Automobile Association was named Contact Centre Manager of the Year – up to 50 Seats, while ANZ’s Gayle Roden was the Contact Centre Team Leader of the Year.

"We were very pleased to receive so many high calibre entries again this year from contact centre professionals around the country for these awards," CCiNZ co-chair Kathryn Starr said. "I would like to congratulate the winners and wish them well." The judges awarded the winners who made the most significant contribution to support, educate and engage their contact centre; who met or exceeded key performance objectives and who continually strives to strengthen the Contact Centre's role and strategic value within their organisation and the wider industry.

Credit Union Australia, (CUA) says it has gained improved customer interactions since implementing an SAS business intelligence (BI) solution.

CUA provides financial services to 400,000 members across Australia through 75 offices. The financial services company needed a better picture of customer service requirements, but did not have the IT infrastructure or in-house capabilities to manage a business intelligence solution.

Staff were using paper spreadsheet reports from a variety of sources and the result was an unclear picture of the services customers wanted, along with delays in services such as processing loan applications. "We're in a very fortunate position now of having all our data in the one place, which makes things a lot easier to manage," CUA's Andrew Hadley said.

Last week Excelior made a decision to discontinue its door to door sales line of business, predominantly undertaken for telecommunication customers in regional areas, in order to focus on its core business of contact centre outsourcing. Around 25 casual staff were released from their employment with Excelior.

Excelior has also redeployed about six of its recruitment and IT staff into the parent company, Skilled Group, as well as making about six of its recruitment and IT staff from the Excelior Corportate Office redundant. Excelior CEO, John Watkison stated, "Excelior is backed with a significant IT and Recruitment function in the Skilled Group so it was not necessary for us to continue building this capability within Excelior. We now have access to a broader and deeper capability in HR and IT in the Skilled Group, which has over 70 IT staff."

Earlier this year Skilled Group announced it was in the process of divesting Excelior as it focused on its core business of recruitment. It is thought that Serco, a global outsourcer specialising in security defence related services, which recently bought the Indian contact centre outsourcer, Intelenet which has 35,000 seats globally, is the front runner for the purchase of Excelior.

Australia's tourism industry is hoping a proposed guest worker scheme could be the answer to its customer service woes.

Under the planned scheme, foreign workers would be allowed to enter Australia for a period of time for a specific job or employment in a designated industry. The tourism industry said it was finding it hard to fill positions, particularly in regional areas where it competes with mining employers.

"Customer service is a big issue in Australian tourism. In research and surveys it comes up as something that Australians perceive is done better in other places." a Tourism and Transport Forum spokesman told reporters. "You can't provide any sort of service if you can't get staff, and finding good staff is more of a challenge."

CCiNZ have announced the 2011 CCiNZ Contact Centre Award Finalists. The winners will be announced during the CRM Contact Centre Awards Ceremony to be held on Friday 2 September 2011 at the SKYCITY Convention Centre in Auckland.

"We were very pleased to receive so many high calibre entries again this year from contact centre professionals around the country for these awards," said Kathryn Starr, co-chair, CCiNZ. "I would like to congratulate the finalists and wish them well."

The judges were looking for individuals who made the most significant contribution to support, educate and engage their Contact Centre; who met or exceeded key performance objectives and who continually strives to strengthen the Contact Centre's role and strategic value within their organisation and the wider industry.

Finalists in the 2011 CCiNZ Contact Centre Awards are:

CCiNZ 2011 Contact Centre Manager of the Year - Over 50 Seats:
Helen Van Orton, Westpac
Todd Brannigan, State
Tony Sumner, Meridian

CCiNZ 2011 Contact Centre Manager of the Year - Up to 50 Seats:
Haig Davidson, Mitsubishi
Karen Sharp, NZ AA
Pam Whitfield, AsureQuality

CCiNZ 2011 Contact Centre Team Leader of the Year:
 Craig Wright, Westpac
Gayl Roden, ANZ Mike
Bodley, Mitsubishi

Staff at the new Woolworth's hardware retail operation, Masters, have undertaken extensive customer service training in order to hit the ground running when the chain's first store opened this week.

The first of a promised 150 Masters stores, a partnership between Woolworths and US hardware giant Lowes, opened today in Melbourne. Masters says it has poured 100 hours of training into staff to make them experts and lift customer service levels.

The Masters stores also feature a bell system, which allows customers to ring call bells located around the store and have a staff member with them in 45 seconds. In a bid to create a female-friendly environment, the new store features a mother's room, a playground and even shelves in the paint section where handbags can be rested.

New Zealand ISP Orcon is expanding its contact centre as consumer demand for its Genius voice and internet service exceeds expectation.

The company is dropping some if its television advertisements and told reporters that customers are experiencing delays in getting their connections. It said its contact centre is struggling to cope with customer complaints.

Orcon has employed an extra 35 people in its contact centre and is training another 25 people, chief executive Scott Bartlett said.

Sydney-based Simplogy has announced it will distribute the social media-friendly CRM applications from US IT company Nimble.

Nimble's Social Business Platform combines relationship management and social engagement into a web-based solution. It integrates Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Google, email contacts and conversations into one intuitive environment, "empowering small businesses in today's socially connected world to attract and retain the right customers".

Simplogy said in a statement that Nimble is the next evolution in relationship management - a social relationship manager that makes it fun and easy to nurture personal and business relationships. "This will allow our customers to easily see all of the communications made with their contacts no matter where the conversations took place," said Simplogy CEO Hasnain Zaheer.

The Pacific island of Vanuatu has upped its visitor customer service with a new tourism contact centre.

The service, funded by the New Zealand government, with contributions by the Australian government, Telecom Vanuatu and the Vanuatu Tourism Office (VTO) is aimed at providing communications and booking support to outer island tourism businesses in Vanuatu.

"We hope the new call centre will help visitors discover what matters in Vanuatu," New Zealand High Commissioner Bill Dobbie said of the pilot program. The Malampa Travel Call Centre, the first of its kind in the country, has been designed to enhance the overall visitor experience to the islands of "cannibalism and custom", Malekula.

Auckland Airport will engage extra customer service staff to assist the hundreds of fans expected to welcome their favourite rugby teams as they arrive for the Rugby World Cup.

Fiji, England, Japan, France, Samoa, Namibia, Tonga and Australia will arrive at the airport from Monday. Airport spokesman Richard Llewellyn said extra staff and volunteers had been arranged to help at the terminal during these days, because hundreds of fans are expected.

"Fans are being encouraged to come out to welcome their team (so) we're expecting an influx of fans. Up to 18 extra airport staff will join 10 Rugby World Cup volunteers. That is in addition to the usual airport helpers, dressed in blue, who staff help stations and are seen around the terminal, and the 25 customer service personnel also on hand.

Consumer lobby organisation the Australian Telecommunications User Group (ATUG) is set to wind up after over 30 years of representing telecommunications customers.

ATUG chairman David Swift announced that the board of directors had decided that it was time to close the organisation, citing a decline in membership and the rise of a number of similar organisations in the last few years. "Today, the ATUG message is effectively bolstered by a number of consumer organisations, as well as regulators and policies, which promote the long-term interests of end users.

Telecommunications users now have ready access to research and information from a wide array of sources," he said. "Consequently, ATUG has been experiencing a decline in its membership base, and the board believes it is now the right time for ATUG to cede to others the continued promotion of end-user interests in the broadband-enabled world of NBN." Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said in a statement that he was sorry to hear ATUG was closing its doors.

Budget airline Jetstar says the development of a smartphone app will be key to Jetstar coping with customer inquiries in the event of a disaster.

Jetstar head of distribution Alex Knigge told the G-Force 2011 Conference in Melbourne that the carrier has lived through seven natural disasters in the last 12 months. When the volcanic ash cloud disrupted flights across the globe earlier this year, Jetstar saw an increase in the number of calls to its contact centre by 2000%. While the airline would normally take around 300,000 calls from customers per month, this increased at the peak of the cloud's effect to 732,514 in one week.

"If you get above certain thresholds, a call centre will never be able to handle 2000 per cent increases," said Knigge, who added the only other way to deal with spikes would be to shift customers to mobile apps or online. "There's huge opportunities for airlines in the smartphone space, and nobody has really nailed that," he said.

Communication IT company Alcatel-Lucent has called on companies to create a new model for mobile customer engagement by taking advantage of the latest multi-channel smart phones.

Alcatel-Lucent said today's mobile approach is mostly limited to self-service and limited transactions. It advocates a strategy that brings conversations to mobile customer service applications by intelligently linking contact center agents and customer care resources from across the enterprise.

During the G-Force Melbourne 2011 customer event, Alcatel-Lucent outlined its Genesys Mobile Customer Engagement strategy including Contact Me, Connect Me and Know Me, which focuses on helping companies move from transactional applications to mobile conversations and recommends the following best practices. "Today's consumers rely on their smart phones and tablets to be their 'windows to the world'," said Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Tom Burns. "Businesses need to be creative in offering apps that integrate into all areas of the enterprise, from sales and marketing to customer care."

Many Australians believe they get better results if they use social media, online forums, blogs and websites to vent their frustrations over poor customer service, according to new research.

The study by consumer watchdog Choice found that consumers say that after getting an unsatisfactory resolution from customer service departments or generic email responses, Twitter and Facebook get results. Choice spokeswoman Ingrid Just said the message from consumers was "Don't get mad, get tech savvy if you want to be heard".

"Many businesses monitor what people are saying about them online and some are taking proactive steps to rectify problems by directly contacting those who are posting comments," she said. But Just said it was important customers understood their online responsibilities. "Complaints need to be backed up with facts and it's definitely not the place for personal attacks."

The Philippine arm of Malaysian carrier AirAsia will set up a new customer service centre as it looks to spur tourist growth.

The new centre coincides with AirAsia Philippines' announcement of it plans to use its network and affiliate Air Asia companies in Southeast Asia to make Clark International Airport north of Manila its hub in Asia. As well as setting up the contact centre, the airline says it will outsource ground-based customer handling and maintenance and will indirectly benefit customer-focused industries in the surrounding areas as retail, hotels and restaurants.

AirAsia Philippines CEO Marianne Hontiveros said she hoped the strategy would accomplish the same success neighbouring countries have achieved. Thailand's 15.4 million international tourist arrivals and Malaysia's 24.6 million arrivals, nearly equal the size of its population. "We want to make Clark a hub for Asia," she said. "We plan to be a substantial player here. We want to build a market."

The Commonwealth Bank experienced a disruption of its customer service hotline last week as part of a reported IT outage.

Some customers experienced difficulties in using ATMs and EFTPOS last Friday, while the 24-hour customer hotline provided an automated message that apologised for the inconvenience and blamed the problem on a "technical issue". ATM and EFTPOS services were restored that evening, but some contact centre services were still unavailable until a little later.

The outage came as the bank announced an upgrade of its legacy core banking system by next year. Westpac experienced glitches last month and in May, while NAB had a major outage in November last year when its transaction system failed.

US customer service software company SugarCRM has appointed a new Australian managing director as customer numbers in the region continue to rise.

Tony Hughes has been added to the company leadership as MD of SugarCRM Australia. "The momentum in the Asia-Pacific region is clearly on Sugar's side, and it's a testimony to both the completeness of the product and its flexibility to adapt to unique local business conditions," the company said.

Hughes' arrival coincides with another quarter of remarkable growth for SugarCRM in the Rest of the World (ROW) segment, which is dominated by Asia. Second quarter billings rose by 41% over the first quarter of 2011 and by 30% over the same quarter in 2010. "Tony's arrival is only going to intensify what has gone on in the previous two quarters in APAC," Sugar CRM CEO Larry Augustin said.

Global yacht charter company TUI Marine says it plans to relocate its customer service centre to North Sydney next month as part of a bid to double its profits in Australia over the next five years.

TUI Marine currently servicing Australia from its sales centre on Hamilton Island and the new Sydney office is a "proactive move" to target growth. COO Cheryl Powell told reporters that the company's business in Australia was not directly hit by the recession, the company is aiming to increase revenue growth to its high 2008 levels.

"In 2008 everyone had a fantastic year and then once the recession hit business became quite hard in 2009 and 2010," Powell said. "This year everyone in the industry is seeing interest return, but it is not quite where it was in 2008."

Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand will handle the IT service desk Western Australian government-owned utility Horizon Power as part of an end-to-end managed services contract.

Horizon Power services more than 42,500 customers across an area of approximately 2.3 million square kilometres in the remote regions of WA. The Managed Services contract includes end-to-end infrastructure support based in WA for Horizon Power's staff and contractors across the state, including: service desk; VoIP telephone system support; end-user device support, both remote and desk-side; service delivery management and reporting; change, problem, asset and configuration management; server, storage, database and network support; capacity management; and support for email and Citrix applications.

"We are proud to have been chosen to provide vital ICT support services for Horizon Power," said Fujitsu's Tim White. "This is another opportunity to leverage our mature service delivery capability, best practice and extensive field services capability to be able to help Horizon Power to service its geographically dispersed customers."

The federal government has introduced a new Customer Service Guarantee (CSG) to set timeframes for the delivery of prompt service by telcos.

Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy said the CSG standard would come into effect from October 1 and sets timeframes that are to be met by service providers for the connection, fault repair, and keeping of appointments in relation to standard telephone services. Carriers must meet the CSG timeframes 90% of the time or face fines from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

The maximum penalty will be set following the soon to commence public consultation period and could be as high as $2 million. The benchmarks will only apply to service providers who offer at least 100,000 CSG services on a national basis. There are also specific thresholds for urban, rural and remote areas.

No. 2 telco Optus has reportedly cut its IT customer service costs by 60% after rolling out self-service security software.

Optus head of information security Siva Sivasubramanian told reporters the telco was previously spending $300 000 each year on help desk fees to reset staff passwords. "On any given day, we get about a dozen requests for a password reset," Sivasubramanian said. "...if these requests are from Optus staff in Australia, they would call the helpdesk staff."

Prior to the self-service deployment, local employees who were locked out of their accounts took at least 15 minutes to have their passwords reset by helpdesk staff. Besides productivity and helpdesk costs, Optus was concerned with the time it took to reset passwords and would prompt employees, particularly contact centre staff, with challenging performance targets.

Telstra's New Zealand subsidiary TelstraClear has reported a loss thanks largely due to the Canterbury earthquakes and the cost of setting up a contact centre in the Philippines.

The Auckland-based unit made a loss of $5 million in the 12 months ended June 30 after operating expenses rose 6% to $568 million. The company said the increased costs came from the restoration and recovery activity incurred by the Canterbury quakes, and the one-off costs from shifting about 120 contact centre jobs from Christchurch and Paraparaumu to Manila.

"Labour, travel and training costs were also increased, year on year, due to one-off project costs associated with the transition of some call centre activities to Manila," said Chief executive Allan Freeth, who reaffirmed the company's commitment to quake-hit Christchurch. "Christchurch is important to TelstraClear. We have a customer care centre there, operate an ultra-fast hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) system, and base some network operations in the city".

A training program will soon be rolled out telling Western Australian baristas, waiters and bar tenders to smile.

The customer service training program is aimed at raising the standards of restaurants, cafes and hotels ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Premier Colin Barnett said he hoped the Service with a Smile program will lead to a "quantum leap in the level of customer service" in the state's hospitality, tourism and retail sectors.

"I want WA to not only be known as this great mining state … (but) I want WA to be known for its people," Barnett said. The Australian Hotels Association (AHA) of WA has spent $200,000 on developing the voluntary training program, which is the first of its kind in the country. Bradley Woods, chief executive of the AHA WA, said the program was not about whether the state had bad customer service or not but about ensuring industry was committed to consistently delivering high standards.

Australia's major telecommunications companies have told the Australian Communications and Media Authority its main customer service concerns will be addressed by its upcoming, revised code.

The ACMA received almost 40 submissions regarding its inquiry's draft report reconnecting the Customer. In its submission, the peak telecommunications industry body, Communications Alliance, said it supported the ACMA draft report, but that the industry's revised Telecommunications Consumer Protections (TCP) Code would address the major issues raised in the report.

Key points the ACMA's draft report said must be addressed were: clarity in pricing, advertising and comparison between providers; improved complaints management; tools for users to monitor phone usage; and amendments to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Scheme. The inquiry began in April 2010, when ACMA announced it was time to investigate the growing dissatisfaction with customer service provided by internet service providers and telecommunication companies in Australia. Preliminary results show key problematic areas include how long and hard it can be to get in touch with service providers when support is required, long waiting periods to get problems resolved and differing advice about services available between providers.

Hard worked Christchurch City Council customer service staff are receiving free shoulder massages every 10 days to boost morale.

Call volume at the council's contact centre has doubled since February's earthquake and the council's 44 customer service agents have fielded hundreds of calls a day from distraught Canterbury residents. Contact centre manager David Dally said the workload had put staff under immense pressure and staff were working triple-shift rosters in March and put in extensive overtime to keep the phones answered.

"People are quite distressed, and understandably so. However, staff have often been in that same position themselves," said Dally, who paid for staff to have neck and shoulder massages to help relieve tension. He also laid on roast dinners and morning teas to keep staff fuelled during their shifts. To help decrease the workload, extra staff have arrived after being trained to help cope with the nature and number of calls.

Toowoomba's Regional Council's customer service and contact centre refurbishment has been recognised as a "leading example of functionality and clever design principles".

Building contractors Hutchinson Builders have received an award for best refurbishment/renovation up to $4 million for the project at the Darling Downs and Western Queensland Master Builders' regional awards ceremony. The project, which was delivered on time and under budget, will vie for the best in its category across Queensland at the state awards function in Brisbane in October.

"Getting this facility up and running was a major achievement. It allows council to offer a single and more accessible customer contact point in Toowoomba," Councillor Anne Glasheen said of the centre's March opening. "The opening signalled a major change in the way council serves the public and does business. We wanted a modern and well organised layout to offer a more comprehensive service to the public in one location."

ANZ bank says it plans to trial the use of foreign staff to call Australian customers as part of its debt collection division.

The pilot program will involve 100 staff based in Manila who will make some early stage debt collection phone calls. ANZ says the 100 jobs are not being cut from Australia, and will come in addition to the 800 employees it already employs in debt collection in Melbourne.

ANZ says it is conducting the pilot due to the difficulties in attracting and retaining local staff in debt collections. The bank's spokesman Paul Edwards told reporters a rise in bad debts also meant it needed to find more people to handle collections. "The decision is primarily driven by the recent uptick we've seen in loan arrears, particularly on mortgages and unsecured lending," he said.

New Zealand's Fisher and Paykel thanks its customer service strategy for the much of its success in being named the country's most trusted whitegoods brand in the Reader's Digest Most Trusted Brands Survey.

Fisher & Paykel New Zealand marketing manager Roger Bridge said customer insight and rigorous appliance testing led the development of Fisher & Paykel products, while continued advancement of leading proprietary technology keeps it ahead of the rest. "When it comes to customer support, we're the only whiteware company in NZ with a 24/7 customer care" he said.

"Our global call centre is based here in New Zealand, assisting people from all over the world and is able to activate a network of Fisher & Paykel appliance experts in each local market." The company's support of its customers extends to its communities, with partnerships with the Silver Ferns national netball teams and culinary events around New Zealand. In the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes, Fisher & Paykel continues to provide free washing and drying facility.

Electronics company Samsung Communications Centre NSW has received the No 1 National Dealership Award for its sales, customer service and technical support.

The award comes after the company had been awarded the Tasmanian Government contract for providing IP telephony infrastructure for it websites, spreading across different locations. The main solutions offered by the centre include messaging solutions, unified communications solutions, solutions for mobile and remote users, fixed line and mobiles and also the VoIP phone system solutions.

Another major function of the centre is to support its service request online service. This feature involves an expert technician from the company providing a service solution online, doing away with the need to make a personal visit in most of the cases.

New Zealand's Fisher and Paykel thanks its customer service strategy for the much of its success in being named the country's most trusted whitegoods brand in the Reader's Digest Most Trusted Brands Survey.

Fisher & Paykel New Zealand marketing manager Roger Bridge said customer insight and rigorous appliance testing led the development of Fisher & Paykel products, while continued advancement of leading proprietary technology keeps it ahead of the rest. "When it comes to customer support, we're the only whiteware company in NZ with a 24/7 customer care" he said.

"Our global call centre is based here in New Zealand, assisting people from all over the world and is able to activate a network of Fisher & Paykel appliance experts in each local market." The company's support of its customers extends to its communities, with partnerships with the Silver Ferns national netball teams and culinary events around New Zealand. In the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes, Fisher & Paykel continues to provide free washing and drying facility.

Electronics company Samsung Communications Centre NSW has received the No 1 National Dealership Award for its sales, customer service and technical support.

The award comes after the company had been awarded the Tasmanian Government contract for providing IP telephony infrastructure for it websites, spreading across different locations. The main solutions offered by the centre include messaging solutions, unified communications solutions, solutions for mobile and remote users, fixed line and mobiles and also the VoIP phone system solutions.

Another major function of the centre is to support its service request online service. This feature involves an expert technician from the company providing a service solution online, doing away with the need to make a personal visit in most of the cases.

Australia's Infinite Technology Solutions has been included in a list of the top 10 global partners by US customer service IT company FrontRange Solutions.

FrontRange says the top 10 worldwide partners are those who have contributed to FrontRange's global expansion and growth over the past financial year. Infinite Technology Solutions is an IT consulting firm based in Queensland that supports all products offered by FrontRange including its IT Service Management, Help Desk, Software Asset Management, Voice, and CRM solutions.

"Having worked with FrontRange Solutions for almost ten years, we are delighted that Infinite Technology Solutions has been recognised among the company’s top ten worldwide partners," FrontRange's John O’Brien said. "Our partners play a pivotal role in introducing our products to the local market and we are constantly on the lookout for new partners to strengthen our channel network in Australia."

New Zealand Post owned local directory, Localist, has adopted a Salesforce.com cloud-based CRM system.

Localist head of technology Ken Holley told reporters the company was attracted to Salesforce.com because it could be implemented quickly. "We had to do it as if we were a start-up," he said. "We didn't have a single customer at that point, so cost, scalability and time-to-market were among the concerns."

Holley said there was no added risk in moving CRM to the cloud rather than working with an internal IT team. "In my view, the risk is probably less (with a cloud provider). You just need to recognise what the risks are and plan for it," he said.

Malaysia Airlines will reportedly close its Adelaide contact centre this month.

The centre once handled all Australian and New Zealand calls for the airline, employing more than 60 customer service agents at its height. Staff numbers have since dropped to around 30 agents.

A contact centre employee (who did not wish to be named) told New Limited that the staff, that they have been told the calls will be cut off on July 27 and further queries will be transferred to Malaysia. A senior Malaysian Airlines staff member in Adelaide would not talk about the closure to New Limited, saying only it was "a head office process".

US training solutions company Merced Systems says Telstra has successfully deployed its core Sales Performance Management and Service Performance Management solutions in its internal consumer contact centres.

The solutions are designed to improve employee performance, assist managers in coaching, and streamline incentive management. Telstra deployed a pilot program with Merced Systems in 2009 in a bid to improve customer service. Within three months, the company increased its sales and conversion rates, decreased preparation time for coaching and increased face-to-face coaching.

Telstra has since expanded the deployment to all their internal consumer contact centres to help improve customer satisfaction. Telstra is also deploying the Merced Systems' suite of sales performance management and coaching solutions across more than 100 retail stores this year and will roll out the solutions to additional customer facing areas over the coming year.

ANZ Bank has rejected suggestions it is falling behind in the customer technology stakes.

ANZ deputy CEO Graham Hodges said what was important for the bank was keeping its eye on the ball in terms of customer priorities. "It's about meeting customer need," said Hodges, noting that for many customers, real-time banking wasn't particularly a priority, compared to other potential upgrades the bank could be working on.

"The issue for us is that we've got a business strategy which we're following," said Hodges. Unlike many of its rivals, ANZ has rejected the need for a single core for core banking modernisation, instead continuing to rely on three core banking systems. "We will continue to have three cores, our business strategy does not require us to replace them," said CIP Anne Weatherston. "Over the next few years, we will not be constrained by our core systems."

Bank of Queensland customer service staff have been slipping into their PJs for a good cause as part of BOQ's annual Banking on our Kids appeal.

"Our advertising agency Junior developed the creative idea for this year's appeal, which is to "help sick kids get back to their own beds", said BOQ's Greg Abbey. "So we kicked things off with a pyjama party at our 260 branches across Australia, and most support centre staff donned their slippers to work."

BOQ has set itself the target of raising over $275,000 in the month of July, with all donations passed directly to Children's Hospital Foundations Australia (CHFA). "Banking on our Kids has gained huge momentum since it started back in 2004 and we're hoping to crack the cumulative $1 million fundraising total this year," Abbey said.

Christchurch retailers have been warned to pay attention to customer service as the city's shopping sector continues to recover after this year's earthquakes.

New Zealand Retailers' Association Central and Southern regional manager Brian Finlayson says Christchurch retailers who have picked up business after the February 22 earthquake need to lift their game if they want to retain new customers. "They need to look at their whole customer service structure," Finlayson said. “They're being mugs to themselves if they don't give the service when the business is coming to them by default, because they won't retain them."

He said cafes or restaurants that were now very busy during lunchtimes may need to look at hiring extra staff, even if only to clear tables. "We're also suggesting to some businesses that they could extend their hours," said Finlayson, who explained the strategy should be about trying to make it easier for the customer.

Qantas has extended its lead as customers' favoured airline, with 83% in a new survey saying they were 'very' or 'fairly' satisfied for the carrier during year ending April 2011.

The latest Roy Morgan Airline Customer Satisfaction Report found that Virgin Blue, recently renamed Virgin Australia, attracted an 80% positive customer response. Qantaslink satisfaction was at 80% for the year ended April 2011, and Regional Express at 76%, just above the industry average of 75%.

Jetstar's satisfaction remained steady at 68%, while the now grounded Tiger was at 46%. "Despite its high rating amongst the domestic business market, Qantas has nevertheless lost market share to Virgin Blue, which is focussing strongly on attracting the business customer," said Roy Morgan’s Jane Ianniello. "With Tiger's recent grounding by CASA, their low customer satisfaction ratings are the least of their problems."

When Indigo Wallace-Knight, aged 9, read in an unfaltering voice her prepared speech for a group of Sydney's leading women donors this week, it was a significant achievement. Two years before it would have been something well beyond her reading skills. When she was five and in kindergarten, Indigo was diagnosed with dyslexia, a not uncommon condition in which part of the brain responsible for processing symbols into words and numbers misfires.

In her own words, the nine-year-old told the women how she had been ostracised and bullied by a group of girls who demanded she spell words to earn her right to play. She couldn't, and Indigo would return home from school, collapsing in tears and then waking during the night distraught.

"I wondered why I was like this and not like other girls."

Dr Catriona Wallace, the academic and self-made call centre industry entrepreneur, watched as her once outgoing child's self confidence disintegrated. "I was in floods of tears myself and I don't cry, I'm a corporate businesswoman. There was nothing in the public school system catching her."

Then, a year ago Indigo, by now enrolled in an expensive intensive literacy program and making steady progress, asked her mother what could be done to help other girls in her position: "I want to help people get that money to help their children learn to read," she told her. "I want them to be happy like me."

That was the beginning of The Indigo Express Fund, the first philanthropic fund to be established by the Sydney Women's Fund, established three years ago as part of the Sydney Community Foundation to convince the city's corporate leaders to invest in charitable projects targeting women and girls.

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, Linda Morris, June 11, 2011

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