Call Centre News

Dominican Republic next to become the outsourced country for call centres?

Is the Dominican Republic becoming the latest in the long line of countries that are benefiting from the surge in offshore call centres?

Stream has announced it has acquired a contact center in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. The site will provide English and Spanish-language support for Stream's North American and Latin American clients.more..

Automated Agents have the conversational skills to handle advanced customer service calls?

Voxify, the first company to create Automated Agents for call centers with the conversational skills to handle advanced customer service calls, today announced that its technology is being used by home furnishings retailer Restoration Hardware to improve customer service. The system went live across the company's 104 stores in the U.S. and Canada in May. more..

American Express installs new Contact Centre in Bahrain

American Express has installed a has installed a new call centre in its Middle Eastern Headquarters and contact centre in Manama, Bahrain. more..

Generali-Providencia, Hungary's Second Largest Insurance Company, installs Avaya IP Contact Centre

Generali-Providencia, Hungary's second largest insurance company and part of Generali Holding Vienna AG, has installed an Avaya IP-based customer care solution at its Budapest- based contact centre. more..

ACD system vendors seek smaller call centres

Saturation in the large contact centre market of over 400 agent seats in Europe is compelling automatic call distributor (ACD) system vendors to explore growth opportunities in the small and medium call centre market of under 250 seats. more..

Avaya Contact Centre wins the Frost and Sullivan award

Avaya has received the Frost & Sullivan Award for Contact Center End-User Choice. The Frost & Sullivan Survey also says more Contact Centers are Accelerating IP Integration. more..

JP Morgan Chase sued for overtime violations at call centres

Signs of an increase in the power of call centre workers in the USA has emerged today with news that tens of thousands of current and former JPMorgan Chase & Co. call center employees in at least 11 states may be affected by a lawsuit alleging that the global financial services firm violated Fair Labor Standards Act overtime regulations. more..

275,00 more Call Centre Jobs for India Estonia and Argentina

Telecommunications operators worldwide are set to off-shore 275,000 call centre positions by 2008 according to a new Deloitte & Touche survey. more..

"Running a center without this solution is like running a marathon in combat boots"

Aspect Communications, has won the ContactCenterWorld.com Members' Choice Awards for best ACD/switch and workforce management products globally. The Aspect Call Center and Aspect eWorkforce Management were selected based on evaluation criteria such as post-sales support, training and return-on-investment. more..

Human resources, and not technology or outsourcing, is the most critical - and most difficult to master - component of call centre management, according to business research firm Cutting Edge Information. High turnover rates - exceeding 100% for some firms - plagues call centres in all industries and is particularly costly to financial services firms, whose customers are quick to switch to competitors when they receive poor service. more..

Tough choices for IP telephony system

Cetelem's UK call centre faced touch choices in the selection of it's new Ip telephony system more..

Leading Companies Continue Outsourcing Operations

While cross-selling and up-selling are the main strategies financial services companies take to grow revenue, outsourcing is one of the most efficient means of cutting costs. Industry analysts estimate that 50% to 67% of Fortune 500 companies outsource their operations overseas to countries like India, where labour costs offer dramatic savings -- upwards of 70%. more..

Lloyds TSB IVR system handles 70 Millionth call

Lloyds TSB has received its 70 millionth automated call - representing more than 84 million financial transactions - through a speech-enabled customer self-service telephone system based on an interactive voice response IVR system. more..

Jobs at risk as another call centre moves to India

Scottish Widows decision today to set up a pilot call centre in India has prompted fears that thousands of jobs in Edinburgh could be put at risk.

Research by Scotland's largest finance sector union, Amicus, suggests that over 20,000 Scottish jobs are at risk as part of a global trend which, according to Deloitte Consulting, will see 2 million western economy jobs exported to India by 2008. more..

Life in the fast lane

Results of a survey have shown the full effects of fast living, 24-hour lifestyles which include:

• 85% - irritability towards partners or family
• 79% - excessive alcohol intake
• 76% - losing patience with work colleagues
• 71% - indigestion
• 62% - reduced interest in sex

more..

Staff turnover at call centres reaches critical levels

Staff Turnover at call centres has reached 25%, the highest level in 5 years. This is the finding of a survey published in September by Incomes Data Services, which has been monitoring the industry since 1998.

The results of the new report are based on information from 125 organisations, employing one 112,000 staff in more than 300 call centres. more..

Thomas Cook improves its customer service

Thomas Cook has created a virtual contact centre that has halved "time to answer" for nearly two-thirds of customers calling the company, increased the percentage of calls handled successfully from 89 to 96 percent and slashed by 250,000 annually the number of customers abandoning calls. Thomas Cook estimates that its investment paid for itself in under six months. more..

UK Embraces 24/7 Lifestyle

The 9-5 lifestyle is fast disappearing and the UK is embracing a more cosmopolitan, '24/7' way of life. According to figures released by Yellow Pages, 85 per cent of respondents nationwide felt that the UK's 9-5 culture was in decline. Almost 90 per cent agreed that the UK lifestyle had become increasingly 24/7 over the last five years and 86 per cent felt that this gave them the flexibility to do what they want, when they want. more..

JP Morgan to outsource to India

News that US investment banks, including JP Morgan Chase, are outsourcing analyst jobs to India will spell disaster for London's City institutions.

Amicus, the UK's biggest insurance and finance union, is calling on the Government to mount an immediate independent enquiry into the issue of IT outsourcing as outsourcing announcements are made on a daily basis. more..