Independent Contact Center Consultants: Bridging Strategy, Technology and Operations Since 2004

Reimagining CRM

If you are stuck in a world in which customer relationship management (CRM) software can only play in the sales sandbox, it’s time to think outside the box. CRM vendors have paved a road to operational efficiency that helps contact centers serve their customers in excellence, across media, while delivering a more satisfying experience for their… Read More »

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Lori Bocklund Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

The team at Strategic Contact, Inc. is pleased to share the news that Lori Bocklund received the ICMI Lifetime Achievement Award at ICMI’s Global Contact Center Awards ceremony on May 4, 2015. Brad Cleveland, Senior Advisor and Past CEO/President of ICMI, shared the following remarks prior to recognizing Lori for her stellar contribution to the… Read More »

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The Only Thing Certain is Change

Change seems to be reaching new heights. Additions, consolidation, and moves affects the number of sites. Companies add outsourcers, use existing outsourcers in new ways, or move outsourced activity in-house. Then there is the whole merger and acquisition scramble which can set everyone on edge, whether it is with the vendor that supplies the technology… Read More »

Which Technology Sourcing Option Is Right For You?

The number and types of vendors offering contact center solutions has grown dramatically. Cloud, hosted, and managed service providers provide broad functionality, often with innovative licensing arrangements. Seasoned premise solution players make long-proven capabilities available in the cloud. And they are all pursuing centers across a wide spectrum of sizes and vertical markets. The proliferation… Read More »

HELP WANTED… to deliver contact center technology value

Maxed out. That’s how we find many contact center leaders and their IT counterparts. Too much to do, not enough time to do it, and the urgent always trumping the important. Sound familiar? Most centers find ways to attend to their technologies’ daily demands, some of which are routine (e.g., run reports, build schedules) and… Read More »

The State of Speech Analytics

Analytics, specifically speech analytics, has generated a great deal of excitement for over 10 years. The industry’s enthusiasm lies in the potential value that can be garnered from the countless customer conversations occurring each day. In a quick sampling of clients who were early adopters of speech analytics and others who are in hot pursuit,… Read More »

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Are you Ready for These Technology Enhancements?

Are you the type of person who can’t wait to see what’s in the next smart phone release? All the bells and whistles, bigger, faster, better. You may have similar feelings about new contact center technologies. Here are 5 cutting edge technologies that are poised to move beyond early adopters. TEXT: With this channel, customers… Read More »

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Omni-Channel: The “Buzz” and the Beast

Omni-channel is new buzz word to promote “seamless” and “integrated” customer interactions across all modes of contact. It’s not a new concept. For years, it’s what people intended for “multi-channel customer contact.” They just haven’t been able to achieve it. So to make old things new again, the market has a new word. Unfortunately, changing… Read More »

New Technology Supports Business Continuity and Recovery

Ever have a nagging feeling that your center is more vulnerable than you’d like to admit? Odds are, creating or updating that dreaded Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) plan has been on your to do list for some time. Good news: Cloud services, server virtualization, mobile computing, and social networks provide some new options to address… Read More »

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3 Questions Narrow Technology Sourcing Decisions

The contact center technology market has become increasingly diverse and complex. With many sourcing options (premise, hosted, cloud, managed services), a growing number of vendors, and the dances those vendors do with their partners, it’s a wonder anyone can make a good decision, much less a timely one, when pursuing new solutions. Pricing comparisons alone… Read More »