Customer vs. Company, With Call Centers in the Middle

Thanks to the Internet many customers have turned back the swords of CRM through product, service and price research. They return fire with devastating feedback, spread worldwide at the speed of light. These ticked off buyers have opened chinks in the armor by publicizing how to get around the IVR/DTMF and speech rec gatekeepers.

While I was at a call center industry conference several years ago I bought a fridge magnet that shows a rotary-dial phone covered in cobwebs surrounded by the words: "Apathy. If we don't take care of the customer maybe they'll stop bugging us." The magnet now rests on a filing cabinet next to my desk. It reminds me just how little has really changed in contact centers over the years.

That is despite huge sums that have been poured into contact center solutions and services. Instead the opposite appears to have happened: service may have actually become and appears to getting worse. ... Go to source