Call Center and CRM Best Practices

The demand for customer collaboration solutions is somewhat new but growing fast. Not surprising for a new market is the confusion caused by competing vendors' claims for their solutions. A recent Frost and Sullivan white paper, Customer Collaboration - A Richer Customer Experience Drives Profits,  provide a "what to look for" list as an aid to sorting out these claims:

• Web-based co-browsing functionality that works with all modern browsers and computer operating systems found in the market, including those from Microsoft, Apple, and Google

• Support for mobile clients

• If client software needs to be installed on the customer’s PC, it must not leave any residual software after the session ends

• Tight integration with leading contact center application suites

• Contact center application integration with contact center agent tools, as well as contact work-flows and reporting

• Secure agent-to-customer connections that allow customers to end the session at any time

• Flexibility and scalability

• Support for all required languages

• Full end-to-end reporting capability

• Capability to record 100% of customer interactions

• Video capable

• Integration toolkits that support customization/extension of functionality

• Tools that can support a variety of customer experiences: Customer Service, Sales Support, Tech Support, IT Helpdesk, etc