Federal credit union call center director gives feedback on Virtual Observer training

Lockheed Martin Federal Credit Union recently completed Virtual Observer training at their corporate location.

Here is a quote from Kara Fitzgerald, Director of Call Centers:

"I have had many experiences with call monitoring in the past. I LOVE Virtual Observer from its thumbnails of desktops to its ability to interact with employees while they are on a call. I also have positive comments for the training as it is tailored around who is attending. The more interactive the participants the better the training was. The trainer was excellent!"

Call recording technologies are found in more than just large call centers

When people think of call recording or quality monitoring, they usually associate it with call centers, customer service centers, etc -- Dozens or hundreds of people taking thousands of calls. We also have quite a few customers running Virtual Observer in much smaller customer service centers where the call volume is much lower, yet the importance of the calls is just as high.

In one telling example, a convenience store chain has a small center with three to four service agents answering the incoming calls from store managers at the individual stores. These calls are equally as important to the business as customer service calls may be to other businesses. The calls are recorded to prevent and resolve disputes, and in one particular recorded interaction, the resulting call yielded an investigation which solved the theft of store credit cards. Read more about this convenience store's call recording implementation.

6 Pownce invitations to give out

This isn't really call center-related, but I thought it was news worthy enough to post. Pownce is a new turbo-IM/forum tool that alerts you to news from your friends in social networks. For example, if everyone in your LinkedIn contact list used Pownce to make announcements, change status, or to let people know where they were, you would automatically be pinged with the messgae. Like Twitter, the thought is you'll use these tools as kind of a hyper-blog, where you update it with every single activity.

Another example would be if all of your call center agents had Pownce, and they posted every time they finished a call, and they were all in your Pownce network, you could be notified with each change in status.

It's a strecth to see this as a business implementation, but it's still kind of a cool technology. Entirely web-based, you need to be invited to use it. I have six invitations, so comment below and I'll send you one if available.

4 new customer implementations in USA and Canada

CSI's professional implementation and training team just returned from 4 successful onsite visits to new customers. Often taking on a consultative role with the new clients, we always try to help them get up and running as quickly as possible, beating expectations.

The marketing and sales department feels confident sending the trainers out to the field, as they usually convert new customers into new product champions, willing to become testimonials, case studies and referenceable contacts.

I'll be looking to talk more in-depth with these customers over time as take them from a new implementation to a long-term client that has achieved and sustained a rapid return on investment.

The four clients were of the following industries:
* hospital/medical center
* wireless provider
* insurance company
* non-profit agricultural organization