Good customer service does happen - CNET reviews

This was an article that came across my desk today. Always looking for the positive stuff:

From CNET --

"Pardon me while I faint. I just finished experiencing good customer service. And it was with Apple. It had to do with a difficulty downloading one of its new video versions of the TV series Lost.

My wife recently started watching the series off the TiVo, but I hadn't seen all the episodes. So I figured I'd give it a whirl, and I bought a couple of episodes from iTunes to help me catch up. They aren't the greatest quality at full screen on my laptop, but they're tolerable. And at two bucks a pop for three episodes, they're cheaper than a microbrew--and lasted longer.

However, I had not accounted for the circa-September 1940 electrical wiring in my house. Occasionally when I have the dimmer at the wrong level on my lights, it interferes with the DSL. Needless to say, I had a download of one episode interrupted when I switched on the lights. I had lost an episode of Lost"....read more on Cnet

Idea Brianstorm Challenge

We're going to be setting up a web-based contest where users can submit business ideas and win a chance to see it through to development and taken to market. We have the resources, skill sets, and structure to launch a successful new venture. We're looking for creative ideas that are fun, smart, and launch-able.

The ideas should focus on the call center market, but do not necessarily need to be related to contact center quality assurance.

This will be formally introduced in the coming weeks, but if you want to get a heads up, you can simply fill out the email signup form on the right -->

Call Center Glossary

There is a very good glossary out there on the web at:
Incoming.com.

Here are some snippets:

Call. Also called Transaction and Customer Contact. A term referring to telephone calls, video calls, Web calls and other types of contacts.

Call Blending. Combining traditionally separate inbound and outbound agent groups into one group of agents responsible for handling both inbound and outbound contacts. A system that is capable of call blending automatically puts agents who are making outbound calls into the inbound mode and vice versa, as necessitated by the incoming call load.

Call By Call Routing. The process of routing each call to the optimum destination according to real-time conditions. See Percent Allocation and Network Inter-flow.

Call Center. An umbrella term that generally refers to reservations centers, help desks, information lines or customer service centers, regardless of how they are organized or what types of transactions they handle. The term is being challenged by many, because calls are just one type of transaction and the word center doesnÍt accurately depict the many multi-site environments.

Call Control Variables. The set of criteria the ACD uses to process calls. Examples include routing criteria, overflow parameters, recorded announcements and timing thresholds.

Call Detail Recording. Data on each call, captured and stored by the ACD. Can include trunk used, time in queue, call duration, agent who handled the call, number dialed (for outgoing), and other information.

Call Forcing. An ACD feature that automatically delivers calls to agents who are available and ready to take calls. They hear a notification that the call has arrived (e.g. a beep tone), but do not have to press a button to answer the call.

Call Load. Also referred to as Work Load. Call Load is the product of (Average Talk Time + Average After-Call Work) x call volume, for a given period.

Caller ID. See Automatic Number Identification.

Caller-Entered Digits (CED). Digits callers enter using their telephone keypads. The ACD, VRU, or network can prompt for CEDs.

Calling Line Identity (CLI). See Automatic Number Identification.

Calls In Queue. A real-time report that refers to the number of calls received by the ACD system but not yet connected to an agent.