Call Centers

Five9's Virtual Call Center products -- on-demand contact center applications -- are now fully compatible with Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. Essentially, what this means is that the system, which requires only a Windows-based PC, Internet connection and headset, can now support Vista....

The stage is set for further growth in VoIP communications with technological advances, telecom market deregulation and a growing web of fiber optic and wireless networks. India is now recognized worldwide as a center for offshore call centers, but a range of companies in other emerging market count...

When Royal Caribbean tapped Steelcase Applied Research to help it outfit a new call center in Oregon, the cruise line didn't require any guidance on what chairs it wanted its reps to use. In fact, the company had given a great deal of thought to what might seem to outsiders to be the most basic of a...

As the saying goes: You can't change the weather -- but you can prepare for it. Recent, highly-publicized airline and product call center overflow problems have highlighted the serious and potentially humiliating problems that can occur when a call center is not sufficiently staffed to handle a cris...

The movement to Internet protocol-based phone systems and contact centers is in full swing. This is great news for smaller businesses, since standards-based IP networks offer far more flexibility and capabilities for much lower costs than their TDM predecessors. As a bonus, the protocol that runs th...

It's not an easy task to summarize the makeup of today's customer in a singularly defined formula. Not only do customers' individual needs vary on a case-by-case basis, but as an aggregate whole, customers' needs are maturing and have become much more complex and demanding than prior generations. Re...

For years, vendors have argued the merits of click-to-call versus click-to-chat, but most analysts now agree that both solutions are an effective means of reaching out to Web site visitors to engage them in conversation. There is little doubt that nearly any company with a Web presence can see posit...