Staff troubles call centres

Staff retention issues and a decline in investment from businesses trouble the call centre industry, despite increased customer satisfaction, according to the New Zealand Avaya Contact Centre Consumer Index 2008, reports The Channel.

Dr Catriona Wallace, MD of Callcentres.net, and APAC Avaya senior solutions marketing manager, Steve Vials, contend that the nature of the industry needs to change in order to keep valuable staff and allow businesses to best utilise their call centre operations.

Fifty-four percent of consumers surveyed in the index said they were 'satisfied to extremely satisfied' - an increase of 9% over the previous year.

Vantage Communications, providing business class managed services, is expanding its suite of cloud computing-based solutions for small to medium-sized businesses to include a CRM solution: vPlatform CRM, according to MarketWatch.

The vPlatform was designed by Vantage to specifically address the needs of SMEs.

Vantage's fully customisable CRM solution will get SMEs up and running immediately, saving time and money while improving customer relationships.

Residents in Malvern in the UK will have their telephone calls to the council answered in Worcester, reports Worcester News.

From April, Worcestershire County Council, Malvern Hills District Council and Worcester City Council will share a single telephone and e-mail contact centre for all county council enquiries and a range of district council enquiries.

The changeover aims to offer a better telephone and e-mail service to local residents.