Web self-service adoption stagnates

The adoption of Web self-service technology has ground to a halt and remains at a stagnant plateau, research has revealed, says CCF Online.

The study, from call centre consultancy eVergance, showed that while organisations continue to embrace a multi-channel approach, Web self-service implementation seems to be stuck at a flat level of around 40% of customer interactions.

Esteban Kolsky, vice-president at eVergance says, "The key challenge now for businesses, following the peak in adoption four or five years ago, is to understand how to maximise the benefits that this technology can bring and realise new value in these existing systems."

Historically, investment and integration of self-checkout solutions have been limited to the top Tier one enterprises operating in select retail vertical markets, states More RFID.

In 2007, the vast majority of global revenues for self-checkout solutions continued to stem from grocery stores/supermarkets and department stores/mass merchants. However, as both enterprise end users and consumers continue to embrace and rely on these self-service solutions, self checkout could appear in more markets.

"Self-service technologies, in particular self-checkout solutions, continue to experience significant growth in several core vertical markets due to their ability to reduce costs, improve the customer experience, and streamline operations across the retail establishment," says Rory Gardner, research analyst for Venture Development Corporation.

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company, will give the first public demonstrations of its intelligent Customer Front Door (iCFD) concept at this year's Call Centre Expo, on 16 and 17 September, reports Targetwire.

The iCFD brings an innovative personalised customer service approach to contact centres in all industries, which ensures that every caller is appropriately recognised, welcomed into the company and dealt with through either self or assisted service.

It applies the customer intelligence lying in a company's back-office systems to every call, which ensures accuracy in recognition and routing, and provides visibility of those special offers or upgrades relevant to each individual caller.