Call, Contact or Engagement Center?

Posted on by
Reply

There are a number of industry terms thrown around these days to talk about what we all generally refer to as call centers. Some of us may even interchange call center and contact center in the same sentence.

The difference is pretty basic:

  • Call centers take calls
  • Contact centers receive some combination of calls, emails, online chat, video conferencing, social media, or more. It’s sort of a silly generic term that’s easier than saying, “We have a chat/email/call/social media center”

By way of example, when staff in our centers began taking online chat requests and Video Remote Interpretation requests (in addition to phone interpretation) some time ago, we graduated from call center to contact center.

What about engagement center? This is a newer term, thrown around by a few outsourced contact centers. I think it’s a bit of marketing spin, but it may describe a growing realization for many companies: contact centers serve as a relationship-building operation for customers. Many customers’ sense of loyalty comes from interactions with a company, not just marketing or advertising.

  • Engagement center – a center built around managing every possible customer engagement in an engaging way.

Contact centers are not just cost centers: they are drivers of competitive levels of continued service, responsible for enhancing customer satisfaction and retention.

How do contact centers drive service and enhance customer satisfaction? We recently discussed this issue in the Q&A session of one of our webinars with best-selling author Jeanne Bliss.

-Chris Patten

————–

Voiance Language Services provides language interpretation and translation services, including telephone interpretation, through interpreter contact centers, with over 85,000 square feet of floor space. We manage contact centers, and so do many of our clients, which is part of the Voiance Advantage.

Best-Selling Author to Present with Voiance Language Services

Posted on by
Reply

Author of The Amazement Revolution to present on customer experience strategies, moderated by Voiance Language Services.

Tucson, AZ, September 13, 2011 – Voiance Language Services, a provider of translation and telephone interpretation services, will host a webinar presentation with Shep Hyken, an award-winning speaker and best-selling author. In the webinar, Shep will discuss strategies for creating an amazing customer experience.

Among other topics, attendees will learn how to create Moments of Magic® by building effective membership experiences for customers and learning how to achieve consistency in customer experience.

The webinar presentation will be held on September 14, 2011, 1 pm -2 pm EST. Registration is free and can be accessed at http://www3.voiance.com/shep-hyken-registration. By registering and asking questions during the webinar, attendees become eligible to win a copy of Shep’s book, The Amazement Revolution.

About Shep Hyken

As a speaker and author, Shep works with companies and organizations who want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees. He is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Amazement Revolution, The Cult of the Customer, Moments of Magic®, and The Loyal Customer. He is also the creator of The Customer Focus™ program, which helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset.

Shep has worked with hundreds of clients ranging from Fortune 100 size organizations to companies with less than 50 employees. Clients have included AAA, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, AETNA, Abbott Laboratories, American Express – and that’s just a few of the A’s.

About Voiance
Voiance Language Services, a subsidiary of CyraCom International, provides 24/7 Over-the-Phone interpretation in over 170 languages and multimedia translation services. With ISO 9001:2008 certified processes, U.S-based contact centers, and a state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure, Voiance delivers effective service to clients in business and government.

CyraCom International is the 2nd largest provider of OPI in the world, according to industry reports, and was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S. in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011. In business since 1995, and based in Tucson, Arizona, CyraCom International provides language services to over 2,500 clients.

The Times they are a Changin’- Starbucks and the Changing World of Communication

Posted on by
Reply

For my first blog post I figured I’d tell you about something I found interesting:

Starbucks recently changed its logo to be more globally communicative. The change was simple: they removed the words “Starbucks Coffee” from the design. Now the logo is wordless and features only the famed “Green Siren” image, which is recognized all over the world.

Communication was undoubtedly one of the driving principles behind the change, as blogger Renato Beninatto writes, “The new wordless version of the logo — in addition to allowing the company to expand its product offerings beyond coffee — makes it easier to penetrate more international markets, especially those that don’t use Latin characters.”

No need to translate anything — simple, effective communication.

Words to live by,

-Travis Michalak

————–

Voiance Language Services provides language interpretation and translation services, including telephone interpretation, through interpreter contact centers, with over 85,000 square feet of floor space. We manage contact centers, and so do many of our clients, which is part of the Voiance Advantage.

Voiance Launches Innovative New Account Management Portal

Posted on by
Reply

Voiance Language Services, LLC announced the launch of its new Account Management portal today, which features an interactive reporting tool powered by Microsoft® Silverlight.

With a click of a mouse, users can analyze Over-the-Phone Interpretation usage through dynamic, colored graphs which feature information on call times, call duration, languages, location, and more. The tool creates a visual canvas for users, representing language requests for the over 170 languages Voiance provides. The interactive nature of the tool allows clients an innovative and new view on how they currently access language services.

Additional portal features enable users to change calling preferences easily, request an immediate telephone interpretation session from the Internet, and manage permissions and service access within their organization.

“Our goal is to leverage new technologies in innovative ways to deliver the highest level of service to our clients, which is affirmed by our receipt of the Microsoft Excellence in Innovation award” stated Christopher Patten, Chief Technology Officer. “Our new Account Management portal is a perfect example of that.”

About Voiance
Voiance Language Services, a subsidiary of CyraCom International, provides 24/7 Over-the-Phone interpretation in over 170 languages and multimedia translation services. With ISO 9001:2008 certified processes, U.S-based contact centers, and a state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure, Voiance delivers effective service to clients in business and government.

CyraCom International is the 2nd largest provider of OPI in the world, according to industry reports, and was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S. in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011. In business since 1995, and based in Tucson, Arizona, CyraCom International provides language services to over 2,500 clients.

Voiance Returns to American Teleservices Association Convention

Posted on by
Reply

Voiance Language Services, one of the leading providers of Over-the-Phone Interpretation (OPI) in the United States, announced that it will exhibit at the 2011 American Teleservices Association (ATA) Convention– a conference that informs, unites and advances the contact center industry. The conference takes place in March 2011, from the 13th to the 15th at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in Phoenix.

The ATA is the only trade association dedicated to supporting the teleservices industry, regularly producing industry research, glossaries of terms and definitions of performance metrics. As an ATA Platinum Member, Voiance will participate in many event sessions that educate members in business development, call center operations, and regulatory compliance within the contact center industry.

Booth visitors will also receive a printed copy of survey findings from a study conducted with Purdue University’s Center for Customer-Driven Quality. This study provides insight into the effective handling of non-English calls. Booth visitors will also have the opportunity to review a complete language services RFP, to help facilitate an effective structure for managing contract bidding.

About Voiance
Voiance Language Services, a subsidiary of CyraCom International, provides 24/7 Over-the-Phone interpretation in over 170 languages and multimedia translation services. With ISO 9001:2008 certified processes, U.S-based contact centers, and a state-of-the-art telecommunications infrastructure, Voiance delivers effective service to clients in business and government.

CyraCom International is the 2nd largest provider of OPI in the world, according to industry reports, and was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in the U.S. in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011. In business since 1995, and based in Tucson, Arizona, CyraCom International provides language services to over 2,500 clients.