This is my very personal experience, and I am sure each and every one of us have heard this at least once in the past year. Hearing this phrase can be very annoying, especially when the client is busy and in a hurry!

"Hey! But I need this internet service to work properly now; this is the third time we have the same problem this week. I am paying for it, and I can't be waiting for your system to 'load'..."

"I'm sorry for the delay, please hold..." This is the reply I get.

My perception as a client is clear, as a technological services provider, they are supposed to have the most innovative systems, at least this is the way they advertise themselves. But hold it there! Sadly, the opposite seems to be the truth:

1. The internet service is slow

2. The client support system is slow and unreliable

Conclusion: This is a 'slow' company. They're not the provider whose services I'd like to use. After a research I changed my home office internet provider.

How many clients are lost this way every day?

How many times have you heard this: "Forget about this provider; they offer the best when they are selling, but then the customer experience with them is a nightmare!"

John Timko from LabTech Software explained that according to DMG 80% of the clients like to have telephone customer care; however only 8% said they got a good service. In Twitter, 50% of unhappy clients post their complain, but only 16% gets a positive response.

One of the biggest issue and the focus of clients´complains is the time 'on hold'.

According to Forester, 75% of the clients in customer service calls consider the "time on hold" is way too long.

Mark Charleton from Blue Solutions explained that this slow deployment of the systems may have several origins, however other than those caused by major disasters, the system's deployment can be perfectly monitored and overloads may be prevented if the network runs in the adequate RMM environment. In other words, there is no reason to have the clients 'on hold' while the system deploys.

Mark also shared some tips and best practices to set up a successful contact center infrastructure:

• Work with your information technology department before implementing contact center-specific solutions.

• Compliance is an organization-wide commitment. IT may have an overall security plan that contact centers must adopt. For example, individuals that require access to archived calls that may include card data must be specifically authorized to access to this information.

• Make sure your order entries, new customer applications, and any other customer data bases that your agents frequently access mask out credit and debit cards, and other sensitive information.

• Find out how your current recording software handles PCI-DSS compliance. Some vendors do not have a solution. Others may require deleting entire interactions that involve card transactions, making it impossible to conduct quality evaluations on these calls or retrieve them for compliance or verification purposes.

• Make sure you maintain strict processes that prevent agents from jotting down card numbers for later entry into the customer data base.

• Make sure your network and each device used in the contact center is continuously monitored and managed by an RMM solution with the capabilities to prevent systems overloads and slowdowns; automate regular updating and maintenance tasks, and give effective helps desk attention to the users.

"Our system is loaded... What can I do for you today?"

With RMM technology safeguarding your contact center network you are guaranteed many more satisfied clients and doing more business with less investment and an optimized operation.

• What can CRM do for SMB? (Part 2, Leads)
• What can CRM do for SMB? (Part 1, What is it?)
• What can CRM do for SMB? (Part 3, Opportunities)