More and more companies are investing in technologies that support customer communications and improve the overall experience of customers, an official with a Minneapolis-based provider of end-to-end, customer experience testing services for complex unified communications and contact center solutions told TMCnet in an interview.
According to Mike Burke, vice president of business development at IQ Services, because communications are supported by increasingly complex technologies and business requirements, his company is focusing on how to validate performance from the customer’s own perspective.
“Whether we’re talking about unified communications or IP telephony or cloud computing, IQ Services customers are looking for ways to make sure the solution performs as expected and delivers the best possible customer experience,” Burke told TMC CEO Rich Tehrani in an interview, printed in full below. “Our focus is on continuous improvement and integration of testing activity with the objective to provide cost effective support that helps our customers manage technical, schedule, and financial risk during the entire life cycle of a communications solution.”
Burke – who is speaking during a session titled “Ensuring Quality in the Contact Center” at ITEXPO West, to be held Sept. 1 to 3 in Los Angeles – also told Tehrani that he’s expecting President Barack Obama’s emphasis on education and personal use of Internet-based technology to increase the visibility of the value of new technology.
Their full exchange follows.
Rich Tehrani: What has the economic crisis taught you, and how has it changed your customers?
Mike Burke (pictured left): Thankfully, it has strongly reinforced our 13-plus year commitment to delivering cost-effective, flexible and responsive testing services for contact center and communications solutions. When we focus on our customers’ successes, everybody wins. It has also taught us to appreciate our valuable employees even more. It is their hard work and dedication to delivering the best customer service possible that keeps our doors open.
RT: How is this down economy affecting your decisions to reinvest in your company or market, if at all? Where will you invest?
MB: Despite the down economy – or maybe because of it – companies are investing in the technologies that support customer communications and improve customer experience. Because these communications are supported by ever more complex technologies and business requirements, we are focused on the technologies and methodologies that validate performance from the all-important customer perspective.
Whether we’re talking about Unified Communications or IP Telephony or Cloud Computing, IQ Services customers are looking for ways to make sure the solution performs as expected and delivers the best possible customer experience. Our focus is on continuous improvement and integration of testing activity with the objective to provide cost effective support that helps our customers manage technical, schedule, and financial risk during the entire life cycle of a communications solution.[NextPage]
RT: What’s the strongest segment in the communications industry?
MB: The objective of optimizing customer experience while minimizing use of agent resources continues to drive the industry. Integration of communications technology through the evolution of unified communications is a growing segment in the industry.
From our perspective this means performance validation, monitoring and analytics that provide the information to support continuous improvement of the customer experience are critical.
Outbound communications are becoming a more integral part of the communications solutions and interactions with customers as well. This expanding application of IVR technology will cause this segment to maintain growth over the next several years.
RT: Which nation or region of the world will present the largest opportunity for your company in 2009/10?
MB: There is still significant growth opportunity in North America. Because communications technology and infrastructure based on IP is being deployed globally, we expect to see many more opportunities coming out of other regions of the world. It is not clear which regions will impact us the most. EMEA, Latin America and Asia are all implementing communications technology where customer experience focused testing will be key to successful solution deployment.
RT: In what ways is President Barack Obama helping or hindering the technology markets? What more can he do?
MB: Obama’s emphasis on education and personal use of Internet-based technology will increase the visibility of the value of new technology. The promotion of R&D through tax incentives and other forms of support will also make a difference. Additional emphasis in these areas combined with some real incentives for small business entrepreneurs would be good for the industry.
RT: Why should customers choose your company’s solutions? How do they justify the expense to management?
MB: IQ Services has been focused on end to end customer experience oriented testing since it was founded in 1996. As the first provider of communication solutions testing as a service, we have dedicated ourselves to providing testing solutions and customer service that is the best in the industry. Our objective is to provide the process and flexibility that our customers need to meet their customer satisfaction and ROI objectives. By truly understanding our customers’ objectives and looking for the most cost effective approach to helping them manage their technical, schedule and financial risk, we provide them with the confidence they need in their business solutions and infrastructure.
Experienced implementers and users of today’s communications technology understand the consequences of deploying solutions that do not deliver a good end-user experience. The opportunity cost associated with losing business and even customers because systems do not perform as required – combined with implementing solutions on schedule – provide an excellent business case for what we do. We have worked hard to develop tools and methods that optimize the expense associated with testing so that our customers meet their objectives.
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