Customers

With holiday season promotions escalating into top gear, the term "free shipping" is popping up on many e-commerce sites. While the promotions do attract the attention of consumers, the meaning of the term and the impact of such promotions on retailers' sales are decidedly mixed at this stage. Ship...

OpenSpan, a Microsoft partner, rolled out an application integration platform that allows users of Microsoft's Customer Care Framework 2008 -- which was also introduced Wednesday -- to link together older applications and custom-built systems with the front-end agent desktop. Built on the Microsoft ...

The holiday season may bring joy to consumers and retailers alike, but hand in hand with that joy comes the inevitable pain of post-holiday returns. Gift returns can be a hassle for consumers, but for retailers they pose a daunting logistical challenge, requiring speedy adjustments throughout the pi...

Companies' integrated voice recognition applications are being stretched thin. Even when the best interface designs are in place, customers are abandoning calls before completion. Forty-three percent of companies surveyed in the "Contact Center Analytics" benchmark were either seeing poorer performa...

Calabrio has upgraded its workforce optimization products, which go to market through several channel partners, including as an OEM to Cisco's Unified Contact Center product line. The company upgraded Workforce Management to version 8.1 and Quality Management to version 2.4. The latter in particular...

AT&T is revamping its policies to allow consumers to prorate their early termination fee according to how long he or she has been on the plan. The company is also allowing customers who switch plans or change phones during the course of their contract to maintain the same contract instead of re-...

Few industries in this online era can lay claim to a longer or more venerable history than newspapers can -- but today, it's no secret that newspapers are in trouble. The rise of the Internet has wrought changes to the competitive landscape that are drawing away both readers and advertisers, leaving...

RFID has been a highly touted technology in recent years, but concerns about high costs and actual benefits have hindered its adoption. That's gradually changing as developers and vendors focus on systems design, development and interoperability of specific applications in the public and private sec...

Thieves were able to breach the corporate databases of TJX Companies and steal millions of credit card numbers because the company retained too much information that was not properly secured, according to a report released Tuesday by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. TJX is the paren...

Customers who shop online at Walmart.com may soon have no way to speak with a live person over the phone to ask questions. Thanks to a new "Customer Contact Reduction" program, the retailer by next week will remove its toll-free customer service support number, according to a Tuesday report in the N...

The familiar adage that the consumer is always right has taken on a new meaning in the Internet age. Rather than talk with a store manager, consumers are now making their feelings about different products known on message boards and blogs. "Many companies tried to ignore the online forums, but most ...

Bank of America has quietly raised ATM fees it charges noncustomers to $3. The bank has more than 16,000 national branch location machines; of these, some 6,000 are located in such public places as malls, movie theaters and stadiums. Fees to use these ATMs will remain $2. The bank raised its fee to ...

Aspect Software has introduced a series of software modules under one suite aimed at optimization performance in the contact center. The modules are for workforce management, recording and quality management, performance management, campaign management and coaching and e-learning. Called "Performanc...

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs abruptly announced that the company was cutting the price for the 8GB iPhone from $599 to $399, he appeared to be a bit dismissive of the product's early adopters -- many of whom stood in line for hours to acquire the coveted gadget. Some 24 hours later, though, he was tryi...

As people head off to enjoy the last holiday weekend of the summer, few are thinking about the next stretch of holidays ahead: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah and New Year's. Rest assured, though -- retailers are giving the matter plenty of consideration. Labor Day weekend signals the start of the ...