Glenn Hurley, chairman of hosted contact centre Porta@l, said: "The emergence of Customer Interation Managment (CIM), simply creates more impressive sounding acronyms without addressing the real issue.
"What should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind is that call centres are often an organisation’s main interface with the customer, yet the people staffing them are the lowest paid and the poorest trained.
"Instead of looking for solutions in new software packages and throwing more money at technology we should be investing heavily in training and retaining high-quality staff.
"It is people who build customer trust and respect, not programs and packages. A well handled complaint, for instance, can positively enrich a customer relationship and serve to cement that customer’s loyalty."
