MECC'09 to highlight how customer interaction offers key to corporate survival

According to Dominick Keenaghan, president of MECC 09 show organizers Insights, "call centre activity in the region, especially the use of outsourcers, is still growing at a healthy 30% plus annual rate, but many installations are still failing to meet customer satisfaction expectations. Our day-to-day contact with the market confirms the enormous potential for performance improvement through the adoption of industry best practices whilst highlighting the key weaknesses that many grapple with."

"Of key concern here is that many senior decision makers, looking at the call centre from the outside, don't seem to appreciate that poor customer interactions, as a result of insufficient investments in people, processes and management, have a disastrous effect on customer satisfaction and retention - exactly the opposite of what the call centre is supposed to achieve!. The corollary is that in times of downturn, such as at present, cutting the quality of customer care is usually the wrong decision to be making because all it does is make the organisation lose customers faster than it would otherwise do," he added

Keenaghan said, "another area where the region suffers, and here again the finger is being pointed at unaware senior management, is the lack of long term customer contact strategies. The worldwide call centre industry is very dynamic and constantly innovating through both new technologies and new methodologies to improve the customer experience. Yet very few of these ideas and concepts have been taken up in the region to date, and many would prove excellent solutions with rapid returns on investment in currently under-developed areas such as customer advocacy strategies and performance management."

"Fortunately, all of those new developments will be showcased at MECC '09 and fortunately also most of MECC's traditional delegates and visitors understand the true potential of the call centre and come eager to learn best practices and to discover new ideas and ways to enhance their operations. Hopefully they will also bring along their senior management this year as the presence of so many international call centre experts presenting at the main MECC 09 Conference, the world's leading call centre vendors and their local partners, and the region's top call centre professionals make for an eclectic mix and one in which everybody shares, learns and gains,"

Keenaghan continued

MECC 09 features a high level conference and exhibition, the combination of which allows for a comprehensive update and refresher on best practice and proven tactics and technologies for today's ever-evolving contact centre. In particular, the MECC 09 Exhibition will play host to the worlds top call centre solution providers and offers a host of free learning and networking opportunities, and special show offers.