ABSTRACT
In some ways, questions of technology are, if not irrelevant, at least beginning to take a back seat to some very important procedural issues. Companies are beginning to focus their attention not on the call center itself, but on the call cen ter as a component in a company-wide strategy of customer acquisition, man agement and retention. The business value of a call center is not that it helps keep costs down. It should not be measured in calls answered or not answered. Instead, the unit of measurement that makes the most sense these days is the transaction: whether a person reads a catalog, calls an 800 number, hits a web site, or some combination of these and others. The goal of the successful customer manage ment strategy is to make sure that all these parts work closely together to ensure a smooth relationship and maximum information value in both directions.
