ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how email can be used for optimum customer communications. It discusses the impacts within the contact centre environment. A Data monitor study indicated that on average only 29 per cent of emails are responded to in one business day. This cause's huge customer dissatisfaction issues which Data monitor describes as an 'email crisis'. As new messaging technologies such as instant messaging, web chat and SMS/MMS mobile messaging gain widespread usage within organizations this crisis is set to worsen. Understanding email management is less to do with the technology itself and much more to do with how one implement and integrates it into a customer contact centre. A variety of email technologies are used in business systems; many of them are involved with the organization's network infrastructure and security. It is assumed that for contact centre management (CCM) the responsibilities for basic technologies such as email servers, anti-virus/anti-SPAM systems, routers and so on, fall outside the CCM's remit.
