Local call centres are critical to keeping customers happy, according to new research. The consumer poll conducted by KC (Kingston Communications) found that the majority of customers (54%) were most annoyed by overseas call centre staff when calling customer service lines, over and above the need to navigate automated responses (22%) and the inability of customer support staff to provide answers outside of their script (12%).

According to IBISWorld, VoIP was named "Industry Of The Decade" besting even the search engine industry? Surely, you jest. You mean to tell me the VoIP industry beat Google's, Yahoo's, and MSN's (now Bing's) billions? VoIP even beat online dating. Well, it's true. While search engines do make billions, their growth wasn't as fast as VoIP in the past decade.

Despite the recession, roughly 68 percent of call center managers plan to increase hiring over the next 12 months by more than 10 percent, compared to 2008, according to the second annual Contact Center Recruitment and Compensation Survey from call center hiring solutions provider FurstPerson. The survey, which polled more than 100 call center managers, also shows that the recession has led to much lower voluntary attrition – meaning that more call center agents are reluctant to leave their jobs, mainly because they have much fewer job opportunities.

Today’s software-as-a-service or “cloud”-based call center solutions are known for their ability to facilitate the “virtual” call center – which basically means the call center software environment can be accessed from any computer with a high speed connection. With a virtual call center environment, an organization can more easily and cost-effectively manage multiple geographically dispersed centers – as well as home-based agents. In addition these solutions afford a level of business continuity and disaster recovery that on-premises systems simply cannot deliver. Companies that benefit the most from SaaS based call center solutions are those with dispersed operations, including remote call centers and/or home-based agents. With a truly cloud-based solution, delivered via a dedicated network, such as inConact’s on demand call center solution, an organization’s call center services can be spread throughout a region, country or even globally – but can still be managed as a cohesive whole, thanks to the system’s Web-based management.