online customer care: applying today's technology to achieve world-class customer interaction

This book focuses on leveraging the advantages of existing technology-based processes and learning and applying emerging processes and technologies--in cost effective ways--to enable organizations to become ongoing, best-in-class customer care providers. Traditionally, one of the biggest problems for customer care executives has been how to balance CSR productivity with customer satisfaction. By implementing on line solutions which facilitate a timely and relevant response to a customer's inquiry or problem, the executive can realize a significant return on investment both through renewed customer loyalty and direct access to useful market intellilgence. This book is intended to outline the steps required in order to become an active participant in the continuously evolving model of online customer care.

Michael Cusack is an independent consultant who specializes in evaluating call center operations and implementing best practice principles in the areas of process improvement, systems design, and content management. His client list includes companies such as General Electric, CitiBank, Kemper Insurance, and AT&T. Cusack's background includes several years in the telecommunications industry, principally as a management consultant with the Bell Laboratories Customer Care Group. He was also employed as a human factors engineer with the AT&T Artificial Intelligence/Knowledge Systems Unit, and has been involved in the planning and reengineering of call centers for more than a decade. He is an experienced communicator, and has presented customer care strategies to decision-makers from several multinational corporations, as well as initiating educational forums on worldwide customer care involving representatives from countries such as Holland and Ireland. Cusack has lived and worked in six countries. He received his Master of Arts in Corporate and Organizational Communication from Fairleigh-Dickinson University in the United States.