Having played soccer for most of my life, I get pretty excited when the World Cup rolls around every four years.  I love watching the games and relish the ‘football’ passion that the media and all of my friends develop for a few weeks, even though it’s only temporary.  With the exception of the vuvuzelas and a few too many cards in the final, this tournament has not been a disappointment:  The US team put on a decent show (although I still think they should have beat Ghana), and the quarter- and semi-final games were about as exciting as they come.

Today, as I was cleaning off my desk, I came across a somewhat dated article in Information Week magazine about the additional load the World Cup would bring on South African Tourism.  The article outlines the changes anticipated with the tournament:

• Nearly 300,000 soccer fans traveling to South Africa
• Fewer tourists visiting for wildlife reserves
• Influx of first-time visitors
• More tourists traveling independently within the country, since games are taking place in nine cities
• Visitors seeking real-time assistance

The article goes on to discuss the huge challenges associated with ramping up for such an event and then, just as importantly, discarding the burden when the tournament ends.  The global marketing of e-marketing at South African Tourism is quoted as saying that they had to turn the “call center inside out to handle calls.”

During major events such as these, I’ve always been so focused on the event itself, that it never really crossed my mind what a huge, but temporary impact, would be felt by tourism call centers.  It raises many questions about how call centers can effectively manage such unusual situations.  I wonder how Toronto managed the winter Olympics?  In the end, how effective were the efforts of South African Tourism’s call center in meeting the needs of travelers and, subsequently, in the scaling down their efforts?  Can call centers use the same techniques in day-to-day operations?

Article:
Henschen, Doug.  “How to Ramp CRM Up – And Back Down.”  Information Week. 21 June 2010:  22.

This past weekend a colleague and I attended SharePoint Saturday DC to learn more about Microsoft SharePoint and the community that supports it.  It was difficult to give up a Saturday, but it was an amazing event with surprisingly little Microsoft corporate spin – in fact it is organized by end users, solution providers and volunteers – and they did a fabulous job making the day about learning and collaboration for almost a thousand of us.

People have asked me what SharePoint is, and I think my answer changed this weekend.  With SharePoint, a technical person can set up a website that is then easy for business users to update themselves – so it is really about making communications easier inside and outside the business.

Many of the people we met at SharePoint Saturday were passionate about SharePoint and communications.  Several of the Presenters used MacBooks in their talks, and emphasized they were doing this to show that SharePoint 2010 now targets all browsers – Safari, Firefox and the mobile web, rather than just Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.  This got the room humming with conversation, it took a minute or so for people to settle back down.  I know, very exciting – my own observation is that this is likely less about Safari and Firefox and more about Blackberries and iPhones.  This is a big step towards communicating with all business users.

We spent a full day there, and came away with some ideas for future product directions, as well as a plan for a team sandbox system based on the freely available SharePoint Foundation tool which offers MS Office collaboration.  The SharePoint product has grown so large that an event like this is an important way to see what others are doing with it.   Unfortunately we did not leave with one of the iPad door prizes – I’ll have to wait a little longer for one of those.

You can learn more about SharePoint Saturday DC here http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/dc/default.aspx, or you can look for a SharePoint Saturday in a nearby town here http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/default.aspx – these are popping up all over, and well worth a Saturday.

Last month’s eruption of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull caused unprecedented delays in air travel in and out of most of Europe. Dangerous levels of ash in the atmosphere led scientists and public safety officials to err on the side of caution, leaving tens of thousands of travelers stranded for up to a week. Since then, airlines have enforced sporadic closures, flight cancellations and delays to account for ongoing ash expulsions from the volcano.

When I first heard about this, I thought about two things:

1. A friend of mine who was stuck in Heathrow airport awaiting a flight back to the States
2. The overwhelming impact this situation must be having on the airline industry, specifically its contact centers

Airline contact centers are already overwhelmed and understaffed, not considering the tens of thousands of extra inquiries they were getting every day during this crisis from passengers trying to re-book flights, inquiring about closures, and probably venting in frustration in general. Not that I blame them – travel delays are among life’s more maddening nuisances – but the volcanic eruption was certainly outside the control of the airlines.

I read that many travelers were unable to reach airline contact centers during this time, and were instead directed to the airline websites for updated information. I went to the websites myself, and was surprised by the dearth of information for passengers with such inquiries. There was a brief news bulletin in small text stating the airline’s policy regarding cancelled flights. I’m sure that if the airlines had more information, they would have made it available; but if I were a traveler stuck in an airport, I’d want to speak to a live person who could help me with my situation.

Do you work in an airline contact center? How did you handle the ash crisis in March? Authorities expect continuing problems with ash in the atmosphere… have airlines developed plans to deal with the increased demand on contact centers?