Reality Check: 2002: Our Annus Horribulus
Looking for a ray of hope in tough times.

was going to entitle my wrap-up column for 2002 "A Year To Forget," but I recall I used that title in my wrap-up column at the end of 2001. Instead I decided to borrow a phrase used by England's Queen Elizabeth to describe her year 1992. 2002 truly was our industry's annus horribulus, or horrible year.

After some early optimism in the first quarter of 2002, the telecommunications industry in general, and the contact center industry in particular, began a downhill slide that still hasn't stopped. By the middle of the year, the unbridled optimism that characterized our industry had degenerated into paralyzing fear. Equipment acquisitions slowed to a snail's pace, and the vendors supplying that equipment began to pay the price.

If the industry acronym of the '90s was CRM - Customer Relationship Management - the industry acronym of 2002 is ROI - Return On Investment. Technology acquisitions in 2002 were not made because a product was "cool" or because gullible buyers believed the weak promises and false claims of arrogant software providers. Technology acquisitions in 2002 were based upon a solid ROI and a belief that the product would contribute to shareholder value and profitability.

Along with the slowdown in equipment purchases came an avalanche of telecom sector job layoffs. By the end of the year, there will have been nearly 400,000 layoffs in the worldwide telecommunications industry. At first the rumors were that a lot of companies were using the layoffs as an opportunity to trim the "dead wood" and that a lot of companies were escorting workers out the front door while recruiting new workers through the back door. National unemployment figures soon put that rumor to rest. I've been in the telecommunications industry for more than 16 years and have seen my share of layoffs during difficult economic times. Never before, though, have I personally known so many smart, talented, hard-working, motivated and educated people who are out of work.

I also watched, stunned, as I'm sure many of you were, as the stock prices of companies in the contact center industry sank to unbelievable lows. Granted, some of the companies whose stock price hit rock bottom deserved to be there. Other companies hit sub-$1/share prices, I believe, as investors realized that company strategy and company management was, as we say here in Arizona, all hat and no cattle.

On the other hand, many undeserving companies were also swept away in the tide of plunging prices. Companies like Witness Systems, for example, continued to show strong financial and product performance yet took a hit on their per-share price that I still can't figure out.

2002 also had its usual customer service high points and low points for me, and both deserve recognition. On the high side was the excellent customer service I received from mail order house Levenger. After purchasing several items as client gifts from Levenger last year, I became aware that the products were performing less than satisfactorily. I contacted my Levenger account rep, Vanessa Mattey, who took immediate action by replacing every product purchased with a different product of my choice. She sent the replacement items to each recipient with a personal letter apologizing for the incident. If Levenger's strategy with this action was to keep me as a customer, it worked.

On the customer service low side, I had to move my telephone service this year and dealt with Qwest customer service. Need I say more? Slightly amusing was an incident that occurred a few weeks ago when I tried to make reservations at the Travel Lodge hotel near Gatwick Airport in London. When I called the Travel Lodge toll free reservations number I was greeted by a recording informing me that my business was very important to them but that all their reservations agents were busy and I needed to call back later. They may as well have said, "Thank you for calling, and take your business elsewhere," because that's what I did.

Although the economy has been particularly tough on our industry, it is important to remember that as long as there are customers, there will always be a need for customer service. With that in mind, let's move forward optimistically and hope for a better 2003.