Call-Center FAQ: Automated Quality Monitoring

Fast answers to crucial questions about buying, deploying and managing an automated quality-monitoring solution.

John Edwards on January 17, 2008

How can automated quality monitoring help my business? The technology offers several benefits, including enhanced customer service, more sales, fewer mistakes, improved government compliance and a more polished public image.

Why is automated monitoring better than manual monitoring? Automated solutions are less labor-intensive and offer more meaningful insight. They also cost less to run over time and generate more detailed records. That's why the technology is being embraced by a growing number of call centers. In a December 2007 report, DMG Consulting LLC estimated that sales of quality-monitoring and related solutions would total $2.3 billion in 2007, a 10 percent increase over 2006.


What should I look for in a solution? Compatibility with your company's existing call-center technology is critical, of course. It's also important to consider suites versus stand-alone solutions, pricing and delivery model — on-premise or SaaS (software as a service). Other points to ponder include security features, administration tools, recording/logging functions, retrieval/storage capabilities, the quality-monitoring environment, screen-capture support and reporting functions.

My call center has only 25 agents. Is automated quality monitoring a worthwhile investment for smaller call centers? According to quality-monitoring solution vendor Co-nexus Communications Systems, 90 percent of very large call centers use automated call monitoring, while only about 25 percent of small facilities (those with less than 30 agents) have embraced the technology. This is unfortunate, since small call centers have the same desire to improve call quality as their larger counterparts, yet they must tackle the task with fewer internal resources. This dilemma reinforces the case for automated quality monitoring in the small call center.

What's the best way to introduce automated quality monitoring to my agents? Be up front about the technology, and don't try sneaking it in (the agents will eventually figure out what you're doing anyway). Ask your agents for suggestions on achieving customer service and other goals. Be sure to recognize useful ideas with gift certificates and other rewards.

How do I counter agents' claims that the technology is designed to spy on them? Tell them the truth: that the technology's aim is to improve service, not punish agents. To back up your claim, show them how the technology will improve customer service and lead to enhanced interaction between agents and callers.

What percentage of calls should be monitored? Opinions vary, but most call centers seem to eventually settle on monitoring about 5 to 10 percent of calls. Call centers experiencing widespread or pernicious quality problems, however, may opt to up the percentage of calls monitored until the problem is resolved.

Which vendors offer automated quality-monitoring solutions? A variety of vendors offer solutions. Some of the companies to choose from include Autonomy, CallCopy Inc., Envision Telephony Inc., Interactive Intelligence, Knoahsoft, NICE Systems Ltd., OnviSource Inc., Telrex, Verint Systems Inc., VirtualLogger LLC and Voice Print International Inc..

What's the biggest mistake that call centers make when using automated quality monitoring? There are many ways to misuse an automated quality-monitoring solution, but perhaps the most grievous error is too expect too much from the technology. Seeking perfection is an impossible and wasteful task, so be satisfied with incremental improvements in key areas. Despite careful monitoring, agents will continue to make mistakes, and customers will still be annoyed — only to a much lesser extent than in the past.

How can I learn if the technology is living up to its potential? Don't expect immediate benefits. Supervisors need to learn how to use the technology to its full potential, particularly how to use the solution to pinpoint and fix specific problems. Analyze performance benchmarks periodically — at three-month intervals, for example — to see what impact the technology is having on various call-center activities.

Thank : VoIP-News

Call Center News

The Secret to Call-Center Productivity

Boost contact-center agent output — without causing burnout.

Cindy Waxer on January 15, 2008

If there’s one thing today’s call-center managers are likely to lose sleep over, it’s how to boost agent productivity. After all, you can save money by using technologies like VoIP, but the majority of contact-center costs lie in recruiting and retaining employees. As a result, any increase in their productivity can greatly enhance the return on investment.

But while much-ballyhooed bonuses and exorbitant incentive packages can increase productivity, they can also cause agent burnout. Here are four ways to get the most out of your contact-center agents — without driving them into early retirement.

Reassess your metrics. Just because you’ve reduced your average call-handle time doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve increased agent productivity, especially if call volume increases as a corollary result.

“Companies should re-examine how it is they’re measuring productivity and what that means,” said Colin Taylor, CEO of The Taylor Reach Group, a contact-center consultancy. “Most centers use the wrong metrics, and part of it is the fault of the center management, and part of it is center management not being willing or able to educate senior management."

Taylor said that although “the vast majority of centers are running almost exclusively on quantitative measures” — like handle time and available time — a more accurate indication of productivity rests in qualitative metrics, like first-call resolution and customer satisfaction.

Apply technology properly. So you’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the hottest contact-center technology. But don’t expect to get your money’s worth unless your agents are schooled in the tools' most effective applications. For example, “A big inhibitor to agent productivity is multiple desktops," said Taylor. "It is not uncommon in a number of centers for agents to have six different windows open at any given point in time.” The result is the constant rekeying of the same information into several disparate systems — a huge waste of time and money.

“Putting an incentive on reducing average handle time is going to be nowhere near as effective as eliminating one or two of those windows,” Taylor advised, adding that comprehensive product knowledge can also help mitigate widespread misuse of call-center tools.

Educate your work force. Many of today’s contact centers train an agent just once; the remainder of his or her employment education comes from co-workers over the next six months — not exactly a reliable source of information, Taylor said. For this reason, “Training agents to better utilize the tools they have goes a long way,” he said. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of cost-effective, Web-based training solutions that promise to get agents up to speed in a timely and reliable fashion.

Empower your agents. “Agent empowerment can be a huge productivity booster,” said Taylor. If trained properly and armed with the right job skills, there’s no reason for agents to constantly seek assistance from their superiors. Encouraging top-notch agents to take matters into their own hands, directly address customer concerns and take ownership of their job responsibilities is a surefire way to bolster work force morale, as well as productivity levels.

Call Center News

10 VoIP Companies to Watch in 2008

Change will come from a broad variety of sources as the industry evolves.Robert

Poe on January 9, 2008

All kinds of companies will be agents of VoIP change in 2008. They'll range from high-tech giants to low-budget startups. They'll be in the hardware, software and services businesses, and they'll be in spaces that are none — or all — of the above. Here are 10 companies that represent the range of change-makers. Together, they provide a good idea of where the VoIP business is going this year. Interestingly, as we put the list together, they seemed to almost naturally sort themselves into similar or contrasting pairs, which is the way we'll present them. Perhaps it just goes to show: In a dynamic and evolving market, creativity loves company.

Vonage and 8x8 Inc.: The coming year will make clear whether Internet VoIP pioneer Vonage will begin to thrive or continue to struggle. It has resolved its legal woes stemming from patent-infringement litigation, including a lawsuit by Nortel Networks that cropped up in December. But its payments to AT&T, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless, amounting to some $200 million or more, will make it all that much harder for Vonage to compete as a low-cost provider of consumer VoIP services, especially given its high churn rate and cost of acquiring customers. 8x8, for its part, started avoiding Vonage's mistakes before most of the world knew they were mistakes. It developed its own technology from the start and focused on small-business customers before the conventional wisdom pronounced consumer VoIP a shaky business. It has integrated its Packet8 hosted-VoIP offering with CRM and hosted call-center services, giving small companies big-business capabilities — all the right moves for the emerging era of small-business VoIP.

Digium Inc. and Fonality: The lively rivalry between these two open-source leaders should continue into 2008. Digium has been particularly active as of late. It acquired Switchvox in September, then turned around and offered both hosted and free editions of Switchvox software. In August, Fonality offered new Pro editions of the trixbox version of Asterisk, which came with free Internet calling between any of its users via the newly introduced trixNet service. Look for the competition to heat up even more over the coming year as small businesses' interest in IP telephony expands.

JAJAH and Rebtel: JAJAH and Rebtel, the two Web-activated VoIP providers, are trying to find their way out of the discount-calling trap. Both start by letting you log on to their Web sites and enter your landline or mobile number, as well as the overseas one you want to reach. They then set up local calls in both locations and connect the two via cheap long-distance VoIP links. But even while refining their services to make them more convenient, the companies need to offer more than just low rates. JAJAH took steps in the right direction in 2007, developing an "advertising engine" that lets users hear ads overlaid on ringtones. It also struck a deal to provide both its international-calling and advertising capabilities to Jangl Inc. (below), taking advantage of that company's ties with social networks to offer services that fit users' interests and needs. Look for more interesting deals from these two over the next year as they strive to expand their horizons.

Jangl and Jaxtr Inc.: These two click-to-call companies see the key to success as integration with social networks, and they provide not just low-priced calling but also calling that happens the right way and at the right time, with the perfect combination of convenience, context and privacy protection. In fact, in its deal with Jajah (above), Jangl effectively outsourced the international-calling function. That lets it concentrate on building relationships with social-network users, based on efforts such as its tie-up with Facebook last May. Jaxtr, for its part, works hard to make it easy for users to add widgets to sites such as Craigslist, eBay, Facebook and MySpace.com. The pair may be the best bet yet to make integrated VoIP popular among large numbers of online social networkers.

Microsoft and ShoreTel Inc.: This pair is a study in contrasts, but both have the goal of bringing IP telephony to all kinds of businesses that didn't have it before. Software giant Microsoft wants to use its Office Communications Server to make voice just another software application that runs on corporate servers. Tiny ShoreTel, which went public in July, wants to deliver IP PBX functionality on ultrareliable hardware it designed using all solid-state storage, to eliminate the reliability hazards of server-based solutions. How the two approaches fare in 2008 will tell us a lot about how seriously the proliferation of Microsoft's vision of VoIP will threaten the future of the stand-alone PBX.

Thank : VoIP-News

Automated Call-Center Solutions That Won't Drive Your Customers Crazy

Use these call-center automation solutions to cut costs and please customers.

John Edwards on November 13, 2007

While most businesses eagerly embrace call-center automation solutions in order to streamline their operations and cut costs, the general public often takes a different view of the subject. In fact, there's a widespread perception that automation tools make life more difficult for callers by forcing them to navigate confusing voice menus, listen to canned music and messages, and talk with agents located on the other side of the world who may not be native English speakers.

Fortunately, there are a variety of call-center automation solutions that manage to benefit both businesses and callers.

Automated Attendant: By prompting callers to respond to certain voice-menu selections, automated attendants benefit both businesses and callers by categorizing and shortening calls. Automated attendants get a bad rap when they are poorly designed and configured, so it's important to thoroughly test the systems before deployment and make periodic adjustments based on caller feedback.

IVR (Interactive Voice Response): IVR solutions — like automated attendants — serve both businesses and callers. IVR systems can support many more caller choices and are generally easier for users to navigate than automated attendants. The technology is often used to automate routine tasks (such as balance inquiries), which allows call centers to get by with fewer agents and enables callers to receive fast answers to their questions. Like automated attendants, IVR systems require careful configuration and occasional tweaks in order to operate at maximum efficiency.

Screen Pops: Using CTI (computer telephony integration), screen pops allow callers' records to be automatically retrieved and displayed to the agent as soon as a call arrives. The solution speeds calls by allowing agents to serve callers without first interrogating them for routine information such as addresses, order dates and product serial numbers.

Skills-Based Routing: No caller likes to be bounced from agent to agent in search of an answer. Skills-based routing automatically matches caller inquiries with the most appropriate agent or resource based on customer requests; service levels; and agent skill, availability and workload.

Visible Queuing: If there's one thing callers hate more than lengthy wait times, it's being kept in the dark. Visible queue technology tells a caller the estimated wait time as soon as he or she enters the queue. The best solutions also provide periodic updates as the caller waits. Visible queuing benefits users by reassuring them that their wait time is actually dwindling and helps businesses by reducing the number of abandoned calls.

Web Call-Back Transaction: A call-back is a transaction that allows a Web site visitor to request a phone call from the call center. The method can be used to request more information on goods or services, make a reservation, or complete an order. Deploying call-back support requires linking the call center's ACD (automatic call distributor) to the Internet via an Internet gateway.

Web Call-Through Transaction: Like a call-back transaction, a Web call-through is designed to get Web site visitors in fast contact with a call-center agent. The call-through transaction begins when a site visitor clicks a button on the Web page and is directly connected to an agent while still viewing the site. However, call-through technology requires the visitor to have a computer or mobile device equipped with VoIP technology, so the approach isn't as widely used as call-back technology.

VoIP-News.com

The Skype-Based Call Center: Applications and Examples

Basing a call center on Skype technology opens the door to lower cost and enhanced functionality — but not without trade-offs.

John Edwards on December 12, 2007

With its rock-bottom pricing and extensive feature set, VoIP-powered Skype enables just about any business to deploy an enterprise-class call center on a shoestring budget.

For as little as $10 per agent, per month, vendors such as OnState, PrettyMay Team and SKY-click provide Skype-driven call-center solutions that support virtually every type of call-center function and activity, including voice mail, auto attendant, IVR (Interactive Voice Response), call routing and call recording.
Applications

For outbound call centers, Skype technology allows calls to be made worldwide at rates that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago: as little as 2 cents per minute between continents, and nearly always at rates far below those charged by conventional telcos.

While inbound call centers don't have to worry about the cost of outgoing calls, these facilities can take advantage of Skype to cut infrastructure costs. A Skype-based call center doesn't require various types of call-routing technologies or telco-oriented hardware, and existing data networks can often be used. The software itself also tends to be relatively inexpensive. PrettyMay Team, for example, offers a $150 package that supports as many as 30 lines.

For virtual call centers, Skype technology provides a cheap and efficient method of linking agents spread across cities, states or even continents with callers, call recipients, and call-center supervisors and managers. Record keeping is also simplified, since call originations, destinations, durations, dates, times and other relevant data are automatically recorded. Tech-support centers, meanwhile, can use Skype to send SMS text directly to user devices, as well as provide conventional voice-based support services.

Many businesses need to offer automated information services — such as store locations and hours, travel directions, and storm alerts — to employees or customers. All of the major Skype-based call-center technologies allow businesses to set up automated, prerecorded messages that users can access and listen to at their convenience.

Perhaps the biggest benefit that Skype provides is fast and easy integration with Web sites and internal computer systems, enabling call centers to support services like Web-initiated callbacks and screen pops that instantly present caller information to agents.
Trade-Offs

Despite its multiple benefits, Skype isn't perfect, and businesses thinking about adopting the technology need to be aware of its limitations.

Like other VoIP services, Skype's audio quality is highly variable. Most of the time, voice quality ranges from perfect to acceptable. But sometimes — depending on the condition of the Internet connection between the call center, Skype and the user — the audio may sound jittery, garbled or out of phase. Skype service is also subject to occasional dropouts and spontaneous disconnects.

On the positive side, Skype service is rapidly improving as the company strives to improve its technology — and as ISPs become more experienced at handling high-priority VoIP call traffic. Still, businesses expecting service matching the quality of higher priced, traditional telcos will likely be disappointed.

The other big drawback that Skype-based call centers face is limited scalability. While some Skype call-center vendors promise three-digit-or-higher agent counts, the real-world practical limit is about 20 or 30 agents. Larger deployments tend to exceed the limitations of current Web-based voice technology, making it necessary to use hardware to direct and manage calls.
The Bottom Line

Skype call-center technology is both inexpensive and mature, but adopters must be willing to accept its limitations.

Top 10 VoIP Call Center Technology Tools

VoIP Call Center features that are so powerful and useful, you’d be crazy not to use them.

John Edwards on November 19, 2007

VoIP provides a great platform for VoIP call centers that can grow with your business. But VoIP call center technology tools can be a challenge to sort out: The options are numerous, interesting and often a nuisance. Still, there are a few select call-center technologies that are so powerful, so intrinsically useful, that it would be foolish not to take advantage of them. Here they are:

1. Predictive Dialing: What outbound call center wouldn't want to utilize a technology that increases agent productivity and efficiency? Predictive dialing fulfills these goals by using preset algorithms to determine when an agent will become free and then dials the next number just as the agent is wrapping up his or her current call. A predictive dialer can also eliminate the need for an agent to choose a number, dial it, listen to busy signals and encounter wrong numbers or answering machines.
2. Skill-Based Routing: This technology satisfies callers by placing them in touch with the person who is most likely to answer their questions quickly and authoritatively. Skill-based routing automatically matches call inquiries with the most appropriate agent or system resource based on topic subject, service level and agent aptitude, as well as agent availability and workload.
3. IVR (Interactive Voice Response): This is perhaps the most popular and useful call-center technology. An IVR responds to caller-entered digits or speech in much the same way that a computer responds to keystrokes or mouse clicks. The system lets users preroute calls to the agents best-equipped to handle their inquiries (such as sales or product-service representatives). When an IVR is linked to a database, callers can also perform specific tasks, such as checking their order status or transferring funds between accounts, all without agent intervention.
4. Screen Pop: In any VoIP call center, knowledge is power. Screen pop technology ties agents' workstations directly to a company database to instantly view important information. A caller's records are automatically retrieved and "popped" to an agent as soon as the call arrives. The technique allows an agents to greet a caller by name and to view the caller's location, past sales and returns, product and service preferences and other relevant data.
5. Click to Talk, Click to Call: One method of linking VoIP call centers to the Web is click to talk (also called click to call). This technology connects Web site visitors to agents via a simple, clickable icon. Click to talk typically allows agents to answer questions about a product or to complete a sale.
6. Web Callback: The flip side of click to talk is Web callback, a tool that allows customers visiting a company's Web site to request a callback from an agent, usually within a specified time period.
7. Collaborative Browsing: This technology links both caller and agent browsers, enabling both parties to see the same Web page simultaneously. This technique can be highly useful for troubleshooting computers, software products, mobile devices, Web-based sales orders, Web-delivered media and a variety of other tech products and services.
8. VoIP: We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again: Lower calling costs, simplified computer-telephony integration, easier VoIP call center management, lower infrastructure expenses and Web compatibility are just a few reasons for basing a VoIP call center on VoIP. As quality concerns recede, VoIP is becoming a modern VoIP call center cornerstone.
9. Virtual VoIP call center: Skip the cost and headaches of a brick-and-mortar VoIP call center by creating a virtual substitute. A virtual VoIP call center features geographically dispersed agents who, through the use of the VoIP and other advanced technologies, function as single entity that can span continents and time zones.
10. Noise-Canceling Headsets: Distracting background noise, generated by nearby people and equipment, can gradually sap agent productivity and efficiency. Noise can also irritate callers when they are forced to frequently repeat words and numbers to agents working in clamorous VoIP call centers. Noise-canceling headsets are more expensive than their standard counterparts, but businesses usually recoup the additional cost through improved agent morale (which slows workforce turnover) and enhanced caller satisfaction.