IT TECHNOLOGY/CENTER SITE INFRASTRUCTURE

The contact center phone system is the backbone of a successfully running center. If you are still running with a premise-based solution and are under 800 seats, it is time to embrace the cloud! The cloud offers the contact center more features, functionality, and flexibility, making the contact center more cost-effective and more productive. It’s incredible how many contact centers are still running on equipment that has long become obsolete. Agents thrive in environments where the tools work and make their jobs easier.

Moving to the cloud doesn’t mean moving to a cloud-based office phone system. Too many contact centers skimp and use a “hunt group” instead of an automatic call delivery (ACD) system. No wonder their abandoned call rate is so high! Office phone systems are designed for offices. Many vendors provide an overlay of call center features on top of office phone systems. That is like putting a horn, mirror, odometer, gas tank, and a cushy seat on a bicycle. Those items are an overlay on the bike, but it is still a bicycle at the end of the day; it didn’t transform it into a car. You aren’t going to ride it to Boston any time soon from Phoenix. An office phone system is still an office phone system, overlay or not.

Invest in a comprehensive cloud-based contact center software system. The disaster recovery, reporting (real-time and historical), and the power of an ACD will make your contact center operate at the highest level of efficiency and effectiveness for true success.

Most contact centers today record every call for quality assurance and training. Call recording equipment can be software and/or hardware, especially when it comes to the storage of the audio files. If you have a HIPAA-compliant shop, you store calls for 7-10 years. You can store those files on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) or choose a physical storage device. The challenge with a physical device is where to store it for 10 years? Someone has to physically manage the monthly swap out of storage devices and be sure they are organized; files are retrievable, and safe. Storing audio files up on the AWS eliminates all that hassle.

Your call recording application should include:
— Encrypted audio is the best practice standard for security
— Password protected audio files
— Searchable files for easy access
— Capability to record both inbound and outbound calls
— Pause and Resume recordings; agent controls
— Ability to listen to calls anytime
— Integrated with the contact center platform to eliminate extra phone line charges.

An automatic call distributor for routing calls to specific agents can be a premise-based physical switch or a cloud-based contact center application. Unless you are operating a contact center with 800+ agents, a cloud-based solution is the most versatile application for many reasons. You can add/remove agents daily, but a physical switch has limitations. Once all the ports are used on a physical switch, adding one more means adding another new switch. You either have more than you need or not enough. Hosted applications are a matter of contacting the vendor and adding an agent login. You always have exactly what you need, paying for exactly what you are using.

Dialers can keep you TCPA compliant if you have the right one. While direct marketing is becoming obsolete, collection departments will always exist if people don’t pay their bills. Collections departments rely on a quality dialer. How cool would it be to have a dialer built into the contact center software? A dialer that has three modes: 1. A predictive dialer, which will automatically dial batches of numbers for outgoing calls from the center. You can load lists from the client database with an API and transfer the daily phone numbers and accounts daily. 2. Click-to-dial allows the agent to read the customer's account notes and details before dialing, and 3. Manually dial the number.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems can take away many simple tasks from agents, providing the callers with self-service. There are simple IVRs and then there are banking level IVRs that can take an account number, check the balance, and report it back wholly automated. The mistake in IVR design for many companies is that they create too many options and levels, making it difficult to talk to an agent. This increases the caller’s frustration and decreases customer satisfaction. Make it easy. A few options are all you need for the caller to get where they need to go.

Just imagine that every day before you get to the contact center, a file is emailed to you automatically with all the statistics you like in a format you prefer! Thinks it’s a dream? It’s for real! Today’s SaaS contact center platforms can email or FTP reports to you in a format you like, including the data you care about, when you want it. It’s simple if you have the right platform. Managers no longer should be running blind without the analytics they need to contact centers. The contact centers of the 21st century are rich in data, capability, and delivery. Set yourself up today with automatic reports. You will wonder how you lived without it. 

Workforce management in a contact center is the art and science of having the correct number of employees with the right skills at the proper times to meet accurately forecasted volumes of work while maintaining a predetermined service level. It is a critical function for contact centers. Poor planning and execution will negatively impact the business regarding costs, customer satisfaction, employee burnout, and motivation.

Workforce Management Software available today to manage this task has dramatically improved function, capability, and price. There is no reason to continue using spreadsheets and whiteboards today! What is Workforce Management and what does the software do? Workforce management (WFM) is an integrated set of processes that an institution uses to optimize the productivity of its employees on the individual, departmental, and entity-wide levels. 

Here are the functions of workforce management:

— Calculation of an accurate forecast
— Collect call history data
— Identify call patterns (day, week, season, etc.)
— Identify unique day patterns (holidays, etc.)
— Identify other event or business drivers that might impact call volume/pattern

— Monitoring, Managing Adherence & Managing Exceptions
— Inform and educate about adherence importance and impact
— Measure and manage adherence throughout the day (real-time adherence)
— Provide incentives
— Changes in call volume or arrival pattern
— Staffing or scheduling issues
— Business related exceptions

— Measuring and adjusting
— Analyze daily/weekly reports
— Investigate causes for under-performance
— Apply findings into workforce management process

Many contact center managers at every level complain they don’t have real-time data. They want to get their finger on the pulse to make actionable decisions, and using yesterday’s report just isn’t good enough. Your contact center operations' efficient and effective management relies on access to real-time streaming data.

In the heat of the moment, managers are most interested in how many calls are in the queue, how many are holding, and for how long are they holding? The following real-time question is, do you have enough agents to handle the calls in the queues? Can you see the agent’s status and determine a game plan? Quality and C-Sat scores are important to review and know each day, and provide data for more long-term strategies. Real-time data makes minute-by-minute split decisions on the contact center floor. Handling the call volume is the name of the game.

Choose a contact center platform that provides real-time data with informative and intuitive real-time statistics. Today’s comprehensive contact center platforms provide fully integrated remote call monitoring and visual alerting, ensuring you achieve the highest possible level of contact center quality assurance and customer service. The cloud real-time analytics engine enables unsurpassed remote monitoring for real-time data capture. You want live agent and manager dashboards providing statistics. Agents want to know how they are doing, and managers want to know what they can do to make operations run more smoothly. Data is King. Get it live!