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Call Center Technology 101:
A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Common Call Center Technologies Presented by:
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Penny Reynolds is a Founding Partner of The Call Center School where she heads up curriculum development. She develops and teaches courses on a wide variety of call center topics, including workforce management, performance measurement, and call center technologies. Penny is a popular speaker at industry conferences and association meetings and a frequent contributor to industry trade publications. Her articles have appeared in print publications such as Customer Interface, Customer Interaction Solutions, and Customer Support Management, and on-line sources such as ICCM Weekly, New Frontiers, SourceCRM, and Workforce Weekly. She has recently published a book entitled Call Center Staffing: The Complete, Practical Guide to Workforce Management and has also co-authored the five textbooks for University of Phoenix’s call center certification program. An honors graduate of Vanderbilt University, Penny was one of the first recipients of Call Center Magazine’s prestigious Call Center Pioneer award.
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Session Overview In this session, you will learn to:
Describe the following call delivery technologies: ACD CTI IVR Desktop Tools Automated Dialer Describe the following performance management tools: Workforce Management Quality Monitoring Contact Management Management Identify the technology components of a CRM strategy.
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Making the Customer Connection
Call Delivery Technologies
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Automatic Call Distributor (ACD)
The Core Call Center Technology: Connectivity between network and agent Specialized routing with basic functions of a PBX Complex or simple routing among agent groups Recorded announcements and menus Management reports
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ACD Vendors Traditional Vendors Nortel Avaya Siemens Rockwell Aspect
Non-Traditional Suppliers Interactive Intelligence Cisco Genesys eON Many others emerging Ericsson Alcatel NEC Mitel
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Which ACD is used in your call center?
Audience Composition Polling Question Which ACD is used in your call center? Avaya Nortel Aspect Siemens Non-traditional supplier
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ACD Critical Issues Capacity for connections and traffic
Reliability & redundancy Reporting capabilities & flexibility Compatibility with existing components Upgradability Vendor focus on new developments
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Integrating the Telephone and the Computer
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) Integrating the Telephone and the Computer
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Computer Telephony Integration (CTI)
Connects phone system to another computer Allows transfer of network and IVR data to host Controls call routing with added intelligence Provides appropriate screens to agent with call Routes customer data with the telephone call Uses: ANI - the number from which they're calling DNIS - the number the customer dialed
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CTI Vendors CTI requires components from multiple vendors: ACD supplies a connection and software to support communication to and from it. CTI Server provides the connectivity application (API) that translates telephony and computer commands. Host computer supplies connectivity and data look- up functions to support screen pop and/or other commands.
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The Voice Processing Family
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) The Voice Processing Family
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Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Capabilities: Provides interaction between caller and computer using touch-tone telephone signals Reads caller input as directions and/or account specific information Requires DTMF signaling or voice activation Replaces need to live agent for routine transactions
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IVR Vendors Apex Communications Apropos Intervoice Periphonics Octel
Speechworks Various PBX/ACD vendors
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As a customer, what are some of your pet peeves when using IVR?
IVR Design Issues As a customer, what are some of your pet peeves when using IVR?
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IVR Critical Issues Placement Front-end Back end Scripting
Common sense order Specific instructions Escape route Consistency
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What happens at the agent desktop?
Desktop Tools What happens at the agent desktop?
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Desktop Tools Provide a consistent way to assimilate information from multiple applications Combine everything the agent needs on one computer screen Point and click Graphical User Interface (GUI) “May haves” Intuitive telephone controller Caller ID display On-line phone book Ability to populate billing and customer information automatically into s and faxes
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Desktop Tools Knowledge base Customer contacts Directory services
Types of Applications: Knowledge base Customer contacts Directory services Automated fax Real-time voice and video
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Audience Composition Polling Question
To what degree are your frontline staff allowed to customize the agent desktop? Not at all To a small degree To a large degree Completely under their control
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Automated Dialer Outbound Calling
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Automated Dialer Looks up number in database or list Dials call
Capabilities: Looks up number in database or list Dials call Detects live answer versus busy/no answer Matches call to available agent Doubles or triples productivity over manual dial
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Dialer Vendors Amcat Castel Cilix Concerto Data-Tel DigiSoft
MarTel Int’l Noble Systems Predictive Software SER Solutions Stratasoft Touchstar US Infotel $$
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How do you accomplish outbound dialing today?
Audience Composition Polling Question How do you accomplish outbound dialing today? We don’t make outbound calls. We manually dial. We use an automated dialer.
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Dialer Critical Issues
Speed of Dialing Efficiency versus phantom calls Staffing Best use of resources Occupancy concerns Call Blending The productivity myth
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Call Delivery Checklist
ACD CTI IVR Desktop Tools Automated Dialer
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Forecasting and Scheduling
Workforce Management Forecasting and Scheduling
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Workforce Management Forecast calls and workload
Basic Capabilities: Forecast calls and workload Determine staff requirements Create optimal staff schedules Track performance within the day
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Advanced WFM Capabilities
Performance reporting Real-time adherence monitoring Vacation administration Non-phone work forecasting and scheduling Multi-site scheduling and tracking Multi-skill scheduling (skill-based routing) Simulation of complex routing environments
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Workforce Management Vendors
Aspect Communications (TCS) Blue Pumpkin Envision Telephony Genesys GMT Corporation IEX Corporation Odysoft Pipkins
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Critical Questions More than 50 staff?
Mix of full-time/part-time staff? Extended hours of operation? Multi-media contact handling? Multiple sites? Complex work rules and scheduling rules?
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How do you accomplish forecasting and scheduling today?
Audience Composition Polling Question How do you accomplish forecasting and scheduling today? Manually Spreadsheets or homegrown tools Commercial workforce management package
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How well are agents doing at responding to customer needs?
Quality Monitoring How well are agents doing at responding to customer needs?
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Quality Monitoring Random look at customer transactions
Control over quality Observation and/or recording: Silent monitoring: recorded or observed Voice logging: recorded Screen/voice logging: recorded
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How Quality Monitoring Works
Conversations can be recorded or observed. Based on programming, it records transactions by agent, by time-of-day, or type of call. Recording can be automatically scheduled by linking to workforce management system. Data screens can also be captured from the monitored call.
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Quality Monitoring Vendors
Astound Inc. ( Envision Telephony ( etalk Corporation ( Eyretel Inc. ( - part of Witness Nice Systems ( Verint ( Witness Systems (
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How do you manage the quality of your customer interactions today?
Audience Composition Polling Question How do you manage the quality of your customer interactions today? Side-by-side review only Tape recorders Silent monitoring Quality monitoring/recording system
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Sales and/or Contact Tracking
Contact Management Sales and/or Contact Tracking
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Contact Management Tracks and measures customer interactions
Provides cradle-to-grave reporting systems Reduces problem with insistent customers Correlates all interactions Helps determine worth of each customer, cost of each call, and service cost
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How Contact Management Works
Tracks calls, problem management, and problem resolution Displays information related to system status, trouble tickets, known product defects Captures information about a company’s IT and telecommunications infrastructure Customer access can enable user to: Review service level agreements Research equipment and site configurations Resolve simple problems Submit service requests
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Contact Management Vendors
AmDocs Limited ( formerly Clarify Astea International ( CreekPointe ( formerly Goldmine eGain Communications ( Epicor Software Corp ( Magic Software Ent. ( PeopleSoft ( formerly Vantive Siebel (
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E-mail Management Systems
Receives s into work queue May send immediate acknowledgement Maintains queue rules and reporting on status of all s May be integrated with voice queue and/or workforce management system
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Audience Composition Polling Question
How fast can your customers expect a full turnaround on an request? Within the hour Same business day Within 48 hours Longer than 2 days
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E-mail Issues Compatibility with existing systems
Reporting capabilities Potential for immediate acknowledgement Potential for knowledge-based processing of most likely answers to query System reliability and backup Vendor viability
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Performance Management Tools
Workforce Management Quality Monitoring Contact Management Management
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Customer Relationship Management
A Final “Technology” Customer Relationship Management Process or Technology?
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Customer Relationship Management
Tools for enhancing customer interactions: Databases of information about customers Knowledge bases of data and problem solving tools Contact management Analysis tools for sorting and studying data Centralized repositories available to all customer interaction channels Any of these can be considered a CRM technology!
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Some Thoughts on CRM Tools are only the beginning.
Attitudes, processes & procedures must support change of focus. Existing data must be converted for storage in the central databases – departmental systems must be transitioned to corporate-wide one. Access to the data must be available for all customer-facing personnel. Personnel must be trained on what changes to make in their behavior based on data they see.
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CRM Critical Issues Proven capability to do what you want to do
Compatibility with existing components Capacity to grow dramatically A clear understanding of how data will be fed into the system from existing databases Financial stability of the vendor Ability to put together the whole package, not just point solutions Processes, procedures, and corporate support needed to make it a success
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Thank you for your participation today.
Good luck making the most of your call center technologies!
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