White Paper

Call Centers: Your Front Door

Contents
Introduction
Call Centers
Communication Resources
ACD and IVR
Integrated Infrastructure
Transaction Documentation
Executive Summary
Staff Performance and Competence

Introduction
Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the number of business
transactions completed using the telephone as a communications tool, rather than
face to face visits or putting things in writing. This has dramatically changed our
range of enterprise activities. This trend has shifted the responsibility to document
and administer the transaction from the customer to the enterprise. Customers want
things to be made easy for them - they expect the enterprises to “know” them when
they call. Technologies such as modern telephony protocols, Call Centers, Workflow
Management and Document Management Systems - help the “state of the art “
enterprise to organize its data, and ideally, to recognize the customer by his
telephone number (provided by telephony protocols), or by his customer ID (by
letting him enter his customer ID in a pre-switched dialogue with an Interactive
Voice Unit (IVR)), or similar unique keys. Efficient customer care centers, help
desks, or telebanking centers provide a competitive edge for today’s business. It is
important that the calls be answered quickly and concisely by the most competent
employees (agents) available, and in the shortest time (skill based routing). The Call
Center represents the “front door”, creating a positive impression for each of your
customers. This document describes the application of voice and data recording for
Call Centers and the benefits arising from this integration.
Call Centers
Since there are many definitions for a Call Center, ASC will propose and use
the following definition:

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A Call Center is an environment to present and handle inbound and outbound
traffic in the most effective, efficient and profitable manner.

After all, what does a call center do for an organization? It allows:

A wider customer base that you can do business with.
You to economically reach diverse and widely distributed customer groups.
You to fine-tune your offerings to specific customer groups.
Your customers easy access to your experts.
You to do business around the clock, and in any geographic area.
You to avoid the overhead of the traditional hierarchical and paper-based
Commercial transactions.
To simplify the way a customer may contact your company.
You increase the overall effectiveness and productivity of your employees.
In many businesses, such as retail banking or customer care, a typical
customer now transacts more business through call centers than traditional methods.
How many times have you used automatic teller machines or bank-by-phone
services recently, compared to the number of times you have entered a bank branch
office? In fact, the call center is often the most prevalent way that a customer
transacts business with an organization. The call center has become your customers
window into your company - which is often more important than all the
organization’s live points of contact put together!
Organizations spend substantial time and resources analyzing potential
locations and designs for buildings and branches, and considerable sums to construct
them. How much time and what level of resources do you and your management
spend on this and on marketing representation using current media?
We spend time and money on branch offices because we know that customers
will not patronize a branch that is in an inconvenient location, or whose design
and/or access is awkward. This same concept carries over to the call center, your
“electronic front door”. But, is your organization spending the required effort to
evaluate and improve this important asset? Let us look at the elements you will need
to make your call center a really effective and desirable entrance into your
organization:
Communication Resources: Telephone, Video-Calls, Fax, Email, Web, Voice
Over IP (VOIP), Screen Data, Radio and Broadcast
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) and Dialing Campaigns- Inbound and
Outbound Interactive Voice Response Units (IVR), Message Repeater
Customer Database and Integrated Infrastructure
Data and Transaction Documentation: Agent Desks, Voice Recording
Systems (VRS), Document Management Systems (DMS) and Mass Storage devices
Executive Summaries: Call Center Performance, Management Information
Services
Competent Staff, Busy Hours and Agent Scheduling
Quality Measurements, Agent Evaluation and Training

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 In the following chapter we will address each of the listed subjects, in order to
‘sketch’ an image of the current environment in which “Voice Recording Systems”
are becoming “Communication Recording Systems”.
Communication Resources
You need to be aware of all the offerings of your telephone carriers, IP service
providers and your PBX/ACD vendors. Telephone vendors can supply much more
than dial tone these days. Telephone calls come with a lot of attached information,
such as ANI and DNIS, that can help give your callers improved and integrated
service response. You need to be aware of these capabilities, so you can develop
business and workflow scenarios that use them to your competitive advantage.
Telecommunications offerings are also making huge leaps beyond dial tone. The
broadband capabilities of the “information highway” will stretch our idea of what a
“call” really is. If customers can make video “calls” to your multimedia catalog
database, what will you do about peak calling periods? Do you need the equivalent
of an ACD to park calls in queue? What do the callers look at while they are
parked—cartoons, advertising? What about Voice Over IP (VOIP)? It is telephony,
but requires different identification of calls and customers, as there is no definite
caller number. It also requires different voice recording, due to the fact that
information is transferred in packages and concepts of channels and ports do not
apply. Fax is well recorded with standard techniques, but reprint requires an artificial
fax training session to follow the fax protocols. Web integration into your business
requires elaborate e-mail and webserver message routing with still nonstandard
Unified Messaging Systems. E-mail and Web especially influence the structure of a
call center, due to the asynchronous flow of information, the mixture of media,
written notes on the one hand and written and/or spoken words (answer back calls)
on the other.
Call centers will have to change working hours, since the home based web
activity peaks about 9 p.m.
Inbound only call centers will have to introduce outbound calling (to
telephone customers who click the “call me” button on the web site).
Call centers will have to implement Computer Telephone Integration (CTI) in order
to be able to use screen pops when speaking to web customers.
Call center managers who employ agents with excellent telephone skills will
require agents with strong typing skills or a mixture of both.
The measurement of service levels will become much more complex.
Similar questions arise, and hold true when looking at media such as Radio,
Broadcast and Radar. Synchronous recording and replay of voice and (screen) data
are subject of interest in Video telephony, Call Center agent evaluation and quality
recording, as well as Air Traffic Control (ATC) related applications. In all cases the
ultimate questions will be:
Do you wish to document something, just in case?
How do you remind yourself to call back the customer on an agreed date?

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 How will you get the contract details fast enough, so that the customer doesn’t
wait?
Are archive periods observed, backup procedures followed, authorization and
access limits enabled?
These are not technical questions - they are business questions. Engineers can
build video call machinery. But it is the businessperson that must decide how video
calls should be handled. What will callers want? What will be most helpful and
convenient for them? How do the business processes follow legal requirements?
These are questions that you must answer.
ACD and IVR
Modern Call Centers are more than simple or sophisticated “Automatic Call
Distributors” i.e. routing of calls according to preset rules. Terms like “Intelligent” or
“Integrated” Call Centers, indicate that some or most of the modern concepts of
inbound and outbound call management are being used. These terms indicate that
the hardware/software system providing the call center solution has been designed
as an open system with Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs) for integration
in complex infrastructures. Inbound call handling is all about guiding the calling
customer most efficiently for the customer – and most cost effectively for the
company – to the best trained agent who can service this customer to their
satisfaction. An Interactive Voice Response Unit (IVR), receiving and welcoming the
customer may well handle the inbound call first. The IVR can:
Collect data from the customer
Analyze the data from the D channel of the telephone trunk protocols.
Use Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) techniques.
Ask the customer to enter information through the dialpad of the telephone
Using the above data the IVR decides how to route the call into the system; it
can:
Connect the call to a message repeater with a prerecorded answer to the
customer inquiry, and closes the call without any human intervention on the
company side.
Connect the call with a ‘hold’ message, telling the customer, that currently all
agents are busy and potentially telling the customer the approximate time that their
call will be answered (based on average call answer times). This gives the customer
the choice to call in later, or, for companies not wanting to loose any calls, the
customer may be asked to enter their phone number to be called back as soon as
possible.
Connect the call to the Call Center System for the call routing process to the
next available and best skilled agent; this may be done simply, using the subject
oriented groups the various agents are assigned to, or by using more complex skill
based routing algorithms, that choose the agent according to the needs of the
customer. The skills may be those the agent should have by company policy, or those
the agent volunteers that he has, or in fact those skills determined by regular agent
evaluation screenings.

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 Take back calls from the ACD because the agent found that the required
service would best be supplied by the IVR.
Outbound dialing is all about managing a group of agents to customer, or
potential customer calls. This task traditionally is one of the marketing and sales
departments, and was done by looking up the customer data, getting the
information, dialing the number and waiting. In cases where the extension was busy
or nobody picked up the phone, the agent would wait and waste his time. If a
connection was established, the agent had to then collect his thoughts and notes
regarding the purpose of the call i.e. inquiring about overdue payments, questioning
the customer about shopping habits, etc. Depending on the reason for the call, the
conversation may become complicated, and notes would have to be documented.
Later on, these notes would have to be evaluated. Outbound dialing both simplifies
and speeds up the process greatly. Experts define the purpose of the calling
campaign, select the customers to be called from the company’s customer database,
and set up a conversation script. The agents will be trained in the scripts, and
targeted toward speed and success. When the outbound calling campaign starts, Call
Center dialers will perform the dialing of customer numbers. Several algorithms for
outbound dialing (preview, precision, predictive, automatic, power), tailor the way
customers are connected to agents, thus minimizing down-time, and optimizing post
call processing times. Computer based scripting allows for online evaluation of
outbound calling campaigns. Certain agents may swap from outbound to inbound
and back, depending on their skills, or on current system traffic. Call Centers will not
necessarily reside at the ‘published’ location. Technology allows for networked and
distributed Call Centers, Call Centers “following the sun”, Virtual Call Centers, etc.
The caller will not notice (except for minor call set-up delays), that his call is not
treated in the city of the dialed destination code. Call forwarding costs also, will be
covered by the Telephone Infrastructure with the caller not effected. The question of
costs can be heavily influenced by and even tailored to the company philosophy (e.g.
charge for the help desk service or not). As customers want things made easy, they
are willing to spend time on the web selecting the goods they want to order, but
when asking for delivery dates, they still like to use the phone, simply to get a speedy
answer. IVRs can, easily accomplish interactions like this.
Integrated Infrastructure
Gathering the information from the customer is one task. More challenging for
a company is to organizing its knowledge in a way so that the collected information
can be compared against the customer data and a match can be found. Identification
using the Caller Phone Number –if available – is commonly know as Automatic
Number Identification (ANI), and Calling Line Identification (CLI). There are certain
keys such as customer ID, account number that identifies the caller and enables an
integrated infrastructure to populate customer data on the agent PC, even before the
caller is connected to the agent. Agents are grouped according to departments (Sales,
Order Processing, Customer Retention, etc.) or subjects (Hot Line, Marketing
Campaign for Product ‘X’), to be handled by the call center on behalf of the company.

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There may be an escalation process between groups, although groups covering the
very first contact with the customer should be trained to cover a large percentage of
the average calls. Unresolved calls will be escalated to the next group, of trained
experts, that will be able to resolve the rest of the call or may escalate some ‘tricky’
call directly into a specific department, such as R&D, for resolution. Some other way
may be chosen when a Workflow Management System (WMS) has been integrated.
Notes regarding the unresolved process are taken, and entered into the workflow.
The expert will work according to his workflow task list, and resolve the problem
when it best fits his time schedule. Documents and calls related to the identified
customer can automatically be indexed and retrieved on demand from large archives,
governed by Document Management Systems (DMS). Voice Recording Systems
(VRS) offering interfaces to DMS (providing the call data as *.wav and *.txt files) rid
themselves therefore from the permanent requirement to also archive the recorded
data on media, that again has to be labeled, handled, stored and archived. VRS of this
type may turn out to be solely recording devices with an interface to the DMS.
Storage and replay will be the responsibility of the DMS and use capabilities a
standard PC.
Transaction Documentation
Integration means that notes regarding the call with the customer will be
transferred together with the call from the screen of one agent to the screen of
another agent. The same will hold true for customer related documents, that will be
available online - if there was an integration with a customer care system, contact
management system, or a Document Management System (DMS). Handling a
lengthy call, transferring calls and notes related to this call and from previous calls,
handing documents and data relevant to this customer to the next agent taking the
call, and keeping track of the actions required for completing the call - may be well
worth the investment in call and screen recording devices for certain companies,
when these calls are critical in nature. Reasons for this kind of transaction
monitoring are somewhat obvious, however an equally important reason for making
this investment is for agent evaluation, training, and promotion, now known as
Quality Monitoring.
Executive Summary
Every organization has its legacy systems—the MIS applications that keep
your basic business records. In most companies, these applications run on
mainframes and are maintained by a separate MIS department. They are massive
systems, a crucial part of your business operation, and they are not going to be
changed very quickly. As a call center manager, you will probably have to take them
as they are. But you need not limit your MIS resources to just those systems.
Developments in desktop computing and client-server architectures allow you to add
capabilities and features without disturbing the older systems. The older systems
automate corporate bookkeeping, but you need additional systems to automate
customer service. Not the record keeping part of customer service, but rather the call
handling part. You need a good data network to let you reach into the legacy

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systems; you need computing power in your department (probably from desktop
systems and shared servers); and you need modern application creation software that
lets you define automated call flow applications without spending years writing old-
fashioned code. Having your own system resources, under your control and with
better capabilities than the legacy systems, becomes even more important as you
move beyond traditional call centers. If you want to present a customer’s account
summary in multimedia graphic format, the raw data will still come from legacy
systems. But it is the new systems in your call center that will convert this
information into multimedia graphics and send it on its way to the caller. An
intriguing system component expanding the range of MIS is the capability of today’s
voice recording systems to search for calls done by a certain customer, calls received
by a certain call center agent, calls received for a dedicated account number,
customer ID insurance number, etc. From that list of calls, the one with the correct
time, or the correct attached note may be selected and requested for replay. The
replay request locates the correct medium (hard disk, DAT tape, MOD disk, DVD
disk, etc.) in the archive “media” library, retrieves the call audio data and starts the
replay very quickly without manual interaction. Located calls of interest can be
downloaded to the hard disk of the PC as standard *.wav files together with the call
indexing data in *.txt files, then copied to audio tape, or transferred via e-mail to
some other person of interest.
Staff Performance and Competence
One of the keys to success in any call center is people management. With a call
center as the main point of contact for customers and prospects, a company’s
reputation is only as good as the voices on the telephone representing that company.
A competent call center manager will have learned the value of service
representatives who enjoy helping customers and have an innate sense of good
customer service. You look for these qualities when you hire, and you reward and
promote staff who exhibits them. However, you constantly have to monitor their
skills and attitude and customer interaction. In an outbound telemarketing
campaign, for example, the marketing department develops a detailed script to
ensure that agents are delivering the right messages. Supervisors then need to be able
to monitor whole conversations to see that the script is being adhered to. In the case
of inbound calls, certain levels of professionalism are set, and again, the supervisor
will want to check on the quality of the responses across a wide range of customer
situations. Sitting beside an agent (desk side monitoring) can be impractical, even
hindering and decreasing the agents’ performance for obvious reasons. Listening in
from another extension does not always fit in with a busy supervisor’s schedule.
Voice recording gives the supervisor and the agent the opportunity to replay the
entire call. The supervisor can then coach the agent and help improve their skills. In
some organizations up to 10% of the conversations are replayed to assess the quality
of customer service. Special samples of these recorded calls may also serve the call
center agent as a reference document to help them qualify for a promotion or a new
position. More and more companies employing call centers are becoming systematic

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in their approach, by evaluating agent performance against set business criteria.
Ideally the supervisor will be able to electronically generate a questionnaire on any
relevant aspect of the agent’s area of expertise. CTI tagged calls of the agent under
evaluation, will be selected according to some random or systematic pattern and
drawn from the voice recorder for replay on a desktop PC, where the evaluation will
take place. The criteria can range from how an initial greeting was given, to how well
the agent probed for further customer needs. The evaluations let Supervisors
compare the skill levels found within their team, and may provide a history for trend
analysis. This will provide an indisputable basis for promotions and also flag training
courses required to support the agent (Integrated Agent Evaluation and Training
Tools). Even greater advantages will be provided by specific applications to record
and review the synchronized voice and screen data (Voice Recording and Screen
Capturing). This enables a supervisor to replay screen shots as well as keyboard and
mouse activity that goes with each part of the verbal communication. Supervisors
will get a complete overview of the transaction, including unspoken but essential
elements, to later clarify an agreement or dispute. Supervisors will ‘hear’, how agents
are verbally interacting with customers, and ‘see’ how they are using software
applications for taking orders or providing customer service. Let’s summarize this in
ten good reasons for capturing agent screen activities in addition to voice:
1. Expand quality assessment to include typing, listening, application and
reading skills.
2. Ensure agents are using customer service applications effectively.
3. Identify areas for improvement in customer service applications, especially
those effecting the call length.
4. Customize applications based on information gathered from monitored
data.
5. Ensure integrity of transactions by cross tracking screen transactions versus
voice.
6. Ensure agents adhere to policies regarding e-mail and Internet uses.
7. Use the screen monitoring to trigger event-driven voice recording,
optimizing recording storage and archiving.
8. Use the recording event trigger as search criteria for quality monitoring and
market research.
9. Compile a database of good calls and proper use of computer applications
for training/promotion purposes.
Multi-media and multi-tasking aspects of reviewing make the system time
saving and easy for supervisors to work with. The increase in efficiency and
ergonomics of improved tools and workflow will reflect in the positive attitude of the
agents.
Quality evaluation recording activity may either be based on bulk recording,
where the desired set of calls can be picked from the mass storage, or, a dedicated
selective recording campaign, set up in order to gain selected calls and data so that
the evaluation may be done later. While the first case is a standard requirement, CTI

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based call filtering, using call-indexing information, such as extension number, or in
the case of free seating, Agent ID, will serve the needs of the second scenario.
Monitoring technology is a good investment. If you give agents regular, fair and
timely feedback, you motivate them to do a better job. They know how to improve
their performance the next time around or learn from calls you share as good
examples. The monitoring process also helps agents to feel more appreciated; they
know what they are doing has a purpose. This is not only good for the agent, but also
good for you, your call center and your company’s overall corporate image.

ASC telecom
Michael Esser
SVP- Product Development
www.asctelcom.com

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