Agent Producitivy

We all know that searching through emails, reading through documents, or browsing the corporate intranet takes time. Contact center agents have even greater information workload volumes, but agents have much narrower windows in which to respond to queries. For small business, the answer to improving speed of answer comes from desktop automation tools. Good ones allow non-technical managers to craft workflows and scripts. Agents are then guided through customer interactions without having to remember application details.

I recommend: Small businesses can’t afford to spend much time training agents on new procedures.  Altitude Software sells a wizard-based script generator that automatically displays screens that move agents through a customer conversation and support data entry. Another time stealer is switching between disjoint back-end IT and CRM applications.  Both Jacada and Cicero  support  “universal desktop” software in which different IT and CRM apps can be managed within a single interface.   Automated workflows coordinate when applications are launched.  For contact centers providing technical support, RightAnswers sells knowledgebases that can quickly queried by agents for answers to common PC and network problems

Intelligent Queueing

At the center of any call center is a system to allocate calls to different queues. Typically, queue assignments are based on caller ID or information gathered from the IVR component ("press 1 for the accounting department"). There are two big advantages to dividing calls this way. First, call handling can be customized based on the queue-for example, with unique message-on-hold and threshold parameters. Second, calls can be assigned to groups of agents best able to handle the call, improving service and agent productivity.

I recommend: May small business phone systems include a built in universal call distributor or UCD. Calls are distributed using vanilla “round-robin” methods. Fine when you have a handful of agents.  But for call centers over 10 agents, you’ll want a more advanced ACD functions that can dynamically route calls based on agent workloads (longest idle agent), IVR values, time of day/day of week, and queue metrics (average waiting time). IP based phone systems, such as IP Office, support advanced routing and ACD features.

Computer Telephony Tools

Computer telephony is another technology that has moved from the enterprise into the SMB space. Gone are the days of special interface cards and complicated software configurations. With IP based phone systems, it's easy to install software that can control phone calls (transfer, conference, hold) from an agent's desktop computer. In fact with some computer telephony systems, the computer becomes the phone. So called softphones help small call centers avoid having to buy extra phonesets-a great cost-saving benefi

I recommend: Major SMB phone system vendors like Avaya, Panasonic, Toshiba support telephony tools for agents. While core call handling functions are a given, not all vendors offer specialized contact center telephony functions. One key feature is call monitoring, which allows customer conversations to be recorded on demand by an agent or even a manager. Depending on the type of transaction, a voice record of the call may be required for compliance purposes. But recorded calls are also useful for agent training, allowing agents to learn from each other.