The ways in which we communicate today are very different from the analog wired telephony world of 1968, when the nation’s first PSAP began serving the public. The advent of mobile text messages, mobile video, automatic crash notification systems, geographic positioning systems and other communications channels provide an exciting opportunity to provide faster and better emergency services. Leveraging these new technologies is just one of many reasons for the federal government-sponsored Next Generation (NG) 9-1-1 initiative. 

911 voice logging recorder systems in NG9-1-1 are evolving to become standardized functional elements connected to other systems on a common network to log a variety of significant events. The problem is, the vast majority of the legacy PSAP recorders in use today were designed for a voice-only world and a circuit-switched network. They were purchased primarily on the basis of reliability and cost, not the flexibility of features and technology that would be flexible enough to adapt to these changes.  Some of these units have the ability to capture and store screen actions initiated by the call-taker but virtually none have the ability to capture, index, archive, or retrieve text messages, video, telematics and other data calls.  There are many other glaring deficiencies in legacy PSAP digital logging recorders.  Here’s a brief summary of five of the most frequently reported limitations:

1. Unable to capture multi-channel events
2. Not architected to readily conform to coming changes
3. Lack the security and authentication requirements of NG9-1-1
4. Are not well integrated with leading VoIP, radio and CAD vendors
5. Lack dispatch and call taker quality assurance evaluation tools

1.  Capturing Multimedia Communications

Legacy Recorders: Majority are not designed to capture, store, and retrieve data messages.  This is because PSAP call servers cannot capture and route data messages.  However, IP-based multi-channel call servers have been available for many years and are in wide use in business enterprises and commercial contact centers.  Many manufacturers do not even produce analog and TDM call distributors today and those that do are in the process of phasing them out.  PSAPs will have to replace or upgrade (if possible) their legacy call servers with current-generation IP-PBX’s or ACD’s to meet the specifications of NG9-1-1.  At that time, they will also need to replace the PSAP recorder.

Next Generation Recorders: Handle analog and digital TDM as well as VoIP voice, data, and text messages in a unified, consolidated fashion –this will facilitate your transition cost-effectively and enable unified capture of and access to all incident information, regardless of the channel that was used to report and resolve it.  

2.  Adaptability to Readily Conform to Changes – Open Architecture

Legacy Recorders: Closed systems designed with either fully or at least partially proprietary hardware and software - not economically scalable and often cannot be modified for IP.  Consequently, PSAPs cannot use industry standard servers with common operating systems and file formats of captured communications.  Legacy 911 logging recorder systems do not have open interfaces –that are recommended by NENA and US DOT under NG9-1-1 initiatives - and so cannot seamlessly integrate with the other PSAP systems that are (or will be) built to open standards.  Examples include the new database formats specified for NG9-1-1 infrastructure, to include CAD systems, mapping software, and more.  With closed systems, each integration point is a custom job adding to costs of acquisition and ownership and creating unnecessary complexity to the task of replacing legacy sub-systems. 

Next Generation Recorders: Designed from the ground up with fully open, service oriented architecture that is inherently adaptable and flexible, open to integrations with other standards-based systems. The standards-based architecture of latest-generation recorders directly translates into lower investment and lower costs of operations – users can leverage COTS hardware and other 3rd party interfaces and data to subordinate the rules and procedures for data access to processes and policies. These recorders will capture inputs from any device; including, voice, data, and video.  Each incident will be indexed with ANI/ALI information, incident number, and other identifiers like call taker name or ID and associated information such as CAD logs and maps.  Incident scenarios will include all communications sequenced just as they happened, all plotted on a map to improve visual analysis

3.  Security and Authentication Measures

Call recordings are often used as court evidence.  It is very important that the recordings be secured from access by unauthorized personnel and if there is an intrusion that there be a mechanism for identifying and tracing the security breach.

Legacy Recorders: Many do not offer encryption of recordings and data, nor they come up with built-in audit trails to monitor and alert on access violations.

Next Generation Recorders: Delivered with encryption, file watermarking, password-protected exports, audit logs and more. 

4.  Tight Integration with Leading VoIP, Radio, CAD, and other Emergency Communications Systems

Legacy Recorders: Virtually none or only limited, expensive capability to convert to recording VoIP, CAD data, or P25 Radio voice and data. In some cases, the recorder is compatible with only one VoIP switch or radio system vendor.  However, different vendors handle communications in different ways and with different communication protocols. While the ultimate objective of NG9-1-1 is to unify communication protocols, this transition will be very gradual.  

Reliable and error-free integration between communications systems and the recording platform is rather important   The recorder must be able to read the ANI, ALI, CLID, trunk ID, call taker ID, incident number, and other data captured by the call server, radio system, or CAD.

Next Generation Recorders: The top recording vendors will have proven integrations with the major PBX, CAD, and radio vendors. They would be development partners with multiple such manufacturers – to have full and complete access to the latest specifications and be able to certify that the recorder functions properly with various versions and releases of the vendor’s switch.

One of the many benefits of NG 9-1-1 is that by adopting Internet Protocol as the common voice and data communications language, subsystems and applications will be able to communicate with each other both internally and externally.  The need for costly integrations will slowly diminish as savvy vendors will design their products to accommodate not only today’s complex environment but the all-IP environment of tomorrow. To learn more about NG9-1-1 recording requirements, check out this recent Podcast featuring Guy Clinch from Avaya and Patrick Botz from VPI.

5.  Integrated Dispatcher Quality Assurance Evaluation and Coaching Tools

The ability to maintain or improve quality of emergency response and objectively monitor progress is critical especially at the time of implementation of new NG9-11 infrastructure. 

Legacy Recorders: Typically unavailable with integrated quality assurance feature sets, not designed to assist with the selection of calls for supervisor evaluation, nor to provide management with helpful tools for designing and completing the evaluation forms.

Next Generation Recorders: Automatically present evaluators with targeted evaluation forms and synchronized interaction audio and screen video (if captured) – selected manually or automatically based on rules for identification of critical calls - to enable efficient assessment of single calls or entire incidents.

Thanks for reading! We welcome the opportunity to answer any questions you may have.

Did you know that almost one in every 25 jobs in the US is within the contact center industry? Pretty thought provoking, huh? But just what does the future hold for the people, processes and technologies of this constantly evolving environment? As the leading developer and provider of contact center workforce optimization solutions and services, we at VPI decided to compile a list of compelling statistics that are shaping the future of customer contact and our solution portfolio. Check it out:

Customer Experience

1) Even in a negative economy, customer experience is a high priority for consumers, with 60% often or always paying more for a better experience. (Source: Harris Interactive)  Tweet This Stat!

2) 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience, up from 59% 4 years ago. (Source: Harris Interactive)  Tweet This Stat!

3) 89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience. (Source: Harris Interactive)  Tweet This Stat!

4) 59% will try a new brand or company for a better service experience. (Source: American Express)  Tweet This Stat!

5) The top three drivers for investing in customer experience management are:

• Improve customer retention – (42 %)
• Improve customer satisfaction – (33 %)
• Increase cross-selling and up-selling – (32 %)

(Source: Aberdeen)  Tweet This Stat!

What These Customer Service Statistics Say about the Future of Contact Centers

These stats make it clear. Your company’s customer service simply can’t be ignored. Customers are choosier and more discerning than ever before. If you neglect the quality of your customer service you will lose key customers to your competitors. Interestingly, these customers are actually willing to pay more for better service and a superior experience.

Self-Service and Call Automation

6) By 2020, the customer will manage 85% of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human. (Source: Gartner)  Tweet This Stat!

7) The number of consumers preferring automated self-service has doubled to 55% in the last five years. (Source: Convergys)  Tweet This Stat!

8) US contact centers spend $12.4 billion annually verifying the caller is who they say they are. 59% of calls require identity verification, but only 3% of these are handled entirely through automated processes. (Source: ContactBabel)  Tweet This Stat!

  9) The IVR accounts for an astounding 27% of the total call experience. However, only 7% of organizations currently offer an IVR solution that delivers a better experience (CSAT) than their live agent experience. (Source: JD Power & Associates) Tweet This Stat! 

What These Self-Service Stats Say about the Future of Contact Centers

Self-service is growing by the minute. Your customers’ preferences are rapidly changing. They expect and demand immediate service and satisfaction. These days,regardless of age, gender or occupation, customers expect almost instant gratification when it comes to customer service – they have tools at their fingertips that provide constant and immediate communication. They don’t want to have to wait on hold and they don’t want to have to repeat their information. Can you live up to their expectations? It’s crucial to adapt to your customer’s self-service needs or you may be left behind.

Artificial Intelligence is now being applied to self-service to make it smarter, faster and better. To learn more about the next generation in voice self-service – Virtual Call Agents powered by Artificial Intelligence – watch this short video and listen to these virtual agent call audio samples.

At-Home Agents

10) There are an estimated 3 million Americans who work primarily from home today, an increase of 61% since 2005. (Source: Forrester)  Tweet This Stat!

11) An estimated 60% of contact centers utilize home agents today in some capacity and the forecast is 80% by year-end 2013. (Source: Customer Contact Strategies)  Tweet This Stat!

12) More than half of the contact centers in the U.S. today, 53% have some percentage of their agent population functioning from a home office. More than 70% of those currently supporting at-home agents plan on increasing the number of their at-home agents in 2013. (Source: National Association of Call Centers)  Tweet This Stat!

13) Ovum expects the number of home-based customer service agents to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 36.4%, one of the strongest expansion levels of any outsourcing market sub-segment. (Source: Ovum)  Tweet This Stat!

14) By 2016, 63 million Americans will telecommute. (Source: Global Workplace Analytics)  Tweet This Stat!

What these Home Working Stats Say about the Future of Contact Centers

Working from home is becoming an increasingly common practice – quite possibly the single biggest phenomenon changing the customer contact landscape in over a decade. Telecommuting offers employees a flexible schedule and higher job satisfaction rate. Without the limits of geography, employers benefit from the ability to cherry pick candidates from a vast labor pool beyond the confined radius of a brick-and-mortar facility. Consequently, more and more companies are hiring at-home agents, but this means they need a way to monitor the performance and productivity of the agents.

To learn more about best practices for implementing a successful at-home agent program,  download your complimentary white paper on ‘Call Center At-Home Agent Best Practices,’ authored by analyst firm DMG Consulting, and consider attending one of Michele Rowan’s world-class ‘At-Home Agent Strategies for Success Workshops.’ As the former VP of Performance Management at Hilton, Michele led the expansion of the Hilton@Home program from 200 to 1000 at-home agents, and has since helped hundreds of other organizations successfully deploy home working programs.

Quality and Performance Management

15) Only 31% of organizations closely monitor the quality of interactions with target customers. (Source: Forrester Research)  Tweet This Stat!

16) Two-thirds of organizations view access to real-time or nearly real-time metrics is a very important capability. However, very few companies (8%) receive their metrics as soon as they are generated. Fewer than one-fifth (18%) receive them on the same day, while at the remaining companies it can take up to four weeks for the metrics to be delivered. (Source: Ventana Research)  Tweet This Stat!

17) 92% of contact center leaders see high value in sharing metrics in real-time with front-line agents. The top 5 metrics of greatest value when shared in real-time with agents are # of calls in queue, service level, customer satisfaction, schedule adherence, and first contact resolution – in that order. (Source: Good to Great: Rapid Results with Real-time Performance Management, A Saddletree Research Paper, 2012) Read the full benchmark research report.  Tweet This Stat!

18) 60% of all repeat calls are process or training driven – business processes are not in place to meet the customer’s need, and agents have not been given the training required to meet the customer expectations that have been set by marketing or elsewhere in the business. (Source: Frost & Sullivan)  Tweet This Stat!

19) Organizations that focus on frequent training see advantages in first call resolution - 65% vs. 58% for those who don't. (Source: Parature)  Tweet This Stat!

20) Only 31% of organizations recognize and reward employees across the company for improving customer experience. (Source: Forrester Research)  Tweet This Stat!

What these Quality and Performance Management Stats Say about the Future of Contact Centers

Clearly, these stats show that companies need to pay more attention to agent quality and performance management in order to maximize the potential of each employee and provide the training the agents need to be successful.

When empowered with real-time performance metrics and information, front-line agents and supervisors thrive. The problem is that most contact centers struggle to extract customer insights from multiple siloed systems and applications that share data. It takes time and resources to produce spreadsheets and reports that have already become stale and outdated by the time they're delivered. Fortunately, with the availability of Real-time Performance Management software, the ability to consolidate metrics from multiple disparate contact center telephony and business applications and deliver them just-in-time to agents, supervisors and executives has now become an affordable reality.

To get more value from Quality Assurance efforts, it’s important to re-think your approach to Quality Assurance (QA). Traditional QA which has been primarily focused on monitoring and improving internal agent quality and compliance for the past 30 years, is now also being used to uncover valuable insights to improve business operations and customer satisfaction. The emergence of workflow automation and embedded analytics with new QA solutions are helping customer facing organizations around the world reduce the manual steps required by most traditional QA programs by 60 to 80 percent. Better yet, analytics-driven QA takes you straight to what really matters – delivering insight into critical business issues and opportunities to improve customer experience and revenue outcomes.

Multi-Channel

21) Contact channels other than the phone, such as email, Web self-service, chat, and other online techniques, now account for more than 30 percent of customer service engagements. Web self-service and email dominate this mix. (Source: CFI Group)  Tweet This Stat!

22) 25% of consumers utilize one to two channels when seeking customer care and 52% of consumers utilize three or four channels. (Source: Ovum)  Tweet This Stat!

23) 57% best in class companies measure support center success across email, chat, web, and voice, and 62% use integrated voice response (IVR). (Source: Aberdeen Group)  Tweet This Stat!

24) In the US, 21% of online shoppers prefer live chat, close to the same number as those who favor using the telephone (23%) and ahead of social media (2%). Email remains the most popular method for online shoppers to communicate with customer services, with 54% saying they prefer this method. (Source: BoldChat )  Tweet This Stat!

25) 60% of adults aged 25–29 live in households with only wireless telephones. (Source: Centers for Disease Control)  Tweet This Stat!

What these Multi-Channel Stats Say about the Future of Contact Centers

Today’s contact centers are using many different channels to reach their customers. In this era of constant, ‘round-the-clock communication, customers expect to be able to interact with a company through any channel – whether via phone, going online or even live Web chat. In addition, an increasing number of businesses and contact centers are implementing live chat to meet this rising demand. In addition to being able to evaluate and analyze voice interactions with customers, organizations need to place equal or greater weight on the ability to assess and extract insights from self-service, Web chat, email and social media conversations. This leads us into the next major trend – Speech and Text Analytics.

Speech and Text Analytics

26) Currently, there are 3,170 active, successful speech analytics implementations. (Source: SpeechTech)  Tweet This Stat!

27) Speech analytics was one of the top two fastest-growing call center tools in 2012 – the adoption of speech analytics grew by 59% and Web chat jumped by 60%. (Source: ContactBabel)  Tweet This Stat!

28) Speech analytics was among the top five technologies evaluated, with 24 percent saying that they intended to evaluate it for purchase in 2012. (Source: Saddletree Research) Tweet This Stat!

29) The speech analytics market is projected to continue to expand over the next several years, growing by 25 percent in 2013 and 20 percent in 2014. (Source: DMG Consulting) Tweet This Stat!

30) Speech analytics solutions are currently in use in 24% of all organizations, predominantly used by services, outsourcing and finance organizations. There is an appreciable amount of interest in implementing a new speech analytics system or replacing the one they have within the near future, especially in the medical sector (45% of companies), insurance sector (54%) and retail (40%). (Source: ContactBabel)  Tweet This Stat!

What these Speech Analytics Statistics Say about the Future of Contact Centers

These statistics clearly demonstrate that speech analytics may be the fastest growing trend impacting the future of contact centers today. The possibilities are endless. Speech analytics allows you to identify calls that can be better handled, helps you improve First Contact Resolution and reduce customer churn, and enables you to increase sales and collections by sharing best practices.

Social Media

31) More than 50% of Facebook users and 80% of Twitter users expect a response to a customer service inquiry in a day or less.(Source: Oracle)  Tweet This Stat!

32) Failure to respond via social channels can lead to up to a 15% increase in churn rate for existing customers. (Source: Gartner)  Tweet This Stat!

33) 56% of customer tweets to companies are being ignored. (Source: Huffington Post  “100 Fascinating Social Media Statistics and Figures from 2012 )  Tweet This Stat!

34) 19% of consumers who had unsatisfactory service interactions shared their experiences through social networks in 2010, a 50% increase over 2009. (Source: Forrester)  Tweet This Stat!

35) Customers who wrote about their contact center experiences on social media sites and then received follow-up from the company rated their overall satisfaction with the contact center experience nearly 20%higher and are 15% more likely to recommend the company than those who received no follow-up. (Source: CFI Group)  Tweet This Stat!

36) Servicing via social media boosts customer satisfaction by 15-20%. (Source: CFI Group)  Tweet This Stat!

37) 80% of users prefer to connect with brands on Facebook. (Source: Huffington Post)  Tweet This Stat!

What these Social Media Stats Say about the Future of Contact Centers

Social Media has had a huge impact on the future of the contact center industry. After interacting with your company, a customer can immediately vent theirfrustrations or share their positive experiences with the click of a button. This is why customer service you provide is more important than ever before. Additionally, since word now travels so fast, companies can lose business opportunities if they don’t regularly respond to their customers’ requests and comments on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blogs and others. With the advent of Social Media, QA is becoming more important than ever before as it takes just seconds for a customer to rave about or complain and bash a brand to thousands.

Cloud Computing

38) By the end of 2015 more than 18 percent of contact center seats will be delivered by cloud-based contact center infrastructure providers. (Source: DMG Consulting)  Tweet This Stat!

39) At year-end 2016, more than 50 percent of Global 1000 companies will have stored customer-sensitive data in the public cloud. (Source: Gartner Predicts)  Tweet This Stat!

40) 57% of cloud computing users feel that it actually increased their security when compared to traditional methods for computing and data back up. (Source: Mimecast)  Tweet This Stat!

What these Cloud Computing Stats Say about the Future of Contact Centers

VPI was recently featured in Contact Center Association's Inbound Magazine in their special issue on 'What to Expect in the Contact Center in 2013.'  One thing is for certain, and that is trading floors and contact centers will be faced with implementing a series of process and technology changes in the coming year.

Authored by VPI's Vice President of Workforce Optimization Patrick Botz, the article 'Financial Contact Centers Face the Reality of Complying with Dodd-Frank' discusses the impact of Dodd-Frank call recording requirements, deadline dates and affordable call recording, analytics and electronic Coaching solutions that are helping trading floors and contact centers of all sizes and in multiple industries that are involved in swap activities – including financial services, manufacturing, oil and insurance – prepare for and ensure compliance with Dodd-Frank call recording requirements.

Financial Contact Centers Face the Realities of Complying with Dodd-Frank

New Dodd-Frank Call Recording Requirements 

Using Analytics to Detect Non-Compliant Activities 

Closing Knowledge Gaps with E-Learning and Coaching 

People's numerous poor experiences with traditional speech and touch-tone IVRs have given phone self-service a bad reputation. Most IVRs have failed because they force customers to interact in a very rigid, one-dimensional manner. Problem is, humans don't always think in such simplistic and structured terms. They quickly become frustrated when forced to communicate this way. It's time to rethink our attitude towards voice self-service.
Stop scripting - start conversing. Stop disappointing - start delighting!

If you know anything about VPI, you know how passionate we are about delivering exceptional customer service. Since 1994, we were the first to introduce several innovations that redefined and greatly improved contact center compliance recording, quality monitoring, E-learning and performance reporting. Earlier this year, we launched a major breakthrough in customer self-service that is already having a major impact on the way many organizations are servicing their customers – VPI VirtualSource Virtual Call Agents powered by Artificial Intelligence.

In just a few months, intelligent virtual call agents in the cloud have helped a member-driven Automobile Club decrease overall costs of call service delivery by more than 60 percent while significantly improving customer satisfaction scores. A major Office Supplies retailer improved their self-service success rates from 3 percent to over 35 percent. When given the option, more than 80 percent of a large clothing manufacturer's customers choose the option to speak with a virtual call agent vs. a live agent to ask questions and complete their transactions. These are just a few of the rapidly growing number of success stories.

Since the launch of VPI VirtualSource, we've been getting thousands of great questions like: What are Virtual Call Agents? What makes them so much more effective than an IVR? We're interested in your Free 30-Day Trial - what types of calls should we start automating first?

So we decided to spend some time making this short, fun, animated video to answer those questions. Enjoy! 

Request more information on a Free 30-Day Trial

How did we do? Before this video, did you know what Virtual Call Agents were? Does this video explain how Virtual Call Agents can help you - can you think of ways in which you could use them in your environment? Give us some feedback based on your experience!

Boosting customer satisfaction is more important than ever before. Consumers today live in an instant gratification society and are not only choosier with how they spend their money, but also demand an exceptional customer experience. Now's the time to take control and learn how to improve customer satisfaction and reduce operating costs by reading VPI's article on 'Quality Assurance 2.0: Using Analytics to Focus QA on Outcomes," which has been featured as the top story in the Quality Assurance & Training Connection (QATC) newsletter.

Quality Assurance 2.0: Using Analytics to Focus QA on Outcomes

Have you attended NENA’s recent webinar on “Quality Assurance & Improving PSAP Call Taking”?  Clearly, NENA sees, encourages and supports the progression of PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) communications towards better standardization in communication protocols and procedures, backed by improved quality control that leads to timely improvements - before call taker knowledge gaps or procedural problems end up costing human lives. This was a great affirmation for many attendees of the webinar who already started this process or are preparing to get started. Indeed, our experience with hundreds of PSAPs around the nation and engagement in NENA’s NG9-1-1 partner program point towards the pressing need to rethink the way PSAP communication standards are implemented, communicated to employees, and enforced through Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Improvement (QI) processes.    

A least 60% of PSAP centers have already wised up to the trend of objective and consistent quality monitoring of their emergency communications - they have implemented or are about to implement formalized QA and QI tools and processes.  Has your agency joined this forward-thinking majority, or do you participate in the other 40%?

Successful PSAP Quality Assurance process does not really need to be expensive or painful to implement, even though some agencies still perceive financial and staffing constraints as delaying factors. Let’s take a closer look at these four signs of succcess:

1. Standards, protocols first – standardization of PSAP communications and information gathering procedures should always be the first step in the QA process, as that’s what you ultimately want to enforce.  Apart from obvious gains in accuracy and efficiency in your emergency communications, the ability to demonstrate that you follow standard protocols will help you in a court room or in communications with general public or media. This approach also greatly helps with acceptance and cooperation of your PSAP employees – you will need everyone’s buy-in for the QA program to be successful.  Agencies who do not have formalized protocols in place can either purchase a toolset that includes them or they may be able to learn from surrounding agencies who are more experienced in this area.

2. Communicate before you implement QA – without proper introduction to all PSAP employees where objectives, methods, and standards of the new QA process are explained, chances are rather high that the QA monitoring process will be seen as punitive, distracting, or otherwise negative.  Open book approach is what works best – present the new program as a team effort and a source of timely help, appealing to the desire of emergency communicators to provide best possible service to citizens.  After all, a vast majority of them applied for this job because they want to help people in need.

3.  Align your QA & QI tools with standards and protocols – the notion that one size doesn’t fit all couldn’t be more pronounced in PSAP QA.  Since different call types require different knowledge, protocols and attitudes, plan for a set of evaluation forms that are closely aligned with the requirements of different calls.  For example, you wouldn’t want to evaluate a call where a domestic violence problem is reported by using a generalized police dispatch QA form, or a form that has a mindset of assisting a heart-attack victim. The latest QA software can be inexpensive yet powerful, allowing you to define any number of QA forms and then automatically associate those forms to the right call types. With VPI QALITY, you can even automate the selection of most important calls for evaluation, as those communications where human life is at stake require much closer attention than a cat in a tree problem.

4. Integrate Quality Improvement - consistent, objective QA evaluation is likely to uncover gaps in employee knowledge, consistency, or even procedural defects and will inevitably point towards opportunities for improvement.  This works best when the improvement mechanism is directly integrated into the QA process.  For example, VPI QUALITY call taker evaluation software can be set up to send alerts to supervisors about potential or actual problems that are serious enough to require timely personal attention.  Call takers and dispatchers can be automatically notified about results of their evaluations (good-bye surprises long time after the call), along with automated, personalized selection of learning materials that will help them improve – without the need for personal meeting with a supervisor to discuss every minor problem.  Employees will also appreciate timely recognition – when they earn a high QA score, you can have the system set up to send them a congratulatory message immediately. Top achievers can and should be recognized publically – you can broadcast this information through automated, built-in processes as well.   

By now, you may be thinking: “great, but this looks like it will take a lot of work and money.”  The good news is that you don’t have to buy much hardware, software and invest a great deal of your own time to get your QA/QI program off the ground. Look into special incentives offered by QA vendors like VPI in 2012. And did you know that it is now available as a third-party service? Something to consider, even if you intend to be on your own at some point in the future.  With a QA service engagement, you will gain a great deal of know-how, which will prove to be rather helpful in planning your next steps. 

The following great questions were asked during the recent APCO training Webcast on Public Safety Quality Assurance Best Practices and Tools. Please find below our answers for your review:

Quality Assurance Software Questions and Answers

Does the VPI QA system come with quality evaluation forms? If so, how would we customize them or add new ones?

Yes, VPI’s QA system is delivered with sample evaluation forms that have been developed based on best practices of our customers. These forms can be used as templates – you can modify, delete and add any number of questions, skills and sections.  One or more questions can be associated with each skill – answers to those questions during the quality evaluation session are automatically aggregated for a total score for each skill.  You can also create any number of new forms from a scratch, simply following intuitive graphical user interface.

Will the VPI QA software work in a situation where telecommunicators both call take and dispatch multiple, overlapping calls?

Yes, absolutely.  The system does not just associate different forms to different telecommunicators.  This form association is done based on the type of call taken and the type of work done.  Naturally, you will have different criteria for dispatching vs. call taking – these requirements can be either combined in the same evaluation form yet still separated into sections (in a tabbed interface), or you can have different forms for each type of work, depending on specifics of your call flow. Concurrent, overlapping calls are recorded as separate audio/data files which can be then evaluated separately.  With this said, you may also group multiple recordings (such as when evaluating the entire incident) into an “incident” collection that you save under a custom name and then this set of recordings can be evaluated with a single form that contains all needed sections or elements.  In summary, VPI’s QA system is very flexible and adaptable to virtually any center and situation.

We are a small countywide dispatch center with only 6 fulltime personnel. Does the QA program scale well for small dispatch centers as well as for larger ones?

Yes.  Agencies of all sizes should have a QA program in place.  The per-seat pricing of the software allows for easy incremental scaling. Beyond that, since you create your own process, evaluation criteria and forms using VPI software interface, it is completely scalable and adaptable to your evolving needs.

How would multiple evaluators access this system on-site or off-site?

VPI’s QA system is browser based, which means that it does not require installation of any software at user workstations.  It can be accessed by any number of authorized users via your LAN or WAN connection to your local Intranet or “private cloud”.   Evaluators could even review and evaluate calls remotely from off-site locations, using secure remote connection such as VPN.

Since during the training phase you evaluate a trainees’ skills, knowledge and abilities, could this software serve as a type of DOR for the OJT Phase?

Yes.  You can build in any evaluation form you wish.  This would provide excellent documentation by allowing you to save the audio files to the evaluation for ease in future retrieval.

What audio recorder platforms can you work with?

VPI’s QA system can coexist with any full-time recording system, including the VPI Capture NG9-1-1 ready recording system. For public safety agencies that currently have an existing full-time recording system, the VPI Quality software bundle comes embedded with its own built-in quality recording module to record console audio for quality assurance purposes.  All console audio is recorded and calls are then automatically selected using a business rule or manually selected for QA evaluation. If calls are not selected for quality evaluation within a period of time that you define, they are deleted to free up space to record future calls for quality evaluation. The quality assurance application and the quality recording element share the same the hardware platform.

What CADs can the VPI QA software integrate with?

VPI integrates with major CAD brands, including Tiburon, Intergraph and Tritech and provides a variety of integration options for any other CAD system as well. The CAD data is used for automated classification and visualization of recorded call taker and dispatcher calls and screens for fast evidence assembly and value-driven analysis – by incident types, numbers, severity, and/or other parameters. The integration is a passive, one-directional intgegration where we pull data from CAD systems and use it, but do not feed any data back to CAD.

Does the QA form software interface with Intergraph (or other) CAD systems?  If so, in what way?

Yes, VPI’s QA evaluation system successfully integrates with Intergraph CAD.  CAD data can optionally be captured and used to drive the selection of the most important calls for evaluation.  Intergraph CAD (or any other CAD including TriTech, Tiburon, etc.) system provides incident data, such as incident type, ID, severity and the like.  When this data is attached to relevant call recordings, it serves for classification of calls by incident types (or severity) which then helps with prioritization of recordings for review according to their significance or urgency.  For example, your local requirement may be to evaluate ALL domestic violence calls, but only samples of other types of calls.  The system can pull all domestic violence (or any other incident type per your setting) calls for evaluation and automatically attach the most relevant evaluation form to those calls, all of which is then served in the “to-do” list of assigned evaluator(s).

If you would like to/need to, can you still "hunt and peck" for calls?

Absolutely.  You can set up the call selection for QA in any way you want. It can be a combination of calls that are selected automatically by a system rule that you define, calls that you select manually as needed, and even calls that may be flagged by dispatchers/call takers for review.  Hunting and pecking for calls o be evaluated is really easy with VPI’s recording systems – either search by any number and combination of criteria (date/time, employee ID, call type, call length, radio ID, etc.) or you can simply respond to system reports and notifications of abnormal calls.

Is this a paperless system?

Yes, it can be completely paperless.  All interfaces, forms and reports are electronic.  Printing of any reports or details of QA evaluations is available but not required.

If our telephone system is on a separate server than our CAD system, can it all still be integrated?

Yes, we can pull data from multiple sources and attach it to appropriate recordings, enhancing the quality evaluation process as well as reporting on incidents in general.

What is the licensing model for the QA system - site license or by seat?

Pricing for licensing is by seat/position.

Coaching / E-Learning Questions and Answers

What is your definition of coaching? Is it formal training, simple discussion, notes on QA form or something different?

In general, coaching is a personalized learning process (or program) that provides timely support to employees. In some cases, coaching may be a short verbal conversation with personnel while reviewing the quality evaluation form.  However, for documentation purposes, you want the majority of your coaching to have some written component that should effect a change in performance and behavior, and a quiz to ensure there is retention and that learning did take place.

Does the VPI QA software facilitate E-learning? Does it allow for the development of messages and quizzes with questions on e-learning and messages? Does it report on when the dispatcher has viewed and acted upon all of it?

Yes, the VPI Coaching software allows you to create business rules that will automatically deploy coaching assignments based upon scores to certain questions, skills or overall scores on the evaluation.  You can also create quizzes and include them with training to confirm comprehension of conveyed information.

Any learning course can be associated with a quiz that is automatically started at the conclusion of the training content.  Quiz results are included in the training report of each employee.  Messages to call takers/dispatchers can be triggered based on a variety of events, such as specific QA scores, passing/failing scores in quizzes, and the like.  You can set up the messages to require acknowledgement.  Report / quiz / message assignments as well as their completion and acknowledgments (as appropriate for each) are listed in coaching reports that show dates and times associated with each action.

Can you tell if they actually read the document? Does it show how much time they had the document open?

Yes, this is a part of standard tracking of e-learning assignments.  Coaching / E-Learning reports show dates and times of all content and messages sent to each dispatcher/call taker as well dates and times of when the content was accessed and completed.  When SCORM compliant content is used, the system can also report on very granular details of the learning process, such as the amount of time that each employee takes with each quiz question, section of the coaching content, and the like.  This will provide valuable hints regarding most common struggles that need additional attention.

Will the coaching sample be the same across the board or will it change depending on the situation?

Coaching assignments should fit the situation.  Some errors are generic, such as talking too rapidly, and that type of learning content could be prepared and used for all call takers.  You may design a variety of other learning modules and associate them to evaluation questions or skills, so that they are automatically selected when ratings in various areas do not reach desired minimums.  Each employee would then receive a different collection of learning modules, according to their specific knowledge or skill gaps.  In addition to this, other coaching materials may need to be created when warranted, in the form of a Personal Improvement Plan (PIP) to address specific, individual performance deficiencies that cannot be addressed with generic content.

Do we create the coaching or do you all create the coaching session?  Are the coaching and learning assignments pre-made or is it something that needs to be developed by the PSAP?

Training managers or supervisors select content from a variety of resources (APCO, your own recorded calls that show best practices, specific cases posted on-line, etc.) and add custom-designed content that reflects your specific policies and requirements.  The VPI software then takes care of automated (and also manual, when desired) assignments of coaching content to individuals in your PSAP center, as well as tracking of coaching status and resulting improvements.

Can we use our own recordings for coaching purposes?

Yes, absolutely. Any standards-based files can be used, to include recordings from your logger.  When recordings are captured by VPI systems, you receive an interface for redaction of sensitive sections of call and screen recordings.  You can also add notations (such as to clarify why various sections of the call were or were not handled properly) and pop-up messages to maximize the learning experience.  These customized, modified recordings are saved as copies in order to protect the integrity of original recordings.

VPI has fully integrated its award-winning VPI PERFORMANCE real-time call center reporting and performance management software with Cisco’s UCC Express and UCC Enterprise platforms. VPI PERFORMANCE contact center reporting software complements and enhances Cisco UCC Express and UCC Enterprise platforms greatly by consolidating data and presenting actionable, real-time information in the form of Web dashboards, interactive reports, scorecards and desktop tickers to empower managers, supervisors and agents to make better, quicker decisions.

We invite you to watch the new "VPI PERFORMANCE Cisco Reporting Software for UCC Contact Centers' video - you'll learn how to get even more value from your Cisco UCC investment!

Join VPI and Straumann for an exciting webinar showcasing the powerful reporting solutions for Cisco UCC Contact Centers. You'll learn how Cisco and VPI helped Straumann develop and award-winning real-time contact center performance reporting solution.

Date: Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Time: 1:00 PM ET, 10:00 AM PT
Register here.

Now you can get even more value from your Cisco UCC Express (UCCX) or UCC Enterprise (UCCE) investment. VPI, a Cisco Solution Developer, VIP and SIP Partner, has integrated its award-winning VPI Performance contact center reporting and performance management software application with Cisco. This functionality complements and enhances the UCCX and UCCE platforms greatly by consolidating data and presenting actionable, real-time information in the form of Web dashboards, interactive reports, scorecards and desktop tickers to empower contact center managers, supervisors and agents to make better, quicker decisions.

Learn how Cisco and VPI customer Straumann, a global leader in dental implant solutions and restorative dentistry, enhanced the capabilities of its Cisco Unified Contact Center system and operations with VPI’s award-winning real-time Cisco reporting software solution.

Register to attend the complimentary Webinar, hosted by subject matter experts from Straumann and VPI, to learn how you can:

• Create and report on metrics based on Cisco UCCX, UCCE and other contact center data (CRM, ERP, QA, WFM) to meet business objectives.
• Report across multiple teams and queues, locations and Cisco UCCX/UCCE systems to get a holistic view of contact center operations.
• Perform true historical reporting with unlimited data collection – get insights into trending over time and a historically accurate representation of your agents’ group assignments.
• Create flexible grouping structures to report on groups and teams in any manner that makes most sense to your business.
• Drill through layers of data for root cause analysis and trigger targeted alerts, notifications and Coaching assignments based on performance thresholds to promptly correct performance gaps.

Scheduling Conflict? Register for the Webinar and we'll send you the recorded version.

Presenters:

Carlo Wise - IT Specialist, Straumann

Carlo Wise serves as a senior IT Specialist at Straumann, a global leader in dental implant solutions and restorative dentistry, leveraging his strong background in all facets of telephony and network systems integration. He is an experienced IT and Contact Center professional with over 16 years of experience in supporting and implementing Contact Center technologies in small to large Contact Center environments. Mr. Wise holds a variety of industry certifications, including Cisco, CompTIA and Redhat.

Delee Shields - Channel Sales Director, VPI
 
Delee has been instrumental in working closely with Cisco in developing VPI's Cisco Developer Network (CDN) Solution Developer, Value Incentive (VIP) and Solutions Incentive (SIP) partnership programs. She is responsible for working hand-in-hand with Cisco customers and channel partners through the entire sales process. She has extensive knowledge of Cisco Unified Communications product platforms and is highly experienced in Cisco reporting software, Cisco call recording software, workforce optimization, VoIP, LAN, WAN, MAN and wireless solution design. Prior to joining VPI as a sales engineer in 2007, she worked in sales and sales engineering capacities promoting Cisco solutions as well as earning her Cisco CCNA and CCNP certifications.

Ahead of this year's holiday season, consumers charged more to their credit cards for second straight month. Robust holiday spending is driving the speculation that U.S. consumers are shifting their use of credit and debit toward credit. Early spending patterns do suggest that total credit card spending is increasing, as it has all year. Worldwide, consumers carry more than 1 billion Visa cards alone. More than 450 million of those cards are in the United States. The number of U.S. identity fraud victims rose 12 percent to 11.1 million adults last year. Credit and debit card fraud is the No. 1 fear of Americans in the midst of the global financial crisis. Concern about fraud supersedes that of terrorism, computer and health viruses and personal safety – one in ten Americans have already been victims of credit card fraud. Software.net found that as many as 40% of its transactions were fraudulent. Expedia.com lost $6 million due to fraudulent credit card purchases.

During the holidays and throughout the year, contact centers that engage in catalog sales, up-selling and/or cross-selling, service providers, and collection companies that take payments in the form of credit or debit cards can become unsuspecting targets of cyber criminals. The card information is typically entered by agents into a CRM or other sales automation software and may be recorded by voice and screen recorders. And there it resides - thousands and even millions of card records inviting remote criminals or even greedy employees to extract consumer card data for personal gain or sell into a sophisticated secondary market.

The payment card industry (PCI) established a Council to define technical standards aimed at minimizing the risk of cyber crime to the misuse of credit cards. The Council subsequently issued a Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) which details security requirements for members, merchants and service providers that store, process or transmit cardholder data. Contact centers and other organizations that accept credit card payments are generally prohibited from archiving sensitive information such as account numbers and security codes after payment authorization has been received. Compliance to PCI-DSS is now mandatory for all non-credit card 'issuing' organizations dealing with credit, debit and ATM cards, as defined by the PCI Security Standards Council - size of an organization and its annual sales are no longer a factor for exceptions. While being compliant to PCI DSS - an already daunting task - is the first part, it it also required that you prove your organization's compliance to PCI-DSS. This PCI Audit is performed either with a set of questionnaires or by a Qualified Security Assessor, external to the organization.

On October 28, 2010, the Payment Card Industry Standards Council made a major update to the PCI Data Security Standard to clarify it. PCI DSS version 2.0 went effective on January 1, 2011. In PCI DSS version 2.0, the PCI DSS standards were clarified to require that no sensitive credit card information be stored within recorded calls, even if those calls are encrypted. The standards committee made the change because of the availability of sophisticated malware that could penetrate encryption algorithms. Organizations that do not take action by December 31, 2011 to ensure compliance with these new PCI call recording requirements could face costly fines. 

Achieving PCI DSS Compliance

To help organizations ensure compliance and avoid costly fines, VPI has developed an effective, affordable solution. The VPI CAPTURE PCI call recording system has the ability to detect when an agent enters an application screen with sensitive information, when sensitive information is inputted, and when they leave a screen containing sensitive information.  The VPI telephone voice recording system then has the ability to promptly mute sections of recorded audio and mask screen video during this sensitive portion of the call.


To further secure sensitive information, the VPI CAPTURE PCI DSS call recording system help you:

• Secure File and Data Transport and Storage Encryption – VPI uses built-in end-to-end data encryption and key management to secure the SQL database that holds attributes of all recordings. The media manager provides for AES 128, 192, 256 or variable bit encryption/decryption when files are stored and accessed from the media manager.
•  Ensure Authenticity with File Watermarking - Every call within the VPI system is wartermarked in real time to ensure authenticity. VPI offers a powerful application to validate the authenticity of any WAV file.
• Monitor User Activity with Detailed Audit Log Reporting – VPI records all user activity within the system so that organizations can conduct full trace audits to determine who accessed any recording in the system and when - for playback, export, or any other critical events.

I recently attended the Avaya Evolutions Conference in Toronto at the Metro Convention Center and had the opportunity to discuss the latest technology trends and best practices of Avaya partners and hearing success stories directly from satisfied customers.

It was insightful to hear from leaders on the direction of the industry as it embraces another exciting year ahead in Canada. I learnt how organizations in today’s turbulent economy have used these practical tips for improving their overall effectiveness through VPI products on the Avaya platform.

VPI has been a dedicated Avaya DevConnect Gold Partner since 2002 and has fully integrated its award-winning VPI Performance real-time reporting and performance management software with Avaya Communication Manager.

VPI Performance consolidates and presents real-time information to empower contact center managers, supervisors and agents in several integrated ways to help them make better, quicker decisions with actionable, targeted performance and business intelligence. Included in this robust suite are 18 Avaya CMS reports, over 40 Avaya CMS metrics for use in customizable scorecards and desktop tickers, and a messaging and alerting capability.

This functionality supplements the Avaya Communication Manager platform greatly and has been a valuable asset to many Avaya customers in achieving their objectives. Regardless of the industry—an effective deployment requires the right partner like VPI who has insight on the right improvement methodologies and talented resources available with the highest impact and most cost-effective resourcing opportunities.

VPI Performance consolidates and presents real-time information to empower contact center managers, supervisors and agents in several integrated ways to help them make better, quicker decisions with actionable, targeted performance and business intelligence. Included are 18 Avaya CMS reports, over 40 Avaya CMS metrics for use in customizable scorecards and desktop tickers, and a messaging and alerting capability.

In a turbulent and volatile economy, organizations still must strive to improve their business environments using these tools and strategies to develop their skilled workforce while automating routine tasks and processes.

This is where I believe VPI can greatly enhance an organization find ways to enhance their overall operational effectiveness with our wide range of products and professional services.

Here are some important capabilities that I believe, that VPI Performance offers beyond standard Avaya CMS reporting capabilities:

1. Gather Performance Information from Additional Contact Center Systems – VPI Performance can bring in meaningful data and metrics from other sources – including other business systems (CRM, ERP, WFM, etc.) and other VPI modules (Quality, Coaching) and in a timely and relevant manner for each user – to Avaya CMS to get a fully consolidated view of the contact center which is critical in today’s environments.
   
2. Easily Report Across Multiple Teams Across Multiple Queues, Multiple Locations and Even Multiple Avaya CMS Systems – Managers get a single, holistic and enterprise-wide view of their contact center operations across several work groups and channels. 
   
3. Create Custom Metrics based on Avaya CMS and Other Contact Center Data to Meet Business Objectives, then report on those metrics displayed in a variety of formats including real-time Web dashboard charts, scorecards and desktop tickers. No need to rely on raw Avaya CMS data alone.
   
4. Presents Information Instantly in Real-time – no need to rely on IT or reporting analysts to pull together information, by downloading it, adding to Excel, and preparing for management.
   
5. Off-loads the Burden on the Avaya CMS Server – all reporting is performed within VPI Performance. This saves time and money when creating reports for senior leaders.
   
6. Create Flexible Grouping Structures to Report on Groups and Teams in any Manner that Makes Most Sense to the Business – managers are not used to seeing reports by a single queue only. For example, most contact centers will have a team of agents that handle calls from multiple queues. VPI reports give managers a true view into an individual agent’s performance thereby the true measure of their individual performance.
   
7. Create a Flexible, Hierarchical Grouping of Split/Skills – Allows users to reorganize and consolidate data across multiple splits. Multiple hierarchies can be created to provide different views of split data. This is helpful when split/skills are created by IT and don't directly map to business measurements.
   
8. Reports Present a Historically Accurate Representation of an Agent's Group Assignment – team data is retained as agents are moved to different teams, something that is often asked by managers especially when skilled agents are moved around to help call loads.
   
9. No Limitation on the Amount of Contact Center Data Collected or How Long it is Stored – managers can do true historical reporting on consolidated contact center metrics (such as sales conversions, CSAT, emails, Web chats, etc. in addition to CMS call metrics), giving them insight into trending over time, or simply giving them the option to pull reports on older data. With VPI Performance, interval-based data is retained indefinitely.
   
10.   All Group and Agent Data can be Controlled and Dispersed Based on User Profiles and Permissions – this type of reporting flexibility allows contact centers to mitigate and contain risks and unwanted breached caused by agents. 
    
11.   Ability to Deliver Targeted Alerts, Notifications and Optional E-Coaching Assignments based on Performance Thresholds to promptly correct performance gaps while at the same time keeping a watchful eye out for situations that are creating issues for agents.

I found that VPI’s Call Center Reporting and Call Center Coaching Software are perceived as a cultural transformation within the contact centers by their leaders who are deeply appreciative of VPI. We have trained their Supervisory staff and Managers in powerful work habits that are easy to describe on a large scale and on a regular basis. For example, coaching, performance management, feedback sessions, formal rewards, and people development are now part of our customers’ culture where one did not exist. Such developments have strongly motivated our team of developers, our managers and most importantly the front-line agents, which is our ultimate goal.

Lately it’s been tough to find much positive news about business and the economy. However, the latest report from the National Association of Call Centers (NACC) shows a very positive outlook for the contact center industry. The benchmarking report shows that the contact center industry has rebounded from the recession and has been steadily growing over the past couple of years. In fact, 95% of the respondents felt that economic and business conditions in 2011 will be the same or even better than they were in 2010. Download the North American Contact Center Industry 2011 Mid-Year Update and Forecast research report now to learn more about how our industry has weathered the tough times and come out smarter, stronger and prepared for the future.

In this report you’ll learn what the NACC sees as some of the contributing factors to the industry's resilience, including:

• Advances in Workforce Optimization technology, including quality monitoring, performance management, E-learning and workforce management.
• Growing interest in Social Media
• High interest in Desktop Analytics solutions
• How First Call Resolution is being tracked
• Key Unified Communications trends
• Contact Center Hiring patterns and trends

Recently, VPI teamed up with Ovum Research, a premier analyst firm in the technology and telecom sectors, on a new white paper titled “Getting Workforce Optimization Right: How to Align Your Agent Training and Management with the Needs of Your Customers.” It was a great opportunity for us to learn firsthand what Ovum Analyst, Aphrodite Brinsmead, sees as the “must haves” for best-in-class contact centers to use as Workforce Optimization Technologies (or WOTs as she calls them). She specifically focuses on the many advantages of levering an integrated workforce optimization suite, like VPI EMPOWER suite.

As I’m sure you’re painfully aware, contact centers are under immense pressure to improve customer satisfaction while at the same time, reducing costs. It seems that the mantra for businesses these days is “Do More With (much) Less.” This is challenging in any enterprise, but the contact center is unique in that its performance metrics and satisfaction scores are usually separated. It’s tough to know where to cut back or where to add staff when you can’t pinpoint the problems! Ovum believes that enterprises need to connect those traditionally siloed customer satisfaction metrics with agent performance, and tailor training accordingly. Makes perfect sense, right? But, in many cases, easier said than done!

This is where WOTs clearly provide a clear competitive advantage. This white paper shows you how to harness the power of these unified solutions in your own contact center. I really liked the graphic Ovum created to illustrate how the tools work together and the role each plays in the overall success of the contact center:

1. Quality Monitoring + Analytics: Desktop or speech analytics can be integrated with quality monitoring/call recording to automatically select important calls or call from a particular category to be monitored.
2. Quality Monitoring + Performance Management: This enable managers to combine quantitative and qualitative information for a complete assessment of contact center productivity and its contribution to the bottom line.

In an already competitive and crowded marketplace, organizations today are continuously seeking ways to lower operating costs and increase revenues. The landscape has changed dramatically in the past decade. Organizations  are closely scrutinized by regulators and consumers who have high expectations from outsourced partners and 3^rd party vendors. In the wake of  the global financial crisis that has negatively impacted some of the world’s leading economies, organizations are starting to revisit their strategy, in terms of outsourcing contact center contracts, and demanding more than just cost savings. This mindset is now creating concerns among outsourcers and 3^rd party vendors, who can no longer attract and maintain their customer base just on the basis of their ability to provide a cost savings advantage.

The role of the contact center has undergone a dramatic shift from that of a cost center to that of a profit and value center. In light of this new pressure to provide greater value, outsourcers are now responding to their clients’ raised expectations by implementing increasingly complex solutions.   Despite the proliferation of e-commerce and digital technology, one fundamental principle remains consistent: Outsourcers are key strategic partners for organizations to deliver value by focusing their operations on attracting, fulfilling and retaining high value and loyal customers. As a result, the fragile relationship in which the outsourced operation manages its entire resources is critical to the client and their customer base. Outsourcers are beginning to recognize the positive correlation between customer experience, employee engagement and increased revenues, even in a stagnant condition within the economy.

Today's unpredictable, volatile and increasingly competitive economic climate continues to add to the pressure to decrease costs and increase revenues while simultaneously delivering higher than normal levels of customer service. Following are five ways for outsourcers to reduce contact center operational costs while at the same time “delighting” clients with superior levels of service. Think of each recommendation as an idea worthy of consideration and capable of standing on its own merit, yet part of an overall strategy addressing the optimal performance of the contact center.

1) Make agent attrition rates a KPI – The management of retention in an outsourced contact center has the most significant impact on payroll costs and profitability. While HR may be generally involved with the recruitment, selection and hiring of staff, the key driver in agent satisfaction lies in the knowledge and capability of their line managers. High performing outsourced operations invest in the training and development of their team leaders and supervisors to ensure that they have the necessary tools and resources to support agents. As a result, high performing outsourced contact centers build scorecards and other intervention tools to ensure that the overall strategic goals of the contact center are met.

2) Ensure that you're measuring the metrics that really matter – It is crucial to select meaningful and effective metrics necessary to enhance performance that lead to customer satisfaction. It is important to maintain the discipline of reviewing these metrics using a rigorous methodology that is adopted across all levels of the contact center and links desired behaviors necessary to meet organizational objectives. A sample list of metrics for outsourced operations should be reviewed as business needs change and fluctuate. Typically high performing providers link their operational objectives to their clients and review these over Business Review Meetings and Quarterly Reviews for alignment.

3) Eliminate guess work by implementing real-time reports, tickers and scorecards – Outsourced operations that implement rigorous, regular performance scorecards and analysis consistently outperform mediocre centers due to their speed and reaction time advantage. Weekly or daily historical reporting in a dynamic, ever-changing environment is neither effective nor efficient for the purpose of determining the tactics needed to address a particular situation where calls spike unexpectedly. If managers receive real-time reports on the performance of their operations by agent group or skill, they are able to rapidly make strategic decisions without impacting service levels. Often, these tactics are overlooked and end up costing contact centers more money than they had forecasted. Avoid red flags and those repeated frantic calls from clients by being proactive to daily operational issues with real-time information and data.

4) Tighten the span of control between Managers and Agents – Numerous surveys and a great deal of research point to the fact that, due to costs, outsourced operations are guilty of having an unusually high number of agents relative to the line managers. One of the reasons that agents quit is the level of contact or the lack of coaching or leadership they receive from their line manager.. Typically for optimal performance the span of control should be between 1:10 or 1:15 to generate the desired results within a contact center.

5) Automate e-Learning, coaching and virtual classroom training – The emergence of the internet and the proliferation of innovative electronic learning and coaching courses have enabled high performance outsourced centers to bring training to the agent desktop during low call volume moments.  Team leaders and supervisors can also use quiet time to enroll in critical mandatory modules for compliance and product or process knowledge. This can create enormous opportunities for contact center training teams to focus and deliver other mission-critical courses and modules that require classroom training during those scarce resource hours. The combination of these methods will drive down costs while at the same time increase proficiency of agents while building a training team that is highly effective.

When implemented properly, each of these ideas offers the potential to deliver anywhere from a small benefit in a short period of time to much larger benefits over a period of a year. While any one idea may provide some short-term savings, the effort to optimize the performance of the contact center is best undertaken within the context of a continuous improvement program with regular reviews of all the components of the solution prescribed for the contact center.

Are you interested in keeping up-to-date on the latest developments in contact center call recording, quality monitoring, analytics, performance management or eLearning technologies?

As organizations look to optimize the performance of their contact centers and the vital role agents play in providing customers with the right experiences as they handle interactions, the demand for thorough research into vendors and products that support agent performance management is becoming critical. Ventana Research has just released this ground-breaking independent research report on Contact Center Agent Performance Management solutions.

You can download your complimentary 2010 Value Index for Agent Performance Management Research Report by Ventana Research at http://www.VPI-corp.com/2010-Value-Index to learn:

• What tools can help you more effectively manage of all the business activities associated with handling customer interactions to ensure an optimal customer experience and alignment to a common set of customer and revenue goals and objectives.
• A framework for buyers to thoroughly review technology vendors as they seek to purchase new systems to support their efforts.
• How 13 agent performance management software vendors and their products were ranked in several categories.
• Why VPI achieved the highest 'Hot Vendor' rating and was rated #1 in Customer Assurance.

Measuring performance is fundamental to contact center operations of all sizes. The call center quality assurance (QA) measurement process is often one of the main performance data collection vehicles for management. However, few contact centers have implemented a program or have adequate resources in place for meaningfully tracking and improving performance, let alone providing feedback from customers to the rest of the organization to enable strategic-level business improvements. Many contact center managers operate with a haphazard collection of uncoordinated and often irrelevant performance statistics that require too much time and error-prone manual work to interpret, which often leads to misguided decisions. In these conditions of ad-hoc “analysis”, wasteful utilization of resources can go undetected for long periods of time and business objectives may not be achieved, as managers take ineffective actions to correct deficiencies which are aimed to attack symptoms instead of root causes. The problem is deepened by the fact that most quality and performance measurement tools are rigid or inflexible to change. Some efforts focus on compliance-driven performance tracking and call center reporting - in accordance with internally developed standards and procedures that are outdated, outmoded, or even assuming that the contact center is already providing the right products and services to its customers. What’s more, many contact centers have not discussed the business strategy with their front line agents or supervisors. Consequently, there is often a great need to go back and revisit their goals and objectives and to adjust the functions of their department in order to ensure that the right products and services are being provided by the agent.

To start recovering from this situation, managers must first recognize that measuring of performance in a coordinated, systematic, standardized way that provides true insights and direction for achieving business objectives is a basic need of an organization - and a fundamental responsibility of management. It is the key to any organization’s survival.

To achieve high-value business insights as they track performance, contact center managers should focus data collection, interpretation and analysis on a set of measures that answer the following questions:

·         Are we providing the correct services to our clients, using the most skilled agents?

·         Are we able to resolve customer issues and overcome objections in a timely manner?

·         Are our agents providing a positive and memorable experience to our customers?

·         Do our agents and their immediate supervisors really understand what is expected from them?

Using VPI Empower, you can consolidate all data that is periodically collected from disparate source systems in your contact center. Once you have all data in one place, apply real-time performance tracking tools, intuitive graphical call center reporting dashboards, and business rules-driven alert system to monitor key performance indicators. Now you can measure progress towards meeting business objectives for the contact center, gaining insights that can be acted upon in an effective and timely manner – for optimization of service delivery. Call center quality assurance goals can then be subordinated to the overall strategy, so that they support the mission and objectives of the organization. The specific call center quality assurance goals defined in this process should be strategic, tactical, and operational, depending on the level of service channel that is being supported. They may include the definition of quality, timeliness, resource utilization, or customer satisfaction from the customer’s point of view.  

Call center quality assurance processes should be guided and supported by performance measures as they define specific standards that allow the calibration of performance and overall quality, which, when made actionable and acted upon, ultimately leads to more business from happier customers. Performance measures should be selected carefully and funded proportionately to their value, in order to support corporate goals and strategy, contact center objectives, and critical success factors for an effective call center quality assurance program. Review them regularly to evaluate how well the delivery system is performing and whether the correct products and services are provided. The value of adequate recruitment, selection, training and education of line managers to execute these objectives should not be underestimated. Success ultimately rests on their coaching effectiveness and their ability to cultivate skill while inspiring their staff to higher levels of performance.
 

The days of monitoring contact center agents randomly to find out what they have been doing wrong on calls is history. In these days of enlightened leadership and sophisticated intelligent routing technology, call quality monitoring has also evolved from the days of internal surveillance to performance improvement and skill development.
 

It is no wonder, that these two organizations have continued to keep their customers and staff extremely happy.
 

In today’s challenging economic climate, analytics is changing the way companies do business and dramatically improving contact  center operations, managers want quick and  accurate insights into the effectiveness of their contact center operations in order to make prudent, timely decisions, but they don't have the time or resources to listen to and review  the vast amount of customer interactions  handled by the agents every day. 

In addition to this there is no shortage of performance metrics available from their PBX and ACD. These days there seems to be more sophisticated tools including multimedia recording, desktop analytics, instant chat, self service options in the IVR, cloud computing,  etc. Managers and supervisors today are able to choose from a myriad of options to manage performance but where do they start to do their quality evaluations in a systematic manner using complex algorithmic mathematical formulas combined with scientific methodologies and their own intuition? Therein lies their dilemma. So little time, so much to accomplish in the course of a day...

Quality monitoring systems offered today are not only to evaluate agents but also to evaluate a contact center reputation. Yes, reputation, might sound obvious but too often contact centers seem to miss this critical view point. A customer's perception of service captured in a call recording or video file says a lot about the culture of the organization. Call Center Reporting and Call Monitoring Systems are a means to an end in that one has to learn from the information and who else to translate these to actions and outcomes than the Supervisor. This has to be one of the most critical and unforgiving roles within the contact center next to the agent. Sort of being a start quarterback being called in to throw a touchdown on each attempt when the offensive team is on and the line backer when the defensive line is on.

The role of the supervisor and their agent has been so devalued over the years that it is not a surprise the attrition rates for these roles are in double digits. This is not a malaise or a disease or caused by the recent global financial crisis or globalization. We did this to ourselves. We have become part of a culture that communicates via a keyboard than by voice skills and the traditional skills that our parents taught us about being polite and respectful. We complicate the connection with our customers and prospects through voice prompts and boring scripts to keep the agents from really having a connection with the customers.

Enter VPI and it's Empower suite of products. In my humble opinion, this product is a god-send for managers, supervisors and front-line agents. VPI has truly defined the new expectation of a customer through a fresh set of lenses. It shatters the level of "mediocrity" to "excellence" in quality and performance from the customer's point of view. The power of the data can now be turned into knowledge which in turn can be turned into wisdom for coaching to excellence and that translates to actionable analytics and outcomes.

Quality Assurance is everyone's responsibility and by giving power to the people who  influence agent behaviors, then the Supervisor should be the quarterback that determines the outcome of the game. Like they said in the movie, if you build, the customers will come. VPI has started this movement by building on a framework that is supervisor-friendly for QA success. If we synthesize all these goals, the aim of QA and Call Monitoring becomes a matter of linking outcomes of calls to a customer's behavior not only the agent's behavior. As a result, contact centers can also learn what effects, if any their approach to training and coaching agents have on customers and ultimately the outcomes.

Being proactive and giving agents a larger stake in the pie by identifying areas of strength, best practices and also key training to be used for modeling success. In this way, a contact center can leverage the VPI Empower suite of products and establish guidelines and standards for handling calls instead of dictating what agents should or should not do. In the larger picture, the role of the supervisor and the agent has to be supported through all levels of the organization. As a result, success and a best practice model will show up sooner than later!
 

VPI invites you to download this insightful Frost & Sullivan authored white paper to learn how advanced call center performance management and contact center analytics solutions and integrated call center coaching and training tools can identify and address employee skill gaps and deliver the right information at the right time - enhancing performance and driving greater effectiveness in meeting customer needs.

Download your copy of the complimentary white paper authored by premier research analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, to learn how to:

• Make Better Decisions with Real-Time Information

• Provide Real Time Metrics to Motivate and Empower Employees to Improve

• Achieve Consolidated Reporting from Multiple Systems and Locations

• Drill Down Through Dashboards and Reports to Identify the Root Cause of Problems

• Ensure Alignment of Operational Objectives with Corporate Goals

• Benefit from attractive ROI and Quantifiable Call Center Optimization Benefits