By Anna Kay   Thu, Apr 23, 2009

Read the stories now!

By Jason Hime   Thu, Apr 23, 2009

Years ago measurement was all talk - talk time anyway. Short talk time meant more calls could be handled so there would be shorter call queues and customer satisfaction would rise - right? Wrong. If anything metrics such as these helped to drive down customer satisfaction as real customer insights and detailed problem resolution were sacrificed at the altar of corporate cost-cutting.

Now the holy grail of inbound is first call resolution, but how long should it take? Three minutes? Time itself is not the issue, the ability of the inbound call centre to find an answer the first time the customer calls is. Industry reports indicate fast call resolution was responsible for nearly 50% of customers' positive satisfaction ratings while lengthy or no resolution led to a third of dissatisfied customers.

Sounds like a good metric but the factors affecting this are variable and depend on the complexity of the problem or call. Having said that there are a number of steps you can put into place to boost first call resolution or at least empower your people to do their job efficiently.

Why should you bother?

Not only will it improve the customer experience, it has a knock on effect to customer retention and cross-sell and, as call centres are increasingly viewed at profit centres (not cost centres), it is a must. It also drives call centre efficiency so can also assuage the cost-cutting gods as well.

But first of all, what is first call resolution? There's two definitions:

1. One call is made and the issue is resolved there and then by the agent
2. One call is made, and though the customer may be passed through a number of departments their issue or query is resolved on that call

Key to both definitions is the concept of ‘resolved'. The most accurate definition of resolution is when the customer perceives the issue to be resolved - and that's the real catch. To understand customer perception, you have to get inside their head or at least get them to tell you what's going on in there.

Consulting firm Ascent Group, undertook a benchmarking study of 100+ companies to evaluate First Call Resolution performance and measurement. Some interesting outcomes include:

• 67 percent have been measuring first call resolution for three years or less;
• first call resolution rates from 30 percent to 98 percent were reported;
• 60 percent of companies measuring FCR performance for more than one year reported improvement in their performance;
• Research identified four primary ways of measuring-three of which are internal approximations (repeat-call calculations, agent logging and tick sheets, and call quality-monitoring) and the other, relies on external customer feedback and perception

So there is a benefit in measuring and acting on measurements. Internal measures are easiest (and inexpensive if you have flexible call centre reporting that's common in hosted solutions) to setup and monitor. External feedback is sometimes an expensive exercise, so infrequently included, but clever technology might just relieve the expense burden - more on this later.

But before we get to the monitoring stage, consider the tools and responsibilities you provide to agents. However you look at it, access to information is KING and the easier it is to access, the more likely you'll achieve first call resolution. You can spend a fortune on achieving this or you can work with smaller budgets to achieve a similar result. In achieving first call resolution potentially you are not only improving customer service but reducing problem handling time and therefore reducing cost.

Power to the people

First step is to ensure your people are empowered to resolve problems themselves. It is human nature, especially in call centres, for agents to often ask questions even when they have the information at their fingertips and often ask the same question twice. If you're the type of leader who instantly provides an answer, seeing it as an opportunity show your expertise, you are encouraging your agents to rely on you rather than take personal ownership. Not only do you deny them the opportunity to learn and take personal responsibility but potentially you are increasing your workload unnecessarily. When you're not there it could mean the customer issue is not solved there and then and if you have several agents waiting with queries for you, how does this impact resolution time.

What's the prognosis, doc?

Correctly understanding the callers issue or query is possibly the most important first step. I'd be amazed if anyone reading this article hadn't had one of those dreadful experiences where you get passed from pillar to post as you are told you've been transferred to the wrong department. Ideally your IVR should be equipped with skills based routing smarts to deliver the call to the agent ‘most skilled to resolve the issue'.

Once the call reaches an agent, make sure your people know what diagnostic questions to ask and know who the right people are to call if a specialist or different department is required -the next section looks at some tools that can help you with this. If there is a doubt as to where the call should be transferred the customer experience can be greatly improved by effective hand-off. This means putting the customer on hold or bringing the expert on a three-way call to verify they are the correct person. If they have called the wrong department, the customer knows they haven't been palmed off to someone else and the original agent can continue to help or the call can be passed on.

The tools to aid access

Technology enables access to information and access to experts. Consider instigating the following:

Help made easy

Index help files on your agents systems so that they can easily access information whilst on calls

Help made accessible

Take the help files to a new level on an intranet or extranet, giving broader access and even the possibility of showing the caller where to find the information for themselves.

Information made dynamic - Dynamic Knowledge Repository (DKR)

As agents learn or find out new information they can add to the DKR. This significantly increases their personal ownership in resolving customer issues. It's wise to have an administrator for this who checks content before it is entered, otherwise you could wind up with contradicting information.

Relating it all - CRM Systems

There are a number available but make sure you choose one which allows you to make changes simply and software updates are not time consuming e.g. a SaaS system means you always have the latest and greatest. Good implementation is vital and when done so a CRM system will allow all aspects of the business to make and see updates on customer details and therefore dramatically improve the ability to address needs and issues quickly.

Webchat for instant access

Webchat or other Instant Messenger systems can mean that several experts can be on standby to answer questions which can then be relayed to customers. Such systems allow you to see which expert is on line and who to either call or contact. Efficient access to this expert knowledge can be key in reducing call length and the need to ‘get back' to a customer.

Virtual experts at call

With high-speed broadband increasingly common combined with the no client footprint of SaaS call centre systems, experts previously impossible to be part of the local call centre can be woven into a virtual world of experts. Geographic location becomes irrelevant as experts at home, in rural areas, in state office or in international locations can be used to efficiently resolve issues.

Effective hand-off - "Don't make me say it again!"

There's nothing worse than having to repeat your problem, or worse having to give all your customer details again. Good technology will allow you to seamlessly pass on the notes or call details, so the customer isn't punished.

External feedback

Lastly, the cost effective external feedback option can to some degree be addressed by outbound IVR surveys. Customers recorded as having their call resolved are called with a recorded voice message and invited to partake in a post-call survey. The survey is completed by using the buttons on a touch tone phone with the option of recording specific spoken responses as required. If integrated to your call centre system the surveys can be automated to deliver better first call resolution feedback with very little effort.

You can listen to an outbound IVR survey example (powered by IPscape's Call to Action) here.

By Simon Burke   Thu, Apr 23, 2009

In case you've missed it, the next big thing in marketing and customer service isn't twitter - it is relevance. While the entire world is a-flutter with twitter and social media (blogs, facebook, Linkedin etc) they are merely a reaction to the consumer push for more relevant communication (on their terms).

Today's era of media fragmentation, consumer empowerment, increasingly disengaged consumers and global competition, has created a new phase of marketing based on consumer focus. Consumers, weary of mass-media bombardments, are rejecting generalised outbound offers and blanket one-size-fits-all strategies in favour of more relevant (even one-on-one) approaches that take the consumer as an individual into account. A recent Australian e-marketing report¹ noted better open and response rates from emails with smaller distribution lists with the assumption that these emails were more segmented and therefore more relevant.

So how can the relevance concept improve the inbound call centre experience? Relevance is intrinsically tied to time-efficiency, the customers not yours. Creating a more time efficient inbound experience boosts customer satisfaction and loyalty with knock-on impact to sales - callcentres.net research² showed over half of those dissatisfied with their last call stated length of time reasons for their dissatisfaction.

Making your inbound operation more relevant and more customer-time-efficient could simply require a combination of the following factors:
- correct use of the IVR
- integration with other customer systems such as CRM
- implementing clever skills based routing (not complex, clever)
- expanding your working models
- automated call volume management

Get the basics right

Badly designed, confusing and ‘self-serve only' IVR options are a personal pet hate. IVR technologies have been around for so long you would think everyone has had the time to get it right but customer-hostile IVRs still exist. (read the Inbound Intelligence is an Oxymoron story for more). Getting it right in today's environment is a prerequisite for all that follows, getting it wrong is the equivalent of a slap-across-the-face greeting instead of the traditional hand-shake.

Getting clever

Assume the IVR basics have been done. Now add value to the IVR experience, integrate customer relationship management systems (like salesforce.com) so the customer's inputs will pop a customer data screen when the call arrives at the agent. Even better use this to help manage call queues using skills based routing (see the Five Minute Model the boys propose here). This also helps first call resolution as the most likely person who can answer the call, gets the call.

Look beyond the office

Virtual call centre agents can help to expand your knowledge base of experts - whether they be super-gurus from within the company or experts at home who wouldn't be caught dead in a call centre environment. Home based agents can also be the key to ‘all day, all night' call centres so customers don't have to wait (and percolate) to resolve their issue or complete a purchase with routing automatically adjusting to agent availability regardless of location - Teleconnexions is a great example of a business model tuned to customer demand, even if that's at 3am.

Some might even say that's thinking too small; with Australia's proximity to south east Asia, incorporating multi-lingual agents from those countries might make a lot of sense for non English-speaking customers. If you are using a really clever hosted system you can also change the language of the system presentation layer (also known as screens and scripts) to suit each agent within the same system while still viewing all reports, monitors and measurements in your chosen language.

Computer says switch

In turbulent inbound situations, customers can potentially face extended on-hold times that ensure that if they weren't irritated when the initial call was made they are when the agent finally takes the call. Studies have shown consumers react better when they feel a degree of control over the situation³. They might still have to wait 15 minutes in the queue but if they are told it's a 15 minute wait, they can now exercise their control and choose to stay on the line or call back later. Either way they are less irritable. For inbound sales situations ‘name and number' techniques enable the customer to partially fulfil their desired action (purchase) immediately and accept a call back later; again the customer feels in control. By automating the switch between ‘name and number' and ‘normal' mode based on call volume, helps to ride out volume turbulence with minimal impact on sales and no lengthy delays in IVR queues - Teleconnexions provides a great real-life example. Also see the more detailed explanation on managing turbulence.

Finally, in providing a more relevant experience for consumers, one that values their time, also consider their communication preferences. We referred to twitter and social media earlier, and while the media enjoys splashing the buzzwords around, there is still some debate in marketing circles about whether these will be long-term, effective marketing and business communication tools. Regardless of the outcome of the debate, the idea of relevance might provide some simple direction - let your customers guide you and ignore everyone else!

By Anna Kay   Thu, Apr 23, 2009

(If you have video problems, you can also try the Teleconnexions video here)

By Anna Kay   Thu, Apr 23, 2009

At 2am there is a segment of the population that wants better skincare, a better cleaning system or flatter abs. Funnily enough, at 11am there is another segment wanting the same thing as well as the latest diets, next generation cookware and revolutionary shampoo. It’s direct response television and it’s a multi-billion dollar business that is dependent on the effectiveness of the inbound call centre for sales.

For many in the direct response television business, outsourcing the crucial call centre component to Australian outsourcer, Teleconnexions, has delivered against both customer service and profitability objectives.

Teleconnexions is a privately owned, 100 seat contact centre outsourcing company. They have built a specialist capability in managing direct response television campaigns for some of the leading direct response television companies. 

The nature of direct response television makes it one of the hardest and toughest types of businesses to make profitable because:

• It requires multi million dollar advertising spend up front – you’d better have a good ad and a saleable product (there’s a reason why infomercials are so spell-binding)
• The advertising can be pulled at the last minute if the television company gets a better offer - and guess who pays for unused agent time…not the direct response television company.
• When the ad goes to air you can get hundreds of callers in seconds wanting to buy right now so rostering the right number of agents to handle the call volume is paramount..  
• The loss of any call is equivalent to a lost sale so abandon rates are not acceptable.

‘It sounds a bit like an impossible task but with clever technology and our experience we successfully deliver great results for our clients every day,’ said Mark Jones, Operations Director at Teleconnexions.   

According to Jones, success relies on doing the basics well; citing clear processes, great team leaders, effective training, smart utilisation of agents and campaigns, and IPscape’s hosted call centre technology as the Teleconnexions ‘success’ basics.

Each week a clear outline of the planned advertising campaigns and broadcast date and time are provided. Using the outline as guidance, Jones and the Teleconnexions team leaders roster agents according to utilisation targets with the objective that all calls can be answered live.  

‘We know the approximate expected call volumes for each campaign, date and time combination because of extensive testing with the direct response television company which is crucial to utilisation planning,’ said Jones.

But for all the campaign testing, the notification of actual broadcast of the advertisements is somewhat simplistic. 

‘Watching television in the call centre is the most efficient notification system,’ said Jones. ‘Luckily with the IPscape system even five seconds notice is enough time for the call centre to be ready for when the wallboards show inbound calls in queue.’

Presets in the IPscape system determine agent actions based on call volume. Once high call levels are reached the team leader switches the system from sales mode to ‘name and number’ mode. Agents are trained to react immediately and request the callers name and phone number if not already presented by the computer telephony integration (CTI) system. Each name and number is recorded in the IPscape system and flagged as responses to the current advertisement. Once name and number is captured, the next call is presented until the call volume subsides as the advertisement ends.

With the falling call volume the team leader instigates outbound call mode, starting the automated dialer on the recorded numbers so the agents can close the sale. 

‘There is a critical time period after the inbound call to close the sale,’ stated Jones. ‘Speed and reliability is paramount as is customer confidence in the credit card security measures we have in place through IPscape.’

New security features of the IPscape solution include a private IVR-style touch tone facility so the customer can enter credit card details through the telephone keypad.

‘The private keypad is built into the workflow so while the agent starts the keypad process, the only information they see or hear is the result of the credit card transaction,’ stated Jones. ‘With customers increasingly concerned about credit card security, this new feature provides greater reassurance and confidence.’ 

Teleconnexions has managed to fine-tune their business model to achieve great success for themselves as well as their clients, including:

• Quadrupling revenue in 12 months with the addition of six new direct response television clients;
• Controlling costs by aligning telco and software costs to revenue with no upfront capex and  pay-as-you-use charging. As IPscape queues calls in the cloud and only sends a call to Teleconnexions when an agent is available, Teleconnexions only needs bandwidth for available agents, again saving on telco bandwidth charges;
• Using agents@home for those pesky advertisements that go to air at 3am – tapping into a new labour force happy to work from home at weird hours
• Using a single report to monitor and measure inbound and outbound performance in real time so instant decisions can be made on accurate data.

Who would have thought transforming inbound to outbound would be so beneficial?

Video: Hear Teleconnexions talk about their experience with IPscape

By Anna Kay   Thu, Apr 23, 2009

IPscape, the Australian Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) contact centre specialist, today launched the IPscape alliance program for resellers of its pay-as-you-use contact centre and call centre solutions.

According to IPscape CEO Simon Burke, CEO, IPscape is a perfect fit for resellers with telco, systems integration or SaaS expertise that want to extend services into downturn-friendly SaaS call centre solutions.

‘In this economically stressed environment customers are seeking cost effective solutions that still encompass all the advanced contact centre functionality but without upfront capex and inflexibility,’ said Burke.

‘The contortionist-worthy flexibility and infinitely scalability of the IPscape pay-as-you-use contact centre solution is extraordinarily attractive in these uncertain times,’ said Jason Hime, Alliances Director at IPscape.

‘The IPscape alliance program will enable more call centres to experience all the benefits of a proven SaaS solution, resellers to extend their customer relationships and open new revenue opportunities where they were previously “leaving money on the table”,’ stated Hime.

The multi-tier alliance program incorporates detailed training, technical support, sales and marketing support and advantageous pricing arrangements depending on tier.

All IPscape solutions are incorporated into the alliance program including pay-as-you-use contact or call centre solutions for inbound, outbound or blended environments, pay-if-you-use disaster recovery services, Call to Action simultaneous communication service and Click to Dial website to call centre online connection service.

Resellers interested in becoming an IPscape Alliance Partner can contact IPscape on 1300 IPSCAPE (1300 477 227) or info@ipscape.com.au

Read more about the Alliance Program on the IPscape website.

By Anna Kay   Thu, Apr 23, 2009

Australian contact centre provider IPscape today launched IPscape for Salesforce, a fully integrated contact centre module for salesforce.com.

IPscape for Salesforce was developed to deliver high-end call centre functionality, like dialer, voice recording and IVR, as an integral part of salesforce.com. A Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, IPscape for Salesforce can be accessed from any contact or account panel to leverage existing customer relationship data in inbound or outbound call centre operations.

IPscape is the only Australian-owned SaaS contact centre solution integrated to salesforce. The Sydney head office houses development and support of IPscape’s award-winning call and contact centre solutions used by over 20 Australian clients. The IPscape solution bundles telco voice, software, reporting and management on a per-second billing basis for inbound, outbound or blended requirements.

’IPscape has provided contact centre solutions via the SaaS "cloud" since 2005,’ said Simon Burke, CEO at IPscape. ’Salesforce.com now commands nearly half of the Asian SaaS market so there are a lot of Salesforce CRM users currently juggling customer relationship information and call centre systems on disparate databases. ’IPscape for Salesforce means organisations now have an instant view of contact centre customer interactions from their familiar salesforce.com application,’ continued Burke.

The IPscape for Salesforce solution is currently in the process of AppExchange certification.

IPscape for Salesforce includes all the standard features of IPscape’s award-winning solutions such as predictive dialler, voice recording, IVR, queue management, real-time reporting and communication via voice, SMS or email.

Read more about IPscape for salesforce.com, including screen shots.

By The IPscape   Thu, Apr 23, 2009

As competition intensifies in the face of falling customer spending, making it easier for customers to order or call your contact centre when they are most keen to buy can make a real difference to your results.

Consider these two scenarios:

Number 1: Younger generations and certain products lend themselves to website self-service ordering however with over 50 percent of websites failing usability tests (depending on which analyst you ask), what happens if a potential customer ‘just has a quick question’ or wants to check features, colours, sizes or your return policy and can’t find the information on your website? 

Number 2: Similarly, email marketing is now one of the most popular marketing tools to communicate to customers and prospects (accounting for 44.9 percent of marketing investment globally according to the 2009 Marketing Outlook by The CMO Council), particularly for special offers and time limited deals. Once your email is opened, what’s your call to action and how are you going to convert as quickly as possible?

The answer for most companies is to plaster 1300 YOURNUMBER all over the website (site redesigns are too difficult) or email and hope the customer or prospect will find their phone, translate the phone number on their screen to punched keypad numbers (correctly!) and connect to the contact centre. Unfortunately the second you force customers to leave their computer you break the web’s very effective ‘browsing, instant gratification’ spell. You’ll lose some people just at this vital step.

The power of VoIP to the rescue

Surveys and research reinforce the popularity of ‘speaking to someone’ when placing an order or gaining customer service and in our two scenarios a call to the contact centre is the next logical step. Better still, with a VoIP based web-to-telephone service you can easily connect the customer or prospect with your contact centre from their computer screen.

Let’s face it, why should a customer remember your number when they know by heart their own number? Why should they potentially incur any call cost? Why should they bother with the hassle of dialling your number when they could just click to dial your contact centre.

With a web-to-telephone (or click to dial) service, the customer simple clicks a button on your website, enters their own phone number (mobile or landline), which makes their phone ring, and is then connected to the contact centre. This kind of service has seen response rates of around 15 percent from e-newsletter recipients.

Why it works

The concept of click to dial services is very simple, leveraging three human ‘truths’:
- People can easily remember their own phone number
- People like free calls
- People like it when things are easy

Additionally, by extending the online experience you can avoid what we call ‘cross-channel drop-out’ where sales evaporate as the change from the online channel to the physical phone can get interrupted (think toilet break or cuppa-time) and sales momentum lost.

Click to dial also works extremely well for websites with repeat customers, where it is often easier for the customer to speak to somebody than complete long forms online. We have seen it work well for ticket sales (including waitlisting using just the IVR), holiday-related bookings and a vast array of B2C and B2B companies using email marketing.

Try it now

Typically, the setup process is very simple and fast and the resulting URL can be used as a hyperlink in any HTML document or page - in fact you can try it now:

Click here to call IPscape now for free (it’s programmed to go to our IVR
so just hang up if you don’t wish to actually speak person to person - but
we’ll be by the phone just in case!).

Thu, Apr 23, 2009

Skills routing models have been nominated as effectively improving customer service, achieving higher first call resolution as well as better use of agent resources. Here we provide the low-down on skills based routing models and it’s not as scary as you might think. 

What are the requirements for a skills based routing model?

A skills based routing model should be based on known information about your incoming calls.  Details assigned to a specific inbound number or details either entered or chosen by the caller all amount to information that can be used in a skills based routeing model.

For example, if a customer chooses to speak to customer service via an IVR, the call would be routed to a customer service agent.  If that customer also entered their customer ID in the IVR, triggering a customer data lookup in the customer information database, the returned data could also be used for the routing of the call. For example, the caller might choose to speak with an agent and also be a Japanese speaking customer (deduced from the customer data), so the call should be offered to an operator with both skills.

How do you build such a thing?

A Skills Based Routing model can be as simple or as complex as is required.  It can be as easy as assigning an agent to an agent group, or can go so far as having a scoresheet for agents against particular skills.  

Knowing the details about the call groups or scores allows skills to be assigned to specific operators which in turn allows them to take a specific set of incoming calls.

Let’s look at an example of a more complex Skills Based Routing model :

Each Skill is scored for each agent out of 10, with 0 being the lowest and 10 the highest skill level.

Skills are assigned to inbound queues.  When a caller enters some information into an IVR, the queue into which that caller should be placed is determined.  Each queue can have one or more skills assigned to it, with these skills being weighted by importance.  When a call is received for one of these queues, the available agent skill levels are queried and the weight of the inbound queue skill requirements are multiplied by each other.  The available operator who comes out with the highest score will receive the call.

Continuing our Japanese speaking customer example, the table below shows that when a call is received into the queue, agent 102 will receive that call because the weight of the skills required multiplied by that agent’s skill levels scores the highest for that agent.

Can anyone do it or do you have to be a technical person?

Typically, to set up Skills Based Routing takes an individual that knows about the calls that will be received.  Once the correct tools are provided, the Skill Based Routing for calls should be set up and maintained by the Call Centre Manager or one of their peers.

Where lookups of data from other systems or more complex Skills Based Routing systems are required, it will take someone technical to build and maintain the model.

How easy are they alter once up?

Once the logic is set up and provided the same logic continues to be used for the Skills Based Routing, maintaining the model should be straight forward and a process that can be managed by a supervisor or manager.

What are some of the things to watch out for?

Some companies try to make the model more complex than is required.  This leads to confusion about why one call might be answered before another.  If a complex model is applied where not required there will most likely be a negative impact on the answering of calls.

What is the best way to implement?

Keep it simple.  A Skills Based Routing model should be applied only to the complexity that it is required.  Unless there is a pressing need for complex models, restrict the model to groups, group priorities and call weighting.

By The IPscape   Thu, Apr 23, 2009

Managing the peaks and troughs of call volume can be a painful task as unexpected peaks can often throw inbound call centres into chaos. This can also lead to unsatisfied and often irate customers who experience “longer than expected” wait times. On the flip-side, troughs equal under-utilised staff, reduction in efficiency, productivity and negatively impact the bottom line.

To handle these types of events, call centre supervisors and managers implement a technique often referred to as “name and number”. This technique simply means that a supervisor is continually watching the call volumes, and if they start to peak, will tell the agents to take only the name and number of calling customers so they can be called back later. This allows the call centre to take many more calls in a short period of time, with the customers’ expectation of a call back. When the supervisor is happy the peak is over, they instruct the agents to start calling back the customers that they have recorded details for.

This is a simple method and works quite well, however it is very time consuming for the supervisor. It can also lead to customers (and potential sales) not being called back as the agents are manually processing the data and have to manage the callbacks themselves.

Clever technology can ease both the supervisor’s tasks and the agents manual processing – without missing a single call back. With the right technology it just takes a few simple steps. Smart call technology features allow the supervisor to set thresholds based on wait times and/or number of calls in queue. These settings are monitored by the system with agent screens automatically changed when there are high call volumes to allow the capture of the customer contact details. When an agent sees the customer contact capture screens they know to act to gather details and close the calls as quickly as possible.

When the system monitors incoming call volume below the pre-determined trigger point, it starts calling customers back by automatically dialling them using an automated dialler. By automating the process supervisors and agents can concentrate on the call, not managing a call back list that could be as varied as scribbles on paper or entries in a word document.

While this effectively creates a series of outbound calls, which incur call costs, these are offset by the larger potential sales base. Advanced functionality such as smart call technology and diallers are available instantly in hosted or pay-as-you-use solutions so there are zero worries about upfront investments and implementation delays - in fact you can turn it on as a trial for your next campaign and turn it off again if it doesn’t deliver! 

Thu, Apr 23, 2009

If you find the headline confronting let me first list a few key points of data before we go any further:

In a 2007 Forrester US report¹ that tested real-life IVR systems, only 6 percent passed and four major design flaws were identified (1) value (missing essential content); (2) navigation (inefficient task flow); (3) presentation (poor production quality); and (4) and trust (no access to human assistance at key points) - the 2008 report added error handling.

Fonolo², a Canadian company that spiders (think Google) US IVR systems so you can visually choose (online) which step in the IVR menu to connect to without going through the IVR process, found that of the 500 company IVRs spidered:

• 5 companies had more than 100 IVR nodes or levels
• 20 companies had more than 400 words per IVR level
• 10 companies using the ‘listen closely as our options have changed’ message haven’t made an IVR change in six months

So maybe the first oxymoron definition is closer to real-life? No, I really don’t think so but there are still many organisations trying to be too smart, too complex and too happy to create IVR twilight zones in an attempt to minimise live agent costs. I am all for efficient inbound operations as long as you can also boost (or in the least not impact) customer satisfaction.

Intelligent Inbound contact centre operations starts with two principles:

1. Understanding who will be calling you, why and when
2. Using the two basics of IVR and CTI to better serve those people identified in the first principle

Understanding who will be calling you, why and when

This is pretty straight-forward. A good customer (or prospect) understanding will guide the inbound customer experience so you can balance brand personality and the needs of those calling. For example, customers of a travel company might just want to check arrival times or baggage restrictions which can be handled entirely by the IVR most of the time.

Likewise the voice and vocabulary of your IVR needs to reflect your brand values without too much chest-beating and at a level understood by your customers - choose shorter commonly used words when you can. Before you dismiss this as too simplistic, go back and read the key data points above - lots out there that just don’t get it.

Using the two basics of IVR and CTI

Now while many think IVR and CTI are ‘old hat’, the simple truth is lots of organisations get it wrong; overloading the IVR with options and not integrating IVR responses correctly to enable a CTI ‘screen pop’.  The IVR should not exceed four options and two levels.  If you can offer a self service option then do it but always make it clear to the caller what they need to press to speak to a live agent. If you are using a hosted IVR then you can easily adjust and fine tune call flow and IVR operation yourself (as long as you have the necessary voice recordings) based on the metrics and reports produced from the IVR. 

If you ask callers for an account number then for goodness sake make sure you have CTI in place to pop a screen of the caller’s name and details – asking them to repeat their account number after doing so in the IVR is simply out of order. Check your IVR reports daily so you can make adjustments if unsavoury metrics start to rise. A new or changed IVR needs to be monitored in real-time to ensure it is operating as expected (those pesky customers sometimes don’t act like your test team). Again a hosted system enables live monitoring to aid this.  

Next stop - complex intelligence

Once IVR and CTI is mastered, more complex intelligence can be built in using skills based routing (see the technical boys five minute model) and integration to internal databases so massive increases in the number of inbound calls can be handled in a clever self-service model. 

Speech recognition IVR has also become popular with customers divided about whether that’s good or bad. Just remember the logic of a speech-based IVR is different to a touch tone or DTMF IVR and it is not as straight-forward as voice-enabling the touch tone IVR.

So maybe I got carried away with the article headline, maybe it should have been ‘Inbound basics overview’. But then I would have missed the opportunity of using a word like oxymoron - this way is much more fun!