By Rosanne D’Ausilio, Ph.D.

Does this ever happen to you? Do you feel overworked? Overwhelmed? Overtired? Most of us are busier than ever. We’re doing our jobs, plus sometimes the jobs of one or two gone-but-not-replaced colleagues – and doing it all with less support. The Institute for the Future finds that employees of Fortune 1,000 companies send and receive 178 messages a day and are interrupted an average of at least three times an hour.

How many of you take several calls at once, jockeying back and forth trying to keep each conversation separate (and remember where you left off each time)? Or how often are you on the phone with a caller, text chatting with another, and coaching your co-worker all at the same time?

“Do more with less,” is the unforgiving mantra of business in the contact center industry today. Make more decisions and get more stuff done – with fewer people and less resources. It’s reported in a study by the Families and Work Institute in New York conducted on 1,003 employees that 45 percent of US workers feel they are asked or expected to work on too many tasks at once. Is this true for you?

How do we do it? We become very good at multitasking. We do it everywhere – largely because of technology. But does this mean you have less time to do real work? How do you manage to stay sane in the face of these crazy demands?

A growing body of scientific research shows that multitasking can actually make you less efficient. Trying to do two or three things at once or in quick succession can take longer overall than doing them one at a time, and may leave you with reduced brainpower to perform each task. That is why most call centers have their agents take only one call at a time.

Research shows that multitasking increases stress, diminishes perceived control, and may cause physical discomfort such as stomachaches or headaches not to mention shoddy work, mismanaged time, rote solutions, and forgetfulness. Have you ever noticed that as you are working on one task – or one call, thoughts about another task – or the caller on hold – creep into your consciousness?

It doesn’t mean we can’t do several things at the same time, but we’re kidding ourselves if we think we can do so without a cost. Our brains allow us to appear as though we can comfortably multitask. We do have an excellent filtering mechanism to switch our attention rapidly from one thought to the next. At the same time, rather than lose unattended thoughts, this mechanism keeps them active in the recesses of the brain. However, the more we juggle, the less efficient we become at performing any one task. And the longer we go before returning to an interrupted task, the harder it is to remember just where we left off. Multitasking diminishes our productivity and makes us work harder just to feel like we are barely keeping up.

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June 2008

The outbound telemarketing script is your manuscript for success on the telephone.  Regardless of the products or services you sell, the outbound telemarketing script trains the new employee, refreshes the veteran team member, and turns prospects into customers.  Best of all, it defines the offer and brand better then any mail piece, advertising campaign, or direct response program ever will.

What constitutes a successful outbound telemarketing script?  What elements go into creating the perfect script?  These two simple questions lead to very complex answers.  However, there are true and tried answers that every telemarketing organization can follow.  By implementing these four simple steps, your call center can improve their outbound telemarketing results.

1. Understand the limitations: Even the best outbound telemarketing script is based on failure.  Just like a successful baseball player who hits .300 and fails at the plate seven out of every ten at-bats, the best telemarketing script will only result in �conversion� from between three to fifteen percent.  Much of the correct number is predicated upon the audience, the product or service, and the training agents receive.  Every product and service is different.  So, you create the perfect telemarketing script, and still, as many as ninety-seven percent of your prospects say �no.�  It is quite daunting.  Why then, if outbound telemarketing is based on failure, is there such a focus on the perfect script?  Because, the improvement in even one percent can easily push a campaign to the stratosphere of success.  Outbound telemarketing is predicated on improving just a few percentage points in order to gain success.  A powerful script easily can turn a three percent success ratio into a seven percent success ratio.  The variation, those four percentage points, makes a world of difference.

2. Understand the skill sets of your agents: The outbound telemarketing script should be written based on the skills and expertise of your agents.  Not every script is the same. The outbound telemarketing professional selling hardware components to CEO�s of Fortune 100 organizations who earns $100,000 per year has different skill sets than the eight dollar an hour telemarketer who works part time.  Sure, every telemarketing script needs an introduction and a benefit statement, but not every professional is trained and skilled to say things the same way.  So, build the script around your staff.  Tie your outbound telemarketing script into the hiring program.  Ask your team to help craft the perfect script.  After all, it�s for them.

3. Create a grid in order to understand your prospects: Your outbound telemarketing script is written for your prospects.  It is delivered by your team, so clearly they need to embrace and learn the script, but the script is written to your prospects.  They receive and act through what they hear.  They hear statements, features, questions, and inflection based on the script.

So, create a �needs-based� grid in order to define your prospect base.  What motivates your prospects to say �yes?�  What are the two or three acceptable end-results from a telemarketing call?  How does the script guide prospects to do what they want to do.  Here is the most important thing to remember:  The script starts with the professional who places the telephone call.  However, a good script allows the prospect to take control.  The script is prospect focused so wherever the prospect goes, the script goes right along with them.

4. Include five key elements to your outbound telemarketing script: Your outbound telemarketing script should encompass about twenty-five areas.  Each one leads to the next.  The perfect telemarketing script requires five key elements.  Incorporate these elements into the script.  If even one element is missing, then the whole script should be reworked.

1. Ask questions in order to get the prospect to ask questions. Outbound telemarketing professionals tend to talk about themselves, their products or services, and their features and benefits.  They also ask questions that are programmed to elicit certain responses.  This is bad news.  Ask a question and be quiet.  Ask a fascinating, thought-provoking question and let the prospect become the expert.  Ask questions that spark the prospect to ask questions of you.  When they ask questions, you have won.  Why?  First, you have captured interest and broken a barrier.  This is shown by the prospect�s inquisitiveness.  Second, it provides you with opportunity to answer and provide information in your answer.  Get them to talk, and get them to question you.

2. Differentiate your call from other calls they receive every day. You may feel unique, but only you feel that way.  Your outbound telemarketing call is an ideal call defined by nobody but yourself.  So, differentiate.  Prospects say �no� because they see no difference or value between yourself and others calls.  Make your call different.  Create this from the very beginning.  Acknowledge the fact your call appears to be the same as everybody else�s.  If it really is, and, your organization has no differentiation, then fall back on the strongest differentiator imaginable.  Yourself!

3. Provide the prospect with a reason to act. The perfect outbound telemarketing script encourages action.  You would be surprised to learn that most outbound telemarketing scripts provide little or no reason for the prospect to act.  They do not have a call to action in the beginning, middle, or end.  Indecision should never live with the telemarketing professional.  So, blend clear benefit statements with even clearer want statements.  These want statements are based on emotions.  Paint the picture and the concept.  Generate want feelings.  Prospects become customers because they want to; this want is their reason to act.

4. Introduce the purpose-process-payoff to the call in the early stages. Every telemarketing script should have a purpose-process-payoff program attached.  �The purpose of my call� clearly states why your call is different and why it is beneficial for the prospect to listen.  �The process is simple� defines what goes into the action sequences.  Must the prospect say �yes�?  Must they fill out a form?  �The payoff for you� presents the win-win for the prospect.  How many prospects become customers without believing in their payoff?  The answer is none.  They may not believe in the payoff you feel they should, but that is okay.  As long as they see a payoff, then you have the perfect telemarketing script.

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Matt Harless is Vice President of Sales for PhoneWare, located in San Diego, CA.  PhoneWare is a service agency with expertise in outbound and inbound sales and customer care campaigns.  Contact Matt at 800-243-8329 or mharless@phonewareinc.com.

June 18-21, 2008

ATSI Annual Convention & Expo

Hyatt Regency Union Station

St. Louis, MO

For info contact 866-896-ATSI

June 26, 2008

ATA SCATA Chapter Seventh Annual Summer Social

Atlanta, GA

For more information, visit www.atasroconnect.org

July14-15, 2008

ATA Midwest Chapter Compliance and SRO Seminars

Omaha, NE

For more information, visit www.atasroconnect.org

July 16, 2008

ATA West Coast Chapter

Technology and the Ideal Customer Experience

Long Beach, CA

For more information, visit www.atasroconnect.org

August 21, 2008

ATA Arizona Chapter Event

Networking, Workforce Management & Political Leadership

Scottsdale, AZ

For more information, visit www.atasroconnect.org

September 9, 2008

ATA Florida Chapter

Call Center Technology Forum and Supplier Expo

For more information, visit www.atasroconnect.org

September 10-12, 2008

ATA Self-Regulatory Organization Auditor Certification Training

Taylor Institute for Direct Marketing

Akron, OH

For more information, visit www.atasroconnect.org

September 17-19, 2008

PIN Fall Training

Manchester, NH � Radisson Hotel

Contact Dan L�Heureux at 763-473-0210 or Dan@CallConsult.net

September 21-23, 2008

WSTA Annual Meeting

Hilton San Diego � Gas Lamp Quarter

Contact Dan L�Heureux at 877-754-4103, Dan@CallConsult.net, or visit www.wstaonline.org.

September 23-26, 2008

CAM-X 44th Annual Convention & Trade Show

Deerhurst Resort (www.deerhurstresort.com) Huntsville, ON

Contact: Linda Osip, Exec. Director at linda@camx.ca or 800-896-1054.

October 5-8, 2008

2008 ATA Annual Convention and Expo

Grand Hyatt San Antonio

San Antonio, TX

For more information, visit www.ataconnect.org or call 317-816-9336.

October 13-15 2008

ASTAA Annual Meeting

Baltimore, MD – Sheraton Towson

Contact Dan L�Heureux at 763-473-0210, Dan@CallConsult.net

October 20-22 2008

GLTSA Annual Meeting

Chicago, IL  – Hilton � Lisle / Naperville.

Contact Dan L�Heureux at 763-473-0210, Dan@CallConsult.net

November 9-11 2008

STA Annual Meeting

The Inn at Christmas Place, Pigeon Forge, TN

Contact Dan L�Heureux at 800-475-0857, Dan@CallConsult.net, or www.sta-assoc.org.

November 12, 2008

ATA Midwest Chapter Quality, Training and Human Resources Call Center Symposium

Omaha, NE

For more information, visit www.atasroconnect.org

March 15-18 2009

TeamSNUG Annual Meeting

Chicago, IL � Hard Rock Hotel

www.teamsnug.com

Contact Dan L�Heureux at 763-473-0210, Dan@CallConsult.net

Source: Connections Magazine

By Iain McKay
April 2007

Automation is a term that evokes images of heavy industry and machinery.  So how does it apply to the contact center?  Well, it could perhaps be thought that the contact center operates like a clockwork system of cogs, shafts, and pulleys where every piece has a role to play.  This makes the ideal situation the proverbial well-oiled machine where each component part, or cog, is well tuned for its role relative to its peers, taking input from one part of the system and passing it on to another after some transformation.

This clockwork machine analogy really only holds true for contact centers dealing with a high volume of single-issue calls, through one channel and with few exceptions.  Realistically, today�s contact centers are not like that, and customer service is not like that.  An enterprise�s inbound customer contacts come in a hard-to-model chaotic manner with peaks and troughs only loosely estimable according to temporal patterns, such as time-of-day, day-of-week, marketing campaigns, price rises, and system faults.  Therefore, what may be a well-oiled machine one minute could be reduced to a badly performing, inefficient, bottleneck-laden system the next.

Automation Challenges: What makes contact centers so hard to automate?  Certainly, the individual channels and processes of a contact center can be automated, and many already have been, but in a piecemeal manner.  The trouble is that business processes for contact centers have been replicated in a variety of ways with subtle differences, with extra management overheads across different channels, and with no plan to glue the disparate channels together.  Traditionally, there is no common process across channels, and each channel is largely unaware of contacts across the others.

Take self-service telephony, for example.  This is often built as a silo application, designed with telephony in mind, managed by telephony specialists, and adhering to a rigid business process.  Making changes to such a system is a complex and expensive undertaking, thanks to the proprietary scripting languages on interactive voice response (IVR) platforms.  A caller to an IVR line might perform an identification process, carry out a transaction, or declare that they have some other need and then be routed to an agent in the contact center.  This agent will likely have to identify the customer again and reestablish what they want to do.  This is a well-documented source of customer frustration.

Bottlenecks: Alongside the traditional telephony channel, customers can contact companies via a Web interface, email, instant messaging, text-chat, and SMS (Short Message Service).  Companies receiving inbound contacts from this array of channels have traditionally struggled to achieve a holistic, real-time view of the state of the contact center.  They usually segment the agent cohort into teams to handle the separate channels.  This results in bottlenecks across individual channels (a peak of inbound telephony calls, for example), while others are lying underutilized (such as agents awaiting text-chat).  On the other hand, contact routing tends to be simple and single-channel focused.

Another problem with today�s contact center infrastructure is that agents cannot easily manage multiple simultaneous contacts.  Taking one telephone call at a time makes for good customer service.  However, there are other channels, especially those that require limited real-time interaction, such as email and text-chat, which may be combined.

In general, the contact center agent cohort is poorly modeled in terms of agent skill set, technical prowess, channel ability, experience, efficiency, or other measures of their prowess other than average handling time.  This means that simple resource-allocation algorithms such as �round robin� do not try to pick the best agent for the task in hand, only the next available one, resulting in poorer customer service.

With all these complications, it�s understandable that automating the contact center is such a challenge.  So how can contact centers overcome these complex and expensive problems?

Processes Are Key: At the core of the solution lies the contact center�s business processes.  A majority of the processes in a contact center are, in essence, the same � the identification process, for example, is identical whether conducted over the phone, via email, or on the Web.  If the same common processes can be executed across multiple channels, this reduces costs, channel silos, and management overheads.  Having a common process across all channels also makes for a more useful experience from the customer�s point of view, breeding expectation and familiarity.  A solution that has holistic knowledge of the various channels is able to provide a single view of the customer contact history�for example, allowing an agent to see that the customer used the Web interface, sent an email, got no response, and then started a text-chat session.

Another advantage of having an integrated process is that when phone calls handled by the IVR system are routed to agents, the agents can see the data entered or process attempted by the aborted IVR session.

Self-service telephony does work, and it can reuse the same business processes that drive other self-service channels, such as the Web.  The key is to model the business processes and store them centrally so they can automatically be repurposed to whichever channel requires them.  For example, any IVR platform with a VoiceXML interpreter can make use of the same underlying business process, such as �take credit card payment,� that appears on a Web site or the agent�s desktop.

Watch Your Grammars: Beyond consolidating business processes, there are other technologies that can help to automate the contact center.  Natural language IVR, with speech recognition and synthesis, has matured and allows for far more natural user interaction, providing that there is adequate tooling for voice-channel and natural language specifics, most notably defining grammars that the speech-recognition engine should be listening for.  There are systems that can automatically construct the grammars based on the customer�s position within a process, looking ahead and around for items in future or sibling processes.  Tooling should also allow for the definition of the dialogue between the automated system and the caller: A customer is initially presented with more open, mixed-initiative prompts, drilling down to closed and directed system-initiative prompts.

The Virtual Agent: Thanks to these advances in natural language processing, there is now the ability to use nonhuman virtual agent technology in such a way that the agent cohort can consist of a blended pool of both human and virtual agents who are able to answer queries, perform processes, and route contacts between one another.  Virtual agents are able to drive the IVR channel, engage in text-chat with customers on instant messenger channels, and parse incoming SMS messages and inbound emails, acting upon them automatically.

Virtual agents are far more numerous than their human counterparts, with far lower associated costs, but they are not perfect; they are only as intelligent as the dialogue and business-process modeling has allowed them to be.  It is suggested that most inbound self-service contacts should be fronted by virtual-agent technology and then routed on to a human agent when it comes to the more complicated processes, such as complaints or exception handling.  Indeed, technology is now at the point where customers can be engaged in text-chat with an agent and be unaware whether they are typing to a human or virtual agent at that particular point.

Automation Still Needs People: Making better use of contact center staff is a key enabler of a more automated operation.  Agents can receive multiple pieces of customer interactions to work on.  While bombarding agents with too many pieces of simultaneous work is counterproductive, it makes for more efficient use of agents when they are on a slow real-time channel such as text-chat.  On such a channel, agents can handle two or three chats concurrently before the customer notices a slow-down in response times and the agents become frustrated with the cognitive load being placed upon them.  A modern, process-aware contact router handles multiple channels and is able to prioritize these according to real-time needs.  For example, inbound telephony is given a higher priority than email correspondence, and high-value customers can be given priority over others.

In a related benefit, if a process-aware routing engine delivers contacts to agents, the overall system can provide real-time management metrics.  This can concern both the business processes, such as the number of up-sells or credit card payments in the last three minutes, and the contact statistics, like average handling time, number of inbound contacts across email, SMS, IVR, telephony, text-chat, and so on.  This allows contact center management to be able to see the live state of health of the contact center machinery.  Management can then choose to modify routing parameters according to the current business requirements.

Skills-based routing allows contact centers to route different types of calls � for example, sales, service, and payment processing � to the agents who have the skill necessary for that call. When agents are cross-trained, so that some or all have more than one skill, skills-based routing can increase the amount of time agents spend handling calls, offering significant cost savings and improved service levels without additional staff.

Implementing skills-based routing adds new workforce management challenges for contact centers. The process of creating accurate forecasts and developing efficient schedules for agents in contact centers that handle only one call type is well understood; achieving the same goals when the contact center handles different types of calls is much more complex. In order to realize the full benefits of skills-based routing, it becomes more critical to create accurate agent requirement forecasts and agent schedules that maximize the potential efficiency of multiskilled agents. Poor quality in forecasts or schedules can completely undermine the value of skills-based routing and even decrease performance.

Workforce management systems employ several different approaches to forecasting and scheduling to address the unique complexities of skills-based routing. Many of these approaches, however, fail to account for the complexity in call distribution between cross-trained agents. A true skills-based routing approach must consider the actual logic of the actual contact center (ACD) routing rules and efficiencies from multiskilled agents using an integrated simulator to return accurate forecasts and efficient schedules.

Forecasting Using Erlang C: In a contact center that is not using skills-based call routing, agent requirements can be derived through simple mathematic calculations. Forecasts of call volume, average handling time over the desired time intervals, and service level goals can be input into an industry-standard Erlang C formula that calculates the number of agents needed for each time interval.

However, using a mathematical formula by itself to calculate agent requirements does not yield accurate or optimal results in skills-based routing environments. Mathematical formulas like Erlang C always result in overstaffing when applied in skills-based routing environments, because they do not account for sophisticated ACD call routing logic and efficiencies from multiskilled agents. When agents have multiple skills, there is a greater likelihood that an agent with the necessary skills for an incoming call will be available, so fewer agents overall are required to manage the same number of calls at the same service level.

Erlang C assumes each agent handles a single call type on a first-come, first-served basis. This assumption is not valid for skills-based call routing because some, or all, agents will have more than one skill and can handle multiple call types. Call types may also have different priorities, allowing Platinum-level customers to reach an agent before Gold-level customers, so all calls may not be offered to agents on a first-come, first-served basis.

Most importantly, in a skills-based routing environment, agent availability depends on other agents� skills and schedules. Since agents scheduled for one particular call type may also be utilized for other call types, the number of agents needed for one call type depends on which agents are scheduled for every other call type. Further, determining the percentage of time an agent will spend handling a certain call type in a skills-based routing environment depends on dynamic call routing rules such as conditional queuing, changing call priority, queuing to backup skills, time of day, and day of week � and cannot be calculated with simple mathematic formulas.

Creating effective schedules in skills-based call routing environments is a circular problem that cannot be solved by mathematics alone: the exact number of agents required can only be determined after schedules are created, but before schedules can be created, it is necessary to know how many agents are required to be scheduled.

In spite of these issues, some workforce management systems still use Erlang C alone to calculate agent requirements for skills-based call routing. Agent requirements for each call type are calculated independently, then an arbitrary efficiency factor is applied to lower the requirements to estimate the greater efficiency provided by multiskilled agents. A variation on this approach adds the call volume of all call types and calculates the weighted AHT (average handle time) for each interval.

But in this combined workload variation, the results of the Erlang C calculations are based on the assumption that all agents are fully crossed-trained in all skills. Using this approach, the number of agents must therefore be increased by an arbitrary factor to account for the fact that not all agents are fully cross-trained. A combined workload also means that calculations are based on one service level for all call types, which is often not realistic or appropriate.

Forecasts that rely solely on Erlang C in skills-based routing environments are inherently inaccurate. While it might be possible to manually adjust forecasts up or down to improve the estimate in environments with only two or three skills, the adjustment becomes much less accurate as the number of skills increases. Further, even with adjustments, these calculations will not account for the impact of dynamic ACD call routing and the interplay of individual agent skills and availability over each interval.

Forecasting Using Multi-Server Queuing: Another mathematical forecasting method uses multi-server queuing formulas to calculate agent requirements. This approach assumes agents within agent groups possess identical skills, and provides an approximation of the multi-skill efficiency gained by skills-based call routing.

Multi-server queuing formulas cannot be used to forecast agent requirements when agents are assigned skill levels, however. The formulas assume that calls are routed to separate queues for each agent group or to a common queue for all agent groups.

The assumptions in multi-server queuing formulas are rarely true in the real world. In most skills-based routing environments, calls may be queued to agent groups simultaneously or based on conditional rules. Agents are also typically assigned different skill priority levels, which further affect call routing.

Multi-server queuing formulas have another significant weakness, since agent requirements are calculated for skill sets rather than call types. For example, if a contact center handles calls in English and Spanish, agents are assigned with associated English, Spanish, or bilingual skills. The formulas calculate requirements for English agents, Spanish agents, and bilingual agents, instead of just the requirements needed for English calls and Spanish calls. This approach does not allow the workforce management system to determine the best set of schedules that use the best mix of English-, Spanish-, and bilingual-skilled agents. Yet another difficulty is determining how many total agents are needed for the English and Spanish calls, since the percentage of time each bilingual agent will spend handling English and Spanish calls is not known.

Skill Scheduling for a Single Call Type at a Time: Once a forecast has been generated, the workforce management system must schedule agents to meet the forecasted agent requirements. Creating schedules in skills-based routing centers is significantly more complex than in non-skills centers, because the workforce management system no longer is just scheduling enough total agents to meet requirements for one call type, but must schedule the right combination of agents to meet requirements for each call type, and still take contact center work rules into account.

The most simplistic scheduling approach assigns multiskilled agents to one call type for each scheduling interval. For example, agents with sales and service skills might be scheduled for sales calls from 8:00 am to noon and service calls from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Scheduling agents to specific call types for each interval results in low quality schedules, because the schedules either sacrifice the efficiencies of skills-based routing or do not match the actual ACD routing rules.

�Locking� an agent into a specific call type or skill during the scheduled period entirely defeats the skills-based routing efficiency gains possible with multiskilled agents, since an agent assigned to one call type will not receive other call types, even if that agent is available and has the required skill.

If the agent is not �locked� into a specific skill during the interval, the schedule assignments become meaningless because calls will be routed according to ACD rules. An agent with multiple skills will receive both sales and service call types throughout the day, even though the schedule shows that the agent will receive only sales calls in the morning and only service calls in the afternoon.

Schedule from Most- to Least-Skilled Agents: Another method schedules the agents with the most skills first. This approach makes the assumption that the skills are related and that an agent with Skill 3 can also handle call types based on Skill 2 and Skill 1:

• First, the system schedules the most skilled agents (agents with Skills 1, 2, and 3) against the call type forecast requirements that use Skill 3.

• Next, requirements of call types that use Skill 2 are added to those that use Skill 3; the system applies a factor to decrease the combined requirements and schedules agents with Skills 1 and 2.

• Finally, the requirements of call types that use Skill 1 are added to those that use Skills 2 and 3, and the system again decreases the combined requirements and schedules agents with Skill 1.

This approach, however, cannot be used when agents have individual, non-related skills � such as language � and are not uniformly trained to be in one of a few different skill sets. In most contact centers with skills-based routing, a skill is not related to or dependent on another skill and may be assigned to agents based not only on training but also on actual performance. Most importantly, the method of scheduling from most-skilled to least-skilled agents does not consider routing rules that affect agent availability such as conditional queuing or queuing to backup skills.

In other words, this approach assumes that an agent with a skill is always available to handle the associated calls. Most ACD rules enable greater control of call distribution than that to ensure that certain agents receive calls they are skilled for only when other conditions are met. For example, bilingual skilled agents might only receive English calls if there are other Spanish skilled agents available.

Forecasting and Scheduling Through Integrated Simulation: The key flaw with the forecasting and scheduling methods described previously is that they do not take ACD routing rules into account. Also, they do not resolve the circular challenge of forecasting and scheduling: forecasted agent requirements are dependent on individual agent skills and agent schedules, which in turn are dependent on forecasted requirements and the way that calls will actually be routed.

The solution to achieve both accurate forecasts and efficient agent schedules is to integrate simulation of ACD routing into the forecasting and scheduling process. With an integrated simulator, agent requirements are calculated by call type, including the economies-of-scale gained by multiskilled agents, and agent availability by call type is calculated. Schedules can be automatically generated using the agent requirements and then analyzed after simulating ACD call routing � including network call routing for multisite centers.

Forecasts and schedules can then automatically be adjusted to improve results, and the process can automatically repeat until the best set of schedules and an accurate forecast have been determined. The resulting output of this solution is:

• Agent requirements that account for economies-of-scale gained by using multiskilled agents

• Number of agents available by call type

• Schedules refined to meet contact center goals for service level and efficient use of agents

This solution accommodates the many variables and the complexity associated with a multiskill environment and automatically creates accurate forecasts and effective working schedules.

Secondarily, integrated simulation can evaluate the impact of changes to forecast call volumes and handling times, call routing rules, agent skills, schedules, service levels, and other variables so that performance can continue to be managed after the initial forecasting and scheduling cycle.

To achieve these results, the simulator must be capable of duplicating the complexity of the actual ACD routing in the contact center, including network routing in multisite centers. Routing may be based on any number of factors, including hold times, agent availability, time-of-day, and agent skill levels. If the simulator offers �canned� rule types that cannot duplicate actual ACD routing, the accuracy of the forecasts and quality of the resulting schedules will be low.

The simulator must also be fully integrated into the workforce management forecasting and scheduling cycle so that the iterative process of forecasting, scheduling, and adjustments are automated. This process must be repeated multiple times to deliver high-quality forecasts and schedules. If the simulator is not integrated, the manual process of running simulations against schedules and adjusting the schedules and forecasts is prohibitively time-consuming and introduces opportunities for error.

Conclusion: Accuracy is the key to successfully forecasting and scheduling for skills-based call routing. Accurate forecasting and scheduling is needed in order to consistently meet and exceed service level goals without significantly overstaffing. Without accurate scheduling for skills-based routing, contact centers will fail to achieve the benefits of skills-based routing, consistently missing service level goals because of understaffing, or exceeding labor costs due to overstaffing.

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The future will be better tomorrow,� Vice President Dan Quayle announced during a college commencement speech.  Quayle�s well-publicized gaff holds much truth for the call center industry.  In fact, the industry need not wait until tomorrow, as the future is here today.  The surge of change in the industry that started with the move toward Web-enabling call centers intensifies with each advancement in computer technology.

As the quest to develop faster, smaller, more powerful, and more efficient machines drives the computer hardware industry, the call center industry stands to benefit.  Thin client machines � networked minimalist computers that communicate with a central server for their processing power to access applications and data storage � are finding a firmer foothold in call centers.  Thin client computers are not new, but they are riding a groundswell as more and more businesses are taking advantage of their lesser cost without sacrificing capability or performance.

Just as the pace of business increases for the call centers, so it does for their clients.  This, in turn, has sparked clients to expect more and better service from their call center suppliers.  The demands for more, better, and faster are quickly making scripted messaging and customizable dispatching the norm rather than the exception.  And the near-instantaneous communication capabilities inherent in the Internet are being maximized by equipment vendors and adopted by call centers worldwide.

Jim Marchbank has owned and operated Available Communications in the St. Louis, MO, market since 1981.  His 35-seat operation offers a variety of call center services, mostly handling inbound calls for response marketing, order entry, dealer locates, messaging, voicemail, and paging.

Marchbank has made a commitment to scripted messaging.  He�s seen its benefits firsthand and expects its acceptance to grow.  �Within a few years scripted messaging will be the norm rather than the exception.  It�s going to be mandatory that you have intelligent scripting and intelligent messaging and intelligent dispatching,� Marchbank said.

The historical telephone message � basic information like who to, who from, and reason for calling � has given way to complex communications whose content is decided by the caller rather than the agent.  Communication content can include summaries of previous calls, are adaptable based on time of day and day of the week, and can be delivered in whichever manner the client requires.

�In many cases, our customers are surprised that we have that capability, and they are pleased,� Marchbank said.  �We�re in a timed and dated industry.  Our customers should be demanding that kind of service, and the smarter ones are.�

Cell phones have become ubiquitous, and customers now have many methods of being contacted and for messages to be delivered.  �It�s all wired and it�s all coming together,� Marchbank said.  �Everything�s coming down to the Dick Tracy wristwatch that we grew up with being a reality.�

Marchbank said his call center has been making use of VoIP technology for better than two years.  �I�m a firm believer (in VoIP),� Marchbank said.  �It�s a new technology, and we want to be on the cutting edge, but not on the bleeding edge.  Like any new technology, until you start using it, it�s difficult to understand its advantages.�

Marchbank listed several advantages VoIP holds for call centers.  �It�s a cost saver in terms of long distance dialing and is cheaper then T1 spans on an outbound standpoint,� Marchbank said.  �That alone would enable a lot of call centers to add VoIP.  It allows you to at least break even while having the opportunity to figure out how to use it.�

Marchbank also sees business expansion considerably eased by adopting VoIP technology.  �(Implementing VoIP) enables you to have local numbers in markets you�re not currently serving.�  Marchbank said.  �It allows you to connect offices in other areas at a less expensive rate.  It helps when you have remote agents in various areas because they can dial in (to the main office) without a long distance component.

�If you�re going to expand by buying other teleservice companies, it�s possible that you can take in all those numbers easily and cost-effectively,� Marchbank said.  �You can simply port all the numbers you have for every office to every location in your organization.  That�s a tremendous cost savings.�

Clayton Robinson is the proprietor of A-1 Answering Service in Las Vegas and is the third-generation owner of the 44-year-old telemessaging call center with 17 seats.  A-1 doesn�t have a one-specialty client base, but does everything from mom-and-pop messaging to receptionist service for corporate offices.  �The essence of taking a message has not changed,� Robinson said.  �The caller wants to leave a message and the customer knows what they want to be told.�

Scripted messaging and intelligent dispatching provide call centers with the flexibility needed to be everything to everybody.  �It depends on the client and on the caller,� Robinson said.  �There needs to be the ability to take the message with specific information and then go on into the scripting and diverse methods of dispatching.

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April 2008

Today�s business environment is becoming increasingly complex and competitive due to globalization, new technology, increasing product proliferation, brand erosion, market segmentation, consumer skepticism, and time poverty, rendering traditional business plans obsolete.  For just about every product or service, there is an overwhelming number of alternatives to choose from, leaving consumers dazed and confused.  So how can you stand out from a sea of competitors promoting similar offerings?  Quite simply, you must become known as the company in your field that provides world-class service.

What is world-class service?  It is the talk of many but the reality of few.  When a company provides a client with world-class service, it often becomes a legendary experience that the client retells to others in a form of free publicity, which can�t be bought.

What companies come to mind when you think of world-class service?  What establishments do you patronize whose service exceeds your expectations on a continual basis?  Typically, these are not the places that have the lowest prices.  Rather, their value is created by elevating the customer experience to a point where paying a premium is not an issue.

First, companies should understand the difference between the product (the commodity or service being delivered) and the process (the method by which that product is delivered).  Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, Washington has become world famous for this differentiation.  While their product is fish, Pike Place�s word-of-mouth fame was created due to the process of how that product is delivered � throwing fish.  The product of a doctor is clinical expertise, whereas most people would agree that the process by which that product is delivered (bedside manner) may be just as important.  Since Realtors do not have exclusives on the homes (product) they show and sell, their sole value is created by the service they provide (process).  Here�s the point: Your reputation in your field may be created more by the customer experience you deliver than the product or service you sell.

Six simple actions will determine your level of customer service (from the customer�s perspective).  When a realistic and objective assessment is made in each of these actions coupled with systems and strategies to improve (with training), it can result in immediate and transformational changes in your business.  The six simple actions are:

1. How well you listen: Do you clearly understand the needs of your customers?  As Mark Twain once said, �We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.�  You do not need to start out offering all the answers; first begin by asking all the right questions.  What do your customers really want, and how can you better serve them?

2. What you say: How well do you answer questions, provide information, give guidance, or offer direction?  Helping your customers understand the range of offerings available (both pros and cons) and what best fits their unique needs will build loyalty.  Helping them all along the way and being available for service after the sale will build customers for life.

3. How you say it: Have you evaluated your nonverbal communication (i.e., body language, tone, and inflection)?  In his book, Silent Messages, Dr. Albert Merhabian found that communication is 57 percent nonverbal (body language, eye contact, a warm smile, and open gestures), 38 percent voice quality (volume, tone, and inflection), and only 7 percent verbal words.  Yet most people tend to focus their time, energy, and training on the words they say.

4. What you do: Do you consider your actions � taken or not taken?  The only thing worse than doing nothing is saying you are going to do something and then not doing it.  It creates disappointment and a loss of trust.  Taking the time up front to address your customer�s every need, want, and desire will keep them coming back.

5. How you do it: Are you there to please or appease?  Is it just a job for you � are you just going through the motions?  Or do you take pride in your company and your work and truly care about the well-being of your customers?  Making customers feel special and appreciated creates an emotional bond that is not easily broken.

6. When you do it: Do you consider your response times?  Immediate response times that exceed expectations create a positive perception, while long wait and response times create frustrations, leading to a negative perception.  We are now living in a �drive-thru� world where communication expectations are greater than ever before with the advent of emails, cell phones, PDAs, and text messaging.

Most service experiences are unremarkable.  We tend to remember only those experiences on the extremes of either side. Poor customer service tends to leave consumers frustrated and disappointed.  In the restaurant business there is famous saying: �You are only as good as your patron�s last visit.�  An exceptionally long delay in receiving food may be as damaging to a restaurant�s reputation as a bad meal.

Why is it important to create a world-class service culture?  Because not only are the products or services in most categories being commoditized by your competitors � where the lowest price wins � but more and more often the service component is playing a greater role in your customers� buying decisions.  For example, if you look in the Yellow Pages under �Automobile Repair and Service� you will find pages of ads with every company communicating basically the same message.  Since most people don�t truly understand what is being done underneath the hood, their loyalties lie with the way they are greeted on the phone or at the first meeting, and the way they are treated.

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Now is the time to stand up and provide a wow factor that will create customers for life.

Michael Guld is an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and radio commentator whose business development expertise lies in increasing sales performance, marketing exposure, employee productivity, and creating a world-class service experience.  He is the president of The Guld Resource Group and creator of �Talking Business with Michael Guld,� airing on Central Virginia�s Public Radio.  He can be reached at 804-360-3122 or at

By Patrick Botz

April 2008

Few occupations require as much patience and resilience as that of the call center agent.  It�s essential for agents to bounce back from constant rejection and cope with a barrage of complaints from frustrated callers.  Even the most experienced and controlled agents have their limits.  It�s a tough business, and stress is a real issue that has a compound affect on quality and performance.  Unhappy, stressed-out agents don�t perform well.  While regular pep talks and casual Fridays may provide some relief, many contact centers are recognizing the need to address some of the major stress factors head-on.  Good training can make a big difference to agent morale, and eLearning solutions are being implemented with impressive results.  Real-time training and performance management technologies provide call center professionals with powerful tools designed specifically to support agents and equip them with the knowledge and skills to stay in control, manage their customer interactions, and minimize stress.

Creating Good Will in the Call Center: A 2007 ICMI survey indicated that nearly 50 percent of call centers don�t measure agent satisfaction.  This is a rather alarming when you consider the consequences.  Agents account for roughly two-thirds of a call center�s operating costs.  Agent turnover is expensive, costing anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000, and takes its toll on morale, service quality, and productivity, ultimately creating more stress for the employees that remain.  Call centers that don�t care about agent satisfaction and loyalty are going to suffer the consequences, continually fighting a battle with cost containment and caller satisfaction.  Technologies that proactively enable ongoing, real-time communication and empower agents with the information essential to do their job well are needed.

Agent Empowerment: The Ultimate Stress-Buster: Agents are always going to have to deal with difficult callers and irate clients; it is a stressful part of the job that can�t be eliminated.  However, when agents are properly trained to deal with them, there are many circumstances when particular caller disputes or dissatisfaction issues can be quickly contained, managed, and resolved.  Without this training, agents can be thrown when faced with unexpected surges of difficult calls.

The problem is that classroom training is time-consuming and not particularly cost-efficient.  It requires careful scheduling and usually leads to multiple agents being pulled away from their stations on a regular and ongoing basis.  In addition, most of the damage is already done by the time the problem has been recognized and all of the agents have been trained to respond to it.  This is where real-time eLearning and performance management solutions can be effectively implemented.

Let�s say, for example, that a client�s competitor launched an aggressive direct mail campaign that could potentially result in a devastating degree of customer defection.  Customers begin calling en masse to cancel policies or services.  The agents dealing with these calls have no recourse other than to comply with the callers� wishes; their standard script and objection handling skills can�t effectively counter the competitor�s offer.  A fully integrated real-time performance management solution will quickly alert management to the high volume of cancellations.  The problem can then be investigated and a solution devised.  In this case, it may be possible to counter the competitor�s offer and neutralize the threat.  A message would then be sent to the desktop of every agent involved, alerting them to the situation and providing concise, systematic instructions on how to manage the specific customer cancellation calls.  Not only are the agents prepared and empowered to keep callers on board who may otherwise have taken their business elsewhere, but a highly stressful and costly situation has been averted.

Advanced eLearning Solutions: What to Look For: There are various training software solutions available; look for packages that offer real-time eLearning capabilities and messaging functions, including the ability to send targeted training content to agents.  The material can be customized based on agent skills and distributed when it is most relevant, thereby improving each agent�s opportunity for success.

Course content can be organized and intelligently distributed to agents and managers, either individually or as a group, and there should be an option to provide training manually in a classroom or deliver it automatically to custom Web pages or agent desktop dashboards based on business rules such as performance results or schedules.  In addition to content creation and testing, users can include third party content.

In order to maximize the success of each agent, it is vital to implement a solution that allows you to deliver relevant, custom content to agents in time for new campaigns.  This includes flash training, quizzes, eLearning courses, educational tips, examples of best practices calls, compliance bulletins, and pre-shift announcements.  Skills-based agent training ensures progressive agent development, from basic to advanced skills.  It is also important to be able to deliver courses based on rules or classroom assignments.  A rules-based distribution system can manage the delivery of training content to agents, groups of agents, and managers across multiple sites.

Lastly, by integrating eLearning with workforce management you can facilitate the delivery of training based on work and shift schedules to maximize productive agent uptime.  Rules can be defined to trigger the delivery of training materials based on performance metrics thresholds.

Track Your Agents� Progress: Although you can�t underestimate the importance of providing good, ongoing training, it is just as important to keep track of your agents� progress and the effectiveness of your training materials and processes.  A training solution should offer tools to assess learning results, enabling quizzes to be embedded or linked to course material.  A tracking function allows managers and trainers to measure whether training was viewed and understood, associating KPIs (key performance indicators) with courses to track the impact of specific training content on agent performance.

Built-in assessment tools enable you to easily measure and track the results of training and its impact on group or individual performance.  Training progress may also be associated with specific KPIs.  User-created quizzes can measure the full extent of agents� comprehension and the retention of training content.  Detailed reporting capabilities allow tracking of training usage and test scores.

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Patrick Botz serves as global director of marketing for VPI (www.VPI-corp.com), a provider of interactions recording and workforce optimization solutions for contact centers.  As a CRM practitioner, he focuses on the mission-critical aspects of capturing customer intelligence and optimizing workforce performance in real time.  Contact Patrick at PBotz@VPI-corp.com.

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May 2008

Digital communications market research provider In-Stat reported that the hosted PBX market is expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2009.  Additionally, ads on TV are offering $25 per month unlimited phone calls, and one can go to Wal-Mart to buy a telephone with Skype built in for free phone calls.  Yet many, if not most, telemessaging call center owners have no clue what hosted PBX is all about.

In a nutshell, you buy an IP (Internet Protocol) phone, plug it in to your DSL, cable, fixed wireless, or data T, and voila, you have phone service, both incoming and outgoing.  The going rate for IP domestic calls in the U.S. is about a half a cent per minute, and since the providers are banking on the fact that people rarely call more than 1,000 minutes per month, the provider profits are $20 per month: $25 – (1000 x 0.005) = $20.

Although some providers that target the consumer market generate voice quality complaints, companies that gear their service to the enterprise market have gotten rave reviews.  Although not hosted, Bank of America has 250,000 VoIP phones deployed, Boeing has 50,000, and Ford 60,000.  Why do some experience good quality and others don�t?

The answer is that one cannot just slap an IP phone on a DSL.  The DSL provider must be able to offer a DSL service that supports QOS (Quality of Service) and COS (Class of Service).  Almost every current DSL router has a QOS menu, and almost every VoIP phone supports QOS and COS settings, but these capabilities do not help if they are not enabled or set correctly.  One should allocate fifteen to twenty minutes to properly configure them.  The result is a phone quality that is indistinguishable from legacy phone connections.

Calls from one VoIP phone to another VoIP phone exceed the quality of legacy phone service.  This is because all legacy phone connections go through a phone company central office switch where they are squeezed down to an 8 kHz signal.  In contrast, a connection that goes from VoIP phone to VoIP phone goes directly at 64 kbps, even if it is halfway around the world.  Considering that MP3 recordings are usually 128 kbps, VoIP phone to VoIP phone sounds great.

For telemessaging call centers to venture into the hosted PBX marketplace, it�s important to first find out how many existing clients would be interested in such a service.  Those that are will be more tightly bound to the call center because they will then be receiving both voice and answering services.  In addition, clients will appreciate being able to forward their calls to the call center from anywhere (such as a cell phone) and not just from the phone itself.  Likewise, clients may be grateful to have such desirable features as �find me/follow me� in addition to telemessaging service.

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Allen David Niven is CEO of www.GlobalFone.biz in New York City.