CTI solutions go a long way towards boosting productivity in the help desk. In today’s competitive marketplace, ensuring efficient customer service can be achieved by monitoring agent performance and providing a mechanism for verifying transactions or retracing previous steps. Integrating CTI logging and monitoring products with help desk software completes the picture.
Getting correct information to the customer quickly is the primary objective of the help desk agent — but in the real world, we know it’s not always easy to accomplish. Consider a scenario customers could encounter when dealing with a software support desk. After dialing a toll-free number and selecting the appropriate options in the IVR system, the customer reaches an agent who offers a solution to the customers’ problem. When the customer hangs up and tries the solution, it doesn’t work. The frustrated customer calls back. The IVR asks for the customer’s profile number, which they don’t know. The customer presses "0" to get an operator, and asks for the agent with whom they have previously spoken. That agent has left for the day, however, so the customer is transferred to another agent (Agent 2) who asks the customer to repeat all the information they have previously given. Finally, a record appears with some notes from the first agent outlining the solution offered. Agent 2 repeats the problem along with Agent 1’s suggested solution to ensure the customer understands it. "That’s not what Agent 1 said at all," the customer insists. Agent 2 suggests they start from square one.
With CTI, this scenario can be avoided altogether. CTI capabilities enable us to link a variety of events to one common place. Working with your ACD, the CTI server provides "smart" links to an enterprise’s data-bases and integrates the database with a host of applications. These applications include intelligent call routing, customer interaction software, predictive dialers, screen pops, and more. By using caller ID (ANI), the CTI server recognizes the customer’s phone number and — through intelligent call routing — immediately transfers the call to the appropriate agent. Then, via a CTI screen pop, the customer’s profile is popped on the agent’s screen before they retrieve the call.
Many help desk software databases contain information gathered by help desk personnel, which constitutes an interpretation of the interaction with the customer. CTI logging and monitoring products can now be integrated with help desk software and complement the database with the storage of the original transaction (voice, fax, or e-mail). CTI logging is being used today in many organizations and call centers to document the voice transactions. Using CTI, our software help desk agent described above could have retrieved the original voice transactions between Agent 1 and the customer, and quickly clarified any misunderstandings.
Similarly, CTI fax archiving stores fax transactions, regardless of how faxes are sent or received. Faxes can be tagged with CTI or account information and associated with specific customers.
With fax archiving, an enterprise can be absolutely certain that faxes were sent, received, or viewed.
By entering a customer’s account number, the agent can locate all of the original voice recordings, faxed documents, and associated data that creates a complete history of the customer interaction with the enterprise.
Another very important aspect of the help desk is the quality of service. CTI quality assurance is a special logging application that enables the help desk to record a sample of voice and screen sessions (agent/client) and later analyze them. For quality measurement, calls are typically recorded based on a pre-determined schedule (for example, each agent is recorded three times per month). CTI capabilities allow even more criteria for initiating call recordings, such as recording specific campaigns, regions, or agent groups.
Supervisors can later use the same CTI criteria for quickly retrieving the calls for evaluation. Effective quality assurance applications also include online grading templates that are integrated with statistical reports and provide voice and other annotation capabilities for the reviewer.
Implementing CTI capabilities for the help desk can do much more than simply improve productivity. By providing agents with an archive of original transactions — by tracking the steps of customer service — CTI logging and monitoring solutions can significantly boost agent performance levels, verify mission-critical transactions, settle disputes, and ensure greater customer satisfaction.
Joav Avtalion is senior vice president of marketing and business development at NICE Systems Ltd. NICE Systems is a leading global provider of CTI logging, performance measurement, and workflow solutions for voice, fax, and data. For more information, contact the company at 800-663-5601 or visit their Web site at www.nice.com.
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