12 New Year’s resolutions for your contact center

Contact center management

12 New Year’s resolutions for your contact center

Tips and ideas for 2016 based on new features and developments of Syntec’s integrated contact center systems  

Cloud contact center management innovation

  1. Effectively track call outcomes – Using Syntec’s AgentCall contact center management system, your agents can mark the outcome of each telephone call they handle using the call history tab, either during or after the call. You can then include this data in real-time and historic reporting, to both alert you to issues as they arise as well as identifying trends and potential areas for concern over time.
  2. Set up email alerts to let you know as soon as there’s an issue – AgentCall enables you to set up email alerts based on a range of different criteria depending on what’s most important to you. For example, you could set up an alert to trigger based on calls waiting timers, or to alert you when there are no agents logged into groups.
  3. Handle issues that arise using AgentCall help – AgentCall’s help functionality enables agents to escalate issues quickly and easily by automatically calling the available Team Leader. Team Leaders can also set a new status on the system when they are only available for help calls.
  4. Develop an agent skill set strategy to allocate calls – AgentCall enables you to specify a skill level per agent, from 1 for the highest skilled agent to 99 for the lowest skilled, and then to use these skill sets to automatically manage call delivery. If you have multiple agents with the same skill level in the same group then the system allows for round robin distribution of calls between those agents.
  5. Develop a deeper understanding of your contact center’s activity by using AgentCall’s QView playback feature – QView playback enables you to take advantage of a second-by-second playback of your historic call queue and agent activity dashboard, so you can better understand what’s working well and which areas might need improvement.
  6. Workforce scheduling – AgentCall will soon include a staff adherence module which will let you schedule when staff should work and when they should be on break. Adherence violations are alarm-able and visible in the agent dashboard. Historical reporting can be used for time sheet calculation and performance reviews.
  7. Realtime events – Push real-time AgentCall events to your business systems for CTI (Computer Telephony Integration). Events currently available include call queue and agent status changes. They are delivered in real-time in JSON format over a web socket connection.

Network-level telecoms innovation

  1. VoIP and SIP trunks– If you’re looking for products and services in the increasingly complex VoIP telephony sector (Voice over Internet Protocol), Syntec can help you migrate from traditional ISDN to IP-based telephony, as well as consult with you over the pros and cons of each options.
  2. Hosted PBX – A key feature of this trend to VOiP, hosted PBX is a service where your call platform and private exchange (PBX) features are hosted at the service provider location. Your organization and end users connect via IP to the provider for voice services. Due to customer demand, Syntec’s own hosted PBX service is currently in beta test – so definitely one to talk to us about in 2016!

Improving the security of your customers’ card payments by phone and also your call recordings

  1. Invest in a telephony-agnostic, secure phone keypad payment (DTMF) system – You can use the mid-call and IVR versions of Syntec’s CardEasy keypad payment by phone system to de-scope your customers’ card payments by phone (and your call recordings) from PCI DSS controls, even if you don’t use Syntec’s telephony services.  With the customer entering their card numbers using their own phone keypad, CardEasy works as a hosted service either at network-level or in the cloud, fully integrated with your payment gateway, so will work with whatever telephony system you currently use to ensure that the sensitive card data (PAN & CV2) does not enter your contact center environment at all.
  2. Integrate CardEasy with your CRM system – CardEasy offers three options for the agent to control the system, so you have flexibility to set up CardEasy in the way that works best for your organization.
    • A web- based virtual terminal (such as those provided by Payment Service Providers)
    • Integrate CardEasy with your enterprise CRM system,
    • Run it as a lightweight program on the agent’s desktop allowing them to control the capture process directly, without requiring any CRM integration.

Call tracking and analytics for intelligent call routing and improved customer service

  1. Responsetrack & ScreenView – Analyse the context of your customers’ calls, using Syntec’s ResponseTrack software to understand what the customer has been doing on your website before calling.  You can then route calls intelligently to the right department or agent, without the need for IVR, as well as provide your agents with real-time individual caller analytics display and let them see what the caller is (and has been) looking at on your website.

If you’re interested in finding out more about any of the above then don’t hesitate to get in touch.