What percentage of calls should we be recording?
While there’s no hard-and-fast rule on how many calls you should be recording at your contact center, KOVA’s Audiolog for Contact Centers, powered by Verint Systems, Inc., makes it easy to record as many as you want. This contact center software allows a simplistic platform to record, evaluate and archive calls. These calls can be selected on-demand, on a pre-scheduled basis, or on a criteria-driven basis. Its search and retrieval functions are unparalleled, allowing you to quickly find and act on opportunities to improve customer service, expedite dispute resolution, and reduce liability as they occur.
When you have a full data set, you can the opportunity to evaluate not just the agents who handle the calls, but the callers themselves: what are their most common questions? What is their mood? Is there anything you can do to reduce frustration before your agent even takes the call?
By evaluating a large pool of calls, you’re also able to better understand your agents’ strengths and weaknesses. You can identify standoffish or unhelpful agents for further training, and recognize the top sellers versus those who are best at managing complaints or questions.
Can the evaluation process be automated?
Absolutely! KOVA’s Voice of the Customer analytics software provides quality monitoring, eLearning training modules and online coaching. A browser-based solution, Verint Media Recorder Customer Feedback, uses short, context-sensitive customer surveys to collect data on products, processes, staff performance, customer loyalty and level of satisfaction. This frees up time for your managers to do what they do best: manage!
How can we reduce shrinkage at my contact center?
Shrinkage, or the time employees are clocked in but not productive, accounts for a surprising amount of time at a call center. KOVA’s Verint Media Recorder contact center software can help you identify what your employees have been up to during the day from periods of high and low productivity. Knowing this information can help you to provide incentives low points, reward the high ones, and schedule meetings for times that won’t infringe on productivity—we all know that break time abuse can be a problem!
How can I improve employee morale at my contact center?
Teach employees where they fit into the company as a whole, so they feel responsible in part for its success. This is where metrics come in: providing your agents with the top three ways to succeed will be a clear call to action that many will find irresistible.
What’s the best way to schedule a large staff?
It’s important to provide an easy way for your employees to schedule their time off in advance, since using sick days inconveniences everyone. Keep track of which agents volunteer last-minute coverage and praise them during meetings. This positive reinforcement will go a long way!
Schedule for longer periods of time and give it out in advance to give your agents a sense of control over their schedules. Be mindful of avoiding overtime as much as possible—it’s expensive and can lead to burnout. When work doesn’t restrict your employees, they’ll actually want to come in and will be more productive.
KOVA’s Verint Media Recorder Workforce Management web-enabled software helps forecast and produce optimal schedules. The software will do the heavy lifting to make sure you schedule meetings without sacrificing quality of service and comply with all government and union regulations. It allows you as much control or as little as you need: you can create long-term workload schedules far in advance or zoom in to create schedules for daily and even intra-daily bases.
There are many myths out there about public safety, and many people take them as fact. However, you’re in the industry of righting wrongs, fighting for justice, and keeping people safe: you’re someone who always wants the correct information. We’ve gathered five of the biggest misunderstandings about public safety software to help increase your organization’s efficiency.
The myth: Technology slows down first responders at best and obstructs them at worst.
It is true that during a public safety event, time is of the essence. Each official experiences a speeding up sensation, a compression of time. His or her training kicks in; the mind runs on adrenaline to achieve incredible accomplishments. During this critical time, these men and women deserve support tools that are seamless enough to feel like part of their bodies—tools that never fail during the times when users need it the most. When the public safety software is a good enough tool, it doesn’t slow down responders; rather, it helps resolve the situation quickly and efficiently.
Similarly, Kova’s public safety software allows you to review cases after the fact. This is useful for internal quality assurance as well as during legal investigations. With our technology, you’ll have timestamps, protection from accusations of tampering and the assurance of fail-safe operation. First responders need tough, constant training, because you know as well as we do that saving a few seconds can save multiple lives in our industry.
Our speech analytics tools scan content of calls to find and automatically report trends like unexpectedly linked cases or customer satisfaction rates.
The myth: Public safety solutions are only available for public safety answering points.
While we do offer contact center software, Kova Corporation has a variety of premium products and services meant to help you with all of your public safety needs. Professionals who spend any time in the field serving the public have found our tools helpful, from social workers and health inspectors to police and detectives.
The myth: Audio is the only important information to gather in the field.
Kova’s SilentPartner is to public safety what the instant replay is to professional sports. It is the only public safety cell phone recording system that records audio and captures text messages, photos and videos, allowing review of vital, ephemeral moments. It then immediately transfers all important data, including caller ID, related GPS locations, and dialed digits to headquarters. This transfer speeds up incident resolution by eliminating hours of evidentiary collection and manual logging. This tool can help create an expanded pool of evidence and more detailed picture of public safety concerns, particularly in noisy environments like protests, sporting events, or parades when traditional audio may not be as useful on its own.
The myth: It’s difficult to personalize this software.
We customize our Command and Control Center solutions for each and every client, because we truly understand your system is just as unique as your organization. No matter whether you want to start from scratch or simply upgrade what you’ve already got in use, we can help optimize your resources and your workers. No two KEANS setup is alike, for example: we can create a system for you that integrates with current system only adds the features that suit your needs best.
The myth: Public safety solutions are expensive.
At Kova Corporation, our products are created with backwards compatibility so you’re never forced to trade in because your technology is obsolete. Our Audiolog recorder, for example, was designed to allow new technology to easily integrate to the existing model. This difference (which is rare in the industry) reduces the upfront cost of using our technology as well as lowers support needs.
For more information on any of the myths listed above, call us at 1-800-204-5200 or contact us online.
Numbers are everything.
Contact centers measure their success with numbers—lots and lots of numbers, from how long each customer is on hold to the length of your breaks to how many calls you take per hour. These statistics help contact center managers understand how to maximize customer satisfaction while keeping efficiency high. It might be overwhelming at first, but by 31 days on the job, many representatives turn each call into a game and compete against themselves, trying to smash their records and “win.”
Your success is only limited by your willingness to work hard.
While in previous years, contact center jobs have been outsourced more frequently than not, this trend is reversing in a big way. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that call center employment rates will swell 38 percent between 2012 and 2022, which is great news for the diligent call representative.
Call centers sometimes have quick turnover, which means it’s easy for a hard-working call center representative to get promoted. From to agent to lead agent to supervisor, the sky is the limit since contact centers tend to prefer hiring from within the company.
You will develop thick skin and become a master communicator.
It’s an unfortunate fact of the call center experience that sometimes, you will have a difficult caller. After a month on the job, though, you will have internalized the principle that each call is a chance to do better and learn more than the last one. You’ll already be well on your way to deciphering any accent, understanding diverse perspectives, and providing a good customer experience every time.
By a month into your experience at a call center, you probably will have developed your own strategies for dealing with different kinds of callers. One time-honored tactic is based on psychology and usually works: when a caller seems frustrated, give their emotion a name, restate the problem, empathize, then follow with a proactive statement that you’ll assist them. For example: “You sound sad that your computer’s files disappeared, and I would be too. I’m going to look for a backup for you.”
You will have vastly improved your skill at public speaking, multitasking, troubleshooting and problem-solving. You will have spoken to people from all over and created connections, no matter how fleeting, while you worked to solve their problems.
Maintaining solid professional relationships will improve your experience.
Contact centers have the reputation of being solitary working environments, but that simply isn’t true. All of the representatives rely on each other and works as a team to maintain customer satisfaction, and many call centers boost staff morale by hosting internal competitions or casual gatherings. Because some contact centers have very large staffs, it’s vital to your professional success to avoid gossip or complaining.
A poll hosted by Lloyds Pharmacy found that call center employees were more likely than any other employees to have an interoffice relationship. By the end of your first month on the job, it’s likely that you’ll have seen the negative effects that dating another representative can bring.
With these four lessons in mind before you begin your career in a contact center, you’re sure to climb the ranks in no time.
Utilizing the cloud to integrate company-wide data has been one of the major trends in contact center management in recent history. With benefits including automatic data updates and accessibility from all devices, there are a large number of reasons that a contact center chooses to adopt the cloud as part of its normal business practices. There are, however, two sides to every argument.
Before getting swept off of your feet with the prospects of integration the cloud into your contact center, it can be helpful to look at the other end of the spectrum. The following list raises important questions to consider before investing in the technology and redesign the functions that your company may require when shopping for a cloud solution.
As an integrated technology solution, the cloud requires continuous updates beyond the initial investment. Depending on the storage size and number of users linked to the system, these upgrade costs can be extremely costly, especially for small and medium sized contact centers.
Before making the initial investment in a cloud system, make sure you speak with the provider and thoroughly research the solution you want to purchase. Some simple research can help provide more transparency as to the upfront and continuing costs and, ultimately, help keep your contact center cost effective.
One of the ideas sold with cloud solutions is its remote and virtual-based system, which ensures the safety of all of the data that is being stored. While it does operate remotely and virtually, the cloud is ultimately still tied to a physical location thus making it susceptible to natural disasters, power outages and physical attacks. To ensure security in the cloud, there are physical security and backup measures that can be implemented as add-ons to the basic system.
Backups, in fact, are a relatively low-cost add-on. Cloud solutions, in general, excel in the area of data recovery, which reduces the cost for contact centers to insure their information with backup systems. When purchasing a cloud solution, consider purchasing additional backups to protect yourself against any lost information and ensure quick recovery in the event that something does happen.
A major benefit, and little known fact, about the cloud is its scalability. As your business grows, it is natural that you may require additional functions or licenses to be added on. As a smaller contact center, or one only experimenting with a cloud solution, you can start with the “basics” and purchase a single license. As you gain size and trust in the system, it is easy to add additional licenses to meet increased demand, for example.
This facilitated scalability allows companies to save high initial costs and complex system integration. Instead, companies can make a more gradual transition as they feel comfortable.
Cloud solutions are an extremely valuable system for contact centers to implement. With so many benefits, it is important to also consider some lesser known information before taking the plunge and purchasing the solution for your contact center.
For more information about management solutions for contact centers, contact KOVA today.
Workforce management is a software solution that can benefit nearly every type of company. As a tool that streamlines a variety of business processes, it is versatile and boasts a large number of benefits. Designed to work across all facets of an organization, it can provide detailed forecasting for scheduling accuracy, design balanced work patterns and individually targeted service-level goals.
With such a large number of companies looking to invest in this type of software, it can be difficult to know exactly what features should be considered a necessity and which ones are more of a luxury.
Below are some of the key features to look for when buying a workforce management solution (WFM).
In today’s business environment, there are number of different devices that contact center employees’ use over the course of the work week. From PCs to Macs to smartphones and tablets, it is vital that your WFM solution is adaptable and responsive to be accessed across as many of these platforms as possible.
By ensuring that the WFM solution can work across all platforms, it facilitates use by allowing employees to access schedules, request holidays and perform shift swaps, for example. Increased usability can be a motivator for employees, facilitator of the work-life balance and, ultimately, lead to an increased level of customer service in the contact center as a whole.
Month-to-month and year-to-year, the amount of data that contact centers accrue continues to increase. With such a high volume of data and information, it is important that all data, no matter the method of collection, can be integrated and incorporated into each aspect of the business.
Immediate integration of data eliminates the need for importing, exporting or uploading data overnight. Automatic integration across the entire system facilitates the decision-making process and helps the contact center run more smoothly and efficiently.
Among the systems that should be integrated, integration with the cloud will provide the most direct link to the majority of company and customer-level information. In addition, integration of call routing, quality monitoring and any other company wide software solutions can help your contact center stay on top of company-wide analytics and progress.
One of the major challenges in any contact center is to model and predict the future of the business. With a WFM solution, organizations can effectively model and predict based on the historic data stored in the system. This data can be compared to marketing plans, demand forecasts and other changes such as a new production addition. By allowing the full integration of this information, the WFM solution can create a more efficient use of company resources, forecasted much more accurately.
At KOVA, the Verint Media Recorder Workforce Management Software works to provide a balance of necessity and luxury included in its features. For more information on workforce management solutions and how to outfit your contact center with the best software programs, contact us today.
When it comes to managing data, call center managers experience many of the challenges that other professionals do: data overload. In a recent survey of 542 call center professionals, WhitePages reported that less than 60% of call centers are able to pass on actionable data about customer satisfaction to agents. The result, according to the survey, is an inability to focus strategically on customer service.
The Wide World Of Data
The survey revealed that the industry is all over the map when it comes to generating and analyzing data. The WhitePages survey finds that while half of call centers gather data for the purposes of analyzing customer satisfaction, more than a third don’t gather any; fifteen percent of those surveyed gather data, but don’t use it. Two thirds of those queried state that the primary use for this data is assessing agents’ performance. Across the board, managers complain of too much data and little practical value of data.
Customer Satisfaction
It might seem that data gathering and Enterprise Feedback Management (EFP) software are second fiddle to agent performance and training. But Forrester Research reports that improving customer experience by as little as 10% can result in significant growth in revenue. Currently:
WhitePages Director of Accounts John Neely, himself a former call center manager, sees the need for practical data. “You’re not going to enable agents to take the next step in customer satisfaction until you’ve empowered them with the supporting data to deal with the purpose of the call. First contact resolution has always been paramount, but its smarter to stay with a customer as long as is needed to solve the problem. Companies should take a look at the experience they provide online and try to replicate that in their call centers.”
Outdated Systems Dilute Data
Archaic EFP can result not only in less data generated and captured, it also drastically reduces agent productivity where those outmoded systems require manual data entry. More than 40% of customer contact information is still manually input by an agent instead of being fed through an automated API or Web-based system -- half of call center agents say they face significant productivity challenges because they must query customers for basic contact information.
Neely understands that senior management can look at call centers with different expectations from those held by call center managers. “At one company where I ran the call center, I used to get ice water in my veins when the CFO would approach me and quiz me about how many people I needed to get the job done. They continue to look at contact centers as cost centers instead of revenue centers.”
To be successful, corporate management must set clear expectations for call centers, and then put in place the tools that will allow agents to succeed. If a business decides to use a call center to sell or upsell products and services, that decision needs to be supported by a complementary process.
Focusing Data
Once clear sales objectives are in place, EFP should undergo a serious reevaluation in light of concrete sales targets. Data systems need updating so that agents have instant access to critical information: who’s calling, the age group they’re in, previous purchases, etc.
Training based on the sales expectations and reinforced by a modern, efficient EFP that manages not only the customer experience, but an individual agent’s performance, lays the groundwork for a better call center – and that means happy customers and revenue growth.
“Companies need to distribute the right data to agents to make centers more actionable,” Neely says. “In a competitive and commoditized business environment, you have to look at call centers as a competitive advantage. Agents able to use the training they’ve been given are happier in their jobs. They’ll stay longer in what is a high-turnover profession and the company will see results improve.”
KOVA – Enterprise Management Solutions For All Aspects Of Call Center Performance
If your management system has gone from a solution to a conundrum, it may be time to replace it. KOVA has a wide array of scalable solutions that can smooth processes by automating them, as well as making reporting more robust and actionable by giving users options for accessing and displaying data in real time. Agent training can be automated so that KPIs determine learning modules for individual agents or your entire team.
KOVA has the tools to fit your company’s unique needs. Contact us today and learn how state-of-the-art EFP can revolutionize your business and increase your revenue.
Managing a contact center is all about problem solving. You are presented every day with issues from corporate you need to address, personnel issues that require coaching, and logistics conundrums that must be fixed. It can seem as though the problems never end, and there is little help in sight.
Unless you have your own personal Think Tank.
By harnessing the power of your own employees, you can engage top performers to take responsibility and action on some of your toughest issues. As a result, you’ll have a more dedicated workforce and quicker turn around for your issues.
There are many issues your Think Tank can address, including queue management strategies, quality assurance improvement, employee training and development, and team member incentives. By including your own personnel in these discussions, you will gain more ideas and better buy-in for changes.
Sound too good to be true? It’s not. And you have all the resources you need right in front of you.
Your top performers are eager to take a greater role in their future and that of the company. Let them make their voices heard by including them in a Think Tank group.
Benefits
There are many benefits to instituting a Think Tank in your Contact Center. The greatest is employee morale. You want to see attrition decline and employee satisfaction remain high for your most promising talent, and giving them increased responsibility is a sure way to keep them motivated. Top performers appreciate the acknowledgement by management that their contribution and insight matters; they feel reciprocated for their hard work and dedication. It is also satisfying to be identified among their peers as exemplary. The brief hour or two off the floor to discuss Think Tank issues is a privilege team members don’t take lightly. Becoming a recognized member of the Think Tank, then, is a coveted spot that motivates employees to achieve.
The Think Tank also gives further opportunity for advancement, as in this problem-solving environment top performers can demonstrate to their peers and management their problem solving and team work skills. You will be able to observe which team members are able to persuasively motivate their peers toward action as well as how thoroughly they understand the industry and company. This helps management make better decisions for advancement.
Most of all, the Think Tank will enable a faster turn-around for problems. Harnessing the wisdom that “many heads are better than one,” your contact center will benefit from greater perspective on troubling issues facing your contact center staff or customers. By including their front-lines experience, they can guard against costly mistakes or unrealistic expectations and present workable solutions that benefit everyone – customer, representative, and company.
The benefits of instituting a Think Tank are numerous and compelling. Agile companies know it takes a thorough understanding and quick solutions to stay on top. Begin today by instituting your own Think Tank to get results faster. And don’t forget to include us at KOVA; we are here to make sure your contact center succeeds.
The reality facing today’s public safety and security communities is that the technological infrastructure supporting situation management is often complex and inefficient. Employing a mixture of systems, these elements are often based on proprietary platforms that make it difficult to unify emergency communication. Imagine having one interface that takes relevant data from all of your solutions, allowing you to get all the information you need in one application. That is what Verint SMC can do for you.
Verint SMC is a powerful solution that unifies divergent systems, improving security and increasing the efficiency of situation management. As technology continues to develop at faster and faster rates, public safety and law enforcement officials increasingly face a plethora of solutions that function as disconnected systems. The major hurdle for emergency response officials is the lack of a consistent system facilitating communication and data gathering and sharing.
When integration is your biggest concern about emergency and security communication systems, Verint SMC is your path to bringing divergent systems into focus.
Providing overlay to increase situation management and improve security and safety of people, property and assets, the SMC solution provides dependable support for all your needs.
Verint SMC can integrate a wide variety of solutions and devices, including:
Verint SMC brings the latest in expanded technologies and integrations to ensure that your security intelligence and public safety system are integrated for optimal event management.
Managing a busy contact center is never easy. You have so many demands on your time and attention – analytics, goals, and measurements on top of scheduling, personnel, and training. It’s a herculean job on the best of days.
But two distinct priorities separate the good managers from the best. In fact, working on these two areas could make all the difference in your team’s success and in your career’s future. Take a few moments to consider these areas and how you can improve your performance this week.
Understand Your Employees
Bad managers ignore their associates’ needs. Good managers learn proven management strategies to help make the most of their team. But the best managers recognize the unique potential in each individual representative and work to bring it out successfully.
How well do you know each of your employees? Have you identified one or two most important motivators for each one – why they come to work each day? Do you know what each one struggles with in their role and where they want more training and support?
And what about their pride in accomplishment? What makes them feel successful in their job? What goals have they personally set and what is standing in the way? How do they explain their job to others?
The answers to these questions aren’t easy. Take time to coach each associate one-one-one until you get to know them well and understand these internal motivations. When you do, you’ll know what language and methods to use to bring out their very best service.
Understand Your Product
Bad managers don’t care about their role; it’s just a job. Good managers work to meet expectations and make sure the metrics are acceptable. But the best managers strive to become experts on the company’s products and services until they know the company inside and out.
How well do you know your company’s product or service? Do you use it regularly? If it is a business service, have you taken time to forge a relationship with a business using your service so you understand how it meets their needs – or leaves them frustrated? Are you able to anticipate customer concerns because of your intimate understanding of daily use?
Are you enthusiastic about the service your company is providing to the community? Are you able to communicate to your team and to customers the long-range vision for how your company impacts individuals and achieves a greater good? Have you internalized your brand message so much that those around you know that you believe it?
It is from that deep, intimate understanding of your company’s products and services that you will motivate your own contact center team toward greater service. They rely on you to distill that message, so dig deeper until you capture that vision. Then you can share it with others.
KOVA shares your vision for better customer interactions. Contact us today to let us help you achieve your goals.
There are few tools so valuable to a contact center manager as the Think Tank. By coordinating the top performers to team up and solve management, employee, queue, and customer problems, the manager strengthens morale while meeting his most important goals. In short, the Think Tank is the contact center’s secret weapon.
Top performers, too, are highly motivated to participate in these problem-solving and procedure-creation meetings. They appreciate the chance to make their voices heard, to demonstrate their leadership and problem-solving abilities, and to step away from the contact center floor to make a difference. As chosen leaders of their team, they strive to prove their value to the company as a whole.
So how does a contact center manager begin a Think Tank for the first time? We’ll give you the steps for success so you can meet your next challenge.
Find those team members with highest performance, attendance, and professionalism and recognize them publicly as your new Think Tank. Be sure to include reasons these individuals were chosen so the remaining team members know what qualities to aspire to in the future.
No doubt you have several on your desk right now – customer complaints, employee morale, queue time, quality assurance, and more. You likely have benchmarks from corporate, too, that need to be implemented. Make a list of your top concerns you want to tackle first.
Likely each issue has some background: how did this start, who brought it to attention, what caused the issue, why the issue must be addressed. Find all the facts for each problem so it will be clear to your Think Tank.
In order to solve the problem, your Think Tank needs all the relevant information, including policies in place, procedures that are affected, budgets, expenses so far, metrics, and measurements. The more you give them to work with, the more creative they can be with solving the problem, as each tool will speak to each personality differently. Come prepared with this information, and be expecting questions for more, as well.
You need to benchmark the expectations. Does this problem need to be solved immediately, or do you want the Think Tank to consider possibilities and reconvene? What are the ramifications of postponing a solution or delaying action? Be clear on any deadlines.
As your Think Tank proposes solutions, be sure to benchmark milestones for their plan, as well. When will action begin? How long should be given before observing results? How will progress be measured? Guide your Think Tank toward putting these down, as well, so their progress can be quantified. This helps keep your Think Tank grounded and action-oriented. You will also encourage the Think Tank toward continued success as they measure and celebrate the progress of their proposals.
Keep your Think Tank sharp with continued use. Agile contact centers utilize Think Tanks at least once a month and more often as issues arise. In only one or two hours a meeting, your contact center can achieve valuable results.
KOVA helps you get results fast in your contact center with our unique solutions. Contact us today to add us to your team.
