Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Contact Center - Introducing VCC (Voxtron Communication Center)
A Contact Center is
a facility used by companies to manage all client contact through a variety of
mediums such as telephone, fax, letter, e-mail and increasingly, online live
chat.
Distinct from call centres,
that purely handle telephone correspondence, contact centres have a variety of
roles that combine to provide an all-encompassing solution to client, and
customer contact. Contact centres, along with call centres and communication centres
all fall under a larger umbrella labelled as the contact centre management
industry. This is becoming a rapidly growing recruitment sector in itself, as
the capabilities of contact centres expand and thus require ever more complex
systems and highly skilled operational and management staff.
The majority of large companies
use contact centres as a means of managing their customer interaction. These
centres can be operated in two major ways, the first, by having an in house
department responsible for the day to day communications with customers, the
second to outsource customer interaction to a third party agency.
Contact centres can also offer a
number of different services. One of the most popular is the support or help
desk, which regularly answers technical questions from customers and assists
them using their equipment or software. Frequently, support desks are used by
companies in the computing, telecommunications and consumer
electronics industries.
Equally important are the customer
service contact centres that
answer specific queries relating to customer issues, in the banking and utility
sectors these are frequently used to answer customer questions relating to
their account or payments, this type of service may even be used to respond to
customer complaints and undertake retention strategies for dissatisfied
customers.
Finally there are contact centres that carry out sales and marketing activities; these can be performed
through cold calling strategies and increasingly through
live chat applications on company websites.
................................................................................................................................
Voxtron Communication Center is
the multimedia customer interaction solution of Voxtron.
It provides call and contact Center functionality
for companies in different business areas, such as trade, industry, finance,
energy, government and so on.
Voxtron Communication Center is available in 2
editions. The Express version serves the needs of small to medium sized
companies (SMEs) while the Enterprise edition is developed for the enterprise
market. Voxtron Communication Center offers a very straightforward, web-based
administration and configuration.
Even the most complex installations can be deployed
in a short time and can be managed and maintained with little effort. The
software offers a unique and innovative licensing model that answers the most
diverse requirements.
Voxtron
Communication Center
o > is customer interaction software that runs on top
of any (existing) communication environment
o > distributes contacts (calls, emails, faxes,
web-chats, documents, Web 2.0 information) to appropriate persons within the organization
o > distinguishes between direct (personal) and routed
(to a pool of employees) communication
o > Skill-Based Routing (SBR) is one of the assignment strategies
o > is based on the Voxtron Universal Queue (UQ)
principle
o > provides Business Intelligence (BI) information
o > CTI function improves employee efficiency
o > offers powerful Software Development Kits (SDK) for
integration within the existing IT infrastructure
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Why should you consider purchasing a Contact Center Solution and Points To Remember!
Introduction
Before talking to vendors about contact center solutions, it’s important to identify the objectives you want to achieve with the new system. This includes quantifiable objectives, such as new revenue potential, cost savings, increased number of calls handled per representative, etc.
This will enable you to have a more productive conversation with vendors so you can make the best decision for your needs and budget.
A contact center solution should help you achieve some very specific objectives:
- More efficient, streamlined operations
- Improved staff productivity
- Better overall customer satisfaction
- Reduced costs
- Increased revenue opportunities
Contents
- Key Questions to Ask
o What will my usage patterns be?
o How much are you willing to spend for the return on investment you expect to get?
o What will be needed to install the system and have it work reliably on an ongoing basis?
o What kind of customer support do you need?
- Important Features to Look for
o Compatibilities
o Predictive Dialing
o Call Routing
o Management Control, Tracking, and Reporting
o Automated Interactive Voice Response
o Speech Recognition
o Security
Key Questions to Ask
After you specify your objectives, here are four important questions to consider as you identify your needs.
1. What will my usage patterns be?
Consider the types of calls your business makes on the average business day, as well as slow and busy days. Do you have mostly inbound calls, outbound, or mixed? Also, consider what times will you need they system, when will the biggest usage periods be, and what volume of calls you expect.
Also think about how many agents will use your system today and in the future, and where they will be located. You’ll want a system that can scale both in number of users as well as geographically as your business grows, without incurring unplanned costs.
2. How much are you willing to spend for the return on investment you expect to get?
Contact center solutions can range in price from $4,000 to get started, for smaller call centers with about five reps, to $50,000 for bigger organizations with 100 or more representatives. When considering your budget for the project, take into account scalability. How will the new system scale with your business and what will the associated costs be?
3. What will be needed to install the system and have it work reliably on an ongoing basis?
In addition to set-up and installation times and costs, you’ll also need to take into account ongoing maintenance. For example, all vendors perform software upgrades. Be sure to ask your sales representative how upgrades are handled, how often they make them, and also – how often and for how long their systems are down as they perform maintenance. You want to ensure that your business does not come to a grinding halt when your vendor is performing maintenance on their system.
4. What kind of customer support do you need?
You’ll want to get specifics from your vendor on their level of customer support if you run into issues or need additional training. For example, is their support available 24/7, and are they available by phone, live chat, or just email? What are average response times and hold times to talk to an agent during peak hours? Will you have one account manager to talk to or will you be calling into a call center? How does the vendor handle system failures and emergencies?
Important Features to Look For
When you talk to vendors about contact center solutions for your organization, here are some key features to look for.
Compatibilities
Make sure your new system will be compatible with your other technologies, including computers, CRM tools, telephones, email clients, and calendars. Computers that are integrated with your telephone system enable your representatives to quickly access, add and edit the customer’s information as they speak to them. The key is to be as streamlined and efficient as possible.
Predictive Dialing
For outbound calls, predictive dialing is useful for connecting your representatives to a live person. The majority of outbound calls are not answered by a live person, so predictive dialing enables your reps to calls and connect with more live people faster, instead of wasting time waiting to hear if they’re going to get a voice mail.
Call Routing
Call routing enables you to direct in-bound calls to the most appropriate representative, with the right priority, and then to the next rep if the first one is not available. Call routing can improve efficiencies dramatically by putting your customer in contact with the right representative (based on needs, issues, product, etc.) – faster, so that issues are addressed efficiently. This not only makes for a better customer experience, it also boosts your overall productivity by having the right person for the job handling the most appropriate issue.
Management Control, Tracking, and Reporting
Another important feature to contact center solutions is the ability for managers to monitor calls and representative’s productivity. Workforce management enables managers to balance workflow with their reps and to get the most productivity from their team. It’s also a valuable tool for coaching and training. Ask your vendor about features such as reporting, live stats, and call recording. Also, consider whether you need central control for your contact center or location-based control. Other control features include access to reporting, level of reporting detail, various levels of permissions, audio recordings, compatibility with CRM tools, etc.
Automated Interactive Voice Response
If you handle a large number of inbound calls, it makes sense to have an automated feature that can address customer issues, if possible, before connecting them with a live person. This feature enables you to “walk” callers through self-service applications or to gather the information you need to connect them with the most appropriate rep.
Keep in mind, however, that there are some very poor processes and systems out there. Think about the times that you’ve called a customer service line to get a specific answer to a problem or even to make a purchase, and you were put through a maze of menu options before your needs were addressed. By taking into account your own positive and negative experiences with contact centers, you’ll be able to ask your vendor the right questions so your business is the kind that provides a great customer experience.
Speech Recognition
The ability to convert speech into text or data, as well as text into spoken words, is a valuable addition to many contact center solutions today. This enables you to provide information to callers dynamically and automatically, which can also greatly boost productivity and customer experience.
Security
Finally, consider the level of security you need with a contact center solution. This includes data privacy and system reliability and the impact of worst case scenarios. For example, for hosted contact center solutions, ask if the API is encrypted. Also ask how the system works with firewalls. Describing a worst case scenario to your vendor will enable them to respond appropriately with how their system is designed to protect against worst case scenarios.
Best of luck with your purchase!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Voxtron Middle East Newsletter - May 2012
Voxtron launches Out bound Dialers with advanced features
Voxtron, the pioneers in providing Contact Centre applications, announced the launch of its advanced Outbound Dialing platform which will give a new dimension to outbound calling. The new predictive dialer from Voxtron brings added value to your business, allowing you to dramatically increase efficiency within your business environment. Predictive dialer, dials a series of phone numbers based on algorithmic calculations and then transfers only the answered calls to the people making calls, who are known as agents. Additionally, predictive dialers increase productivity by separating out answering machines, voicemails, busy tones and fax tones, as well as have the functionality needed to predict and keep on adjusting the dialing patterns based on the number of available agents, average call handling time, number of free lines and various other factors
Voxtron Client is now 100% compliant with Microsoft Lync™
Voxtron Client is now a Lync-powered Unified Agent Desktop with intuitive interface, that leverages the unified communications and collaboration capabilities in Lync to optimize agent productivity. Voxtron’s experience in using and deploying UCC technologies, combined with its close to two decades of development expertise in contact center solutions arena, make it a highly-experienced partner for companies wanting to adopt a Microsoft Unified communications strategy to address their own business requirements
Watch Video: http://www.voxtronme.com/vme/news/news/article/VCCLync/VCCLync.html
Voxtron starts a dedicated Training Center in Dubai
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