Craig Scott, Chief Technology Officer at Telephonetics VIP discusses whether your IVR system reflects the needs of your caller … or the structure of your organisation?

28th January 2010, Hemel Hempstead, UK - From a caller’s perspective, satisfaction comes from only one thing – achieving their goal with minimal fuss. Nothing else really matters. No amount of machine spoken apology, music on hold or voice personality can make up…..

When considering your contact centre strategy, it pays to ask the following questions:

•   Do you know why people are contacting you? How do you measure it?
•   Do you know who your callers are? Have they called you before?
•   Do your callers complain of being passed from ‘pillar to post’?
•   Can you offer your callers’ choice – real, informed choice?
•   Do your callers have to wait for long periods?
•   Are your callers repeatedly asked to provide their details?
•   Is your contact centre integrated with your IT systems?
•   Do your menus reflect the needs of your callers or your organisational structure?
•   Can your contact centre adapt, automatically, to continuously changing demand?

By employing ‘Call Triage’ techniques you can address all the questions posed above.  However, effective call triage requires some advanced technology such as:

•   Structured information capture – where callers provide answers to initial questions using push buttons or speech recognition,
•   Data integration – pull data from your systems and then push data back into those systems,
•   Data manipulation – updating and changes to dates, names, postcodes, account numbers,
•   Complex decisions – based on environmental conditions such as staffing levels,
•   Context – associating captured information with the caller and presenting to your agents.

The goals of effective call triage are to: improve caller satisfaction with fast and accurate routing leading to an increased likelihood of the caller accomplishing their goals, reduce repeat calls through satisfying requests at first point of contact and balance the budget through appropriate channel shift including the automation of routine tasks.  Additionally, effective call triage will also reduce staff stress through managing the call flow peaks.

The debate over calls answered in person or machine will continue.  Financial reality means that organisations require that their current infrastructure delivers end-to-end solutions while costs are contained. 

Customers demand choice.  Choice supplies the caller with patience to queue or alternatively the willingness to use appropriate automation.   Armed with a candid review of their environment successful contact centres can marry their callers to the most appropriate agent either in-person or via automation, demonstrating both efficiency and superior customer satisfaction.

For more information on Call Triage and to attend an on-line masterclass on Wednesday 3rd March 2010 visit http://tiny.cc/calltriagemasterclass.

Call 01442 242 242 and ask for “Call Triage” or visit www.telephoneticsvip.co.uk.