Are Customer Surveys an Effective

Reaching over 5,900 Call Center Professionals Monthly! April 2003
Are Customer Surveys an Effective
Replacement for Call Assessments as a Call
Quality Management Tool?
and efficient. Achieving
higher levels of customer
satisfaction at the expense
of another objective, such
as sales or efficiency (such
as average call handling
time), can undermine
business success. Thus, to
measure just one element
of success (such as
customer satisfaction) to
the exclusion of the others
can be misleading for
business decision makers
and ultimately damaging to
business success. Striving
for customer satisfaction is
only important when
considered within the
context of our complete set
of business goals. Although
satisfying the customer may
be objective #1, objectives
#2 and #3 are also
important and must not be
ignored – by the company
or the contact center
Contributed by Jack Green
Recently a flyer arrived in my
email advocating that
organizations save on their
call quality monitoring cost by
replacing much of it with
customer surveys. For most
call centers, the cost of a call
monitoring program is not
insignificant, when you
include equipment and
software as well as staff
monitoring and coaching
time. This flyer advised that
customer satisfaction
assessment was the best
measure of call quality – and
that customer feedback,
collected in a survey, should
be the fodder for call quality
coaching.
On the surface, this has
appeal – after all, the
objective of our call
monitoring/coaching initiative
is largely to ensure that our
customers are satisfied
(where would our businesses
be without our customers?!),
and this approach does save
money (and what call center
isn’t constantly under the gun
to do this?!). This approach
also avoids the aggravations
that can be inherent in
establishing and managing
call quality assessment
programs.
Does the feedback from
customers really represent
the new panacea for call
quality management? Before
we run out and dismantle our
call monitoring programs, let’s
first scratch the veneer of
customer surveying’s surface
appeal and see if this
approach passes the reality
test. The approach is based
on a couple of assumptions
that need to be explored.
‘Customer satisfaction is
our priority’
But… Is it the only priority
in assessing call quality?
Customer satisfaction is not
the only measure of contact
center success. While this
statement might sound
sacrilegious to many in the
customer service industry; in
reality, customer satisfaction
is just one ingredient (though
certainly a critically important
one) for the success of a
business. While satisfying
customers the business must
also make money to survive,
so it must also be productive
www.callcentertimes.com • 972-395-3225
‘The customer is
ultimately the best judge
of call quality’
But… Is the customer the
best source of feedback
as to what rep behaviors
cause them to feel
satisfied (or dissatisfied)?
Contacting a customer after
an interaction with a call
center rep and collecting
their feedback is a great
way to take the pulse of the
customer’s satisfaction
level. Do this enough times
to make it statistically
significant and track this
back to the individual rep,
and you have invaluable
feedback for the company
and the rep on their
effectiveness at satisfying
customers. This is
particularly useful when the
customer’s assessment is
part of a mix of measures of
call success.
However, those
components that go into
making a successful and
satisfying customer
interaction are myriad and
often subtle. It will typically
take a trained evaluator to
discern whether an
interaction technique was
effectively used. Yet,
understandably, the
customer’s conscious focus
during a call is on the
content of the call rather
than the nuances of what
the rep is doing.
Is the customer attending
to call quality nuances
during the call?
continued page 3
1
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2
Customer Surveys cont’
And added to the mix of
variables shaping the
customer’s perception of the
call quality are factors such
as: ‘did I get what I
wanted?’, ‘am I satisfied with
the company’s products or
services?’, ‘did I have a
good day?’, all of which may
be unconsciously affecting
the validity of the customer’s
call quality feedback.
So, while it is valuable to
measure the customer’s
subjective sense of
satisfaction with the call and
then correlating that data
with data on the rep’s call
performance, it is
unreasonable to expect the
customer to provide the
detailed feedback necessary
for positive call coaching.
With the exception of
exceptionally offensive or
endearing rep behaviors, the
customer is unlikely to be
able to identify the specific
behaviors that contributed to
their satisfaction or
dissatisfaction with a
particular call. A customer
cannot be expected to list
behaviors like ‘The rep used
my name to focus my
attention on a critical point,
gave a value added close
that showed she heard and
cared about what I had said
earlier in the conversation,
confirmed my account
information to ensure that
there would be no confusion
performance slippage
becomes noticeable to the
customer, there is a period
of gradual deterioration,
during which many other
customers (how many do
your reps talk to in a day?)
can be negatively affected
(or fail to be positively
affected), yet not be able to
identify the reason why. A
call evaluator can identify
this deterioration at an early
stage and initiate the
remedial coaching process.
The best way to catch
problems before they
significantly affect the
customer experience with
the call is via a system of
regular, random call
evaluations by a trained
evaluator using standards
that have been correlated to
customer satisfaction. The
best way, then, to establish
those satisfaction creating
behaviors is to use internal
benchmarking to correlate
rep behaviors to customer
satisfaction scores, not
relying on customer
feedback to identify those
behaviors.
after the call, and explained
the reason for her series of
questions so I would not feel
defensive’? Yet these are
important for creating the
customer’s sense of
satisfaction with the call, and
we need this level of detail
for truly effective call quality
coaching. If, after
customers report a lower
satisfaction level, we were to
coach the rep to ‘go out
there and improve your
customer satisfaction scores’
– where does the rep begin?
Coaching and consequent
performance improvement
are achieved through
identifying specific
behavioral adjustment
opportunities.
If we wait until the customer
can:
Identify the causes of their
dissatisfaction with the call’s
quality, and then be able to
convey their perception of
these causes to an
interviewer, have we caught
the problem in time?
The purpose of the
customer’s participation in
the call is not to assess the
rep’s performance, it is to
address the content of the
call. So for an element of
performance to stand out in
the customer’s mind for
reporting to an interviewer, it
must be significant.
Typically, before a rep’s
In Summary…
It would be wonderful if
there were one simple tool
for managing customer
satisfaction. However, there
is no one tool. To be
successful, contact centers
must keep customer
satisfaction in balance with
3
efficiency measures. To
achieve this balance, the
organization’s call quality
standards and performance
management program must
be periodically validated by
correlating them to
measures of performance
results such as customer
satisfaction, sales and call
handling efficiency. When
this is done, each tool
complements the others and
the contact center’s
effectiveness can be
optimized.
To suggest that most
organizations need to do a
better job of validating their
call quality standards is
certainly true. To suggest
that customer surveys are
an important measure for
establishing this validity is
very appropriate. However,
to advocate that any one of
these tools, in this case a
customer satisfaction
survey, should be valued to
the detriment of the others
compromises the complex
interrelation that makes the
system effective and
balanced. Such advocacy
is at best naïve, and at
worse inaccurate, or even
negligent and misleading.
■
A CASE STUDY
wide range of advanced
features. The online service
— designed for call centers
or outsourced teams with
100 agents or fewer —
provides Vantage Point’s full
database, forecasting,
scheduling and reporting
functionality over the Web.
As an added advantage, an
optional agent Web portal
allows agents to view their
schedules, request
modifications or vacations,
sign up for overtime,
exchange schedules with
other agents, and report
absences online.
Supervisors can approve
requests and record
exceptions with a click,
freeing them from the need
to field scheduling-related
phone calls and make
changes manually.
For Frederick’s, the agentself-help functions of the
portal alone are eliminating
hours of supervisor
overhead every week.
For Frederick’s of Hollywood, Scheduling
Bliss Lies Online at
WorkforceScheduling.com
Until 2001, Frederick’s of
Hollywood outsourced its
call center operations.
When the company decided
to bring the work in-house
as a cost-saving measure,
executives quickly
discovered that creating and
managing agent schedules
was not a job for the faint of
heart. Soon it was taking
80 hours to generate a
quarterly work schedule for
the 80 agents who were
then handling catalog and
website orders at
Frederick’s Phoenix
headquarters.
Then in March 2002,
Frederick’s adopted a
solution that is as easy on
supervisors and the
company’s bottom line as its
come-hither lingerie is on
the eyes. With Pipkins’
WorkforceScheduling.com
online subscription service,
the same quarterly work
schedule can be produced
in just one hour, agents can
view and manage their
schedules online without
bothering supervisors, and
Frederick’s has no in-house
workforce management
system to install or
maintain.
“The Internet model offered
us instant deployment, no
upfront investment, and no
technology requirements
except Internet access,”
says Clay Myers, contact
center support supervisor.
“We don’t have the
resources or the technical
staff to manage a system
like this ourselves, so the
fact that we can get a fullfeatured solution without
having to pay the usual
freight is a major
advantage.”
Online offshoot:
WorkforceScheduling.com
is the Internet equivalent of
Pipkins’ Vantage Point
workforce management
software, an 18-year work
in progress that has won a
pile of awards for its
sophisticated workforce
scheduling algorithm and
Operational assistance:
Beyond the considerable
time savings involved in
building schedules and
interfacing with agents,
WorkforceScheduling.com
4
has also increased
Frederick’s scheduling
accuracy, eased the process
of adding staff as the call
center has grown to 100
agents, and made it easy to
handle complicated
scheduling issues such as
integrating e-mail order
handling into the mix.
The system also spurred a
major expansion in call
center hours by enabling
Myers to calculate “what-if”
scenarios that proved the
extra hours could be added
without adding staff, partly
by changing lunch breaks
from 30 minutes to one hour.
As a result, the Frederick’s
call center is now open from
4 a.m. to midnight seven
days a week — 39 hours
more than before.
Pay by the month:
Frederick’s is enjoying all of
these benefits and more for
just $20 per month per
agent, plus nominal fees
based on the number of
supervisors.
“We looked at 15 different
vendors, and Pipkins’
subscription service was not
only the right price but also
had a lot more to offer us,
‘AROUND & ABOUT’
(Call Center Related ‘Tid Bits’)
Case Study cont’
particularly with the agent
portal,” says Mark Riedel,
Frederick’s Vice President of
Operations. “Frederick’s
has been in bankruptcy and
cash is at a premium, and
we feel we got a Cadillac for
the price of a Hyundai.”
Apples and oranges:
What separates
WorkforceScheduling.com
from other hosted workforce
management solutions is the
comprehensiveness of the
service. Most hosted
systems lack an agent Web
portal, requiring agents to
call in for schedules and
changes and thereby
removing the time
advantage of making those
functions self-serve.
Services that have portals
typically lack advanced
Pipkins’ capabilities such as
skill-based routing and the
ability to fine-tune call
volume forecasts for special
events such as mail drops
through historical trend
analysis.
WorkforceScheduling.com’s
ability to provide a full
complement of reports and
integrate with leading ACDs,
e-mail response systems
and other multimedia
queuing devices for data
collection across multiple
call center sites and time
zones.
For Frederick’s, it has been
a perfect match — just like
pairing the right teddy or
bustier with the right
customer. ■
Hertz Installs Rockwell
FirstPoint Contact
Solution at New $31
Million Customer Service
Center
Hertz, the world’s largest car
rental company, has further
enhanced the sophistication
of its call routing capability at
its multi-lingual customer
service center in Dublin,
Ireland, following the
implementation of an
Advanced Intelligent Router
application supplied by
Rockwell FirstPoint Contact,
a global provider of
complete call center and
contact center solutions.
A challenge to the Hertz
center is the fact that it
handles calls from nine
countries and inquiries must
be routed based on eight
different languages.
Rockwell FirstPoint
Contact’s Advanced
Intelligent Router addresses
this issue by providing
advanced skills-based and
data-directed routing
capabilities, which speeds-
Also missing from some
services is
5
up response times and
ensures customer queries
have single-call resolution.
“In a multi-lingual call center
environment, providing a
service to nine countries, the
challenge is to route every
call to the person with the
necessary skill-set to handle
that call. The Advanced
Intelligent Router gives us a
new level of sophistication,
allowing us to route calls
based upon multiple criteria,
including customer data,
language skill-sets, agent
occupancy levels and
business rules,” said Andrew
Varley, vice president for
Dublin operations at Hertz.
“We have always known that
the Rockwell FirstPoint
Contact system was the
most reliable call center
system. Now it offers the
most advanced call routing
capability as well.”
The Advanced Intelligent
Router is integrated with
Rockwell FirstPoint
Contact’s solution for mid- to
large-sized businesses,
FirstPoint Enterprise 2002,
Around & About cont’
at Hertz’s new $31 million
Europe Service Center in
Swords County, Dublin. The
center is staffed by nearly
1,000 people and handles
more than 5.5 million calls
every year.
“We are pleased that Hertz,
who has been a customer
since 1995, made the
decision to invest in our
FirstPoint Enterprise 2002
solution. The multi-lingual
capability of the Hertz
European Reservation Center
creates unique requirements
for call routing and we were
able to offer a solution that
went further than our
competitors,” said Bill Adkins,
senior vice president of global
sales, marketing and strategy
at Rockwell FirstPoint
Contact. “In particular, the
Advanced Intelligent Router
provides the ability to monitor
service levels across nine
countries and uses available
agent skills to support the
goal of single call resolution
for every customer.”
Paul Bermingham, European
MIS director for Hertz added,
number one, not only in
terms of size, but also in our
ability to exceed our
customers’ expectations.”
“The challenge we faced was
to cut over to a new system
literally overnight. There were
a number of elements to this
project including upgrading
our existing call center
platform and migrating our
customer database to the
new system. The success
was down to the sheer
professionalism of the project
teams from Hertz and
Rockwell FirstPoint Contact
and selection of the right
technology.”
SER Acquires VorTecs
Incorporated, Extends
Leadership in Delivering
Next-Generation Contact
Center Solutions
SER Solutions, Inc., the
leading provider of contact
center solutions, formerly
EIS International, Inc., has
announced an agreement to
acquire VorTecs
Incorporated, a provider of
computer telephony
integration (CTI) and
automated call validation
and monitoring solutions.
The acquisition of this
breakthrough technology
further extends SER’s
product offerings, delivering
robust outbound and
inbound capabilities
required to meet the
growing demands of today’s
contact centers.
In addition, the Rockwell
FirstPoint Contact solution
included the Witness eQuality
Call Recording and
Monitoring system.
“It is vital that we have a call
center system capable of
handling thousands of calls
every day. But we also
believe that quality of the
calls is equally important,”
said Fabrice Genty, director of
reservations at Hertz. “The
Witness system will allow us
to monitor the quality of calls
to identify training needs and
deliver continuous
improvements to the service
we offer. We want to be
“Contact center operators
are searching for innovative
technologies that will
increase productivity while
lowering their overall cost of
operations,” said Carl E.
6
Mergele, CEO, SER
Solutions, Inc. “The addition
of VorTecs’ ground-breaking
call monitoring and
validation technology,
combined with our
leadership in call
management systems,
further enhances SER’s
ability to deliver the most
comprehensive contact
center solutions available
today.”
VorTecs has developed a
unique speech recognition
capability, which enables
contact center operators to
perform extremely accurate
high-speed audio searches
of customer interactions.
Essential to delivering
superior customer service,
the system literally
transforms spoken words
into retrievable data,
significantly decreasing the
amount of manual
involvement required to
monitor agent activities such
as script adherence,
compliance and order
validation. As a result,
contact center operators
recognize an immediate
ROI by enhancing agent
performance while
eliminating today’s costly,
Around & About cont’
manual monitoring process.
In January, VorTecs’ call
monitoring solution was
named “Product of the Year”
by Customer Interaction
Solutions magazine.
In addition, VorTecs has
introduced a powerful
computer telephony
integration (CTI) platform
designed to increase
productivity of contact
centers with interactive
voice response (IVR),
screen pops and
coordinated call-data
transfer capabilities.
Designed with an open
architecture, this cost
effective platform integrates
computers, applications and
telephone systems, allowing
contact center operators to
realize a significant increase
in agent productivity and
provide a superior level of
customer service.
“Today’s announcement
marks the combination of
two of the most innovative
contact center solution
companies,” said Tony
Desjardin, President,
VorTecs Incorporated. “We
outbound call blending
features.
will continue to provide
service to VorTecs’
customers and introduce
other SER products. Our
pioneering automated call
monitoring and validation
solutions, coupled with a
proven call management
system and shared vision of
providing contact center a
demonstrable ROI,
revolutionizes the way
contact centers operate
today. We are excited to
become part of SER
Solutions, Inc.”
Envision Telephony Signs
almato GmbH as
Distributor of
Click2Coach in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland
Envision Telephony, Inc., a
leading developer of contact
center solutions, has
announced its partnership
with almato GmbH (almato)
for the distribution of the
Click2Coach (R)agent
development suite.
The German-based
value-added reseller,
almato, is a full service
partner and will promote,
sell and support
Click2Coach throughout
Germany, Austria and
Switzerland. Under the
terms of the agreement,
almato will begin to
distribute Click2Coach
immediately.
“Click2Coach is an
excellent fit for our business
expertise in workforce
optimization,” stated Peter
Geyer, managing partner at
almato. “Together, Envision
and almato will revolutionize
German, Austrian and
Swiss contact centers,
Since 1989, SER has
delivered quality call
management systems that
provide the highest level of
system reliability,
productivity and customer
communication. Eight of
the top 10 outbound call
centers in the United States
use SER’s contact center
solutions. SER delivers the
most proven and costeffective call management
systems in the market today
with powerful predictive
dialing capabilities and
sophisticated inbound and
7
providing the tools they
need to
empower agents to be
more effective and
maximize each customer
contact.”
Envision’s Click2Coach
represents an innovative
approach to improving the
effectiveness of contact
center agents. Click2Coach
integrates training, quality
monitoring and evaluation
tools for supervisors and
eLearning for agents —
allowing contact centers to
develop, motivate and
retain top-notch agents who
provide superior
customer service.
Geyer said, “Click2Coach’s
agent development and
personalized coaching tools
are unique, particularly in
European markets.
Workforce optimization
solutions that empower
agents will have a great
deal of success in this
region. This is why
Click2Coach is the ideal
solution to address our
customers’ needs.”
“Our distributor
agreement with almato is a
significant part of
our ongoing expansion into
Around & About cont’
worldwide markets,” said
Rodney Kuhn, founder and
CEO of Envision Telephony.
“The combined experience
of almato’s team makes it an
ideal partner for us as we
continue to serve
a more diverse user base
and extend the benefits of
coaching to
organizations all over the
world.”
Telex Communications
Launches High-End
Business Teleconferencing
Telex Communications, Inc.
has announced the
introduction of their new
business teleconferencing
system, Nexus
Platinum. Nexus Platinum
is a business conference
phone that shatters
price barriers for
expandable, full-featured
systems with a suggested
retail price of just $699.99
“We didn’t set out to build a
budget conference phone.”
said Greg Wright,
General Manager of the
Nexus Platinum product line
for Telex
Communications. “We
wanted to build a product
that delivered ALL of the
features that businesses
need in a teleconferencing
system. It just so
happened that our
background in professional
communications systems
made it
easier for us to find ways to
make it much more
affordable than the
industry leaders.”
Telex has designed and
manufactured broadcast
control room
communications
systems for every major
network, has installed
cockpit communications
systems in thousands of
commercial airliners, and
manufactures advanced
tactical communications
systems for the US military.
Research and
technology from these
endeavors were utilized in
the development of Nexus
Platinum. “Business
teleconferencing was a
natural extension of
expertise
that we have been
developing for decades here
at Telex.” Wright concluded.
Nexus Platinum is an
expandable system that
features true full-duplex
communications, multifunction LCD, 10-number
memory, noise-canceling
microphones, voice-tracking,
digital signal processing and
a host of other
premier features.
Mercom Awarded GSA
Schedule Contract from
the Federal Government
Mercom Systems, Inc.
(www.mercom.com), an
industry leader for easy to
use multimedia recording
and agent evaluation tools
for contact centers, has
announced they have been
awarded a GSA Schedule
contract from the Federal
Government.
Mercom has been operating
in the public safety and
contact center markets since
1996, serving nearly 5,000
customers worldwide.
Mercom_s Audiolog (tm) Call
Recording Server and
Interaction Quality (tm)(MIQ)
software provide cost-
8
effective and easy to use
recording and call evaluation
platforms for call takers to
serve the public and
corporations. Audiolog
enables global businessdriven and/or on-demand
recording of calls. Calls can
be automatically recorded
online and instantly retrieved
for weeks, months, or years.
Mercom_s solutions also
integrate with trunked radio
systems. MIQ uses
Microsoft_s ASP.net
technology to provide a
powerful browser-based call
evaluation and quality
monitoring system. This
state-of-the-art set of tools
empowers significantly
enhanced productivity for
public and corporate
managers to develop the
skills and responsiveness of
their contact center agents.
Survey Shows 68% of CRM
Initiatives Unsuccessful
According to in-depth
interviews with 89 senior
managers across industries,
68% say that CRM initiatives
are unsuccessful. The
interviews took place from
Around & About cont’
October 1, 2002 to February
22, 2003 and were
conducted by Brulant, a
consultancy providing web
solutions to financial
institutions.
“Roughly half of the 68%
are either full failures, or
cancellations initiated to
avert disaster,” according to
Len Pagon, President and
CEO of Brulant. “The other
half either blows up the
budget, or don’t fully meet
requirements on time.”
Pagon noted that when
CRM initiatives fail, it is
often due to problems with
strategy and planning.
“When people buy a CRM
solution, either off the shelf
or through a consultancy,
their goal is usually to keep
customers and improve
profitability. But, serving
customers better does not
always improve the bottom
line. Companies need to tie
customer information
closely to profitability. If
companies keep giving
great service to customers
that are not profitable, they
will actually hurt, not help
the bottom line. CRM can
share their call monitoring
experiences to help us
identify the practices that
make or break a quality
monitoring process. We also
asked them to provide their
plans moving forward as well
as lessons learned along the
way.
improve margins if it is
focused on profitable
customers,” he said.
Pagon said that critical
analysis during the postimplementation period is
crucial to CRM success.
“Once the technology is in
place, you immediately
need to closely examine
how it is affecting the
bottom line. Critical factors
that contribute to success
include strong expectations,
best practices and big bang.
Many managers overseeing
CRM implementation think
the job’s done once the
technology is in place, but
that is actually just the
beginning,” concluded
Pagon.
The Ascent Group received
more than 100 valid survey
responses from a diverse
group of companies
representing 15 different
industries and 9 countries.
Companies participating in
the survey had from one to
as many as 90 call centers—
nearly half operate just one
center. More than 40 percent
of participants maintain a “24
x 7” call center. Participants
handle anywhere from 8,500
calls per year to as many as
67 million, however seventyfive percent of respondents
receive less than 5 million
calls per year. Centers are
staffed by as few as five
representatives to as many
as 7,000, averaging about
100 FTEs (FTEs—full time
equivalents) per center. Only
16 percent of participants
indicated that their call center
Getting the Most From
Your Call Quality
Program?
The Ascent Group’s
research conducted during
the first quarter of 2003
sought to better understand
how companies are
monitoring call quality and
other customer transactions.
We asked companies to
9
representatives are unionrepresented or partially
union-represented.
What Did We Learn?
The most challenging hurdles
to a quality monitoring
program, according to
respondents, include
overcoming resistance by
representatives, finding the
time to monitor and provide
feedback, accurately
calibrating, and the lack of
coach training.
Companies who have
implemented call quality
programs have realized
significant improvement in
call quality, customer
satisfaction, employee
performance, and overall call
center performance.
Companies report specific
improvement in call quality
ranging from three-to-ten
percent. Attributed gains in
customer satisfaction
average five percent. Some
report significant reduction in
failure rates, handle time,
and callbacks. Other indirect
benefits include reduced
turnover, reduced
absenteeism, and improved
morale.
Around & About cont’
Companies may be
providing multi-channel
service but they are not
monitoring all channels.
While all participants
monitor phone calls, only 40
percent monitor email
correspondence, only 26
percent monitor data
entry/keystrokes, only 15
percent monitor letters, and
only 11 percent monitor
faxes.
Regular calibration and
effective communications
are key drivers of credibility
for a QA organization.
Based on participant
experience, regular
calibration and effective
communications are listed
most frequently as the best
ways to establish credibility
of a QA group.
Communication channels
include providing feedback
and soliciting input from
supervisory staff,
management, and the frontline. Several companies
reported success with
promotional campaigns.
Regular calibration with
supervisors, management,
and even representatives
were also listed as ways to
feels this program will offer,
in addition to its superior
product line and pricing, is
the continual training,
ongoing support, and
product and service
networking that will give
resellers an unprecedented
level of competitive
advantage.
gain credibility.
Nearly half of our
participating companies do
not measure coaching
performance (42 percent).
With such high demands on
delivering effective
feedback, it is a little
surprising that almost half of
our respondents do not
measure coaching
performance. We did find
that companies with a QA
organization are more than
twice as likely to measure
coaching performance than
those without. Those who
do measure coaching
performance tend to base
coaching performance on
the entire team’s
performance and progress.
“It’s almost like having an
external sales manager to
assist you,” said Ryan
Markey, Reseller Program
Manager. “Support during
the sale will be a
cornerstone of the program,
in addition to support after
the sale. Product training
will be continual, on-the-fly if
needed, and available in a
variety of formats.”
“Also, resellers will be able
to take advantage of our
complete network of
telemarketing products and
services. If they’re missing a
piece needed to make a
proposal, such as a phone
system, or accessories, or
LD service, we can add that
to their arsenal. They will be
able to offer a total solution
for any situation, and, with
our support, close the sale.
OPC Marketing Launches
Reseller Program
OPC Marketing has
announced the launch of its
new Reseller Program for
its innovative line of auto
and predictive dialers and
telemarketing products and
services.
One of the major
advantages OPC Marketing
10
Plus, the pricing allows us
to be the most competitive
in the market, and still
maintain very generous
margins.”
OPC Marketing has become
well-known in the
telemarketing industry for its
SpitFire software and dialer
systems operating in
thousands of call centers
over the last 8 years.
The SpitFireIII Autodialer is
a state-of-the-art system
with an amazing array of
features at a price that is
substantially below
competitors’. When sold as
a complete system, it
includes PC, Dialogic
boards and all the
hardware, as well as
additional software for
scripting and recording,
contact management, and
list management.
The SpitFire Predictive
Dialer is designed for smallto medium-sized call
centers and telemarketing
firms. The industry’s first
modular, plug-n-play
system, it installs easily and
allows call centers to start
with a basic configuration,
Around & About cont’
then add seats one at a
time as necessary. This
represents a tremendous
cost-savings over traditional
predictive systems in
additional hardware, as well
as the initial purchase price,
which OPC conservatively
estimates to be less than
half of current systems.
The Enhanced Predictive
Dialer offers the most
complete array of features,
and is perfect for medium to
large-scale call centers, or
those requiring advanced
capabilities. And a robust
Preview Dialer,
SalesStationPro rounds out
the offering to meet any
telemarketing, call center, or
service company need.
OPC Marketing also offers a
complete selection of
services including in-house
scripting and recording,
database and list services,
Do Not Call compliance, colocation and long-distance
services, as well as namebrand phone systems and
telemarketing accessories.
OPC Marketing is owned
and operated by Michael
Henochowicz, the co-
Korea, China, Taiwan,
Singapore and Indonesia.
founder of CompUSA, the
largest computer superstore
chain in the world.
NeoMecca will sell and
support eOn’s eQueue in
order to meet Asia’s
customer interaction
management demands for
reliable, comprehensive and
cost-effective contact center
technology. The eQueue
provides advanced multimedia routing capabilities
that enable contact centers
to interact more efficiently
with their customers
regardless of the media.
Based on an open platform,
the eQueue’s robust
Automatic Call Distributor
(ACD) technology will
enable NeoMecca to
provide contact centers with
advanced skills-based
routing and reporting
capabilities, ensuring that
customers are efficiently
directed to the most
appropriate agent.
eOn Communications
Adds NeoMecca as
eQueue Distribution
Partner for Asia-Pacific
Contact Center Market
Partnership to Enable
Continued Expansion in
Asia
eOn Communications
Corporation(tm) (NASDAQ:
EONC), a leading provider
of unified voice, e-mail and
Web-based communications
systems and software, has
formed a distributor
agreement with NeoMecca,
a provider of contact center
and communications
solutions in Korea, to resell
the eOn eQueue® MultiMedia Contact Center
Solution to end users and
other approved value-added
resellers in the Asia-Pacific
market. This partnership
will enable eOn to continue
building on its recent
successes overseas by
expanding in the newly
emerging Asia-Pacific
contact center market in
“The Korean contact center
marketplace is expanding its
requirements for complete
and cost-effective solutions,”
said Ricky Ryou, chief
operating officer of
NeoMecca. “We are very
11
excited to partner with eOn,
whose eQueue solution will
help us to achieve our goal
of providing contact centers
with the tools they need to
be successful. I believe that
by working together to
cultivate this growing
market, we will accomplish
great achievements in the
Asia-Pacific regionespecially Korea, which has
been noted as the call
center market leader within
Asia based on its market
size and its suppliers of
leading edge technology.”
With the eQueue,
companies will have the
ability to minimize a
customer’s wait times, lower
call abandonment rates and
route callers to the most
qualified agent to place an
order or request
information. The eQueue
provides comprehensive
reporting capabilities for
contact tracking. By
enabling contact center
supervisors to access realtime data, they can more
effectively analyze and track
the types and times of
contacts received and
handled, research patterns,
Around & About cont’
better monitor the status of
all agents and contacts in
real time, and make staffing
and training adjustments
where necessary.
“eOn’s agreement with
NeoMecca further
demonstrates our
commitment to growing our
international presence,” said
Kelly Bevan, eOn’s vice
president and chief
marketing officer. “We are
extremely pleased to work
with NeoMecca as our
newest distribution partner
to help deliver proven
communications solutions to
contact centers in Asia.”
About eOn eQueue® MultiMedia Contact Center
Solution
The eOn eQueue® is a
multi-media contact center
offering a comprehensive
and unified solution for
customer interaction
management. The
universal or single queue
approach enables contact
centers to interact more
efficiently with their
stay on top of all of the
disparate Do-Not-Call lists,
so advances in the tools that
are used to manage these
lists can greatly impact call
centers’ productivity.
customers regardless of the
media. The eQueue
applications include multimedia routing of all
interaction types with robust
ACD functionality, complete
telephony capability, email,
Web chat and Web
collaboration, integrated
voice response, voice mail
with unified messaging, fax
messaging, quality
assurance recording and a
complete range of desktop
devices and applications.
The benefits of using an
eQueue are improved
customer service and
loyalty, increased agent
productivity and lower cost
of ownership.
Data-Tel Info Solutions
continually enhances its
software technology to help
call centers become more
efficient, which is evidenced
by the recent integration of
Call Compliance, Inc.’s
TeleBlock® system into
xSELLerator, its blended
inbound, outbound, and
web-bound contact center
solution. The integration of
the patented TeleBlock® DoNot-Call Blocking System
with xSELLerator allows call
centers to prevent calls from
going to consumers who are
on Do-Not-Call lists by
automatically screening and
blocking outbound calls
against state, in-house and
third-party Do-Not-Call and
Do-Not-Fax lists.
Data-Tel Info Solutions
Integrates TeleBlock® for
Maximum Do-Not-Call
Compliance
Compliance with
consumers’ wishes to be
placed on Do-Not-Call lists
has become a focal point in
the world of telemarketing.
It can be a considerable
challenge for companies to
If a dialed number appears
on any available Do-Not-Call
or Do-Not-Fax lists, then the
call is blocked before it
reaches the consumer, and
12
TeleBlock® delivers a
special SIT tone to
xSELLerator. Using that SIT
tone, Data-Tel’s xSELLerator
automatically updates its
database to reflect the
number’s Do-Not-Call status.
This process is
imperceptible to the caller
and works seamlessly within
xSELLerator’s structure.
The integration of the
TeleBlock® Do-Not-Call
Blocking System within
xSELLerator enables call
centers to become more
productive, with less time
spent managing Do-Not-Call
lists and a reduction in the
number of unnecessary calls
that make it to an agent for
processing. It provides
telemarketers with the
unprecedented level of
outbound compliance that is
necessary to survive in
today’s increasingly
regulated calling
environment, while
upholding consumers’ rights
to privacy.
Around & About cont’
ARTISOFT AND UNIDEN
PARTNER TO OFFER
AFFORDABLE VOIP
SOLUTION
Artisoft“, Inc. developer of
the first software-based
phone system, and Uniden“
Business Network Systems,
Inc., a global leader in
designing, manufacturing
and marketing telephony
products, has announced
the general availability of an
advanced IP-PBX solution
based on Artisoft’s awardwinning TeleVantage“ 5.0
software and Uniden’s
UIP300 series H.323
phones. This joint solution
enables local or remote
users to seamlessly interact
with their corporate
TeleVantage phone system
using IP connectivity.
The solution provides
businesses with a
standards-based, flexible IPPBX system. Unlike
proprietary IP-PBX
approaches, TeleVantage
enables both traditional
is precisely the solution our
customers are looking for.”
circuit-based and VoIP
switching on the same
system. This allows a
company to add IP
telephones incrementally
and only where needed
rather than requiring it
throughout the company,
reducing up-front costs in
the transition to VoIP. It also
enables businesses with
multiple sites to reduce longdistance costs by routing
calls inexpensively over IP
networks. Additionally, the
ease of use of the UIP300
and its value pricing at 30%
less than many IP handsets,
greatly reduces the cost of
ownership for TeleVantage
customers.
“The force of open systems
will continue to bring best-ofbreed technologies to
market at lower costs,” said
Lee Schlenger, product
manager for Artisoft.
“TeleVantage already works
with a broad range of
telephones. The addition of
Uniden to Artisoft’s Open
Communications Alliance
gives our customers more
choices, advanced features,
and faster return on their
investment when setting up
their TeleVantage systems.”
TeleVantage is a featurerich, software-based phone
system that delivers greater
functionality, flexibility, and
value than proprietary PBXs
to a variety of customers,
from small offices to large
enterprise organizations with
sophisticated call centers.
The value priced UIP300
series phone includes a 2 x
24 display, speakerphone,
headset jack, 10/100
network interface, speed dial
and function buttons, and
message waiting light
“The Uniden IP phone and
TeleVantage are a plug and
play winning solution,” said
Hershel Rosenberg,
president of VoiceTech
Systems, an Authorized
TeleVantage Solution
Provider. “It provides
excellent call quality, user
friendly one-touch keys and
an easy browser
configuration interface. This
13
support.
“Uniden’s UIP300 series
VoIP telephones, together
with Artisoft’s IP-PBX, are
putting leading-edge
technology on customers’
desks,” said Al Silverberg,
president of Uniden America
Corporation. “With the ease
of use of TeleVantage and
the business grade
functionality of the UIP300,
we are providing great value
to our resellers and
customers.” ■
Agility Recovery
Solutions Triples Its
Satellite Bandwidth
Capacity
Agility Increases
Capability from 2 T1s to 6
T1s Of Available Satellite
Bandwidth Capacity
– Agility Recovery Solutions
(Agility), the premier
provider of on-site recovery
and business continuity
solutions across the United
States and Canada, today
announced that they have
entered into an agreement
that will triple the size of its
already industry-leading
satellite bandwidth capacity
for recovery purposes.
Agility will also be
provisioning additional
satellite transmitters and
receivers as part of this new
agreement with GSI, Inc.
This increase in available
and dedicated bandwidth
makes Agility the dominant
firm in terms of being able
to provide its customers
with the needed bandwidth
to effectively recover from a
catastrophic event. It will
also enable Agility to
provide its clients with more
powerful voice and data
recovery solutions as well
as a broader, more
Frazzetta, Agility’s Vice
President of Professional
Services. “Agility can now
simultaneously recover
multiple call center
operations, with a solution
that can scale to hundreds
of users, over satellite.
Agility’s investment in these
types of high end
capabilities, will change the
way organizations look at
the way that they recover
their end users.”
sophisticated range of
satellite-based
communications.
“As the acceptance of
wireless recovery solutions
becomes more prevalent
today, it is no longer
acceptable for disaster
recovery and business
continuity planning
companies to provide their
clients with relatively small
amounts of bandwidth.
Organizations must know
and be assured that their
vendor can provide robust
capability to multiple clients,
simultaneously,” said Bob
Miano, Agility’s president
and CEO. “Agility’s
commitment to this
extensive bandwidth makes
us the undisputed vendorof-choice to work with, in
this regard. By tripling our
capacity, we can provide
our clients with
unsurpassed bandwidth and
capability, ensuring them of
speedy and effective
recoveries, when and where
needed.”
About Agility Recovery
Solutions
Agility Recovery Solutions
is the premier provider of
on-site recovery and
business continuity
solutions across the United
States and Canada.
Formerly GE Capital IT
Solutions Disaster
Recovery Services, the
company has a long and
successful history in the
industry. Agility Recovery
Solutions offers the most
comprehensive range of
flexible, cost-effective and
practical disaster continuity
and recovery programs; all
of which are geared to
developing and delivering
custom solutions onsite to
their customers. Agility
offers Guaranteed
Technology Replacement,
“This increased capacity,
coupled with Agility’s new
Call Center Recovery
capability over Satellite, is
revolutionary in this
industry,” added Anna
14
Mobile Recovery Services,
Satellite and ACD support
services, and Consulting
services.
With operational facilities in
Toronto and Atlanta, and
inventory in 35 states and
two provinces, Agility
Recovery Solutions is
strategically located to
provide its disaster recovery
solutions within 12- 24
hours of an actual
catastrophic event. For
more detailed information,
please visit
www.Agilityrecovery.com.
For more information
contact:
Agility Recovery Solutions
Regina Brassil: Director of
Marketing, 941-922-7748,
[email protected]
m
Hunter Blankenbaker, Media
Relations, G.S. Schwartz & Co.
Inc., 212-725-4500,
[email protected]
Agility Recovery Solutions, 2281
North Sheridan Way,
Mississauga, ON L5K 2S3
Canada
TEL: 1-800-567-5001 (Toll Free),
905-403-3420 FAX: 905-4033499
Web: www.agilityrecovery.com
Testimonials
Throughout the year we have received
inspiring and often times informative
feedback from our readers. We appreciate
your good wishes!
GREAT JOB!!!”
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“Your site was very helpful. We will
contact you in the future if we have a need
to fill any additional call center positions.
Thank you for your assistance!”
Rita H., FNC, Inc.
Here are some of your comments:
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applicants. Great response! Thank you!”
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International
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California
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15
TESTIMONIALS (Continued)
Technologies
All the best success to you. I’ll be in touch!”
Carolyn F., Envision Telephony, Inc.
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Greg S., C.O.O – ProCore Solutions
I did enjoy the service that the List offered
and found it valuable when working with and
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Peter C., Cox-Internet
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been helpful so far. Thanks.”
Karen P., Account Executive
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Erin M., Incentive Systems
“Received the List – Thank You! I took a
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does our story)!”
Manuela H., CenterForce Technologies
Thanks again – look forward to doing more
business with you.”
Penny R., The Call Center School
“Thank you for these new leads. I expect that
we will renew for 2003.”
BBB, Telesage
“Just wanted to compliment you on your
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Diane H., Superior Staffing Services
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Center Book of Lists)
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Ric K., Bay Bridge Decision
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16
TESTIMONIALS (Continued)
Lists) has become
more valuable to us
as you have
increased the
number of email
addresses you
include.”
Catherine C.,
Director Marketing Chrysalis Software,
Inc.
Mary M.,
Manager – Concerto
Software
enhancement
activity.”
Katerina
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Sally A., EVP –
ASA Solutions, Inc.
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our web site?”
J.R.C., Chief
Sales/Marketing
Officer – CadCom
Telesystems
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(The Call Center
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fine. Looks like an
awesome lists.
Thank you very
much.”
Daniel K., V.P.
Sales - Dectel
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Communications, Inc. the wage cost
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Dean P., CEO
of leads and market – Bay Bridge
directly to these
Decision
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Technologies
makes for some
nicely focused
“A good read.
visibility
Thanks”
17
Call Center Consultants on the Cutting Edge
18
Case Study
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