Contact Center Equipment

This section of our technical library presents information and documentation relating to Call Center technology and Best Practices plus software and products. DSC is a leading provider of contact center technology and software solutions as well as predictive dialer phone systems for the modern call center. Customer contact center software includes CRM software and computer telephony integration solutions. These modern products help call center phone agents communicate effectively with your customers and prospects.

The following article presents product or service information relating to call centers and customer service help desks.

ABSTRACT

A company's call center is its most visible strategic weapon. It is a business battlefront where millions of dollars of products and services are purchased, sold, and traded. It is also a place where thousands of customers are won and lost every second of every minute. As leading companies become more creative in disseminating information and providing value to their customers over telephone lines, it is only natural that they look to the call center as their beachhead into the market.

With the importance of call centers on the rise and as reengineering activities within them growing rampant, simulation technology is emerging as the best analysis tool to manage change within an increasingly complex environment (Profozich 1997).

This paper defines the value of simulation in callcenter design, planning, and management by examining key weaknesses and strengths of traditional approaches and industry trends. It discusses how call centers can maximize their investment in simulation.

1 WHY CALL CENTERS NEED SIMULATION?

1.1 A COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT

The trend within the call-center industry is one of increasing complexity. The management and design of the modern call center is becoming extremely complicated due to rapid enhancements in technology, such as the rampant growth and popularity of the Internet, a myriad of demanding customer expectations, and reengineering initiatives that include designing callrouting and staffing strategies. Despite this, many organizations still consider their call centers to be cost centers, and are burdened by constant pressures to reduce costs while still maintaining service-level objectives. Yet there is a growing trend to take steps to move call centers toward becoming profit centers thereby generating significant revenues for their stakeholders.

A quick look inside a typical call center reveals complex interaction between several "resources" and "entities." Entities take the form of calls—or rather, customers calling into the call center to receive service. These calls, usually classified by call types, then navigate through the call center according to call-control tables or scripts designed to handle specific nuances associated with each call type. While traversing through the call center, calls occupy trunk lines, wait in one or several queues, abandon queues, and are redirected through interactive voice response (IVR) systems until they reach their destination—the agent.

Since the agents have different call-handling skills, it is the customer’s request that will determine whether the agent handles the call or transfers it to another agent.

Once the call is handled, it then leaves the call center. During all of these transactions, one critical resource is consumed—time.

The objective of the call-center manager is twofold. The first is to achieve a high service level; i.e., to get the caller to an agent in the shortest amount of time, (measured by waiting time, or in call-center lingo, service level). The second is to provide the caller with the appropriate information in the most efficient manner (measured by call talk time and handle time). The net objective is to minimize the time spent by the caller in the call center, while providing the best possible service. These primary measures and objectives usually reflect the performance of a call center.

Balancing these objectives can be a challenging task for call-center analysts. Furthermore, there exists a great deal of sensitivity in the cause and effect of the performance parameters involved. For example, a small tweak in call routing may have a significant debilitating change on customer service, and on the bottom line. A minor reduction in trunk-line capacity may cause too many busies and a potential for lost customers. Incorrect staffing may cause long wait times, frustrated customers, and exasperated agents. These circular relationships must be defined and analyzed carefully in order to achieve peak performance for the call center.