Owner: Virtual Observations - The CSI Call Center Blog URL:http://call-center-stories.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 09:07:14 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: This blog is published by the marketing department of Coordinated Systems, Inc. (CSI). This blog features many CSI news stories and also assembles tips for improving the call center agent performance and helping teams evolve into world class call centers. Site statistics:Click here
Making your call recording changes seamless 2008-02-05 10:33:07 It's important to CSI that we make our customer transitions seamless. Whatever changes
are taking place, we like it to be behind the scenes, with the only impact being to your continued call center performance improvement.Change is also a continuous thing, sometimes happening slowly, other times it needs to happen yesterday.What kinds of changes do we encounter?- Changing from one phone system to another. We recently added Shoretel support because three of our customers moved to the Shoretel IP telephony platform.- Changing from a block-of-time recording model to call-by-call recording. This happens when we can capture your phone system's SMDR feed. Most phone systems provide SMDR feeds.- Changing from selective recording to capturing all calls. Depending on your industry, many companies f
Call recording technologies are found in more than just large call centers 2008-02-02 18:03:59 When people think of call recording or quality monitoring, they usually associate it with call centers, customer service centers, etc -- Dozens or hundreds of people taking thousands of calls. We also have quite a few customers running Virtual Observer in much smaller customer service centers where the call volume is much lower, yet the importance of the calls is just as high.In one telling example, a convenience store chain has a small center with three to four service agents answering the incoming calls from store managers at the individual stores. These calls are equally as important to the business as customer service calls may be to other businesses. The calls are recorded to prevent and resolve disputes, and in one particular recorded interaction, the resulting call yielded an invest Read more:technologies
, large
Keyword traffic helps to understand reader interests 2008-01-31 15:03:11 Much of our traffic
to this blog is from customers and partners, looking for company and product updates. We also serve a number of readers from the wide-ranging call center industries. In order to serve them better, every now and then I'll examine our recent keyword traffic to see what web users are searching for...what brought them to our blog? Can I develop content to speak to their specific searches?First thing I'll do is categorize the phrases.Call Recording:"why record contact center""call center call recording""benefits of call monitoring system""call center recording blog"Screen Capture:"call center agent screen""benefit of recording screening""call recording with screens"Customer Service:"Customer Service Call Center Industry""Great customer service stories about health benefits"" Read more:Keyword
Virtual Observer Tips: Dynamic User Layouts 2008-01-24 13:03:39 Do you ever want to change the layout of your screen area during playback of calls?With Virtual Observer
's (VO) dynamic views, you can eliminate data windows, resize certain components, and save your current layout as a different or preferred layout. The next time you go to use VO, the screen will appear as you saved it the last time.If you need to bring back a screen element you had previously removed, don't worry, it is always available from the drop down menus. Every VO user can thus have their own unique preferred user interface.
Read more:Dynamic
, Layouts
More call center news sources 2008-01-21 13:48:35 Occasionally, I try to take inventory of all of the various call center news portals, blogs and news sites which I have managed by Google Reader (a great tool for reading RSS feeds), and remove the ones whom I never read.Here are some of the newer ones I've found which I'll be evaluating. If they provide interest, I'll then add them to Google Reader. If you've read them, let me know what you think by commenting below. Also, comment with other recommendations:T1 Rex’s Business Telecom Explainer BlogCall Center and Call Center Outsourcing Information and NewsLight Reading: Networking the Telecom IndustryTotal TelecomNew York Times BitsTelecommunications Magazine
Read more:sources
Automating and creating custom call center performance reports 2008-01-14 08:44:54 Do you run certain reports every day, week, or month (agent performance, question performance, etc.)?It's easy to use our automated report scheduler and have the report run automatically according to your schedule. You can then have the report print to paper, create a .pdf or attach to an email. Need to send weekly progress or team reports to the boss? This can be automated and delivered to their email address on a weekly basis (or of course, any frequency you prefer).How do I create custom
reports in VO 3.0?Besides being packed with many standard performance and agent reports, using Virtual Observer's Custom Report Writer, you can design your own reports that will display the data you are looking for in the specific way you want to present it.> Select "Reports" from the main menu> Select Read more:Automating
Happy Friday: Call Center News Stories 2008-01-14 08:24:30 A Healthy Work EnvironmentSitel Philippines, a call center organization, possesses a distinctive healthcare program that takes great care of its employees. “Our Health, Our Wealth,” was created to assist the call center agents with all of the hardships that they have to deal with. When it first began, the program insured 1,600 employees at two sites, but has now spread to three more sites. “Our Health, Our Wealth” allows agents to attend lectures concerning catching sleep during shifting schedules, maintaining a healthy heart, correctly utilizing ear devices, and avoiding unhealthy habits. Along with this, they receive blood work, bone screening, electrocardiogram tests, and nutrition surveillance. These services don’t stop with the agents, though. It also includes the communitie Read more:Center
, Happy
, Friday
, Stories
, News Stories
What makes a good partnership? 2008-01-10 10:22:40 In selecting good partner candidates, we have to be extremely particular. We want to make sure that the relationship will be mutually beneficial. At CSI specifically, we are work with industry leading phone system integrators who have sales teams with experience and proficiency in solution selling. Another quality of a good business partner is the mutual desire to meet the true business need of the customer. Not everything has to be common, though -- true synergy is determined by what each company has to compliment each other’s strengths. Both companies in a partnership
need to gain substantial value from the relationship. CSI’s partners receive substantial resources to help them include call recording and quality monitoring in their projects. We often provide help qualifyin Read more:makes
Employee Development Tip: Do You Hear What I Hear? 2008-01-04 14:11:05 Today's "EmployeeDevelopment
Tip" is a tried and true method for training call center agents.Allow your agents to hear themselves.Typically performance gains realized from listening to themselves speak to customers are one of the first benefits recognized after implementing Virtual Observer.Often, the agents will be more critical of themselves than even their supervisors would be.Supervisors can make a playlist of all of their recordings available to them and they can listen to them when they have downtime. You could give them a goal of self-evaluating eight of their own calls a month.Supervisors can share scoring improvements from month to month since they've begun listening to themselves speak
Submit your telecom company for consideration... 2008-01-03 12:04:36 One new feature in our blog this year is a "Featured Integrator of the Day" - where we will profile telecom companies who are leading the way with integrated services and unified communications, offering a wide range of services complimenting their supported phone systems. At the heart of these companies will be their central telecom solution: be it Avaya, Cisco, 3com, Nortel, Siemens, or any of the many available VoIP flavors out there.Featured companies will benefit from a link to their website and a paragraph summarizing their value proposition. Initially, we'll find them via Google News, but we also are requesting that companies submit themselves for consideration using the form below.IMPORTANT: Please include your website url, contact name, title, company
name and core product line (A Read more:Submit
From the Virtual Observer "Did you know" files... 2007-12-28 12:58:21 Did you know...Virtual Observer
(VO) can be used to record screens in a dual-screen environment. Dual-Screen can be very effective, doubling the desktop landscape, for example, enabling supervisors to playback screens on one monitor and open evaluations on another.Did you know....Many customer implementations have seen VO replace many of the "big name" recording solutions. Customers have detailed to us how VO has performed better than the the system we replaced. Often customers are able to spend considerably less for equal or greater value, so the end result is rapid return on investment and an extremely low cost of ownership.Did you know...VO is able to record screens in a Citrix environment. Citrix allows Windows apps to run in a Linux environment. Linux is gaining popularity with enterp Read more:files
Latest from Avaya: New App Unifies Channel Partners, Road Warriors, At Home Workers & Corporate Employees 2008-03-20 08:42:31 From CRMBUYER: New Avaya App Unifies Presence Info Across Multiple Channel
sAn excerpt from the article:"The immediate use of Avaya's latest addition to its product line is likely to be corporate. For example, a company with many reps on the road would know how to best to reach each of its staff members at any particular moment -- by cell, instant message or e-mail. Avaya has introduced Intelligence Presence, a new software application that gives users -- both in corporate environments and call centers -- the ability to view so-called presence information across multiple sources.For example, it would allow a contact center rep engaged with a caller to see if a partner company had a rep available to provide answers about shipping schedules or rates."CSI is an Avaya DevConnect Gold Partner.
Read more:Partners
, Warriors
, Workers
Use Screen Capture to Improve Agent Performance 2008-04-03 08:00:35 Virtual Observer's Screen Capture functionality is more than a "big brother" feature. It is an extremely powerful training tool which can help to identify where your call center agents are making crucial mistakes in navigating your CRM applications. Watching recorded screen activity (which should be synchronized with the audio recording) during the evaluation process allows you to properly evaluate the entire interaction from start to finish, across all media.Virtual Observers's Screen Capture feature creates a true full-motion video. The video is a smooth, real time capture of your MS-Windows desktop environment, including dual-monitor environments.Additional Benefits:- Reduce Call Wrap-Up by improving CRM process flow- Produce "New Hire" Training Materials which include recorded screen Read more:Improve
, Agent
, Performance
Call Recording should be a one-time purchase 2008-04-25 15:17:08 Why should call recording be a one-time purchase? The initial selection of a call recording vendor typically entails quite a bit of work:1) research and identification of requirements2) market comparison of industry vendors3) due diligenceIf the relationship is maintained properly, the customer should never have to go through those steps again. The selected call recording vendor should be able to provide exemplary service, seamless transitions through evolving phone system technologies, consistent introduction of value-added enhancements, and an extremely high value to price.Let's dispel some myths relative to the purchase of a call recording solution:- Upgrade paths do not need to be a complete call recording rebuyUpdates and full upgrades/point releases should be included as part of you Read more:Recording
, Call Recording
Virtual Observer Call Recording Solution Now Rated Avaya Compliant 2008-04-30 07:56:18 The Virtual Observer
call recording and quality monitoring application is now compatible with key Avaya call center and IP telephony solutions (including DMCC/CMAPI)We're pleased to announce today that Virtual Observer (VO) is now compliant with all call center telephony solutions from Avaya, a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services.VO is compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya Communication Manager 5.0 and Avaya Application Enablement Services R4.1. VO will now be able to offer DMCC (CMAPI) call recording -- recording through direct integration to the Avaya system, across multiple locations.CSI has been delivering bulletproof call recording solutions for the Avaya Platform for many years, including implementations sold throu Read more:Recording
, Solution
, Compliant
, Call Recording
30+ years later, one of our biggest differentiators is still our people 2008-05-13 09:37:58 In trying to stand out from the crowd of call recording vendors, it helps to have a little history on our side. Being around since 1972 gives our management team quite a bit of experience in dealing with an up and down economy, rapidly changing technologies, and adapting to new marketplaces as needed.Another differentiator is our ability to deliver rapid implementations. We have had customers up a Read more:later
, people
Rounding up latest news from our supported phone systems 2008-05-29 14:22:57 Virtual Observer supports many popular connectivities, and occasionally we like to move the spotlight to shine on some of the news those companies are making. The communications world is evolving fast. We also have a news feed on the sidebar which displays real time news for phone
system vendors as well, so you can keep up on a daily basis.Avaya Communications announced the release of an update to
Avaya News: Avaya Appoints new GM and VP of Contact Center Division 2008-06-20 15:42:15 Avaya announced it has appointed Bob Lyons to lead the company’s global contact center organization.The move adds focus on helping companies turn customer service into a competitive asset.As general manager and vice president of Avaya’s customer service applications division, Lyons will oversee a business that plays a central role in driving customer service for thousands of companies around t Read more:Center
, Division
Virtual Observer call recording system becomes even more flexible 2008-06-26 07:37:38 What's all that ruckus up in the CSI and Virtual Observer
labs?Must be the engineering team banging out more new features for Virtual Observer.Among the highlights:* The Virtual Observer screen capture module now captures and makes note of all screen activity from log in to log out. These screen frames can be used for any combination of capture rates, from a simple percentage to 100% screens. Of c
SRA Associates chooses Virtual Observer for call logging and quality monitoring 2008-08-14 07:00:01 We are pleased to announce that SRA Associates
, Inc., located in Hi-Nella, New Jersey, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer
for call logging
and quality monitoring
.
SRA Associates has a Samsung phone system and will be using the Virtual Observer Professional Logging Edition to capture all calls and to also automate their contact center's quality initiatives.
"From a standpoint of price and opti
Leading pharmacy claims management company selects Virtual Observer for Cisco call recording 2008-08-07 14:15:47 We are pleased to announce that eRx Network, LLC, located in Asheville, NC has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer
for call recording and quality monitoring.
eRx Network, LLC has a Cisco
VoIP phone system and will be using the Virtual Observer Professional Logging Edition to capture all calls and to automate their contact center's quality initiatives.
"We received positive feedback from existing C Read more:Leading
, claims
, company
Boston Scientific chooses Virtual Observer for Avaya Call Recording & Quality Monitoring 2008-09-05 08:35:13 We are pleased to announce that BostonScientific
, Inc., located in Natick, MA, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer
call recording and quality monitoring solution for recording calls off of their Avaya phone system in their Valenica, CA location (Neuromodulation division). "We are very excited about the opportunities that Virtual Observer will give us to bring our Customer Service Staff to the Read more:Recording
, Quality
CSI announces enhancements to corporate website 2008-08-26 14:57:54 We are pleased to announce a redesigned look for our corporatewebsite
.
While the old version of csiworld.com was very effective (targeted traffic and conversions doubled from the previous incarnation), it was time we enhanced the look and feel and incorporated some of the new content we had been planning to roll out.One new section of the website, "Solutions by Industry", takes a look at each of
GameStop chooses Virtual Observer to boost quality monitoring initiative 2008-09-26 13:31:28 We are pleased to announce that GameStop
, Inc., with headquarters located in Grapevine, Texas, has selected CSI’s Virtual Observer
call recording and quality monitoring
solution for their Nortel phone system.
"We chose Virtual Observer because it offered the flexibility we needed for our growing customer support center. I found Virtual Obesrver to be an economical yet powerful call recording s Read more:initiative
ShoreTel VoIP News Round Up 2008-09-17 13:03:03 We've gathered up some of the latest news relating to the ShoreTel VoIP phone system:
ShoreTel Blog: Unified Communications Myths - Is UC Too Costly and Complex?
Infomatics: ShoreTel Angles at R&D
Microscope: From IPO to IP~ShoreTel CEO John Combs
ShoreTel CEO: Courage Pays Off
centredaily.com: Amazon, VMware, ShoreTel, Apple and Google Are Top Five Rated Vendors on VendorRate.com at LinuxWo
Adding to the Virtual Observer - LFCU Success Story 2008-10-14 09:18:19 Today the news wires featured a story about how "Virtual Observer
helped Lockheed Federal Credit Union deliver timely member services".
One noteworthy addition we need to mention with this article was that not only were we recording their main call center with nearly 100 phones, but we'd also record their 10 satellite offices, each with a handful of phones.
The LFCU implementation is a true en Read more:Success
Earning trust in today's tough economic climate 2008-10-10 12:09:42 There is something to be said about being in business for 36 years.
Experience builds character and a big part of that character is stability.
It’s easy to go through the up times, but it’s the economic down times that strengthen businesses.
Stability comes from the experience of living through those down times and making the sometimes painful changes necessary to endure.
Frequently, c Read more:Earning
, trust
CSI Partner NACR celebrates 15 years of Success 2008-11-06 10:04:15 North American Communications Resource, Inc. marks 15 years in the communications business with a yearlong celebration including special events for employees, customers, and partners.
NACR is a leading provider of comprehensive communications solutions including Voice over IP (VoIP), convergence, mobility, collaboration, unified messaging, and contact centers; network readiness, design, impleme Read more:Partner
, Success
Virtual Observations Greatest Hits, Volume Two 2008-10-30 14:18:19 Digging into our web analytics, we're pleased to bring you a list of the top ten most-read blog posts from our four years of blogging:
- Top 5 Motivational Quotes for Call Center Employees
- Harry & David Scale Up Their Call Quality For the Holidays
- Do You Hear What I Hear?
- What Makes a Good Partnership?
- Announcing Reliable Call Recording for ShoreTel
- Federal Credit Union Call Ce Read more:Greatest
, Volume
, Greatest Hits
Scalability, Feature Set Drive 1&1 Internet to select Virtual Observer 2008-10-20 10:19:24 We are pleased to announce that 1&1 Internet
will be implementing Virtual Observer
to record calls on their Alcatel phone system to enhance their customer service quality program. Virtual Observer quality monitoring features which will be utilized include Integrated Evaluation, Integrated Screen Capture, E-Learning, SMDR Integration, Media Encryption, and Auditing.
"At 1&1 Internet our cus
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