Jacada Blog

New Contact Center Technology Needs Traditional Rollout

Industry analysts and management consultants agree there are plenty of new tools on the market that could boost a contact center’s performance. But they caution companies from jumping into a new social contact center technology initiative without tried-and-true change management strategies.

With a business plan, agents are more likely to understand why changes must take place and are therefore more willing to adapt to new processes. Many contact centers are successful when they present new technology to small groups of agents and then gather initial feedback, some of which will find its way into the final product or process. Read the entire Contact Center World article here. 

Check out Jacada's implementation process customized for each client. From critical analysis of existing business processes to the delivery of robust unified desktop solutions, Jacada's experienced and certified business analysts, pre-sales consultants and systems engineers provide a full range of application delivery services.

What do customers hate most about contact centers?

Do customers have the most problems with people or processes in contact centers?

Four out of five of the 770 million complaints were about processes customers experienced. Only 20% of customers complained about the people who helped them.

This research (from Customer Contact News) is a good reminder to regularly review the processes customers experience with your contact center. Ask agents for suggestions on how to eliminate one step or combine several. A streamlined process will boost employee and customer satisfaction. Jacada WorkSpace is an award-winning unified desktop that will streamline processes and optimize efficiency.  Contact us today for more details and learn how your contact center can benefit!

Patterns, patterns everywhere

Patterns are everywhere.  You see them in the weather, nature, mathematics, art and science.  And in call centers too (of course). Info will be accumulated and analyzed daily, weekly and monthly and virtually all contact centers capture such data as AHT, FCR and call volumes. These patterns or models for services could be exploited systematically to invest in new or improved services. Many design patterns for customer service experiences are abstract qualitative depictions that create positive outcomes for customers. So, by looking at the info gathered over time, the call center can begin to see customer and call trends.    

Instead of thinking about the total call time as “average handle time,” let’s call it Average Interaction Time, or AIT. The formula for AIT can be defined this way:

AIT = Average Process Time + Average Nurture Time + Average Wrap Up Time

Average Process Time is the time it actually takes for the CSR to navigate systems, find data, update information, calculate payments, research a knowledgebase, etc. Average Nurture Time is the time the CSR actually spends understanding what the customer really needs, recommending additional services, building a relationship, being empathetic – whatever is needed to improve satisfaction and retention.

By reducing Average Process Time and, in many cases, automating or eliminating Wrap Up Time, the CSR has more time to Nurture, yielding happier customers and greater opportunity for the contact center to add value in terms of revenueand customer retention. And, by the way, training costs are greatly reduced. The CSRs are happier, so they stay longer and deliver better customer service. Give AIT a look and then look at your CSRs’ desktops to see if Jacada can help. Observe the complexity they’re forced to deal with on every call. By reducing desktop complexity you can give your CSRs the time they need to deliver real value to your business.

No doubt about it, companies know issue resolution is important— The Customer Contact Council estimates improving issue resolution can save millions of dollars each year and mitigate customer disloyalty by at least 219%.  But recent conversations with several companies suggest that when it comes to identifying first contact resolution (FCR) improvement opportunities, many companies are headed down the wrong path.

Is your company on the right road?  

Check out this article and find out. If you need help, contact Jacada for more information and let us walk you through our solutions. 

Five out of five business analysts agree! Call center scripting makes life easier.

Make a significant difference in customer service operations by integrating an effective call center scripting tool. And it just so happens that Jacada has one!  Jacada Interaction Manager(JIM) is our call flow and scripting tool that enables you to develop and maintain complex rules-based process flows for your business.

Contact centers can build and deploy customer interactions, dynamic call flows and business rules quickly and easily. The call center scripting tool feature enables reports which describe the most frequent call types, most frequent paths through the call flow, and bottlenecks and trouble spots. It is a tool that has been developed to allow a Business Analyst to create and maintain the rules and scripted flows and make changes as needed by the business. Scripts are easily developed using a drag-and-drop visual modeling tool.

For more information about call center scripting, click here or you can download a sample of JIM for 30 days.  Click to download.

Optimizing Agent Performance in a Real-time World

The tools and processes to optimize agent performance are multifaceted — addressing the desktop to handle the contact, and performance tools to measure and monitor. Check out this article from TMCnet.com answering common questions on how to improve agent performance in a contact center environment.

Read the entire column here and then take a look at Jacada's solutions for desktop optimization to see if they are right for your company.

Get to know JIM!

Free download of Jacada Interaction Manager (JIM) Call Flow and Agent Scripting

Jacada(R) Interaction Manager enables a new level of control in defining and managing customer interactions. Traditionally, creating and managing the interaction has involved complex and lengthy IT development cycles, preventing the business from adapting to customer needs in real time. And more often than not, the changes are minor such as adjusting pricing, updating offers and improving best practices. This is something that a contact center manager or business analyst should be able to do quickly and as often as the business requires. Using Jacada Interaction Manager, your customer interactions can be automated to enforce best practices, reduce training requirements and to implement and monitor compliance requirements.

Download JIM here.

Jennifer Childress - Director of Marketing Communications, Jacada Inc.